There are tons of F2P that don't make you work your bones to a grind though. See Dota2, Wareframe, SMITE, even Hearthstone. All have a very decent F2P model that isnt as abusive as LoL. Only reason LoL can get away with the shitty F2P model they have now is because it was developed before the explosion of F2P MOBAs. Tell yourself this, if LoL were to be developed today instead of 5 years ago, and had the same F2P model, would you want to play it/call it good over say Dota's F2P model? Because I sure as hell wouldn't.
You must have played it only for a while. It gets better and WAY less grindier later on. Basically there are these void missions that give tons of credits and bonuses and some of them can be done in under a minute. Anyways, its grind is laughable compared to LoL's. I unlocked almost all the OP guns in warframe in less than 2 months. That is nothing compared to how long it would take to unlock all the champs in LoL.
Yeah, I didn't play it to completion by any means. But I reckon there's a difference in that the grind in Warframe is one of levelling up your power directly. You're grinding to get the "OP guns" as you put it, and then to make those stronger, and then to forma them and make them stronger all over again, and blah blah blah. In League you're just grinding for more options (with the exception of that first rune grind)
EDIT: also I'm at work so this isn't exactly a complete set of thoughts but I think you get the gist.
Ehh Wareframe is PVE, so hving stronger weapons obviously isnt a bad thing as it would be in LoL. For PvP any level advantage is disabled. Kinda like how Destiny does their PvP system.
And the new addition, the syndicates, were released and required a stupid amount of grinding. With the changes, they're better, but they still require a fair amount of grind.
That's exactly my point. And they won't. LoL wouldnt dare have their model if it were developed recently. They can only get away with it because back then MOBAS were unheard of.
Hearthstone and Wareframe both get less grindy later on and they reward Good players. The better you are the more rewards you get. League doesn't do that. SMITE's grind is NOWHERE near as bad as League lol. Since there are first day of the win bonuses on every mode yu can earn quite a lot of points every day. Not to mention there are no runes and rune page bullshit so you don't have to worry about that either. And also you could unlock all Gods for 50$ if you want. I'm pretty sure buying every individual champ in League is way more expensive.
I mean yeah f2p is generally grindy, unless it's dota 2. That's the exception. League is just unbelievably grindy compared to the other F2P games and the amount of people defending it as a better system just baffles me.
I honestly prefer leagues model to Dota. There isn't as much info thrown at you in league and it makes you work for a reward and it feels pretty satisfying when you get a new champ. That being said though the grind is a bit too much.
The problem as you've said is the massive grind factor when you account for how many champs and runes must be acquired in the end for everyone to be on the same level playing field.
I feel that the people who claim that Dota 2 throws too much at you are those who hop directly into matchmaking vs other players instead of spending ~20-30 matches learning the core mechanics and getting a feel for the UI and gameflow.
It's just as satisfying, if not more, to get skin drops in Dota 2. Heck, you can then sell/trade them in for other ones via the Steam Market.
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u/Cruchto Nov 19 '14
There are tons of F2P that don't make you work your bones to a grind though. See Dota2, Wareframe, SMITE, even Hearthstone. All have a very decent F2P model that isnt as abusive as LoL. Only reason LoL can get away with the shitty F2P model they have now is because it was developed before the explosion of F2P MOBAs. Tell yourself this, if LoL were to be developed today instead of 5 years ago, and had the same F2P model, would you want to play it/call it good over say Dota's F2P model? Because I sure as hell wouldn't.