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Remember @RiotRep?

BetweenSkill··17 votes·2,936 views

Do you folks remember when Riot (i believe it was Repetoire or however you spell it) was extremely active on the boards a little while ago? I do.

The boards were filled with less ragey and hate-filled posts, the discussions were meaningful and commenters talked about the issues and possible solutions CIVILY. All in all, the balance boards became a more positive place to discuss change and balance rather than a canvas on which to paint with venom.

Yeah a lot of the ideas shared weren't implemented and so forth, but at the end of the day i believe no one truly believes or expects every change suggested should and will be followed out. We just want to know we've beenheard.

We know Rioters read these posts, but the lack of even simple responses cause a buildup of frustration from talking to seemingly a brick wall to turn into venom and hate to the Rioters that do rear their heads.

To the Rioters, please come back and grace us with even basic responses to let us know that we've been at least heard. That's all we really want at the end of the day. The boards function so much better when we have the validation of at least being ackowledged.

To the players, when the Rioters do show their heads, dont take that as an opportunity to lash out and attack them. You are driving them away when they try to come back, and we know when they're here, at least attempting to communicate with us it feels so much better. Even when youre still mad at Stashu or CertainlyT,when they do show uo on the boards take that as an opportunity to talk to them no matter how frustrated you might be, dont just attack them and drive them away.

I remember how everything worked better with basic common courtesy between the two groups. And i want that again, because this game and its community deserve better.

20 Comments

RiotRiotRepertoir19 votes

One thing I find particularly difficult about having meaningful discussion with players on G&B in a way that leaves players satisfied is that I often find it difficult to create change at a pace that satisfies the demands of players. To give an example of this on a current hot topic, I have popped into a few Morde threads since the Juggernaut patch a few months ago to give small status updates on him, but they were basically to the extent of "We're still looking into him" or "We're trying to get him into a decent spot for worlds."

It's clear to us that not everyone is happy with Mordekaiser's current state at the moment, but we also don't have a definitive update on him at the moment. What that leaves me with as far as communication options with players on the subject is one of two things:

  • Pop into threads every now and again and say "No update yet!"
  • Leave those threads alone until I (or any of the other Reds) have something material to say on the subject, with the implicit understanding that we're looking into it still, per the most recent conversations.

I can totally understand why neither of these is a satisfactory response to players, because if they care enough to come to the boards and talk about it, they probably want action, and in neither of these cases can I (or anyone else, really) create action in a way that is going to feel fast to players, and that's just because changes take time to make, test, and ship.

It's certainly possible that the first of the two approaches to the subject is preferred by more players, but I also pretty frequently read that players get frustrated when they feel like I'm blowing smoke at them just to placate them.

Anyway, that's my thought on the matter. If anyone has an opinion or related input, I'd love to hear it.

LegacyDAP6 votes

There will always be players who get frustrated when you say you have no idea what to do about the matter. However, from what I've noticed most of the Mord threads just want some hope, not confirmation. They just want to know if their champion will be helped or not, because they don't want to bother sticking around if he's going to be like this forever.

Honestly, what I think needs to happen is an ama with CertainlyT here, because I think this would help most Morde mains on why CertainlyT did it to Mord instead of anybody else, and what will he do from there.

Sightless661 votes

However, from what I've noticed most of the Mord threads just want some hope, not confirmation.

Kind of, but I'm not really getting the same vibe. I don't think that would actually do anything. If all Riot says is something along the lines of "we're looking at the problem", people are probably still going to be pissed, and if they aren't they will be in a week when they're hungering for specifics of what is going to happen to their champion. Just the knowledge that something will be changed at some point in the future isn't going to be reassuring for long, particularly if Riot still leaves open the possibility of going in a different direction than what the old Morde mains want. I really don't think that just giving some basic hope will actually do anything for anyone's mood.

I remember how it was for me after Skarner's first rework. I asked Riot to confirm that they were looking at him and would address our concerns, Riot said exactly that, it made me feel better for a day or two, then I was back posting angry messages again a week later because I wasn't convinced anything meaningful would happen. It just doesn't help as much as people think it will.

Saianna2 votes

I don't think AMA with CertainlyT would solve anything other than letting us know CT still knows how to log in on boards...

He already told us why he did Morde rework, what he was aiming at. And i can see with my third eye possible AMA with him:

Players: CertainlyT, do you consider rewerting the rework? CT: nope

Or

Players: We dislike how Mordecaiser has insta-kill Q, exp-W, free dragon-R CT: So what? I cannot change it, it's against my vision on how Morde should look like. Just bear with it untill you forget.

sp4417 votes

"Not everyone is happy"? I haven't seen a single thread praising the rework.

Krinu11 votes

There've been a few. Thing is... being content or happy with something tends to result in people playing instead of posting, while people who are angry are less likely to play and more likely to come here complaining.

Decrit3 votes

I praised it. was not completely satisfied for reasons, but i tought it was overall a great boon.

Simply put, i bitch less about it and rather discuss about it :\ i have been commenting a lot, also because posting would result in an istant-downvote deletion since i am not of "the crowd that hates Morde changes" which is very popular lately.

Stephenizgod1 votes

Why not start a discussion about Mordekaiser. You can't give us any information, specially not information you don't have, so why not just talk it over? Let us tell you what we were sort of hoping for and what we think is a good direction for him, obviously you don't need to listen but im sure there are a lot of great ideas out there. Its things like his Title change to "Lord of Death" with no community feedback being addressed, im pretty sure no one like it. Now most people do not like any change, but honestly the title is just so bland and generic, plenty of better names like "Sovereign of Suffering" or "Overlord of Pain" that ive seen on the boards. Someone else put it like "Mordekaiser is already the Lord of Death so changing his name to 'Lord of Death' is like changing it to 'Mordekaiser the Mordekaiser'". Something along these lines, the title could have been discussed, either you say "Nah we like this one" or possibly a better idea comes up and then everyone is happy.

Adrian Umbra2 votes

You make a really good point on the whole issue of popping in just to say that there hasn't been any progress and how that's a bad way to handle it. So instead, could you have someone directly involved in these areas pop in and give their two cents or talk to them and report how the conversation went? It's a little sad to see you be one of the only Reds to drop by and talk about things, especially when the conversation isn't one that you have anything to add to.

So here are my suggestions on what to do about Morde in particular.

  1. Get someone in here who's directly involved. CT, someone on the balance team, into an AMA or similar forum where they can discuss Mordekaiser with the community. There has been a very significant lack of communication in this project and it's left players who really liked old Morde feeling unheard and uncared about. Please don't pull another Cassiopeia here.

  2. Be willing to make significant changes. Mordekaiser is not going to be fixed with number changes or a change to his champion title (who thought that would be a good idea to basically declare that the rework was such a failure that he's no longer the Master of Metal?). If all else fails, please consider reverting the rework and using the ideas behind the changes for a new champion instead. Morde is simply not healthy as he is and should not be left in this state to be nerfed and forgotten.

  3. Try to keep us updated. Encourage the team to appoint a member who can check in every week or so to let us know how things are going. Even a "Not much to report this week" would let us know that you guys still care. Regular updates would do wonders to make sure that the disconnect between player and designer doesn't become an issue.

Saianna1 votes

Using Morde & certainly in the same post is bad idea haha

Also I believe you are wrong. It might look like we want changes ASAP. Or we want LOTS OF changes. Naah.

We just want to see Rioters talk with us. Even if just giving us smallest things like "no update yet".

I've asked you for taking Mordecaiser under your wings in earlier post, you've made. I'm not expecting you (nor most likely anyone here) to do it for tomorrow.

Lucifer1 votes

Why not a third option... Have a dialogue with the playerbase so we can move changes in the right direction, as opposed to just spit-balling changes and hoping to get it right? This is ultimately why Karma and Cass still feel like crap. The dialogue wasn't there. I expect Mord to never be in a good place if you keep doing things this way.

BetweenSkill1 votes

Hey thanks for replying, it's awesome :)

But yeah, I agree with some of the other posters on this in that just a few words to keep the hope alive is better than nothing. It just keeps the brick wall from forming and turning Rioters into evil masterminds working in the shadows and players from being just a blanket of hate and rage.

I may be only Silver 1 currently, but with about 2500 games total under my belt I feel I have decent understanding of the game, and passion for certain champions. Any feedback, even if it's just "yeah we hear you", gives us that validation that I feel most of the posters on here are asking for above all else.

Anyways thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to respond to this thread, and I look forward to your work on the Marksmen!

Penguin in Space3 votes

Customer service is often more over looked than the service itself. Riot has been doing a decent job so far at listening to the "customers" . Us lashing out at them is the wrong way to do it. Being more civilized about the way we try to solve things is the solution.

Rozzeta2 votes

I said this in another thread, but the isse now is that the remaining problems can be tracked to recent work from certain Rioters. Unless the Rioter in question faces the challenge that is the community, any other Rioters would be forced to say that X problem could be solved in Y way, which is indirectly bashing the work of co-worker.

MrWasjig2 votes

this game and its community deserve better.

A wonderful thing to dream but we know it ain't gonna happen.

Adrian Umbra2 votes

The boards weren't a whole lot better before/during Repertoir's stay, honestly. He did an amazing job of being open with players and discussing things he wanted to discuss without being condescending or otherwise insulting them and that brought out a lot of the better side of this community.

And regarding CT, I was one of the players who tried to get a civil discussion with him the last time he popped on the boards to talk about Mordekaiser and his 5.18 changes. His replies basically amounted to "I couldn't have known this was coming", "It was someone else's fault", and "I know better", none of which were encouraging. I tried to keep it civil and make sure others did the same, but he went and disappeared before any real discussion could take place. We didn't attack him or drive him away (many of those who did were downvoted into oblivion), we just wanted to know the answers to some questions regarding his reasonings and how we could move forward. It's just so hard to have a conversation when one side keeps ducking out every time they don't like where it's going.

Trídent1 votes

What happened to Repetoire?

BurningRice1 votes

They are probably just really busy with the preseason changes coming up

BetweenSkill1 votes

The only issue I take with that, is making a two sentence response at least acknowledging people's thoughts far outweighs the minute it would take to type out.

AMYS GRAVE1 votes

rip rep posts.

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