2016: The Year of "Why"

I haven't played League the vast majority of this year. Not really bragging, just a statement. The reason for this was because, as we all remember, Riot forced Dynamic Queue into the game under much protest from much of its playerbase with countless arguments as to why it didn't work, why they didn't want it - you know, just so many "whys" on our end for why it shouldn't exist while supporters of the solo-queue removal really could only generate one. Despite this, Riot decided to permanently remove solo-queue anyway because - well, they're stubborn assholes. What do you expect?

You clump this with a great many data-manipulations, argument misrepresentations, and borderline lies and you get a rather large portion of your dedicated player-base dropping out all at once. Only thing that could make it more comical is a "poof".

So several months later, I become curious what's changed over a year. Here's what I'm greeted by:

1. Tutorial still isn't updated from what I can see (unless I just can't find the article). Instead, you have a game manual on your site and you updated bots. I would point out the myriad of reasons on why this is idiotic and regressive, but I'd be pointing out the obvious gaming sins.

2. Your game screen is inviting new players to check out your game manual. I suppose this means you're really shooting for bringing in new and fresh players, but considering you've taken next to no steps to really pull them in, I'm going to instead play with this cat and choose to ignore this point and how stupid it is.

3. You're bringing back solo-queue (and while you're not really admitting it yet it seems, Dynamic Queue you know is going to die). I'm at a loss for words describing how I feel about this, but you guys are stupid. You are. Don't argue against it, you are slower than any number of politically incorrect statements I could insert here, choose any of them I really don't care.

4. You have new champs. I mean, I'm not really surprised at that. That's just something I'm greeted by. Figured I'd put in at least one positive point.

So this is what I see, and this is how I reacted:

What the fuck even...

No, seriously, I can't finish the question really because there are just too many problems to focus on.

First of all, if you want new players, why do you keep enforcing issues that consistently push them away? Why do you not innovate any actual new player focused areas? You updated your bots to do things they should have done ages ago - good for you. Do you realize how slow you guys are?

Why did you not listen at the very start of the season when we were listing off every reason you just gave for switching back to solo-queue - and more, kids, and more! - and are just now choosing to backtrack the critical failure you imposed? Why do you think you have a shot in hell at bringing back the numerous players you alienated at the start of the season? God knows I'm sure as hell not re-installing. It'd be too time-consuming for a game that has no soul to it anymore.

Why is it that the forums are once again borderline empty of the Riot red-posts when you had said at the start of this year that you'd be making an effort to really try and reconnect with the community?

Why did you alienate the community when trying to reconnect with them?

Riot, what the flying fuck are you even doing anymore?

You guys are probably busy working on your new projects, and that's fine, all right. But Jesus you have let this go to shit within the span of a year - it's not even a year yet! You still have three more goddamn months! It looks more like you made a last-ditch effort to try and pull in some last-minute revenue and then leave the game to steadily become stagnant and rot. Were you really that panicked by Overwatch's release that you needed to try and switch from a dedicated audience to a casual one?

I mean, perhaps you should have been that panicked. http://www.dailydot.com/esports/overwatch-korean-pc-bangs-june/ According to this article, Korean audiences in the span of a little more than half a year are rapidly switching away from League.

But let's bring up the part that really tickles me about this:

In all honesty, you really didn't used to have that much to worry about. Overwatch requires much higher specs than League, specifically needing a 64-bit operating system instead of either 32 or 64 and 4 gigabytes of RAM (which would generally mean your computer should have 6 to 8) to run minimum graphics targeted at 30 frames per second (for those that aren't aware: 30 FPS is pretty shit nowadays). This is the minimum. League could probably be run on a TI-83 calculator with porn playing in the background. You're not exactly high-end here, guys. Your game, therefore, was (is) much more accessible to a general audience than Overwatch to begin with. By default, you would likely still maintain a higher playerbase just through accessibility.

Couple this with the fact that Overwatch isn't even in the same game-type as League (a MOBA versus an objective-based FPS) and the fact that League is entirely free to start playing while Overwatch requires that $60 admission fee and you still had the advantage in maintaining players. You could have put no effort into trying to make the game more casual and held out - in fact, you would have fared far better if you had just stopped trying to force so many changes on your players at once and forcing a lot of them away. That is the sad irony of it all.

You had nothing to fear, and yet despite this you panicked so much that what you were afraid of changed from nothing to something. You created your own problems amidst a massive amount of people saying, "You're creating a problem, please stop".

I don't play anymore, and astronomical odds are I won't ever again. But it's legitimately saddening to see an old hobby I found fun sitting and rotting. It's like an old tree you used to climb, but now it's just dying, leafless. So I felt obliged to share one last point that this could have all been avoided. If League does manage to stay afloat now - certainly it won't just die over a few months, but in the next year I've no doubt it'll drop even more drastically - I only share this so that you guys don't repeat the same exact thing again.

For fuck's sake, if you're afraid of losing the heart and soul of your game - the players - then you should probably listen to that heart and soul about what the fuck you should do to keep that heart and soul. That is not something I should have to explain, but apparently it requires saying.

Whatever, that's all. Good luck to all those still frequenting the rift.