A genuine question.
There is sub-community of just-for-fun conceptors which make a new champios and items just for fun. I personally made 1-3 new champions every day but have slowed down a little.
Does the world benefit from these ideas or are they just waste of time to be posted on boards?
HalcyonDweller1 votesThe concepts and theory crafting are fun and thought provoking to read. I think they provide value.
I'm not sure if Riot pays attention to them though.
Mordepool1 votesVoid fizz was a community created skin. I'm sure there are more
Capn Evan1 votesNocturne was in part the idea of someone on the old forums back in 2010. The username of that player was LeviathanUnbound. Nobody ever receives credit for champion concepts though.
The champion was called Nocturnos, Shadow Stalker.
ModThe Djinn1 votesMostly it's for fun. Riot doesn't take community champion ideas (that's why they have designers on payroll) -- it's just too hard to view all the ones out there. There have been one or two skin suggestions that ended up being popular and probably inspired in-game content, but that's SUPER rare.
If you're designing for your work to be seen by Riot, then the creative bits of the board probably won't satisfy you. But I wouldn't call it a waste to have a community that wants to share their art, music, and design! Plus, as someone who has used my amateur design work to actually get interviews in game design, it CAN still be useful to improve your skills. :)
Terozu1 votesWell to be fair, there's a reason they have the stipulation that anything you post on the boards is owned by them automatically, I'm sure there's been many a champ with at least an ability inspired by something a rioter saw on a board. For ubstance, I, and I'm sure a few others, had and posted the idea of a champ with a mount that had it's own health bar(mine was an Annie rework :D), and that probably inspired kled somewhat. And as you say skin ideas are used, such as "El Braum", "Elementalist Zed", or "Demon Teemo".
Jabutosama1 votesAccording to my observations most of concept-stuff gets about zero comments at all, luckily two. You need to be popular to get popular which is really paradoxical...
I find it waste of time to craft a lore, make artwork and gifs, think trough playstyle and balance the numbers if all you get is one comment saying "this is literally invoker from dota" or "op as f what are you thinking this will never get to game" (99% comments are about these two)
I could use the few hours to make new champions
Terozu1 votesRiot has a stipulation somewhere that they own all content posted on the boards, I'm sure they use it as an idea well if they're ever stumped.