League is very similar to the game it was 3 years ago, and people are getting bored.

Arakadia·Jul 5, 2016·81 votes·4,649 views

Riot has 3 gamemodes, only one of which is very popular.

Two of those gamemodes are also dominated by certain champions.

They dont have map skins, new maps, or permanent game modes.

The new player system sucks too.

If you think about it, the game is too similar. I think people are literally just getting bored of League and leaving. We don't have constant lore, like comics, and we dont have many cinematics except for champions which you watch a few times than forget.

Their isnt much to look forward to except champions and skins. Every game is the same. I will not leave League, or I dont plan to, but many will. Riot can't say they dont have enough resources. Remember when they removed Dominion and said they didn't wanna update it for resources? Yeah well they did that with Definitely not Dominion.

I bet I'll get downvoted without a meaningful comment, but I just wanted to share this.

TD;LR It lacks new content.

121 Comments

CanastusJul 5, 201640 votes

If League already had Dynamic Queue 3 years ago, the game would be dead at this point. So they're still very different, in a negative kind of way.

AírJul 5, 201617 votes

League of Legends is changing a lot more frequently than something like sports for example (it being an esport). For example, baseball now is pretty much exactly as it was a decade or two ago, but its fans didn't leave.

And tbh, I started playing in August of Season 3, and I find this game right now a lot more different than it used to be. It has changed a lot. So much so that if I leave for a patch or two that I need to practically relearn the game (okay maybe not as dramatic but I am sure you get the point). Although that might be because I am plat, so every little change in patches affects the decision-making of all of the games in the upcoming ranked matches.

Existential BardJul 5, 20162 votes

[{quoted}](name=Airman CompSci,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EqAgru4A,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-07-05T08:20:28.844+0000)

League of Legends is changing a lot more frequently than something like sports for example (it being an esport). For example, baseball now is pretty much exactly as it was a decade or two ago, but its fans didn't leave.

And tbh, I started playing in August of Season 3, and I find this game right now a lot more different than it used to be. It has changed a lot. So much so that if I leave for a patch or two that I need to practically relearn the game (okay maybe not as dramatic but I am sure you get the point). Although that might be because I am plat, so every little change in patches affects the decision-making of all of the games in the upcoming ranked matches.

I agree with your post, but please do not insinuate that patches don't effect those of us in lower tiers. I am Bronze IV, but that doesn't mean patch changes aren't important in my tier (My rank in non-ranked "Classic) matches is Diamond. I know it doesn't really equate to a ranked status, but I do read patch notes before the releases and keep up-to-date.

Earl EulrichJul 5, 201616 votes

Just the opposite...the game is not even close to it´s (far more balanced) state 3 years ago and people don´t get bored by that - they get frustrated.

AMYS GRAVEJul 5, 20165 votes

this ^

ModCaptainMårvelousJul 5, 201611 votes

Not really.

Comparing S3's Champ picks to S6's champ picks. The drop is hardly significant in the EU. A 10 champion difference. Sure, more champs are in the game now but about the same level are being picked or banned. You'll see similar numbers for NA LCS as well. Pro-wise, little, if anything at all, has changed.

Saying S3 was better balanced than S6 or other seasons is really just confirmation bias. It -feels- like there's less to pick because the game has drastically changed and many picks which were god-tier in Season 3 (Such as, and I'll get flack for this, Zed and Lee) are no longer as relevant or around as much. It's also because there's a lot of dislike for S6 in general so people point to rather small changes and hold it up as further proof when it amounts to little, if at all.

AírJul 5, 20164 votes

I really do have to agree. I have had so much more leg room in what i want to play this season than I did back in season 3 when I started playing.

For example, in season 3, every team had to buy Runic Bulwark or your team would pretty much lose.

Also, Jungle was a lot less forgiving. No runes or masteries? dies at first camp

Deathfire Grasp still existed.

Old Soraka.

There is of course a lot more but I can't really remember everything off the top of my head (I got the memory of a goldfish), but those were a few if we were looking back at just Season 3. Look even further back (like Season 1 for example) and you get the atrocious unbalanced game aspects such as dodge and an item that gave you so much regen that you could turret dive (turrets were a lot stronger back then) and regen more health than the turret was doing to you. Actually, you get get so much dodge and regen that you could even sit in fountain as Jax for a good minute or two as long as you had something to auto the whole time.

And also, I really do not believe that using pick diversity in LCS is an accurate measurement of balance. Especially with how much the Esport scene has advanced in the last few years. Players and strategy now is a billion times better and more complex than it used to be in Season 3 and definitely since the game started. I mean, we used to have bruiser support bot lane rather than an ADC. We didn't bother to adopt the better strategy until we got our asses handed to us in Season 1 worlds by Europe. So naturally, as the LCS got more serious and strategies got even more scrutinized and redeveloped, specific champions would get picked more often than others, even if the game was as balanced as it is. If it ain't broken then why fix it. If the teams learn to play together with certain champions, than there is no point trying to diversify for the sake of diversifying. The more you need to learn and practice with your team champion wise, the more likely your team will begin to make mistakes. And also vice versa can be the case as well. Just a thought.

And after all, the team that wins is the team that makes the least amount of mistakes.

Spicy RiceJul 5, 20164 votes

I used to be able to live out my dreams as a wizard

Garen item 3089

Earl EulrichJul 6, 20161 votes

that´s a very simplified perspective of the game you have there - back in S3 i could mostly pick /random and still affect the game with superior knowledge of vision/objective-gameplay....now it pretty much has dumbed down to purly snowball/reactive gameplay where i really have to pick the S-tier Champs if i want to affect the outcome of a game directly, otherwise i´m just hoping my teammates don´t make major mistakes(and the opponent does). perceived S-tier-picks might have remained similar, practically though League has really declained a lot since S3.

ModCaptainMårvelousJul 6, 20163 votes

I could say the same about your point of view on the same topic. You could pick any character because they were so homogenized and simplistic that overlap was common. Of course there was still a best-in-show for most categories but characters were so close together that who would care if you picked Graves vs. Ezreal? They did the same thing so whatever.

Not sure what you mean about superior vision/objective gameplay. Old warding was basically "get as much as you can and dump it literally everywhere so there are no dark corners". Need I recall the Season 2 finals were we had a 50 minute game of supports with boots dumping wards everywhere? Now there's a lot more objectives to contest and a lot more options when it comes to "Should I get X or Y?" when before it was mostly "Oh people are dead guess we'll go do dragon."

And really, there's always been an S-tier list of "if you want to win" but only at the absolute highest echelon of play. Good players can make almost anything work through force of will and talent, especially considering how many items are available to mages and ADCs now. (Some spillage into other classes as well but I digress) Season 3 was good, sure, but I can't honestly say it was better balanced when similar problems did exist then as they do now. If you really want to attribute decline, attribute it to the stagnation from only making truly major gameplay changes in this past season. (Season 4/5 did absolutely nothing save for the rainbow smite bullshit.)

SpoofghoulJul 5, 20168 votes

Its true

the problem lies with how the map is made though, they would have to handpaint every new mapskin which is gonna take forever.

Anyway the rotating game modes are a good thing, except they need to look at some of the items there and so some rotating game mode balance things.

Like on many of these modes, for example hexakill hurr durr tons of bonus manaregen the result velkoz and lux every game unless you ban them.

things like that

and urf is already incredibly unfun because certain champions are abusing broken mechanics like yi Q which suddenly doesnt have a cooldown same for fizz e and it just isnt fun to fight vs champions who are untargetable like 90% of the time. meanwhile lets limit teemo shrooms just because, this feels like double standard.

But first and above all they need to goddamn fix assassins to be alot more healthy as a class and then make tanks tanky again. Yes tanks will always be a threat to a squishy with simply their base damage thats what it means to be a squishy but those squishy's are also very capable in dealing with tanks due to dps but right now tanks die in under 2 seconds which is just wrong and unhealthy and the main reason why we see things like tank fizz and tank ekko they have kill poressure and dumb untargetability aswell as being hypermobile so u cant kite them.

Lots of things are wrong with league right now

And the same ol boring summoners rift, well thats part of it, but map skins is going to be difficult though. but there are a few things which riot could do like tower upgrades where player can upgrade their turrets to do different things be more unkillable or just nuke shit to pieces or shield nearby allies whatever but this would make every game alot more dynamic because of this extra element. giving your inhibitors extra armor hp regen and decreased spawn time with upgrades just to name something. Will vastly change the way this game is played every single time you enter the rift.

ThaurronJul 5, 20163 votes

I feel like balance changes and champion designs have gotten worse since three years ago. For example, Darius isn't truly "overpowered" compared to other champions and he does have counterplay, it's just that the counterplay involves moving close to him despite the fact that he has a 90% slow. Combine that with the passive armor pen, Black Cleaver giving him permanent movespeed and 30% armor reduction on his bleed, and the fact that he can hit like an assassin while being tankier than most tanks once he fulfills the arbitrary requirement of getting 5 stacks, and playing against him feels like slamming your head into a wall.

Numbers are all over the place right now (who thought keystones were a good idea?) and getting stuck with premades in a ranked game is incredibly frustrating.

This is just a rant but I feel like Riot has been making scores of bad decisions and then sweeping them under the rug to move onto the next thing.

Also, why does Vayne's only good skin cost ~$500?

Edit: Darius was originally released 4 years ago and I remember his launch consisting of people who hadn't played against him saying he's totally balanced and people who had saying he's absolute cancer. The juggernaut update managed to make him even worse.

ShadòwJul 5, 20167 votes

I could play the game for years..

DynQ is ruining it tho

LirikJul 5, 20166 votes

you bet you will get downvoted damn right, the game is way worst than 3 years ago.

Mandang0Jul 5, 20166 votes

Honestly, what portion of the playerbase do you think cares about the lore? I highly doubt lack of cinematics is taking a significant toll on the game, or that really doubling down on cinematics would make an impact.

Rico NastyJul 5, 20163 votes

KadavikJul 5, 20162 votes

Just check Story, Art & Sound. Tons of people care.

Mandang0Jul 5, 20163 votes

You know how people say boards is a vocal minority?

..well "Story, Art & Sound" is a minority of that minority.

KadavikJul 5, 20163 votes

True, but that doesn't mean that expanding on the lore is a bad idea intrinsically. Riot alrady has great writers in their teams and I do believe stories are a great way to provide more insight on champions and the word they live in while also increasing the amount of a player's involvement in the game.

ArakadiaJul 5, 20161 votes

Thats definetly a point.

However I think part of the reason few people care about lore, is because of how riot delivers/delivered lore.

KadavikJul 5, 20162 votes

We do need a unified slot for lore rather than sites and snippets all over the place.

Vistha KaiJul 5, 20164 votes

Yes and no.

Partially true, because it surely limits possibilities, but...

Partially false, because I've personally played two games for a loooong time and the lack of variety didn't stop me from playing them.

Tribes Vengeance, by the time I got my hands on this game's multiplayer, official servers were already long closed and there were only like maximum of 2 populated 'private' servers at any given time. IIRC the max they had was 8 players per team, so 16 people. Since the game was long abandoned by devs, we were only playing ~5 basic maps of Capture the Flag_ (there were other modes, but yeah... So much you can do with a playerbase of 100 people tops)_. 4 years, I quit, because I had a format and couldn't get the game to work, tried it some time ago and it was pretty much dead <sad_panda>

The other game was Crossfire, in which again I spammed only one game mode (which is unique among FPS games, haven't heard of a game with a mode like that) and only two/three maps (later there were more, but they were too... open for that gamemode). I did play it for like 3-4 years too, some of that time along Tribes, but quit on my own accord. Why? When a game with 90% of the content being Free2Play, turns into a 90% of Pay2Win, then we have a problem.

As for the rest of your post, OP, I disagree.

Yes, we don't have a constant lore, but not because we don't get it regularly, but because it gets periodically nuked out of existance. Quite literally the whole lore was invalidated with one statement. As it that wasn't enough, we even get fundamental characteristics of champions being nuked too. Think Diana and Leona or Pantheon getting even more shallow, than he was, or Amumu not being a yordle, Skarner having his whole race removed (Ironically his quote "I miss my kind" is still there.), etc.

Before the retcon was announced I knew every single champion's lore BY HEART. Now? I don't even bother to check those "updates", because not only they completely destroy champions, but also are a subject to change solely, because of a whim of some narrow-minded "writers".

RoodToobJul 5, 20162 votes

But skarner's race still exists?

Vistha KaiJul 5, 20161 votes

Where exactly? Excuse my ignorance, for I utterly lost any interest in the lore, but isn't he a pokemon guardian in the middle of nowhere with zero information about his orgin?

RoodToobJul 5, 20162 votes

He woke up from slumber, the only one to wake up, and humans were basically mining his race (its in his new lore, i wont go into specifics too much here)

Humans took an important part of the Bracken (i think they're still bracken) and Skarner found them and basically slaughtered them to get that part of his brethren back. IIRC its basically a crystal each one gets from an Ancestral bracken that died.

ThaurronJul 5, 20162 votes

I'm still not sure why they did the retcon and I find it especially strange that they never did anything to fill in the gaps. Summoners are still mentioned throughout the game, from summoner spells to Sona greeting the player as a summoner. Many champions recieved either a short paragraph that makes no sense for their lore or didn't recieve a change at all. There is no world in League anymore, just a bunch of inconsistent stories that never go anywhere.

Vistha KaiJul 5, 20162 votes

Because it was "limiting their writing possibilities" or some made-up bullshit like that.

You know, that kind of an excuse any respectable writer would laugh at.

Funny shit is that with the introduction of Aurelion Sol and the retcon of Targon, they basically made themselves as big of a wall as they had with Institute of War.

I mean, possibly the most powerful being in the universe is controlled by a thrall controlled by a god-knows-fucking-what from across the universe holding a spear and something something a magic gem.

Like holy shit.

9 inches of loveJul 5, 20164 votes

you couldn't be more wrong, it is because it's too different that its gotten boring. Dota has the same map for 10 years and they haven't gotten bored of it because it's good and you have many options and many things could happen in a match, in LoL almost every match is pretty much the same, especially since the actual champs that you can pick if you want to win are only a few. Back in season 3 you weren't so limited, you didnt have a limit on how many wards you can place (and you could actually buy them), you didnt have free wards (trinket) so people that didnt buy wards actually got punished for it, you didnt have the crab so people that didnt ward baron/dragon got punished for it as well, you didnt have shields and slows on towers so many champs could split push, you didn't have heal on adcs so they would get owned if they overextended, smite couldn't target champs so you didn't have to deal with that, you wouldnt build full tank and do more dmg than someone thats full dmg, kill gold was higher, baron wasn't this broken thing and you could still win against a team that had it instead of watching their minions destroy your tower while out of tower attack range, minions were broken but not as broken as now, you didnt have the new annoying masteries like thunderlord or the mastery that heals you from kills or assists so you could plan kill trades if you knew your champ would benefit more from it, supports didnt have near as much gold so you didnt have to worry about some ap support one shotting you, you didnt have red trinket so you actually had to buy pinks to kill teemo shrooms not use the trinket for free and negate one of his abilities, you could buy dfg on a lot of champs and play them that way for fun, you had ap yi which was fun as hell, ap tristana, ap sion, ap gp, you had way more options now you barely can do anything.

KouheyJul 5, 20164 votes

What the fuck do you mean dota has the same map for 10 years, the map has been reworked, twice. And there are tons of map skin and HUD skin to keep things fresh. Not mentioning the dota map is always a bigger, more complicated map than League of Toys.

ArakadiaJul 5, 20161 votes

I'm not going to read your massive wall of text because my eyes will fall out. Please break it up.

I did however read some of it.

Your point is that League has changed for the worst which doesn't make me wrong. You tried to make a witty start really. My point is a lack of new content. Your saying league removed some broken/things that didnt make sense. Your saying league changed meta, styles of gameplay, etc.

Yes League has becomes more meta strict, which I think it bad and good. BUT you cannot disagree that League lacks way too much. There has been very few new content things (that english). There's no new player system, no new maps, no new permanent gamemode, no lore comics, etc. All we get is balance changes, champions, and skins.

9 inches of loveJul 6, 20161 votes

I didnt try to make witty comments I was just saying how I feel about this, and yes I agree that new content wouldn't be bad but I believe it's better for riot to actually fix their main game mode before they add new stuff. Too bad they probably wont do either.. Also I didn't say the removed broken stuff, Im saying they removed good stuff and they added broken stuff that made no sense.

ArakadiaJul 6, 20161 votes

"You couldn't be more wrong". Now you agree?

9 inches of loveJul 8, 20161 votes

I disagreed with you saying the game is the same as it was in season 3 and I agreed to your 2nd comment saying more game modes would be nice, learn to read pls...

Jesus is SaviorJul 5, 20163 votes

Constant lore? Some champions don't have lore at all. And the retcon was like 2 YEARS AGO

eastcoastblazeJul 5, 20163 votes

Dofference was 3 years ago it was worth playing because ranked was much more competitive

NoblewindJul 5, 20163 votes

The game modes don't bother me because I'm really only interested in play SR ranked.

To me the new content such as new skins, wards, champs, and to a lesser extent the mini events are great, but once you find a handful of champs you play exclusively, new skins are usually just a let down when they aren't for your champs.

What I REALLY would like to see is more new artistic content that effects EVERYONE. For example, changing even basic art on Summoner's Rift such as more desert-like surfaces during the summer, snow in the winter, some holiday lights during snowdown, occasional rain?, etc. This would be new content that EVERY player would experience and it would keep the game refreshing. I was beyond disappointed when I read that post where Riot said changing the map would take too much work.

LatetotheRaceJul 6, 20163 votes

It lacks GOOD new content. Dynamic queue was riot's decision to attract new players with new content. It failed.... epicly.....

Tobias BracknerJul 6, 20161 votes

It has plenty of good new content. [zombie-brand-mindblown]

ArakadiaJul 6, 20161 votes

Such as?

Tobias BracknerJul 8, 20161 votes

New Marksman items and reworks.

Champion reworks and new champions.

Lore updates and short stories, comics, videos, etc.

ArakadiaJul 8, 20161 votes

We get lore for new champions and, only recently, new lore events that come every few months. I'd like to see weekly comics or short stories. Videos only come with champions (most of the time) and they are something you usually watch twice and forget about, unlike New Dawn or Twist of Fate.

Champion reworks and new champs are cool but thats it really. If I love mages Im not going to keep playing league so I can play the new tank jungler. If Eve gets a rework and Im an ADC main, its not going to keep me playing league.

I'd like new maps, gamemodes, map skins, etc.

Tobias BracknerJul 9, 20161 votes

weekly comics or short stories

Holy fucking shit dude do you know how hard that is to pull off? Like, let's not even talk about setting up the infrastructure within the company to have that output that is literally an incredibly difficult thing to do. Even in webcomics off the top of my head the only guys who can crank that out are the more "jokey" kind so they don't have a web of characters, interactions, and storylines to consider, and they also usually don't have a world that needs to be built and sustained. Holy fuck dude, you can't just magic this stuff into existence.

In terms of reworks there are a lot of people who play those champions so yeah, that's going to keep them from playing league. Also I feel you have a very narrow minded view of how people play the game. Like, I haven't seen data on this but everyone I play with love to cycle between different champions and roles. So yeah, when a champ they own is reworked then they are going to play more.

Maps are insanely difficult to do (although they are doing that with the rotating game modes you should try them) they have new gamemodes w/ rotating game modes, and I cannot begin to give a fuck about map skins cuz I'm not sure how much work that would be so pricing those things would be a nightmare for Rito. Like, maybe for seasonal stuff that'd be fine but I can't see it as anything worth complaining about.

VanjieJul 6, 20163 votes

Riot said in October that they do not plan to have skins, lore, events, and cinematic tied to specific times of the year. The Red names said, in a announcement, that they didn't want to be tied to specific times of the year to release all of the above content. The last event themed skins, lore, and cinematic received was the Lunar Revel. We received all of this because it was completed way before the announcement and Tennecent probably forced them to make the content for it. We have not received any of the promises Riot announced to us since October. What I REALLY loved about League of Legends were the stories, even themed skins, limited game modes at specific times of the year, art, event themed skins, and cinematic.

You want to know why we do not receive or will receive any of the promises Riot made to us in October? LCS, tournaments and competitive play. Riot revolves everything around competitive play now. All of the above content was removed from certain times of the year because it interfered with the time lines of their tournaments. Their dedication and work ethic towards tournaments and competitive play reflect in their decision. It is just not events and stuff being effected anymore. Champion balance and identities, mechanics in game, matchmaking, featured gamemodes, and many other things in this game . . . is all contingent on how well their tournaments and competitive games go. They know where they make the most money and are going to milk it for all it is worth. What we get out of this decision is a game that used to be creative and great . . . . to something that is just like everything else on the market now. What made League of Legends stand out and great is gone.

RazuredJul 7, 20163 votes

We're still waiting on that winter map you removed from the game a while back when you introduced the remade version of Summonner's Rift, which in my opinion changing the map design when there are events like hollowing and Christmas and such would bring us some fresh air to the map even tho you guys did a great work with the S'M remake.

But I do believe it would help having some interaction with the map!

Shepherd o SoulsJul 5, 20162 votes

They should stop messing around and add custom games like DOTA. Or add a mode like ability draft, which is extremely hilarious. It seems like they're purposely trying to drive people away from the game now with dynamicQ and new masteries/hextech.

He4rtkillerJul 5, 20162 votes

I would love a new permanent game mode with a new map that is more casual then SR. I think Dominion was pretty decent game mode and I used to play it (tho rarely) when it was available. But it was good as a more casual game mode where I don't need to farm and games last shorter then on SR. These days I wish we have one more casual and faster game mode beside ARAM.

thekingofnidoJul 5, 20162 votes

i see what your saying. the issue you have is based around lack of content. riot has not expanded to fully develop their product. it is stuck in a similar state to what is was 3 years ago. the game and lcs have changed but they have not branched into any sort of lore or even cinematic series. angry birds has only been popular for 1-2 years and they are already making a movie. league should be capitalizing on their massive popularity to keep players enveloped in the league universe.

NiaphimJul 5, 20162 votes

A better question is "does it need to change?". It is intended to be an eSports discipline, and you don't see that much changes in hockey or basketball for example. Yet several generations played those games and didn't get bored. Changes for the sake of changes are not good.

SwaidJul 6, 20162 votes

They should do what Smash Brothers 4 did for their online games:

Every week, two or more opposing countries would be put against one another and winning games as champions from that country would give points to their side; at the end of every week, the side with the most points gets something, like an IP boost, something from Hextech crafting, maybe a tiny bit of RP to polish off a purchase. This way, one such as I who has pride in playing a Noxian or Zaunite will feel more rewarded for my choices of characters and it would also support loyalty to factions, giving more connection to the lore. This is very similar to what they did for the Sun vs. the Moon; everyone was picking a side, getting invested, I see that dedication in the forums all the time and I'd like that to be seen more often. Freljord did the same thing with the three factions, sure it was weird trying to fill in the empty space in one faction by retconing characters like Gragas and Trundle, but it was still fun to pick a side and get invested.

Obviously, what side you're one would be picked by the summoner, so you can't receive rewards if you picked the losing side.