I'm literally showing a graph showing that the raw interest caused by League on google has been going downhill and you are asking for sources?
One search engine's results page isn't enough evidence to support your claim that the game is dying. Search engine trends change rapidly and violently at random intervals based on a number of different factors. The amount of searches on a website do not reflect the amount of interest in said subject.
Just as an example: OSRS (Old School Runescape) is a game that has been steadily growing since it's release. We started off at about 20-30k concurrent players and we've almost doubled, staying at 55-60k+ active users at almost all times. Now what does the search engine results page look like? Take a look for yourself. A downward or stagnated trend in search results.
Several streamers/youtubers are either complaining about balance or simply just quitting the game even if it was their main source of revenue (like Dyrus). This got to the point that streamer showcasing channels just show either big plays from the players or plain complains about balance. some youtube channels are also plainly and only showcasing and discussing about problematics of the game and Riot's poor decision making. You go on Surrender@20, and pretty much every balance change and even skin announcements are received negatively.
A few notable people quitting isn't enough to support your claim either. The Youtubers and streamers I watch still enjoy the game and play it religiously. So... do we go with your examples or mine? See what I'm getting at?
You need hard, factual, statistical evidence to support your claims. Like this one right here that shows League of Legends is the most watched game on Twitch in 2019.
Along with Twitch and Youtube, Reddit and the Boards are the biggest portion of community-related feedback you'll ever get.
The vocal minority is always the loudest. Go on Reddit right now and tell me how many posts you see made by people who are complaining about the game and saying that the state of it is poor. Do you know why you don't see many? Because the people who are satisfied or enjoy the game don't need to make posts praising it, their needs are being met and as a result they don't need to say anything about it.
This is why I've been saying you need statistical evidence like polls, surveys, playtime graphs, or other undeniable sources. Because if we look at the community as a whole, the majority of people don't voice any negative opinions about the game.
It isn't a faulty argument to see evidence. In fact, it shouldn't be an argument at all since there IS evidence and, like you just did, you neglect this feedback over several biased other arguments like those I just showcased.
You have nothing credible to substantiate your claims.
You're going off of anecdotal and personal experiences supported by one search engine graph.
You are presently on a platform who is an evidence by itself but you refuse to listen to it because it doesn't represent the community in its totality.
Except the Boards are a very, very small section of the community and their concerns may not necessarily resonate with the rest of the community. They also have the problem of having low credibility, it's nigh-impossible to have legitimate discussions about balance because the majority of users here are incapable of civility and looking at statistical evidence.
In other words, that quote you used above about the Boards is true.
Together with the other major platforms representing the game, the totality of the feedback amongst these does represent the vast majority of the community feedback. Refusing to listening to this because its still not 100% of the community is literally just keeping anything from taking action over the fact that someone could be playing without giving feedback, in which case it was his responsibility to do so.
Listen to what I'm saying.
You do not need 100% of the community to voice their opinions for the game for me to take it as real evidence. You need something credible like a source from Riot, lack of playtime on Twitch or Youtube, surveys and polls, or other irrefutable evidence.
When you can get that evidence, then people will actually look at that information and be persuaded. As it stands right now you have **_nothing _**credible and for that reason I personally don't believe the game is dying or at the very least nearing an end anytime soon.
