Few of my friends asked me this question and the straightforward answer was ‘NO’. The exact question was is LOL really “free to play” or is “pay to win”. Even though answer is straightforward, I thought of writing little more about this.
As a new player starting a game, it is important to know that you are not playing a “pay to win” game. I have played lot of online games and I have seen lot of “pay to win” games. Luckily, LOL is not one of them (Not even close). I have been playing this over 2 years and still I have not spent a single dollar on this game. I like to categorize four main types on online games when relating to the real money.
- No real money involved (Kind of impossible, might have Ads on them)
- You can buy things that are not related to in game performance with real money (Visual enhancements)
- You can buy things that can effect in game performance with real money but they can be bought with in game currency too.
- Pay to win: There are things that can be bought by real money that can effect in game performance and those can be purchased only using real money.
League of legends comes somewhere between 2 and 3. All the things that can have an effect on in game performance can be bought by in game money. However if you have enough money you can buy something time to time, just to appreciate the great work by RIOT.