The Why's This Game is Not Improving For All Champions
Year after year, players wonder why their champions get ignored by this Development team. Every year the same group of champions seem to get massive attention. The groups of champions that get the most attraction from Riot Game Developers are popular, new, and recent VGU champions. The content that is provided for these champions are skins that are sometimes less than 6 months apart, reworks, balance adjustments, and commentary from Developers. These not-so-hard working Developers decided to add new champions into the game knowing that future work on other champions would be given to new ones over them. It all has to do with the moolah.
In 2018 Ghostcrawler and the rest of the Riot Game Developer team decided to change the infrastructure of updates. In doing this the game was changing at a incredible pace that no player could keep up with it and no one was having fun anymore. What also happened is that Developers decided to do more VGU and a mini-VGU over new champions. 2018 was probably one of the worst seasons and times in LoL history. Pro players didn't enjoy playing the game. Regular players didn't enjoy watching or playing the game. Streamers were quitting and leaving the game to do other things. League of Legends took a massive hit in revenue in 2018 and there is no doubt in any of our minds that it was because of too much change in one year, Developers not listening or communicating to players, and a work ethic that prioritizes fresh and new content over simple buffs to the game and working on existing champions.
What is going to happen with 2019 are Developers with the same work ethic and not listening, but being more greedy with their content. I'll explain why in a few sections below.
GAME BALANCE
The current game state will not be addressed any time soon. The damage done to League of Legends and the past couple years will probably never be fully addressed, because reverting changes means admitting failure and learning from it. It's 2019 and Developers are still making the same mistakes and working on the same content. Talk about third ADC rework within the past 4 years and zero attempts at an Enchanter rework.
China players favor short games with high burst potential on characters. Chinese players like flashy plays and don't care much about the actual character they are playing, but the potential and numbers they bring. Riot Game Developers are catering to this group of players and have been for almost 4 years now. North America players mostly favor the art, lore and cohesive gameplay behind a champion. While it is cool to jump over walls, go invisible, and shoot a ball of energy from across the map, NA players are more excited to hear about the actual champion and what they bring to the game as opposed to what broken, overloaded and overpowered kit that it brings to competitive games.
The game pace and snowball nature of games will never be addressed. Champion balance and ignorance towards old and unpopular champions, will always be second best to a fresh champion with an overloaded and overpowered kit. Popular champions, new champions and VGU champions sell more content and are more appealing in the target audience of Riot Game Developers: Chinese players.
SKINS & CHAMPION BALANCING
These two categories go together somewhat because they are almost the same. Champion reworks and balancing are decided by the skin that is coming out for them. Sejuani, Vayne, Lissandra, and so many other champions only get attention when they have a skin coming out for them. Developers didn't even bother working on Lissandra until a skin was finished for her. Almost always these champions are nerfed in one to two patches because Riot Game Developers don't care about the champion but how much of the skins they can sell of that champion while they are broken. It's a cruel marketing tactic that is becoming more and more apparent now.
Let's talk about the controversial prestige skin lines. It's a con. Riot Game Developers single handily found a way to make the most amount of money off their community to try and recoup the massive amounts of money they lost last year. Prestige skins are nothing more than a gold chroma (something they were doing before this on specific skins) with little to no change to the skin itself. Notice something specific? It's the same champions getting these skins that get skins every year. It's nothing new and it's all a marketing ploy to get as much money from the community.
CHAMPION REWORKS/VGU
Your champion will not be getting a massive rework, VGU, or mini VGU anytime soon. Riot Game Developers do not make money off of work like this. The Developers in charge of working on this content are paid for their manpower and talents to make champions better. If there is no money to be made off of these champions, Developers will not work on them. New champions get new skins and make Riot money. A popular champion like Ryze, Ahri, Lux, and Ezreal will get reworks, their first VGU/mini-VGU, or another VGU/mini-VGU because they are more popular and Riot Games will make money off of them.
Over the years Developers have ruined champion identities by not fully completing/doing a half arse job on reworks and VGU, taking champion identities and abilities from one champion and putting them on a new one, ignoring pleas for work to be done on the same champions every single year, not replacing the removed content or rework with better work, and a work ethic that is too stubborn to admit a mistake and actually rectify it. Too many times have specific communities of champions been ignored and shunned by this Development team. Look at Meddler's latest gameplay post and read the content of it. He is, yet again, only talking about the same content he always talks about: the ADC role, the JG role, new and popular champions, prioritizing work on recent VGU champions and new ones, and dodging questions. What about Morde and his rework and the fact that he is the most bugged champion in the game? What about Karma and her horrible VGU 6 years ago that ruined her and the upcoming rework for her that almost no one likes already? What about Wukong mains asking for work to be done on him for years now, but he won't get it because he is such an iconic character in China? Where is the work on Enchanters that is promised every year, but is being overlooked for another ADC rework? 3 ADC reworks the past 4 seasons is enough already.
CONCLUSION
This game and community is not what it was in season 1. Riot Games have lost their way with their passion, creativity, community, and communication and have become nothing but a business now. Every single decision is decided by how well it will sell in a competitive, Chinese market. China players like bursty games with short game times. Chinese players like champions that are flashy and that have overloaded kits. Riot Game Developers will only prioritize skins, reworks, VGU, and content for champions that fit this target demographic. The proof is in the pudding when they present the same work ethic every single year with hardly any result to show for it.
If you are someone that is not happy with the state of the game, remain optimistic that your champion will get addressed and receive work soon, and have faith in this Development team to make the game better, you can do that. Just remember that Riot Game Developers had almost the middle of last year to address damage creep, mobility creep, and other problems with the game and they still haven't addressed it. Riot Game Developers have had almost 1 to 6 years to work on mistakes they made on champions such as Karma, Skarner, Morde, Malzahar, and many others but they still haven't. Riot Game Developers don't care about you. Riot Game Developers care about how much money they can make off of you. Look at what they are doing with the game right now and look at the failure to do anything for the past couple years. Nothing is better and it is the same work ethic every year.
Stop purchasing their content and hold Riot Game Developers accountable. If they only want to balance and work on content that makes them money, take that away from them so Riot Game Developers are forced to actually do something about the mistakes and current problems with the game. Hold them accountable for their actions and work ethic because all of 2019 will probably be a year of trying to make as much money off of us to make up for last year. It will not end . . . trust me . . . and it will not change unless you do something about it.
