RIOT MOVES LIKE A SNAIL AND NO LONGER CARES ABOUT QUALITY

Vanjie··59 votes·3,085 views

Does anyone else feel like Riot Games moves like a bunch of snails when it comes to balance, updates, stories, lore, art, and other things? I mean the only department that I feel like actually works is the skin department. Why does it take the champ up, balance and update team, and another department 6 months to a year to do one thing that should take them a week tops? There are champs with outdated and poorly executed kits and art . . . . yet Riot Games can only do it for about 3 champions per year. It takes Riot six months to nerf and balance one champion they know is too strong . . . . . but is easily fixed with numbers nerf. Why does it take these Developers almost the entire year, which I am going to say is what is going to happen at their work speed, to fix problems with DQ?

A lot of the other MOBAS do not take this long to fix, update, and freshen up their game. Somehow though it takes you years and years to update one thing. With the amount of money you make per year, don't you think you can work a little faster than a year? You should be pumping out close to 6 VGU a year . . . . and not 3. If you feel like you do not have enough workers, hire them. It's coming off as though you do not care and are no longer dedicated to the quality and growth of this game. Riot, you work VERY slow and you wait WAY too long to address small problems in the game. You know what is an issue . . . . yet why have you waited four months to nerf Jhin . . . . when you have been saying for months now . . . . that he is too strong. Do you have a bunch of indecisive and lazy workers that don't even know what they are Developing for this game?

The past couple years your work ethic has gone down hill. Your work speed is slower, lazier, and you no longer communicate as much as you did. You continue to ignore player feedback . . . . for what is best for LCS . . . . but not the game the vast majority of playerbase is actually playing. This is not a sport . . it is a video game players are willing to pay for . . . . . but you seem to be so hung up on the fact that you are trying to make a video game a sport. How long can you keep this delusion up? In the end what part of the game is going to fund the game? The actual game and not the sport you are trying to make it.

You removed events, event themed skins, Dominion, now probably Twisted Treeline because it became too much for you to handle. You make false promises that you cannot end up keeping because of your time management and the lcs tournaments. You balance the entire game around what is best for LCS. I mean . . . . my main was buffed to epic proportion because you wanted to make her FOTM in the LCS. You didn't work on her because Karma actually needed the work . . . you gave her a completely unnecessary numbers buff, again, for the sake of LCS and not the champion or lore.

Are we not noticing a trend here, Riot games? You are trying to make League of Legends into something that it was never meant to be. If you want to make this game into a competitive sport with a huge following, don't you think you need to have the work ethic and workers to make it that way? You should be pumping out double the VGU you do a year, giving us decent lore, find time to actually fix problems with Twisted Treeline and Dominion as opposed to copping out of it, producing content that players can appreciate like art, lore, and skins, fixing DQ and not punishing solo players, stop giving false promises, balancing the entire game around LCS, buffing the wrong champions to make them FOTM in LCS but no addressing what is best for the champion . . . and more. You guys just do not get it.

To all of you that are probably going to downvote and insult me, you are promoting a lazy, slow, and uncaring work ethic. Why RIot games can find every possible way to remove everything players loved about this game from the very beginning . . . . because it interferes with their time for preparing for LCS. This is not the same game it was many years ago. Riot is trying to make this game into something . . . that it could have eventually been . . . . but it is just a blend of mess, slow work, and laziness. If Riot had all of their champions with new art, lore, and other stuff . . . . a properly functions matchmaking system that makes it easier for solo players to find players to play with in the launcher, champion balnace and updates that didn't revolve around what is best for LCS . . . . but the champion so they can shine on their own . . . . . . Riot could have made this game a sport. RIot is trying to make an unfinished and lazy worked on game into a sport . . . . and it really isn't doing them any justice.

70 Comments

Nameless Voice15 votes

Your post is a bit of a mess and somewhat unnecessarily insulting in tone, but... yes, I have to agree with a lot of it.

Riot are incredibly slow at actually fixing things. I think rather than not having enough manpower or not doing enough things, it's because they prioritise the wrong things.

My biggest complaint is in all of those things that people hate and have been vocally complaining about for years, yet are never addressed. Champions who have poorly-designed kits, who are no fun to play against, who either hard-counter large numbers of other champions or are hard-countered by them. Champions who basically make you not want to play as soon as you see them on the other team. I'm fairly sure that isn't just me, considering that people on the boards and in-game all constantly complain about the same champions.

I still think those should be the top priority. Fixing a champion who is in a bad state, weak and barely played is nice, but let's be fair - that only affects the small number of players who want to play that champion. When a champion is in a bad state in the opposite direction, where they are oppressive to play against and everyone hates them, then there is much more gain in reworking/fixing them, since it will affect all of the players who have to play against them. Yet not only is this kind of work not prioritised, it's never mentioned, and Riot mostly don't even admit that it's a problem. Occasionally they will give some minor numbers nerfs to the champion in question - which reduces their win rate but doesn't actually fix the problem. Then they go back to ignoring that champion for another few months/years.

Skias3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Nameless Voice,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=L6045ncE,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-08-07T22:46:33.313+0000)

Your post is a bit of a mess and somewhat unnecessarily insulting in tone, but... yes, I have to agree with a lot of it.

Riot are incredibly slow at actually fixing things. I think rather than not having enough manpower or not doing enough things, it's because they prioritise the wrong things.

My biggest complaint is in all of those things that people hate and have been vocally complaining about for years, yet are never addressed. Champions who have poorly-designed kits, who are no fun to play against, who either hard-counter large numbers of other champions or are hard-countered by them. Champions who basically make you not want to play as soon as you see them on the other team. I'm fairly sure that isn't just me, considering that people on the boards and in-game all constantly complain about the same champions.

I still think those should be the top priority. Fixing a champion who is in a bad state, weak and barely played is nice, but let's be fair - that only affects the small number of players who want to play that champion. When a champion is in a bad state in the opposite direction, where they are oppressive to play against and everyone hates them, then there is much more gain in reworking/fixing them, since it will affect all of the players who have to play against them. Yet not only is this kind of work not prioritised, it's never mentioned, and Riot mostly don't even admit that it's a problem. Occasionally they will give some minor numbers nerfs to the champion in question - which reduces their win rate but doesn't actually fix the problem. Then they go back to ignoring that champion for another few months/years.

The funny part is, those weaker champs would actually see more play if there were less Yasuos, Zeds etc running around. You simply can't fight them and expect to win on even ground unless that player is much much worse than you. So backwards ass.

The Whamboozler15 votes

Riot is foolishly focusing all it's effort on being a "sport" and forgetting that league is a GAME. They should be adding more and more content to make the game more fun to play, not to cater to the E-sports community. The E-sports community will exist if the game is good because people will love playing and watching it. Riot doesn't seem to understand what made them popular and what made their game and community grow in the first place. It wasn't meticulous attention to the pro scene or new champs with 40 passives.... it was Surprise Party Fiddlesticks. It was the Harrowing. It was the fun of odd builds or the enjoyment of the game's oddball but interesting story. It was a ranked system where everyone thought they might just be able to reach the top someday if they were personally good enough.

Riot used to talk to their players. They used to be VERY active with the community, using player-created ideas and showing a lot of love and respect for the people who made them a success. Riot is very badly misguided in it's current approach. Pro football might be a huge industry, but unless you're packing the absurd fanbase of the NFL you can't make the game about the pro scene and nothing else. It's a video game and if it's going to be a success... if there are going to be people who WANT to play it and get good enough to go pro... it has to be fun. The game needs to be fun over anything else... and that should be what they focus all their time and effort on. The game has been pushing away from all of the things that made it popular in the first place, and this shows in how Riot treats both the game and their fans these days. They're slow to make important changes, they take very little player feedback and they seem to push their own wants and agendas over the desires of the players on the few times they DO ask for or just happen to hear of player feedback.

I gave up league months ago. It's... just not fun anymore. I used to have a blast with it, but lately it's all stress and anger and depression and no joy. Now... this is a personal opinion, of course. Plenty of people still like the game. I... don't. Slowly but surely the things I liked about the game have been reduced or taken away, leaving only the bad things. The awful community and the poor balance of the game are ever present, but gone is the old, fun lore. The thrill of goofy, off-meta builds. The feeling that rank was a big deal and meant something... and that maybe I could get better and rise in it if I really buckled down and tried. All that's left is frustrating gameplay marred by the dominance of a handful of strong or just plain BROKEN champions, and the terrible shitstorm of immaturity, whining, trolling, griefing, entitlement, raging and other such obnoxious but typical internet behavior.

I'd love for the game to be the game I got into years ago again. I still pop onto the forums sometimes and see what's up with it. I haven't uninstalled.... but unless the game somehow stops the spiral it's on and becomes FUN again then I don't see that ever happening. To me, League feels more like a job, or a bad relationship that I'm suffering with entirely because it's habit than a form of entertainment. I'd love to see that change... but I don't really have much hope it will.

Vanjie2 votes

Thank you. Great post.

The Whamboozler1 votes

You're welcome. I assume on at least some of those points, you feel the same way?

Vanjie1 votes

Yes.

redfeenix3 votes

Well written

The Whamboozler2 votes

Thanks. It's nothing that a hundred other people haven't said before though... and I doubt Riot is listening.

TheSingularity2 votes

Well structured. This is sc2 all over again XD

Marshbouy12 votes

Does anyone else feel like Riot Games moves like a bunch of snails when it comes to balance, updates, stories, lore, art, and other things?

took them something like 4 days to hotfix sona.

Riot could have made this game a sport. RIot is trying to make an unfinished and lazy worked on game

Games like mobas are always a WIP

You should be pumping out close to 6 VGU a year . . . . and not 3

I dont really disagree with this, but go try and hire a team of people to all fit your art themes, design themes, and go tell them to all re animate entire champions, give them updated kits, and make sure they don't turn out worse than before.

A lot of the other MOBAS do not take this long to fix, update, and freshen up their game. Somehow though it takes you years and years to update one thing.

What things? Or is it just going to be a big nebulous idea that no one really knows the answer to.

You removed events, event themed skins, Dominion, now probably Twisted Treeline because it became too much for you to handle

Bilgewater. Targon. Shurima. Lore events>things like the harrowing. RIP twisted treeline tho.

You make false promises that you cannot end up keeping because of your time management and the lcs tournaments.

The balancing team is not the same as the LCS coordinating team. (if that team even exists)

You should be pumping out double the VGU you do a year, giving us decent lore, find time to actually fix problems with Twisted Treeline and Dominion as opposed to copping out of it

More reworks means more balancing issues and more champion mains getting annoyed that their main was changed, no. Agree with the alternate maps part

producing content that players can appreciate like art, lore, and skins, fixing DQ and not punishing solo players, stop giving false promises, balancing the entire game around LCS, buffing the wrong champions to make them FOTM in LCS

Yeah. Producing content LIKE THE FUCKING PROJECT SKINS. THE LORE EVENTS. They are actively fixing DQ. it has gotten better. Do you want accidental false promises or less communication with RIOT? becuase you can only have one. If they actually balanced the whole game around LCS then master yi would be 70% winrate in bronze and azir would be the same as he is now.


Your entire post is largely uneducated complaints thrown at riot. I only agree on the parts about dominion and TT.

Vanjie5 votes
  • One instance isn't proof that they actually do something. Sona was game breaking. Taking four months to nerf nearly all of the ADC and items they made strong, is an example of lazy and slow work. If Riot games cared anything about balance then they would have hot fixed all of the ADC that was abusing tank items to make them sustain longer in lanes. Riot takes four months to gather data as opposed to hot fixing problems they create and know are toxic in the game.

Why does it take them so long to nerf and balance one thing in the game that they introduce broken? Riot wants the game to be in chaos and they have lazy testers that do not give them the proper feedback. If anyone thought the entire ADC and some of the mage rework was balanced, they are delusional. ADC champions were literally going into every lane and dominating in ranked. It took them how many months to finally admit they made everything way to strong? More than the week that they decided to nerf Sona. Congrats. One instance where Riot wasn't a complete neanderthal.

  • I understand games like a MOBA are meant to be a work in progress. What I do not understand is why they are trying to push this game into a platform where it is unfinished, not balanced, and not polished enough to be pushed into any different platform. Balance in any video game is a very hard thing to accomplish and will never be accomplished. If League of Legends was at a point where it was polished enough to be acceptable to be pushed into a eSports platform, then I would not be saying that they are pushing an unfinished game with unfinished work into the public eye. Riot is allowing poorly designed champions, not yet updated champions, overpowered items, a yet completed client revamp, a yet achieved proper matchmaking service with DQ, and much more. Riot is forcing a game that has yet to reach a decent level into a platform it should not be in.

If Riot wants to make this game a professional sport, update your champions that have outdated and poorly executed VU and kits, fix and establish lore for the majority of your champions and the world of LoL, fix the problems with DQ and solo players, fix the matchmaking problems, give us a properly executed League client, and stop telling us lies. True balance in any game is never going to be accomplished; however, there is no excuse for having a poorly executed game and lore. Establish the game before Riot tries to establish it as a sport.

  • The thing is a lot of these older champions do not need a lot of work . . . . some of them need just a new passive or one ability replaced. What almost all of these champions need are visual updates. Riot will not work on a visual update until they do a gameplay update. Riot will not do a gameplay update until they decide when it is necessary to do it in the year they decide to. If you have noticed that, Riot changes a champion completely that they lose their identity and time feels like it was wasted . . . . instead of preserving the identity they had: Karma and Shen.

Riot should not be producing 3 VU a year. Riot should be producing 6 VU a year. There are a lot of champions that need minor work, but it seems like 3 is the only number they feel comfortable accomplishing with the "vast" number of employees they have. Riot is slow and lazy.

  • If a Game Developer knows a champion or item in the game is unbalanced and not working properly, it shouldn't take 4 months to a year to gather data and nerf it. Riot Game Developers have been saying for years that Yasuo and Zed are annoying to play against, but what have they done exactly to fix the problems? Nerf them a little big and then find a way to compensate them other places. It shouldn't take months to a year to fix something that could be fixed in a hot fix like they did with Sona . . . . which was very surprising and one of the few examples of their intelligence.

  • Riot promised us at the end of 2015 that they would be introducing lore, events, and event themed skins at any time of the year. It has been 8 months and what lore, events, and event themed skins have we received? We get the same Project, Pool Party, and Arcade skins every year. Where are the lore and skins for the Harrowing, Shurima, and other events and places in the LoL universe that you are no longer going to be doing at specific times of the year, but promised us you would be doing at any time of the year? The real answer is: never and at times when the LCS play is not happening.

  • Riot sure seems to be balancing and working everything around the LCS team, though. They removed events and event themed skins, Dominion, champions are specifically balanced and updated in accordance to LCS. It sure seems like they are one the same . . . . Let's add Twisted Treeline now because it seems to interfere with their work for the LCS . . . . and that it has nothing to do with it.

  • I never said anything about maps, but if third party programs and Developers can do it . . . what is Riot's excuse? Laziness. I guess those patches and 3 VGU a year don't break the game huh? The real problem is they don't have competent testers giving them the correct feedback . . . . and Riot doesn't listen to player feedback at all. Riot Games releases content that is broken . . . . when they know it is broken . . . . and don't care if it is broken . . . . . and wait 4 months to a year to "gather data" to fix the problem. Riot knows what the problems are and they know how to address them.

Complete balance in the game is never going to be accomplished. Waiting long periods of time to address specific problems Riot knows is breaking the game . . . is not an excuse. There is absolutely no excuse as to why they have the budget to work on Ryze 7 times, but they cannot spend half of that time giving Eve, Urgot, Warwick, Akali, Irelia, Karma, Shen, Morde, and other champions the same amount of time. The game is never going to be balanced, but that is not an excuse to finally update the game in a 10 year period. The older champions with outdated models and kits will all be updated in a 10 to 12 year time period, at which time new games and technology will be introduced that will make LoL look like the old Runescape. The more champions they add the more work they add to their load and how much they have to eventually "rework" in a few years.

  • Riot lied to the faces of all solo players. These liers continue to reassure solo players that they are working on ways to improve DQ, but I am still seeing premades pummel solo players, receive better rewards, have better communication and more. Riot's answer is a badge that tells everyone what you que as. A badge they think accomplishes all of the problems solo players have with DQ. It has been . . . . how long? Riot still has yet to address any of the issues.

summoner 11 enjoy.

Marshbouy6 votes

No. lazy work would be saying "take 20 AD off all the items".

Seems pretty finished to me. Just because you don't like the meta does not mean it is unfinished.

They are updating older champions. It's called the class updates.

you know what? no. I'm not taking my time to respond to this. The more i read the more i realize you are an idiot that knows nothing about video games, coding, and balancing.

Vanjie6 votes

Right. Common sense and actually playing the game makes you an idiot. I do know a lot about video games, coding, and balance. I completed classes in college for it. I play the game and know when something is too strong or not being worked on. We all see it and we all wait months and years for Riot to address it. You are blindly supporting a company without actually realizing how slow and lazy they work. That seems to make you look like an idiot. Oops.

Zelnick12 votes

Cause when you change something as simple as an ability, you have to go back and correct it not just for the character but so that the new data for the ability is recognized by the client and then gets recognized by the servers after programing the client to send out a signal from one end to its servers and then program it to send another signal to other people's computers to display that animation. They also work on a bunch of things at once. If they only did one small thing at a time it would probably be a week per fix but it's usually like 100 things at a time.

Vanjie7 votes

That takes a year and for only 3 champions a year?

Jungle Lux God12 votes

Riot moves like a snail because they do care about quality.

Look at the juggernaut rework. Riot did that in about 3-4 months, and look how disastrous that was. Meanwhile the marksman and mage updates took 5-6 months and came out pretty good overall.

Now Riot takes a couple years to work on a champion, and releases every two months, and the quality of these individual champs is much greater. At one point Riot did release champions every couple weeks, and they were nowhere near the quality of design they are now.

You think game design is quick and easy? If you've never done art or programming it could seem that way, but if you have you'd know that quality takes time. From my experience, it takes a lot of time to code something simple like a simulation of Conway's game of life or skyscraper, but something as complex as a video game character can take a lot longer, especially with a program as massive as League of Legends. It doesn't make sense, but changing something as small as the base attack damage of Teemo could change something as dramatic as the Wind Dragon's spawning animation to have it spawn with his tail between his legs.

darkestkhan5 votes

" It doesn't make sense, but changing something as small as the base attack damage of Teemo could change something as dramatic as the Wind Dragon's spawning animation to have it spawn with his tail between his legs."

That would indicate VERY bad code quality. Changing numbers should be trivial.

Vistha Kai2 votes

That would indicate VERY bad code quality.

Like REALLY bad.

dapositiveviking2 votes

don't underestimate the spaghetti code that exists in league

SnugglePuggle942 votes

{quoted}

Look at the juggernaut rework. Riot did that in about 3-4 months, and look how disastrous that was. Meanwhile the marksman and mage updates took 5-6 months and came out pretty good overall.

The mage update was pretty much a disaster in my opinion besides Zyra, especially the itemization.

TequilaZombie1 votes

New Brand is awesome, AD Malz is viable. I'm happy. My only complaint is that Zyra wasn't deleted from the game.

SnugglePuggle941 votes

I don't mean the actual mage changes. I'm mainly talking about how Riot botched our itemization and mana issues. Zyra is one of my favorite champions, dude. Why would you want her deleted? She has high damage in trade off for being squishy as hell. Exploit that and she's dead.

Now, if any champion deserves to be deleted from the game, it's this atrocity- Zed. Zyra definitely does not deserve deletion but he sure does.

TequilaZombie1 votes

I love playing Nunu and she's one of the only champions who can give him a rough time. Also I recently got buttfucked by one, and it's still sore.

That and the fact that she's the doom of any low mobility melee champion, which are the ones I like the most.

As a side note, I don't mind Zed at all (unless I'm playing ADC).

SnugglePuggle941 votes

Well...1) Nunu isn't a laner, if you are playing him that way. As a jungler, of course she can be a pain as you have no mobility. 2) Just like Annie is the bane of the existence of high mobility champions, Zyra is the same to low mobility. She's still really easy to get on top of and abuse especially if you bait out her root.

And you don't want to know the hatred I have for Zed.

Jungle Lux God1 votes

How are you having mana issues after the mage updates? The only way I've ever ran out of mana is if I was spamming spells like there was no tomorrow or if I bought absolutely no mana items, and in both of those situations you should fundamentally be running out of mana. You still have all the options you have for mana after the update that you had before the update barring Athene's on champs with no shields or heals, and most of them are still in a good spot after the update as they were before the update.

SnugglePuggle942 votes

Mana regen was botched for this weird mana/heal return on items such as ROA and others, while support items don't get much in regen.

I don't spam my spells but as a support like Sona where she needs to spam sometimes, she goes oom real quickly. I even have regen runes and it still doesn't help much at all.

The main issue I have with Riot messing up our itemization is the way they nerfed all the items damage, some more than once, because they wanted to add more utility. It's a stupid decision that should never have been made.

Skias1 votes

{quoted}

Riot moves like a snail because they do care about quality.

Look at the juggernaut rework. Riot did that in about 3-4 months, and look how disastrous that was. Meanwhile the marksman and mage updates took 5-6 months and came out pretty good overall.

Now Riot takes a couple years to work on a champion, and releases every two months, and the quality of these individual champs is much greater. At one point Riot did release champions every couple weeks, and they were nowhere near the quality of design they are now.

You think game design is quick and easy? If you've never done art or programming it could seem that way, but if you have you'd know that quality takes time. From my experience, it takes a lot of time to code something simple like a simulation of Conway's game of life or skyscraper, but something as complex as a video game character can take a lot longer, especially with a program as massive as League of Legends. It doesn't make sense, but changing something as small as the base attack damage of Teemo could change something as dramatic as the Wind Dragon's spawning animation to have it spawn with his tail between his legs.

The Marksman update was a travesty. It amplified the fucked item changes that came with juggernaut update and warped the game. Ask anyone that has played this game since Season 2 or so. The game is unrecognizable. The "meta" is clownshoes because all these changes have made every champ build beefy to resist the crazy damage creep. So now we've got all these hybrid damage defense items that has just made the game feel like shit.

They need to trim down all these bloated items. Remember Atma's Impaler? It was deleted for a reason.

AwesomeChad10 votes

they're working on securing $$$. Thats why they've been expanding to other regions. Thats why they've been catering this game towards people who play with friends. Thats why they market their Esports so widely. They don't care about the veteran players. They've been focusing on trying to attract more newer players.

Vistha Kai3 votes

It's sad this is getting downvoted, because it's true.

TequilaZombie1 votes

It's true, but it's said as if it's a bad thing. They are a company, if they believe that this is the direction that will lead to a bigger number in their bank accounts, that's tha path they will and should take.

Vistha Kai2 votes

They are possibly the highest grossing F2P game "company" in the world.

I may be naive, but maybe it's time to finally put this money to work, instead of stashing it in a sock?

Utility Veigar9 votes

They move like a snail because they are trying to give you a quality game.

Vanjie8 votes

It really shows. It takes 4 months to nerf Graves and most of the ADC. They waste time on Vel'Koz anr Brand and 7 reworks on Ryze. They removed events and event themed skins. They lie about solo que and have done nothing to fix DQ. They are giving us a quality LCS but not a game.

Jorencice1 votes

They have done tons to fix DQ that a flat out lie saying they havent...

Vanjie1 votes

How are they fixing the issues with solo players going against premades? They are not. Riot's solution is to just shut up and deal with it.

DQ players receive better rewards, win more games, have better communication, and just are toxic to play gainst.

Jorencice2 votes

The reward is for being in a party and its worthless ass IP.

The winrates have been brought within 5% of each other and the gap keeps closing.

Nothings stopping you from inviting everyone in you game to join skype.

Thats your opinion i have no problems with premades.

Keepe6 votes

I'd say that Riot's most glaring issue when it comes to balance would be the PBE.

When something comes to the PBE, unless reverted, it's more or less set in stone. For better or for worse. The PBE acts more of a stagnant pool than it does an actual testing environment. So the overall stance is

"This is happening. Get used to it."

When it SHOULD be

"Hey, here are some changes we're trying to balance these guys. What do you all think?"

It's not a TESTING Environment. At this point it's just a bloody Showcase for sites like Surrender @ 20 to use to get early news.

Hell, look at MORD. I remember the line even TODAY that I read in the Juggernaut update.

So, rather than committing to balancing him in a patchwork fashion for the next few years, we decided to try something a little crazy. Here goes… We’re trying Mordekaiser out as a duo lane juggernaut, intended to step up in lieu of a regular marksmen pick.

This just... Horrible. So they just pushed him off on the community, gave us a HORRIBLY broken mess, then began to nerf him constantly, and that's all he is to this day. A Horrible Mess that Riot left to Rot.

There is no sense of community to Riot.

I understand that Balance would have to keep in mind that things that are considered fine one day become OP the next, look at a certain Crystal Scepter, and I don't suggest that they bow solely to the whims of public outcry, but be more MINDFUL of it.

ALL THIS BEING SAID.

Op, your post comes off as sanctimonious angry-fan-writing for several reasons. The most glaring one being the use of argumentative fallacies. However, you are also right in several respects. Riot supports LCS. Why? The same reason Magic supports it's Pro-tour (as I understand it). They love your money. They design champions for the LC$ rather than fun.

Granted... Still waiting to be able to pull off a Ryze/Bard Team Escape...

[slayer-pantheon-rainbows]

I'd rather see LESS NEW champions put out, a highly unpopular opinion, more cogs in a wheel of broken machinery that will only need to be fixed further. I'd rather see Riot do something more like, hell, a year of down time. The only introduction of new items going on through the Preseason while they work on what they already HAVE through VUs and Balance. That includes the halting of skin productions.

At any rate. I have an appointment with the Downvote Firing Squad.

Jorencice1 votes

Most people would agree with you.

Besides halting skin production that is.

Skins are pretty much their only source of income. You cant expect a business to survive for a year based of its savings...

Keepe1 votes

Which is why it would probably be wise to prepare for the "Maintenance" in advanced. I can imagine it would not be too difficult to prepare a selection of skins in advanced and release them periodically.

I would NEVER suggest they just drop everything.

But steps CAN be taken.

Besides, Riot's Skin team is capable of doing rather good work. Would you not rather make sure that all of the effort Riot has to offer is being put into the older champions you love? Plus with the Visual Reworks during the Downtime, they'd still be hard at work making new skins by redoing all of the older ones. Say, Gentleman Cho'gath, Mundo King of Office Romance, so on.

So while releasing new skins they made in advanced, they'd also be increasing the sales of older skins that are being redone.

Arakadia4 votes

Seems a little strange they can't have multiple teams working on VGu's at once.

ModWulf Helhammer3 votes

They have 2 that are working at once

Arakadia5 votes

There's like 140 champions I think. 2 rework teams seems a little small.

ModWulf Helhammer4 votes

Do you want things like the Sion rework, or the first Ryze rework? They have to develop basically a new champion from the ground up, and that takes time to do well.

Quality, not quantity

Skias2 votes

{quoted}

Do you want things like the Sion rework, or the first Ryze rework? They have to develop basically a new champion from the ground up, and that takes time to do well.

Quality, not quantity

I want balance problems fixed without waiting two fucking months for a math change.

Vanjie4 votes

They have that many champions and can only do 3 VGU a year for champs that really need it. Only 2 slow working, uncaring teams that can produce 3 VGU a year.

AcidTheWarlock4 votes

I hate to ring up another MOBA, but look at Hi-Rez studios and Smite. While they don't always have the best business and balance decisions (buffing one of the best mages in the game, duh) they still have feedback forms after every patch and they release a new character every month.

Balance is pretty good right now, there are some broken characters (Sylvanus, Nox, Susano'o) but other than that it's relatively well-balanced.

Riot needs to interact with the community and realize that WE are the ones who make them money. Not the LCS.

Since it seems they really want the cash.

Vistha Kai5 votes

I mean, Hi-Rez at least actually learned something from their failures.

Tribes Ascend was a steaming pill of P2W shit. They actually listened to the community and... It took them like a half a year to rework game from the ground up, while developing another game!

Riot can't barely shit out one medicore rework/VGU/else in the same timeframe.

It's pathetic.

AcidTheWarlock3 votes

I've never played Tribes, maybe I will some day.....

I think we can all agree that Rito's just sitting around thinking of skins for the wrong champs and outsourcing balance to Mexico where they don't even play League.

Vistha Kai2 votes

Let's say, I played too much of Tribes Vengeance having fun with the Grappler, to come back to Ascend, but still.

Compared to Hi-Rez is seems Riot simply doesn't give a crap anymore. Or rather, there's only a small group of people who want to improve the game, while the majority is either like "Whatever" or "We gotta milk more cash".

Skias3 votes

Not too hot on the tone of this post, but... It does seem like nerfs and the damage creep control are coming really really damn slow. Balance changes in general take forever with Riot and oftentimes the worst offenders get a slap on the wrist while barely good champions get orbital nuked. Abusive champions and bad item changes run wild because Riot's balance team is relying on Preseason to actually make changes.

I hate the new "wait till preseason" to change and fix things. The competitive legitimacy of this season is completely shot because they are afraid to make changes and wreck this terrible upcoming worlds. This game is more than Esports, but they don't see it that way.

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