Non-fungible Tokens (NFT) are becoming a hot trend in the gaming community with big-name companies starting to take an interest in incorporating it in their games. However, a large number of players disapprove of its existence and cause them to hate anything that becomes involved with NFTs. The question is, does Riot Games have any plans to make League of Legends NFTs a thing in the future?
What Are NFTs?
NFTs are basically cryptographic tokens used to represent ownership of a specific item. These are stored in the blockchain, meaning each NFT is unique and can be transferred from one owner to another. In gaming, NFTs are used as acquirable currency that players can use to purchase in-game items, resources, or currency that they can also sell to other players or convert to real currency. Games that have the option to sell their NFTs are usually categorized under the genre of “Play-to-Earn.”
Popular play-to-earn game titles include Axie Infinity and Gods Unchained. However, just like cryptocurrency, NFTs don’t have a fixed value and often fluctuate in relation to the flow of the market that usually involves the coin they’re associated with. Other NFTs that the community may recognize are the JPEG artworkds such as the Bored Apes and Cryptopunks, is what everyone usually associates NFTs with.
Will There Be League of Legends NFTs?
The concept of League of Legends NFTs is something that most likely won’t be introduced in the near future. Currently, there’s no such thing as a League of Legends NFT nor has Riot Games expressed any plans that might suggest they’ll be doing a project like this. This is mostly because League of Legends already has a functional economy and is earning money consistently through their standard business model.
Riot Games may also have its reservations about introducing anything that even remotely relates to cryptocurrency because a large bulk of their playerbase belongs to the demographic that hates NFTs. Having NFTs in League of Legends may have an huge negative effect on their playerbase. Furthermore, we doubt that League of Legends will move towards having a “Play-to-Earn” function since that defeats the entire identity of League of Legends.
Possibility of a Riot Games NFT Game
There’s nothing stopping Riot Games from making an NFT game. They can use the Runeterra universe to create another LoL Spinoff Game with its own unique game mechanics so that loyal fans of League of Legends won’t exactly get angry about the company ruining their favorite game. However, there still might be some backlash with the company being associated with an NFT project, which is something that the community has expressed heavily with other publishers.
The possibility isn’t completely off the table and we all know that the gaming titan – Tencent – isn’t one to stray away from a good business opportunity. It’s most likely inevitable that every major game developer and publisher to associate themselves with NFTs in the future since the companies involved in making these have been making a lot of money. We need to remember that gaming is a business and companies will prioritize profit over the players’ welfare most of the time.
Why Do League of Legends Players Hate NFTs?
Not just League of Legends fans but a huge majority of the gaming community has expressed absolute disgust towards anything related to cryptocurrency and NFTs, in general. This is due to the belief that cryptocurrency and NFTs are a “scam”, since they invite people to pay for currency and products that are not tangible in any way. A large portion of the critics also seem to only be riding the trend of the majority.
However, we can trace the dislike of NFTs in gaming way back to before the rise of cryptocurrency. Pay-to-win features have been around since the 2000s and have been a huge turn-off for gamers. Since Play-to-Earn games are naturally Pay-to-Win as well, it’s only natural for fans to dislike anything that involves said features to ruin the integrity of a completely free-to-play game like League of Legends that’s already competitive for all F2P users.
League of Legends NFT Ideas
SUPPOSE Riot Games were to introduce NFTs in League of Legends, we believe that it may come in the form of skins and cosmetics. Similar to Steam Games like Dota 2 and CS:GO which are able to buy and sell cosmetics, League of Legends might introduce a way to transfer ownership of exclusive cosmetics like skins, icons, and emotes to other players through the blockchain. Let’s face it, Dota 2 and CS:GO skins are already resemble the NFT business model anyway.
League of Legends could also make another currency similar to Orange Essence that is used to unlock skins shards. However, this would severely affect their overall skin sale because it gives players a cheaper alternative to purchasing skins than buying RP, which means that this might not be a legitimate route to follow. Hopefully, Riot Games doesn’t introduce NFT mechanics to the game, but if they do, it shouldn’t make any gamebreaking changes to the gameplay itself.
Should We Quit LoL If They Introduce NFTs?
You should only really quit a game if you don’t enjoy it anymore and the introduction of League of Legends NFTs shouldn’t really be a major factor on your decision to quit. Of course, there is a possibility that introducing NFTs breaks the way on how the game works and force you to grind just to keep up with the rest, which can make playing feel more like a chore. If that happens, no one will hold it against you if you want to stop playing.
Games should be fun, but big-name companies only really care about profit no matter how many times they say that they’re improving the game for “your” entertainment. Some players have been looking for valid excuses to finally quit the game and if you’re stuck in a self-made prison of needing to play the game even if you’re not having fun, NFTs may be a good enough reason for you to finally let go.
