I miss the days where you could see several Riot employees on the Gameplay boards on the red tracker

PaffWasTaken·Mar 22, 2019·62 votes·17,818 views

I mean it. It just felt like the community actually mattered more, we could share gameplay and balance impressions freely and it actually felt like it mattered. Nowadays, you can barely see 2 or 3 Rioters in a gameplay thread each month, anything related to gameplay is just on Meddler's gameplay thoughts threads. Which is a good thing by itself, but it just feels more like Riot chooses what questions they answer to and which one they ignore rather than just simply discussing about anything gameplay-related like before.

81 Comments

Iota ThetaMar 22, 201933 votes

I think it’s a factor of a vicious circle. There tends to be this air of hostility around the boards, where people start toward bashing on Riot (e.g. “this balance team sucks,” “Riot why are you always lying,” etc). I know I personally wouldn’t want to plunge into that, and is also part of why my own job doesn’t involve interacting with unhappy customers. After a certain point, it’s probably difficult for them to engage in discussion because they end up getting jumped on for one thing or another and thrown under the bus for everything wrong.

But like I said at first, vicious cycle. The hostility in the boards is, in part, a result of the diminishing communication. Players who come to the boards don’t feel acknowledged or like they are really listened to. They feel like Riot is intentionally hiding data and insight from them. This creates more disgruntled players, more hostility toward Riot. Which started first? I don’t know the answer, but but one circles back to the other.

EldeazarMar 22, 20195 votes

You said it all. And like you said, your job doesn't involve dealing with feedback, theirs do. I truly believe the game thrives in a better direction when the opinions of the community are taken into account. The writers of League are a shining and beautiful example of that. So are champion dev teams. ALL teams take a lot of bullshit from the playerbase. If they responded to constructive criticism they would get more of it.

Jennifer420Mar 23, 201912 votes

the sad thing is once the game died... riot cant even review the death recap to find out what they did wrong lul

BigFBearMar 23, 201911 votes

You also can see it from another viewpoint. A forum that is completely ignored by the gamedesigners becomes a place of frustrated players where it's like "WE vs THEM". If Rioters would be more active here i bet the overall mood on boards would be better.

MysticShakerMar 23, 20193 votes

{quoted}

You also can see it from another viewpoint. A forum that is completely ignored by the gamedesigners becomes a place of frustrated players where it's like "WE vs THEM". If Rioters would be more active here i bet the overall mood on boards would be better. Wanna know what mods do here on boards. Besides censoring and deleting posts.

RainbowIceeMar 23, 20194 votes

i think there was still aggression before when they did and after they responded a lot of people sided with them and defended their views. So it's not like it was common for them to be attacked straight up. I think someone might have just issued a meeting stating that they should minimize border post or something. Either that or something just went wrong that we are ignoring or didn't notice.

General Esdeath Mar 23, 20192 votes

[{quoted}](name=Iota Theta,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EPOHgArE,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2019-03-22T19:28:25.392+0000)

I think it’s a factor of a vicious circle. There tends to be this air of hostility around the boards, where people start toward bashing on Riot (e.g. “this balance team sucks,” “Riot why are you always lying,” etc). I know I personally wouldn’t want to plunge into that, and is also part of why my own job doesn’t involve interacting with unhappy customers. After a certain point, it’s probably difficult for them to engage in discussion because they end up getting jumped on for one thing or another and thrown under the bus for everything wrong.

But like I said at first, vicious cycle. The hostility in the boards is, in part, a result of the diminishing communication. Players who come to the boards don’t feel acknowledged or like they are really listened to. They feel like Riot is intentionally hiding data and insight from them. This creates more disgruntled players, more hostility toward Riot. Which started first? I don’t know the answer, but but one circles back to the other.

Honestly if Riot would show us the data they talk about, I'd feel more inclined to support some of their choices. I recall them saying something about data showing dynamic queue supports team experience. High elo, low elo, and mid elo players all complained about it. So...who were the groups in this "data" who supported it?

Wild GeeseMar 22, 201915 votes

Since our opinions are getting a bit too hot in light of the numerous screw-ups in 8; they decided to duck out and only listen to communist China from now on.

Karn BishopMar 22, 201911 votes

They murdered the community when they converted it to mini reddit and gave up half way though on features then they get upset when we are less then pleased with them, thus the cycle continues, in short they did it to themselves.

That combined with the fact that many rioters known for communicating with the community either quit for better options, got fired or were pressured to stop and you have the current situation were in today.

Acekill3rMar 22, 20195 votes

[{quoted}](name=Karn Bishop,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EPOHgArE,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2019-03-22T20:42:28.889+0000)

They murdered the community when they converted it to mini reddit and gave up half way though on features then they get upset when we are less then pleased with them, thus the cycle continues, in short they did it to themselves.

That combined with the fact that many rioters known for communicating with the community either quit for better options, got fired or were pressured to stop and you have the current situation were in today.

Absolutely agree, they did that to themselves, they can't blame anyone and should just stop complaining about the community because they are the ones who started it at by being dodgy/liars/unrespectful and false moralists. This stupid new idea of "just insult our customers" is going to bite them back so hard they d'wish they never did something so stupid. They lost my respect years ago, they can have my pity tough.

Dante TakashiMar 22, 20193 votes

Cause the the comments the community on the boards is stupidity and unuseful hence why season 8 was a failure

3TWarriorMar 23, 20192 votes

season 8 was a failure because riot rewrote how the game worked and often without even thinking about the consequences

Kogmaw was a problem with his rework because he could spam on-hit builds and make or break them for everyone else

look at Lethal Tempo...you can do EXACTLY THE SAME THING but now everyone can do it. Master yi for instance can achieve a 6.0 effective attack speed

conquerer changes 20% of all damage inflicted to true damage..

kleptomancy gives random amounts of bonus gold. You can just land an auto attack and suddenly receive up to 120 gold...

Seriously, you can run an on-hit attack speed lulu now, call it the new machine gun lulu build and hard carry because no one can duel a lulu

then if you nerf lulu (who didn't cause the problem), her support role suffers

the people FORMERLY in charge quite literally stated, "If you apply a fix to fix another fix without fixing the base problem, all you are going to do is end up applying an endless cycle of fixes to an ever weakening structure"

#and here we are...

LTK KoRoMar 22, 201911 votes

well after some time Riot rightfully realized that "feedback" from boards is worthless or counterproductive in >95% of threads, so instead of wasting time there they're making surveys in client, sending surveys on email, inviting people to playtest/talk about changes and discussing on r/championnameMains.

you guys just need to accept that boards are worthless when it comes to anything other than circlejerking and raging at everyone

SUPERSATANAMar 22, 20192 votes

[{quoted}](name=LTK KoRo,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EPOHgArE,comment-id=0009,timestamp=2019-03-22T22:18:34.093+0000)

you guys just need to accept that boards are worthless when it comes to anything other than circlejerking and raging at everyone

Period.

Dope SoloMar 23, 20195 votes

The jg is fucked and the only thing riot is interested in is giving welfare pumps to Zed.

Hazy ShadeMar 23, 20198 votes

[{quoted}](name=Dope Solo,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EPOHgArE,comment-id=000900000000,timestamp=2019-03-23T02:50:41.106+0000)

The jg is fucked and the only thing riot is interested in is giving welfare pumps to Zed.

This is one reason why. Comments like these. Negative, unhelpful, and inflammatory. Plus, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. Jungle is too strong. They make or break a game.

Am I right? I dunno. I think I am but it's just my opinion. Because of that I'm not going to flame Riot over it.

Dope SoloMar 23, 20197 votes

Negative, sure. Inflammatory, ok. Also 100% truth. You want helpful? Try fixing the shit people have been pointing out for 2 years. You're welcome riot.

SUPERSATANAMar 23, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=Dope Solo,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EPOHgArE,comment-id=00090000000000000000,timestamp=2019-03-23T03:37:31.050+0000)

Also 100% truth.

Also 137% deluded.

3TWarriorMar 23, 20194 votes

and comments like yours that do nothing but throw gas on the fire are the ACTUAL reason that riot stopped listening

SUPERSATANAMar 23, 20191 votes

{quoted}

and comments like yours that do nothing but bla bla

Yeah...nope. The whining bitching about EVERYTHING (like 23893479348348934 post about a FUCKING IVERN SKIN like Riot betrayed us all) like spoiled 10 yo kids did it, but keep living in your fantasy world.

3TWarriorMar 23, 20193 votes

name one thing about ivern that makes you think "dunkmaster"

the main criticisms are that Riot did not really consider the character

also, changing someone's post to "bla bla bla" screams "spoiled 10 yo kid"

SUPERSATANAMar 23, 20191 votes

{quoted}

name one thing about ivern that makes you think "dunkmaster"

First tell wtf has that to do with my point, ROTFL. I didn't say "you aren't allowed to criticize that skin" I pointed out the lame, childish, pathetic way that you are using to do so.

"I don't think Ivern is fit as a dunkmaster" is a normal observation (one I totally disagree on btw, but w/e), shit like "this skin is crap", "this skin is OFFENSIVE" and so forth is just throwing a pathetic tantrum, period.

3TWarriorMar 23, 20192 votes

there have only been a few threads about the skin. Most topics that get brought up have copy-cat topics made within days

I'm also not sure which "you" you are are responding to, especially when you are ranting quote "a fucking ivern skin"

anyone 13 and older(if they follow guidelines, which people often do not) can post their opinions. I've only seen about 4 ivern threads and I think only 1 of them did what you were ranting about... if they are too young to understand that their opinion is not the center of the world, you are going to get garbage like that

for what it has to do with your point, you brought up ivern as part of your complaint against the boards. The community which posts here are composed of largely different age groups, ethnicities and for those who speak english, cultures. Quite a few people sling cuss words into every other sentence when they're trying to make a point

it's annoying, but issues compound upon one another. You explained nothing about the "lame, childish, pathetic" ways that the posts are structured and instead complained about the number of them and quote "whining, bitching" which can refer to anything, even your own comments

UrPalAlMar 22, 201910 votes

It's because we've scared them away with rampant circle jerking, ignorance, and general toxicity. They've gone to hide in the LoL subreddit, which is at least slightly friendlier and more constructive.

MysticShakerMar 22, 201911 votes

Reddit is moderated. No wonder they hide there. I haven't seen any post about current game imbalance on reddit yet. Either all ppl on reddit are satisfied with current state of the game (doubt) or lol subreddit is censored. Back in season 1-4 devs had balls. They were not pussies and they admitted their mistakes when they fcked up something. They talked directly and honestly with community, they didn't use noncommital phrases like from political debate which are used to avoid answering unpleasant questions. They havent said anything about Pax 2018 or Vaevictus cases. What a pussies.

SaiannaMar 23, 20196 votes

lol subforum is censored af actually.

RainbowIceeMar 23, 20192 votes

most subreddits are. Most of the time is poorly moderated as in they aggressively just delete post left and right for no reason. I posted on r/ps4 deals a day that ebay was having a promo sale because people didn't even seem to know. They deleted my post on the spot so i gave up and sucks for people that didn't know about that 20% off check out purchases.

SaiannaMar 23, 20195 votes

bullshit. They stopped coming thus we started circlejerking.

Ahri BakaMar 22, 20197 votes

When 90% of threads are the same type of threads and insulting and Hating to the company , it's obvious that you won't see Rioters What's even the point when you post " Nerf Yasuo " a Rioter replies anything then gets downvoted to oblivion?

It's the same posts all over again and again and 98% of Boards users are extremely biased to their champions ( including me , not gonna lie )

Midg3tMar 22, 20196 votes

[{quoted}](name=Hikari Sakata,realm=EUNE,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EPOHgArE,comment-id=0005,timestamp=2019-03-22T21:09:59.722+0000)

When 90% of threads are the same type of threads and insulting and Hating to the company , it's obvious that you won't see Rioters What's even the point when you post " Nerf Yasuo " a Rioter replies anything then gets downvoted to oblivion?

Pls show me where rioter answered on those kind of posts and got downvoted.

Ahri BakaMar 23, 20194 votes

{quoted}

Pls show me where rioter answered on those kind of posts and got downvoted.

Just go search for it ,I don't have to dig in old posts and at the end you won't get convinced anyway

Midg3tMar 23, 20195 votes

[{quoted}](name=Hikari Sakata,realm=EUNE,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EPOHgArE,comment-id=000500000000,timestamp=2019-03-23T00:00:15.300+0000)

Just go search for it ,I don't have to dig in old posts and at the end you won't get convinced anyway

Usually the one who makes a claim should provide evidence to back up those claims.

Ahri BakaMar 23, 20193 votes

{quoted}

Usually the one who makes a claim should provide evidence to back up those claims.

There is no need when you can just simply go search for it , it was a popular thing here in boards for Rioters to get downvoted anyway

Midg3tMar 23, 20194 votes

[{quoted}](name=Hikari Sakata,realm=EUNE,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EPOHgArE,comment-id=00050000000000000000,timestamp=2019-03-23T01:35:00.235+0000)

There is no need when you can just simply go search for it , it was a popular thing here in boards for Rioters to get downvoted anyway

You can simply search for it aswell, how do you expect people to take you opinion as a valid one if you can't even give an effort to back it up?

iamthegoatofwarMar 23, 20195 votes

He has no REAL evidence to back it up. Generally the only time they'd get downvoted for such remarks would be if they just came in and said "no he's fine" without giving any stats or other data trying to explain why.

Midg3tMar 23, 20193 votes

{quoted}

He has no REAL evidence to back it up. Generally the only time they'd get downvoted for such remarks would be if they just came in and said "no he's fine" without giving any stats or other data trying to explain why.

Exactly, Rioters need to say something EXTREMELY DUMB in order to get downvoted.

MonlythMar 22, 20196 votes

This is the issue that comes with fostering a dedicated fanbase- they can be a very effective marketing tool when they're happy, but they require constant attention to keep them happy. If they feel like they aren't being acknowledged, they will quickly turn against you.

Genghis KhatMar 22, 20196 votes

You mean when the game was steadily climbing each year bigger prize pools and now that rioters stopped doing it game is rapidly falling and they are making less money with each passing year? yep i remember those times.

MysticShakerMar 22, 20195 votes

Well that's because it's kinda hard to comes up with excuse why champions whose skins sell well do not get nerfed (vayne, yasuo especially).

hotarseMar 23, 20195 votes

I would like to take some credit for pushing the riot pansies off of their own boards. Apparently it's people like me that call out people on their bullshit that cause said bullshitters to hide in shame and fear. Praise be to me! They can hide, but their bullshit can still be detected from miles away.

MartialArtsForYMar 23, 20195 votes

I hate how riot always dodges a lot of players questions. For instance why the hell has kennen, the best top laner who beats EVERY MEELE CHAMP still unnerfed? Every game I’ve got to ban him as his stuns, movement speed and cheap ass items make it so hard of a game(also did I mention he has one of the best teamfighting abilities in the game with an E and R your entire team is stunned for 1.5-2.5 seconds while also bursting your adc and mage. And for everyone who says that any meele champ has a chance please try to lane verse him. You will know what I mean

3TWarriorMar 23, 20191 votes

maybe not at killing kennen, but you can build MR and farm lane easily for most cases

if you think a ranged matchup will be too aggressive, you can even take smite to help farm

FragglerocMar 23, 20194 votes

yeah they only need their White Knights... fervently defending the game.

Daddy AntsMar 23, 20194 votes

You know why they don't come around anymore?

Riot August went into this on his stream a while ago.

Gameplay boards is just a cesspool of bias, raging and non constructive conversation.

They use Reddit and Twitter because people on those platforms can conduct a rational, non biased conversation and provide clear feedback.

Midg3tMar 23, 20197 votes

{quoted}

You know why they don't come around anymore?

Riot August went into this on his stream a while ago.

Gameplay boards is just a cesspool of bias, raging and non constructive conversation.

They use Reddit and Twitter because people on those platforms can conduct a rational, non biased conversation and provide clear feedback.

And how come Reddit and Twitter can "conduct a rational, non biased conversation and provide clear feedback" unlike Boards? Reddit and Twitter users are the same players just like Boards users are, aka the same community, so the "playerbase factor" doesn't play the key role here. But you now what those 2 platforms have unlike Boards? Communication with Rioters.

If riot wants a rational, non biased conversation, they need to be the 1st one to encourage it.

WonderlossMar 22, 20193 votes

I like how people blame them when the community pushed them away, ever hear the phrase dont bite the hand that feeds you, well the community did that and now the community suffers for it. No one wants to deal with biased circle jerking assholes.

AetherArisingMar 23, 20196 votes

Thing is - We're the ones feeding them We are the customers We are the ones funding their paychecks.

If anything, their decision to cease all communication, stuff a meta that people didn't even want down everyone's throats, force champs into the meta just for skin sales and then leave them unfixed, etc., that's biting the community.

Have you heard one non-vayne-player say that vayne is in a good state rn? Have you seen them forcing Kayle (a lategame champ) to be meta (earlygame meta) so much so that now she has SURPASSED REK'SAI in pickrate & winrate? Hell, even mentioning Rek'sai, who they've left in a too-strong state for like 2-3 patches right?

Well, I'm an aggressive, mobile champ focused jungler, so i'll address point 3 for you guys ((This is skippable if you don't care about long examples)) i should be leaping at the thought of a new viable champ working into the meta - and i do play RekSai on 3v3s whenever i get the chance to. But i don't think rek'sai is in a healthy spot. She needs nerfs. NOT a gutting - Nerfs. Rito can take it easy and wriggle her down into a 50% winrate position without alienating the players who play her. Frankly, the kit is pretty strong but aside from removing the counterplay to her ultimate made her stronger than intended. Keep it as-is but tune down the numbers a little now that it's basically point&click.

Boom. I've explained a problem and some simple-as-fuck number tweaks to change the #1 jungle into a healthier state, something rioters haven't addressed since the conqueror changes made her OP. And rioters don't speak of ideas for balance changes or listen to complaints, when doing so would probably make players happier .-. ((resume here if you skipped the explanation))

Anyways, tangent aside, yeah. Riot only replies to jokes, art, sometimes media, and the Meddler's Gameplay Thoughts it seems.

i dont know if this company has more than a year or two left in it.

-AA

sir d wreckMar 23, 20193 votes

Riot does show up here from time to time, but tbh this place isn't exactly the most welcome place for Rioters at times. Hard to deny that. I've seen posts get upvoted asking for a specific Rioter to be fired, that recent Riven post, etc. This isn't a very tasteful community. There is some good posts, don't get me wrong, but there definitely is a fair share of emotionally induced posts that make it hard to have a proper discussion.

OP Garen SupportMar 23, 20193 votes

They have no intention on fixing the game. That's why they ignore the complaints about it. Chinese market > everyone else. So we can go fuck ourselves. This is the core reason of toxicity on the boards. People are and always will be assholes.

Why should an employee be targeted by harassment, when it's always the trash leadership at fault.

Exodus247Mar 24, 20193 votes

Thats because the only reds you see nowadays are on threads that are kissing riots ass, and not anything else, even the well thought out posts. Most rioters dont give a fuck unless you stroke their weiner, or if someone kind enough on the art team pops in, which i mean no disrespect to them, since they are what keeps the company barely living nowadays, but thats it. [slayer-jinx-wink]