Activision Riot
“There was another golden-haired, beloved human prince once. He was a paladin, and yet he turned his back on the Light.”
Outrage and offense chased away Anduin’s discomfort. Blood suffused his face and he snapped, “I am not Arthas!”
- Golden, Christie. War Crimes. https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/13353208
“There was another creative, beloved game company once. It was a big hit, yet it turned it's back on it's fans.”
Offense and the need to control the situation chased away Riot's love for the game. LGBT lore and reworked champion's suffused their plans and they snapped, “I am not Activision Blizzard!”
For those of you who haven't followed the intense Activision Blizzard drama, specifically regarding World of Warcraft (WoW), Blizzard has dumbed down the game to a pathetic degree for “convenience,” company control, and in-game purchases. To prevent a TLDR situation, I'll simply explain the results: the giant open world and quests that have had limitless work put into are now empty and unused. Dungeon instances have lost almost all form of difficulty and teamwork and have become a simple grindfest to reach max level. Low level pvp is pathetic, and world gear and professions have become irrelevant, mostly thanks to heirlooms. WoW has went from the most played game with a loyal fanbase to the least, most laughably played game.
WoW loyalist activists, most notably: Asmongold, McConnel, and Nixxiom still hope for a reformed Blizzard, but have conformed to the idea that other and future companies should learn from Blizzards mistakes and make even better games. So then, what does this have to do with us? The League of Legends community is safe, isn't it? Well you should know that WoW fans simply ignored or justified the systems put in place that took away the core aspects of WoW as Activision Blizzard tried to please every “type” of player, like kids with access to their parents credit cards. Sound familiar? Maybe not. Perhaps this should spark your memory: Have you noticed that Illaoi was the only woman that they stuck to their apparent “not all girls are skinny and busty” deal? I understand that realistically girls would probably be the way they are in LoL, but for all that talk about supporting “ugly” girls I have yet to see a female gragas or tahm kench ;D . Anybody remember banner of command? The old spellthief top build? Jungle Karthus? The more recent adc Neeko? The list goes on, but more importantly: does anybody remember when riot said they support creative, immersive ideas like this? That was before they began their path to gaming tyranny.
First I would like to point you to the speech makers regarding the ideas of why Riot is going downhill: Scarra, Tyler1 (sorta), Hashinshin, and Dunkeyvideogames. So obviously taking unique creative ideas and options out of the game is bad for LoL, like what Blizzard did to WoW, but what is the reason why it is bad? First let's look to basic champion roles. Before riot had a very hands off approach to champion roles and item builds, allowing people to make fun and even viable builds like AP Amumu and AD Maokai. Recently Riot has absolutely nerfed any remaining hope for adc Neeko, forcing her into the position they want her to be played (mid). A Singed main once rolled support and took smite and stole the enemy jg, and most of his few losses was only because of his team calling him a troll and refusing to play with him, despite the highly effective strategy. Instead of taking away the consequences received by the abuse of the report system, riot actually kept him banned and spoke against him; regardless of his humble, constantly mature attitude! Many players have already quit because of this strict “play like this or we'll punish you and nerf the build” attitude, and many of my friends REFUSE to play even one game of urf with me!
Speaking of urf, they randomized it in the name of “balance.” Yes, all those unfair matchups of Ashe vs Fizz was “balanced” where my team had no possible statistical way to win the game. The games that I did win because of random champion's was so pathetic that I hated to be in the game, even though I was winning… The worst part is that all the fun builds like AD Maokai or Rageblade Tahm Kench don't even work in URF of all game modes. Despite the fact that simply not being able to play the champion you want is extremely off-putting, statistically team comps have been worse for me and my friends. Even my die hard LoL friends refuse to play urf. If you research the reason why Riot made it random was because after every urf session the player count would go down; well I doubt it's gotten better now that you ruined the game mode Blizzard - I mean uh, Riot. Oh and I'm sure it has nothing to do with the players starting to realize how much the game has digressed after they had to return to the normal game after playing urf.
To sum up my frustrations, Riot is on the same path as Activision Blizzard. An innovative, creative, and fun company that prioritized the game and it's fans that ended up prioritizing “convenience” and making the game feel linear, straightforward, and, well, anything opposite of unique. It has certainly taken away the individuality of its players, who are forced to conform to their roles and recommended builds.