Talk:Influence Point/@comment-173.240.37.150-20120131045153

So assuming a player spends no money on boosts, plays only PvP, has as many wins as losses, and each round lasts approximately 30 minutes, one could play four rounds a day with the First Win boost each day for 14 days, and have about the 6300 IP needed for every new champion. That's being conservative as, ideally, one would be winning more rounds than he/she loses, and, realistically, PvP games generally go longer than 30 minutes. In this situation, one could unlock all of LoL's IP-unlockable content at the same rate it's released for free. On the other hand, American minimum wage is $7.25/hour. Working part time (20 hours/week or 4 hours/day, 5 days/week) and with the average income tax of 17%, one could be making $241 in that same 2-week period. If one subtracts $10 to purchase 1380 RP each pay check, they could be making $231, have the new champion, and play as much or little LoL as they liked, not to mention that every fourth or fewer new champion is basically free because (1380 - 975) * 3 = 1215 which is greater than 975. On top of that, purchasing RP is payment toward the company so they're able to keep putting out new champions every two weeks. The downsides are that $10/paycheck is about $260/year, which is 70% more than WoW players pay, and unless you do nothing else but eat, sleep, and do battle on the Fields of Justice, getting a job will certainly cut into the amount of time you have to play. I guess my point is, Riot provides IP as an incentive to keep playing, and has even made it possible to truly play for free. It's a show of good will, to be sure, but at the end of the day, Riot is a business, and businesses are run on money. Worrying about and calculating your IP is essentially pointless, because, as shown, you'd do everyone a favor by spending your time working and buying RP instead. But that's just what's going through my head right now. Carry on.

TL;DR If you want all the new content as soon as it's released, it's possible to earn enough IP between champions to buy each new one without paying a penny, but's it's better and more efficient to purchase RP overall.