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A way to appeal to the veterans of League

WARDestroyerLoL··3 votes·1,508 views

As some people might have noticed by now, there seem to be more and more veteran players who are complaining about the way league is changing or just the fact that it is still changing. Of course there's going to be constant change in a game like League. That doesn't mean that when someone complains about it, that their opinion shouldn't be valued.

I've played league for quite some time now (at least 6 years now I think) and I too am starting to feel like the original vibe of the game is slowly fading through the constant changes. Yes, this might have to do with me growing older and my taste in what i enjoy playing changing, but i don't think that's the case here. I've noticed very similar reactions from me and my friends when big changes happened like the removal of DFG, Sword of the Occult and dominion, the short introduction(s) of URF and the reworks to older and less-played champions. We were unhappy about the removall of things because we're players who enjoy the non-meta stuff, we often played dominion or used unusual strategies like Sion-Taric botlane and full ap Tristana mid.

Now let's get to the point. There are certainly changes that could please players alike me and my friends. I'm going to list some ideas, but i do not know if all of them are even possible to input and i'm honestly not expecting anything to change.

  • A poll in the client: Adding a poll onto the homescreen of the client for every single player to vote on whenever riot has ideas for a big or small change to the game will keep players notified of the possible outcome and grant them a quick and easy way to give an opinion. This would also give the players a feeling that they are being listened to very clearly.

  • "Random" scalings: I do not understand why ap Tristana and other off meta builds were removed. I do understand when something like ap Yi would get nerfed, but to remove a playstyle, loved and often played by many, would be completely removed, still bugs me to this day. I've seen the rework they did that put ap shyvanna back on the map and I loved it. It's not something that is completely broken, not even close, but it's just an extremely fun and different way to play the game.

  • "OSLoL": League of Legends is not the only game that is constantly changing. Take a look at Runescape, the same "problem" that I'm experiencing with League right now, occured with many players who played Runescape when they felt it was changing "too much" for them. They wanted to go back to the way it was and that was made possible with Old School. This might be a very big thing to ask of Riot, but i think many players would definitely enjoy something like this. Implementing an "Old School League of Legends" could be done in diferent ways. A new gamemode in wich players can pick a champion and then pick what patch/version of that champion they want to play. Perhaps just a completely "new" game by re-releasing classic League.

  • URF : Just making URF a permanent thing, or at least make it more frequent. I know that part of the reason it's so fun is because it's limited and unbalanced, but if that's what many players want, why not just give it to them?

  • More custom game options : Giving players more ways to customize a custom game could help a lot I think. Look at what players have done with it already. The 2 "gamemodes" I've gotten the most enjoyment out of are Hide and Seek and ARAM, wich both were created in custom games by players who wanted to play the game in a different way. ARAM was made into an actual gamemode and Hide and seek died when its playground, Dominion, was removed. I do not exactly know what options could be given to improve custom games. Maybe the option to give 1 or multiple players the powers of the practice tool or being able somehow control bots or have up to 10 players in 1 team. I don't know, just give people more freedom in custom games is what i'm trying to say.

  • Visual/audio options: An option to make certain champions look like how they used to or skins for Summoners Rift, would give players a very nostalgic feeling when playing. Being able to choose wich voices you want for champions, would also be great. I'd love to hear the shitty, but funny voicelines from the old Sion when playing.

Well that's all i had to say, I hope this makes a change but i doubt it. If you agree with me, just put in the little effort to log in and like this post so Riot will see this.

Here's a link to the video that inspired me to finally speak up and say what i wanted to say: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqem7TI0XR4 (I don't agree with everything he sais, but he's got some very valid points)

Thank you.

11 Comments

ModKnightsKemplar3 votes

Correct me if I'm wrong, but "Old School" didn't save Runescape.

You could look at that example as a failed attempt to stop the tide of people leaving, too. People complain a lot, but we don't actually know if people are leaving. I know that most of the people on my friends list are still around and it's no problem. Some of them play a lot less, granted, but they're still invested in the game, and that's all that is required to keep it going.

Kai Guy2 votes

That's my understanding of runscape as well Kemp. Far as league look Games old, People will leave. A lot of games generate popularity that attracts high #s of players and this can last a few years but they will burn out or move on. Still the most enjoyable moba for me personally and I happen to like that riots constantly changing league. I encourage reds to take risks, worst case game health suffers for a few months but they can learn from it. I don't think a lot of players properly appreciate how insane a bi weekly patch is.

I love moba gameplay thou, Did dota allstars wc3 for years, been playing league from season 1. I like riot a lot more then Icefrog. Guinsoo was cool thou I wasn't to active on the fourms when he was the dev, don't think I was playing when Eul worked on it.

WARDestroyerLoL1 votes

League doesn't need to be "saved", it's a fine game. And of course people are still around, I too still play and a lot of my friends aswell, it's just lost some of it's original spark. When you do so many reworks you're bound to fuck up at some point and thus i wanted to find a way to make the game more enjoyable for those who don't agree with all the changes Riot's been putting out. The mentality to just "keep it going" is not something positive, a dev should be thinking how the players can enjoy themselves the most (not implying that Riot isn't doing that).

ModKnightsKemplar3 votes

Well, "just keep it going" is a bad mentality, but that's not really what I meant by that. I mean it's still thriving; it's still going strong would have been a better way to say that. Even if they do that with a new audience, that's good!

A lot of the complaints are in a similar vein to yours; it has lost it's charm, etc. To me, most of this is coming from people that just want a fresh experience. League can't provide a fresh experience when you've been playing it for 6+ years. If you want something fresh, the best solution is to find a new game.

You can always come back to League. I periodically do this back and forth with League myself. I find it's a necessary part of my interaction with the game. But I don't think Riot needs to get fancy. They need to focus on balancing and improving the League experience for now, and they are doing just that.

Pika Fox2 votes

As a "veteran player" lol is better now than its ever been.

Most off meta playstyles still exist. AP trist is still a thing, AP yi was combined with AD yi so AD yi does what AP and AD yi did, AP trynd is still a thing etc.

Urf will never be a perma or often thing, as it bleeds players.

OSLoL would be terribpe. Youd play it for 3 minutes then go "oh yeah... It was shit".

Customs do need work, but theyre likely too busy with other things atm.

WARDestroyerLoL1 votes

I never said that League didn't improve, it definetly did! My point was that due to constant change, the game feels more focussed on the competitive aspect rather then it being purely for fun sometimes. I still enjoy playing with friends, just less often now than we used to.

webstar11081 votes

"URF : Just making URF a permanent thing, or at least make it more frequent. I know that part of the reason it's so fun is because it's limited and unbalanced, but if that's what many players want, why not just give it to them?" This actually hurts the game overall. Every time URF comes back and leaves veteran players quit because URF takes all the "skill" out of the game. If you play an URF game as Jax then play a regular game as Jax i bet you wont want to play Jax anymore.

WARDestroyerLoL1 votes

Everytime URF came around, a lot of people started playing again so the people who quit afterwards, are mainly those who just came to play a little URF.

If URF is permanent, they won't have to go back to "playing reguar jax". If URF is temporairy, the "inferior" feel of playing regular would only be a problem short after the gamemode rotated out.

Pika Fox1 votes

Riot already said the dropoff was far bigger than the increase, so no, its not just "urf only" players.

Kai Guy1 votes

I hate urf, meta is built in 1 day. Anything off meta is trash, riot has to hotfix it daily to keep gameplay not stagnante. Rubbish. That said im all for them making it a custom game type and leavening it alone after that to rot.

Elkington VI1 votes

Been playing for 7 years now. Riot's philosophy concerning the playerbase has changed over the years, which has in turn affected every aspect of League.

Basically, only what is commonly played and/or popular matters anymore, and anything less is either changed to be more appealing to the masses or straight up removed.

The only way to really appeal to vets is to not change everything all the time, or at least leave some aspects of older seasons around, in which case it is already too late.

Fortunately, the champs I've always played haven't been changed too much. That's why I'm still around, but who knows how long that will last. Riot seems intent on turning League into something similar to a streamlined fighting game, instead of the strategy game it started as.

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