Tuesday, April 15, 2014

League of Legends: Ultra Rapid Fire Mode

Hello everyone,
I’m sorry it has been a while since my last post…


     On February 6th of this year, my wife and I were graced with the birth of our first child. This event has altered my life in every way. Our perceptions of being parents prior to birth were that parenthood was going to be difficult but over-the-top rewarding. What we soon learned was that parenthood is tougher than anything we’ve ever known and no words or wisdom could truly prepare us for the hardships we will endure. These obstacles and an inability to find free time put me into missing-in-action mode, hence no blogs.

 Although, Diablo 3 updates/expansion didn’t help either…
In any case now to the blog!

     If you have been under a rock Riot Games released a new game type for League of Legends called Ultra Rapid Fire. Essentially URF is the classic game type, except cool downs, movement speed and mana cost were significantly padded to provide the fastest game possible. Riot added this game type as a prank for an April Fool’s joke to the community. What Riot did not realize was how much success the game was going to have. I have numerous friends who came back to play LoL for this new game type and they want it added permanently. And based on all the comments and a pending petition, a lot of other online players feel the same way.


          However, two days ago Riot announced that it would be removing URF mode and only making it available at a later designated time in a potentially different fashion. I believe this a huge mistake by Riot. The company may have originally designed the mode to be gag for the community but sometimes when a product is delivered it takes on a mind of its own. In this case Riot created its own monster and they would be foolish to take away something many community members are calling for. The old adage “the customer is always right” applies here. With competition from DOTA2 and brewing competition from Blizzard's MOBA (whom most gamers have strong feelings towards the characters in the game), Riot would do itself a disservice by not listening to its community.

If you think about it, the classic MOBA map has been around for many years. Some people have played hundreds or thousands of matches. I started playing MOBA’s in WarCraft 3 with the DOTA map. When I finally decided to play LoL, I found my interest more in ARAM games then the classic mode being as it was something new, faster, and quicker. I believe URF is the next addition. Consumers are always seeking improvements to the products they own, that’s why new generation of models are continually built. URF is LoL’s next generation. All you have to do is look at the comments on the removal announcement:

Riot... please make it permanent. Ultra Rapid Fire revived my waning interest in the game, please don't take this experience away from us players :(
 HagenBacon 

Please keep this mode riot, It’d my will to keep playing league. There's no logical reason why you can't keep it in custom games at least same with any other special game mode. You have one of the most popular games in the world with a huge support staff and you're telling me you can't put these modes in custom? I simply refuse to believe that. Oh well then, time to quit til either this mode comes back or the next special mode, i don't play normals anymore because they are boring. well time to find something else to do in the meantime.
 USAF Crusader

Seriously though, I've never been more addicted to League than ever before thanks to U.R.F. I need it to stick around now. :(
 Ermahgerd LOLOL

These are just a few of the comments but here is the kicker. The new game mode actually had a user spend real money to purchase champions to play in this mode.
I bought multiple champions with RP so I'd have a chance to use them in URF. They actually made money off me with URF being the sole reason; That's a pretty solid reason for them to permanently add the mode to me!
 Valkyrie Witch

I personally have never spent a dime on LoL (I believe I am in the minority). However, I have no idea if the above user was the similar to me prior to this mode release but anytime users actually spend money, Riot should be interested. So I will re-post the comment to emphasize the importance:
I bought multiple champions with RP so I'd have a chance to use them in URF. They actually made money off me with URF being the sole reason; That's a pretty solid reason for them to permanently add the mode to me! Valkyrie Witch

          It’s getting late and I have to get up in a few hours for an early-morning feeding, so please Riot, do us all a favor and make URF a mode staple of LoL. You can play hard to get if you want but ultimately my advice is to always listen to the community. Take it from Diablo 3, game interest can go from minimal to a sure explosion in moments with a patch/release that addresses community needs. Riot, we want and need URF 24/7, 365, make it happen. I’ll be boycotting LoL until it gets reinstated and I encourage all other users who want the URF mode available all the time to do the same. It's the only way to send a message to Riot. You could also re-tweet or share this blog.

Thank you for your time.

-          Jeremy ‘McCl0udY’ Muller

Oh and during my research I noticed this:

http://www.change.org/petitions/riot-games-keep-urf-mode

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