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Lore events... how can we revive the lore of League to feel like things are actually growing?

Steelflame·5/9/2014, 11:24:12 PM·8 votes·1,754 views

One of the biggest critiques I have for League, by far, is how STALE things are. We never see anyone grow, anyone become anything more. Are they seriously still having the exact same struggle they had 2-3 years ago when they were released? Really? HAS NOTHING CHANGED?

No. This can't be. There is no way for the world to be this static, this unchanging. Now, trying to develop every single champion to have individual storylines would be impossible, but can we tailor regional storylines, and from there, the champions who might be making power-plays? This is MUCH more likely.

One of the things I REALLY want to do is for major "region" updates like the Freljord, or Shurima, would be a new map/map skin, where player actions in game turn out to effect the total event. The Freljord update carried some of that, but it fell so short on champion growth. In fact, through all the changes they did, things virtually fell BACKWARDS overall. I mean, we obviously can't give it a final ending for something like the clan wars, when the entire region is based on it's 3 way almost-war it has going on, but perhaps we could still make things grow out there. The nature of Freljord makes the idea of a 3v3v3 deathmatch map seem much stronger and more likely though. And perhaps, on this map, based on which team wins more often, things could grow and change. Banners out in the field being torn down, and replaced with another clan's emblem. Once Avarosan buildings being razed by the Winter's Claw, and replaced by nomadic tents. The Watchers statues being built out in the wastes the Winter's Claw inhabits, before being torn back down again. Let us fight out the battles between these clans, on a map which, while "technically" parallel to each other, has aspects of each of the key regions/clans at each corner, and as the fight goes down, things collapse and break apart. A new game mode, supported by the lore, and while perhaps it wouldn't allow massive changes overall, perhaps we could have parts of the map dynamically changing based on which region won most often periodically. To give us a feel that the war is still going, and we can see it's progress daily. Or, perhaps, we can have it be driven in monthly event battles, where the fights over that time decide how the map is shaped till the next battle, and as such had the appropriate changes, till the next big fight shakes things up again out there, as well as giving a "drive" to get large chunks of the community to play at the same time on the same map. Perhaps you can queue up for which-ever side you like most, and if you ended up backing the winning team overall, you would unlock something, like a skin related to the event, an emblem (which grows and changes with each time you back the same clan), or even just a small pittance of RP (backed the group which ended up winning? Here, have 100 RP!).

Another big idea I had had for the Shurima event would have been a massive legendary quality map of "old" Shurima vs the Void trying to corrupt and consume it. It would have been a dynamically altering map based on turrets & inhibs going down, and as such happens aspects of the void/"ancient divine" Shurima push out in each lane. Full endgame where a large chunk of the structures have been KOed it would be heavily corrupted for each side. Imagine when you took out the mid lane tower on the "old" side the nearby large rock would fall into a tear in the world into the void, ect.

During the event, the map would automatically replace the "vanilla" SR map, and after the event it would be a map skin you can use. Furthermore, based on the entire event (which team won more often) certain skins would be released like Void Xerath if the Void won, or Ascendant Nasus if Shurima won, for example. You could even do lore growths of characters like Sivir (based on whichever side she won most on she would have her lore updated to reflect, as well as a skin related to the side) where "her" choice on what side she backed (Did she do it for the money and/or power for the Void? Or did her honor take hold and she helped to fight it off even without promise of pay?).

It would require almost every part of production Riot has to pull it off, but boy would it be epic. Our actions as players would make the world grow, like it does in most games. Finally, we DO have an effect in "our" world. It isn't just this endless drone of nothing happening, or growing. Not only would we have growth, but massive, world-shaking growth at times, that WE are driving.

11 Comments

Manchette5/10/2014, 12:38:01 AM2 votes

One of the major problems about advancing a story which involves multiple characters - especially playable characters - is that they can be easily killed off. If Lissandra conquers the Freliord, Ashe and Sejuani might be killed off. If Noxus invades Demacia or the other way around, LOTS of characters could die. Not to mention what will happen when the Void starts becoming a larger problem.

So if Riot advanced the story, what would happen to all of the playable characters? Would the game-play be stuck in a static part of the timeline when they were all alive, or would certain characters be simply unplayable? This sort of situation makes multiplayer games difficult to advance.

As an example, you can check out the Warhammer 40K lore. The storyline will no longer advance because doing so could wipe out any of the playable races. One of them, known as the Eldar, very rarely reproduce. With a galaxy drowning in war, raising children and avoiding conflict is difficult. Their population is dwindling and could soon disappear with the threat of bug swarms larger than planets, ancient machines reviving everywhere, humans trying to kill all aliens, and orks wanting to smash stuff.

People who play Eldar would find that their race was no longer playable because it would be extinct.

I hope this sheds some light as to why there is not as much attention to the lore of League of Legends as many of use would have hoped - especially in the plot progression.

BigfootNamedYeti5/10/2014, 12:38:59 AM1 votes

I feel like it is too late for us to do the freljord but i believe with the coming of many different void champs except for an adcarry void champ we could easily do one for them or even the shadow isles i would love to do something like that i agree with you that League needs more story more development because i love the champs for their lore not the playstyle and then i adapt myself to their style of play but what happens when i don't feel like a champ has story i don't want to play them so i agree league is staler than old cheezits when it comes to story which i wish they would fix.

Dax Ayrton5/10/2014, 7:02:39 AM1 votes

I think that the very format of League of Legends makes it difficult to tell stories. There is no way a 40-minute League game will tell you a story, from beginning to end. The character lores are just an introduction for you to get to know the champion. The Journal of Justice was dropped because Riot believed that "plot" didn't actually impact the game whatsoever. And in a certain sense, they're right.

Right now, you're complaining because you've developed a passion for these characters (as have I). However, this is an unintended side effect, as we're only meant to develop a passion for the game. Character lores are written for us to like champions enough so we can play them; they are not menat to tell a complete story. This is why we will probably never learn about Amumu's past, or the identity of Hecarim before he became the Shadow of War. If we do, it'll be through another champion to be released in the future, with his own uncompleted arc of his own.