How Riot Can Help The Idiots Who Don't Read Patch Notes

Shuyin178·1/25/2018, 2:54:41 PM·68 votes·7,170 views

We've all seen them, the players that don't read the patch notes freshly after a patch is released, then proceed to bad mouth other players that are "playing wrong" when in reality it's something that was changed in the patch. An example of this came with the Sightstone items. I've already seen on the boards someone who talked about an idiot not reading the patch notes, the idiot complaining that the support (the poster) did not buy a Sightstone even though quest rewards on support items give Sightstones. The idiot, being toxic to another player about a change THEY did not know about because THEY couldn't be bothered to read the patch notes.

I feel that to lower the amount of stupid people that don't read the patch notes then ignorantly hate on another player about a change only the stupid person did not know about, a pop-up needs to happen the first time a player logs into an account after a patch lands.

Whenever events or major changes to the client itself occur, Riot freely puts up a giant log-in message telling you about it. I believe Riot should do a 1-time pop up for Patch Notes so every single player that plays the game will have a chance to read them, and the only way to exit the pop up is to scroll all the way down to the bottom similar to how some online contracts are that won't let you proceed until you scroll all the way to the bottom of the Terms of Service. Doing it this way seems a little drastic, but it should be. The more people that know about the changes in a patch, slightly better the game could become when you don't have someone complaining about something they want changed but was already changed in the patch notes they did not read.

Thank you for your time.

58 Comments

RiotSparkle1/26/2018, 4:54:46 PM26 votes

If there's one thing I've learned as an Experience Designer and resident person-who-cares-too-much-about-tooltips, it's that you can't make people read things.

You mention making players check a box like Terms of Service pop ups - but how many folks actually read Terms of Service pop ups?

I agree that we could do more to raise the prominence of patch notes if we wanted so players could more easily find them in the client etc - but I'm sorry to say I don't actually think that would solve the problem you're describing.

deathgod51/25/2018, 3:03:03 PM13 votes

I think they should pop up the message sightstone doesn't exist anymore every time a person uses that word.

:)

rtbf2256182411/25/2018, 10:56:17 PM7 votes

Or just have a glowing (NEW) on top of or next to the Patch Notes tab.

ZephyrDrake1/25/2018, 10:38:14 PM5 votes

i just see people just being annoyed by a random popup and just ignoring it entirely

LightIsMyPath1/25/2018, 10:58:04 PM4 votes

Botlane gets ganked and has to flash away. Nami: Dw I am going to get wards now" and recalls. 30 seconds after Nami is standing still in base... Draven: Nami u there? Hurry up pls I'm pushed 1 vs 2! What are you doing?" Nami:" Wtf wtf wtf... I can't find wards!!!" ... General facepalm

Malicious Fury1/26/2018, 8:16:54 AM3 votes

I stopped reading patch notes years ago. All I have to do is read the top 10 posts on the boards and I know every change Riot made based off all the salt posted there.

rtbf2216514121/25/2018, 7:51:31 PM3 votes

I'll just mentally say TL;DR because I read it online and close it.

KennysDreamGirl1/26/2018, 3:37:35 AM3 votes

But nobody reads terms of service to begin with. What's stopping them from just ignoring the pop up

Leonerdo1/25/2018, 10:33:10 PM3 votes

You can't force people to read anything.

But I do like the idea of a pop-up with only the most CRITICAL patch notes. Like 3 lines of text maximum. Just enough to let people know that those 5 items were removed, and the support item quest passives were replaced by sightstone's active. That's all people really NEED to know, and they stand the best chance of actually paying attention to it if it's presented as concisely as possible.

RocketRelm1/25/2018, 7:10:00 PM2 votes

Honestly they could just make the support items holding the sightstone quest come up whenever you put "sightstone" into the search bar. They had this functionality for some other items (ex: spooky ghosts).

HalcyonDweller1/26/2018, 6:15:28 PM2 votes

"How Riot Can Help The Idiots Who Don't Read Patch Notes"

Honestly if they flame their teammates because they themselves are too ignorant to go read the patch notes, then the only help they deserve is a chat restriction.

saltran1/25/2018, 7:18:39 PM2 votes

Yesterday I played against a Tristana inj ranked that bought Relic...

Beerstein1/26/2018, 5:31:30 PM1 votes

Amumu read the patch notes. https://i.imgur.com/PNjhlhu.png item 3070 Amumu item 3070

I'm struggling so much with his mana, I had an Anivia on one of my teams and had to bust my butt to invade the enemy JG so we could both have mana.

Xaintrix1/26/2018, 6:20:27 PM1 votes

Not quite sure about the title, but the idea is very sound. I'd love to find out what the recent changes have been in-client and quickly.

Hochelaga1/26/2018, 8:34:04 PM1 votes

I really don't like to read. I often procrastinate for all my school stuffs. But reading patch notes are one my of favourite things haha

Altonius Amakiir1/25/2018, 7:47:12 PM1 votes

Could be a little less harsh on language, but overall seems to be a fair suggestion. And at least the hostility isn't aimed at Riot for once.

ShaftyMegee1/25/2018, 10:59:04 PM1 votes

I havnt updated the game yet... sightstone is GONE? Shit :(

Kaeblen1/26/2018, 3:26:34 AM1 votes

Well, you could make patch notes the default tab for 2-3 days each time there's a patch...

Salron1/26/2018, 3:34:30 AM1 votes

Tbh i've always wanted the player to be presented with the patch notes on first login after the patch, and then give them a mini quiz on the most important changes in that patch

General Esdeath 1/26/2018, 3:54:03 AM1 votes

I'll never forget the day the Swain rework came out on PBE

"Is the Swain rework live?" as he was hovering it

Kuromatsu1/26/2018, 4:09:54 AM1 votes

I agree to this. good suggestion.

ˉˉˉˉˉˉ1/26/2018, 6:39:22 AM1 votes

And lock it so that they can't exit out of it until they at least scroll all the way down.

Quort1/26/2018, 2:26:06 PM1 votes

I want my Spooky Ghosts back. :'(

DracosKasu1/26/2018, 4:05:32 PM1 votes

What they could do to make the item or any major change change pop-up when you log in similar to hearthstone do when there is a card change.

Sukishoo1/26/2018, 5:18:20 PM1 votes

This is life, people don't read things in all various places be in online or in person even. There are things they won't know and this will never change unfortunately cause that is the way humans are.

Colgate Gator1/26/2018, 5:22:38 PM1 votes

Honestly there's only so much Riot can actually do for people who can't be bothered to read patch notes in a game that's constantly evolving and your competitive functionality depends on you knowing what's going on with the game.

It's a constant struggle with some of my friends and I lowkey want to strangle them when they ask something that was changed half a year ago. Mark my words that one of them will ask why minions are attacking them when using targeted spells by summer, or worse, they never knew that minions didn't target them while doing that.