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League of Legends is Not Dying, Stop Whining

CloakAndGrenade··6 votes·1,009 views

From Rossboomsocks to The Act Man and YouTubers of all types in between, the phrase "What Happened to League?" is spreading like cancer. League has changed over the years, and more importantly, it has improved. Few other MMOs on the market have a balance team at all, and much as this community likes to whine over the changes as they roll in, they do a decent job. When microscopic changes to CDR, ratios, or base stats can move a champion a full percent or more in winrate, that means that things are close in terms of balance. Meanwhile, World of Tanks is changing gun stats by factors of up to 20% and not putting a dent in the mess they've made.

Do you think anybody at Ubisoft really cares that Ela can still solo carry in Rainbow Six? Do you think anyone at Activision or Treyarch puts in any effort at all when it comes to balancing abilities, perks, or weapons for the new CoD release? How about the objective pay to win in games like Hearthstone, Battlefront 2, or Destiny 2? The management fiascos that were Prey: Evolved and PUBG?

The truth of the matter is that very select few game developers care at all any more. So many big triple-A titles are churning out huge steaming piles of garbage for absurd price tags. So many dev teams simply do not care about the game or its player base.

So when I hear people say that "League is dying" or imply that the dev teams do not care, it irks me. I am not saying that we shouldn't criticize Riot, far from it. I'm saying that the criticism should be fair and constructive. No other game on the market currently, with the exception of arguably Dota 2 (which is an inferior product over-all, don't try to change my mind, not the point of the thread), responds to its community the way League of Legends does. We wanted a Galio and Urgot rework, we got it. We wanted a practice tool, we got it. We wanted a better honor system, we got it. When we lambasted the runes, they changed them.

Sure, they can move slow at times, but they still move. The same cannot be said for most of the online games available out there, and let us not forget that League is free. The only things that you can buy are cosmetic. Sure you can speed up the grind by buying a few champs, but this isn't necessary. It is perfectly reasonable to grind out most of the champs that you will play. Meanwhile, you can glance over to Forza 7 to see a nightmarish coupling of pay to win and loot boxes that would make EA look angelic by comparison.

So can we stop with the doomsday cries? Can we stop pretending this game is much worse then it is? Can we stop spitting in the face of a Dev team that really cares about the community just because the recent decisions don't slot in nicely to your own personal view of where the game should be headed?

4 Comments

TheWizardM3 votes
  1. League is not an MMO, it's a MOBA. MMO means that there's alot of people in the same place in-game, which is not the case in LoL, where there are up to 10 (12 on hexakill).
  2. Though I agree that league is somewhat balanced for the most part, I disagree that Riot cares more about its community than other developers. They tend to not give solutions in costumer support, and have an extremely laid back approach to fixing bugs, instead focussing on new content that generates them money, which fixing bugs doesn't.
  3. "An Urgot rework" doesn't mean its good. I'm not saying the Urgot rework was particularly bad (it was, but that's not the point), it just wasn't what people were hoping for.
  4. again, big generalization. When comparing content creation and bugfixing, many online games actually outperform league of legends by a long shot (looking at you, WoW (just an example, not nearly the only game)).
  5. Being free to play is not an excuse for bad updates.
  6. To some, this game is worse than it was. To others, it isn't. Don't force your opinion on others.
Pika Fox1 votes

Nah, the boards need to circle their jerk. League is dying (hold on, i need to buy that new skin or three. See, its dead, im only giving them $100 instead of $130) /s

MetalGearTeemo1 votes

what if I told you that every region is unhappy with the current product and if Riot reverted to a S2 or S3 patch the current versions playerbase would vanish overnight?

LegitBusinessman1 votes

{quoted} League has changed over the years, and more importantly, it has improved.

Subjective. As many have said they prefer a game that was less reactionary and more strategic. Where teamfights actually lasted some length of time and there was more skill expression because of that.

The truth of the matter is that very select few game developers care at all any more. So many big triple-A titles are churning out huge steaming piles of garbage for absurd price tags. So many dev teams simply do not care about the game or its player base.

They have consistently balanced the game around high elo / LCS viewership at the detriment of game quality to low elo, which is +80% of it's player base. Previously it was done in ways that it didn't send such ripples through low elos, nowadays these are done brazenly.

We wanted a Galio and Urgot rework, we got it. We wanted a practice tool, we got it. We wanted a better honor system, we got it. When we lambasted the runes, they changed them.

I don't ever remember anyone asking for a Galio rework, a better honor system, or different runes. Urgot and a practice tool sure, but the others? That didn't happen.

Sure, they can move slow at times, but they still move. The same cannot be said for most of the online games available out there, and let us not forget that League is free.

Just because you're moving doesn't mean you're doing it well. Ardent took too long to nerf, Zoe should never have been released in that state (or at all).

So can we stop with the doomsday cries? Can we stop pretending this game is much worse then it is? Can we stop spitting in the face of a Dev team that really cares about the community just because the recent decisions don't slot in nicely to your own personal view of where the game should be headed?

Tbh this comes off as someone who maybe only started playing in the last 2-3 years in which case this is just what you know. For people who have been around the block a couple times, the loss in game quality is extremely noticeable and more egregious to us.

There have always been doomsayers about League, and it was pretty obvious they were just salty about this or that. But season 8? I don't know how you can defend it, defend Riot for failing to identify obvious problems and lack of transparency on the larger issues. We asked for stronger turrets, we ask for upfront damage to be reduced, people have asked for minion changes to be reverted, we asked for tank damage to be reduced, we asked for ADCs to not spike so early, no one asked for this scuttlecrab garbage, and out of all those a single one of them has been done.

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