Dear Riot, please take this seriously

mrchipopo··28 votes·1,683 views

I do not want to be a whiner but i need to express my sore displeasure in your performance. Literally everything about this game has continued to get worse over the course of the 4 years ive been playing. Let me label them for you:

  1. Connection issues - I didnt have a single connection issue the first year i played, as i type right now i cannot connect due to "firewall error" (aka - your broken crap). Connection problems are now a regular struggle for most of the community.

  2. Ping has continued to increase for most everyone, most notably those from the east coast. For many on the east coast, the game has become unplayable and you have literally done nothing to either fix the problem or even acknowledge the players that cant play.

  3. Toxicity - When i first started playing, i barely ever had someone purposely make a game an unenjoyable experience on purpose. Very rarely do i see all 10 players actively trying to win without being dicks to each other in one form or another.

  4. Art - You removed summoners and effectively eliminated any artistic consistency. Skins are now just random drawings instead of logical artistic representations of champions. Sure, things look a little nicer now, but have no artistic soul to them.

  5. Communication - This might be my biggest problem personally. When i first started playing morello and others communicated regularly with the community in a meaningful way. It felt like they wanted to just make a game that was fun for the players. Now all i hear is (if we are lucky) Riot employees TELLING us what they are going to do, whether or not it is fun for the players. (see Cass rework)

  6. Fun - The game has consistently become less fun every season. It is more focused on esports and less focused on being enjoyable for the average player. I used to have a blast trying new champs in now locations with new builds and never got raged at. Now champions and builds are pigeonholed into being exactly what riot dictates is "meta". If i do something outside the norm, im raged at because the game isnt designed to be fun anymore, you need to win or be executed.

Ultimately, i cannot think of any meaningful aspect of the game that has improved. Even hitboxes are as unintuitive as ever. I could go on and on but from my perspective Riot, you have lost your desire to create a fun game for people to enjoy and are now interested only in the money and fame of lcs.

I am basically done, i can bear with a company that is trying to make their customers happy and struggling to get everything right. I, however, will not abide a multimillion dollar giant completely ostracizing the bulk of their players without even the decency to talk to them on an honest level.

15 Comments

EffectFX12 votes

Over-exaggeration is real.

mrchipopo2 votes

{quoted}

Over-exaggeration is real.

What did i over-exaggerate?

ParinoidPanda3 votes

Only the Dark side deals in absolutes.....

The use of "nothing" "never" and "worse."

Riot HAS done things to improve the game. On a detail level, sure, feel as you will, but things have gotten better.

  1. Yup, connections have gotten worse, but guess what? Riot is in the midst of replacing their old hardware. They moved EU servers to a better location and guess what? Things got better over there! Now they're doing the same for NA with a new location, new hardware, and new ISP. As a student of IT networking, I can say that doing this sort of thing right takes a LOT of time, and the projected completion date of March from last June(?) isn't 'dragging their feet.'

  2. See 1.

  3. Yup, and guess what? The new direction that Dr. Lyte has taken Riot has really HELPED despite the individual cases that pop up. Its gotten better just from the automatic system in place, and will get better and more accurate when the new live tribunal gets implimented.

  4. I agree, the level of detail the new skins have sucks. I really don't like Riot's direction here, but I will say, it's more diverse in its friendliness of older platforms. Granted, it does look like puke on poor graphics. Ultra looks ok. Over-all, the new map skin is less frustrating and was a big success on that front!

  5. Riot policy hasn't changed: They give their employees total freedom in how they communicate and receive feedback from the community. As such, it is up to each department to decide their "presents" on the forums/reddit. The Art department is godlike! The balance team is non-existent, and the champ rework team is selective-listening. All 3 represent Riot.

  6. Riot's decision to keep making changes to League is what has kept it interesting for so long, and is what will continue to keep in interesting for years to come. The day Riot says they've found the perfect balance is the day League dies. It's the journey we are all on together that we enjoy. Now, fun? Yes, games are more 'nostalgic' when they are simple, and are more 'fun' because of the effort and memories your poor into it. Nothing has changed. There are new champs, new kits, new abundances if certain effects, but League is still 'fun'. I still put the same amount into it now that I always have, and while some things are different, I still have fun.

Riot does make a lot of money, but their expenses are also getting bigger. For a company that is so young, (>10 years) they have learned to learn pretty well. They haven't collapsed, lost focus, or gone the way of the dinosaurs. They should continue to appreciate the tough love that their fans give them as that is what will keep them going, but to be critical is going too far.

thePandev9 votes

I'd say skins have gotten far more creative, but just way too expensive. 30$ for Udyr and Ezreal skins? That's just... wow.

Communication? That's the one I must agree with. The new boards are really just bad compared to the old ones. Riot posts were so often and fun to analyze now they don't even come up.

Ping problem still hasn't been solved. Just give me a goddamn East coast server, PLEASE, same with the shitty servers. 1000 RP never forget

Toxicity has obviously gotten worse. All the kids who are stopping to play CoD now go here.

Fun, I would say yes and no. Yes because of some epic game modes being introduced, no because they get taken down like a week after. URF was the funnest shit I've ever played along with one for all.

Junkο2 votes

60$ if you are using mobile payment methods, because for some reason RP is halved when using them

Ashes Arise4 votes

I'm with you on everything aside from the art. You really should just omit that from your original post as it has almost nothing to do with your point, and I can't upvote with that included.

mrchipopo2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Ashes Arise,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=OE5IYklO,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2014-12-22T03:07:10.192+0000)

I'm with you on everything aside from the art. You really should just omit that from your original post as it has almost nothing to do with your point, and I can't upvote with that included.

The art point wasnt about its quality but about its consistency. Dunkmaster darius is pretty cool, but what does that actually have to do with the games lore at all? it was a specific direction they took to not have a cohesive game.

Chaotic Reks1 votes

They made the dunkmaster because so many people in the community have asked for it for a long time. Now i'll just sit back and wait for Hail Mary Ziggs...

Ashes Arise1 votes

Skins aren't supposed to be consistent with the lore. The point of a skin is to take a champion on a different tangent. Make them something new.

KoNekoBoo3 votes

When i first started league. I had some nice ping, 93-95 about 2 years ago. Now its jumped up to 120 and I somehow coped with it. Riotplz

NintenMoney3 votes

Thanks for sharing this! I also wrote a letter to Riot encouraging them to be more communicative with players. I'm glad I'm not the only one seeking more acknowledgement from them as a company. Feel free to check mine out as well (or not, which is totally fine with me).

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/GL3wXEMQ-roughly-one-year-laterive-got-some-words-to-say

In essence, I simply wrote to them asking for more acknowledgement of people with problems. Solutions and details aren't even necessary for me, but I believe in the importance of giving value to the customers of your company.

On a side note, I do agree with you about player toxicity too. It's SO sad to see people constantly treat each other like garbage. Whatever happened to sportsmanship? Did that just fly out of the window? Good sportsmanship is SO much more that just a "gg" at the end. I always get excited when I get to play with another player who's nice and compliments my good plays instead of cussing me out at every bad move. Unfortunately, the latter is what is pretty much expected going into any game nowadays. At best, complete silence from your team is what you get. Nice players are SO rare!

Thanks for sharing. NintenMoney :)

slippykitten2 votes

i kinda feel the same way. Thats the rise and fall of games though. Usually happens with sequels though. Every successful company gets to the point where they just say "i bet we can do anything we want and they will keep paying". I think thats where old rito is at.

OyddAWqJ5r2 votes

Booooo

Mindspeaker2 votes

1 &2 i never really had a issues with

3 IMO Lol haste the most toxic abusive players in gaming - hopefully the new system coming will clean that up

4 have to agree with this one they have even Nerf some existing pictures, have too conservative of an attitude and really haven't brought out a champion i even cared about in a long while

5 usiallyt hey communicate only on non controversial issues now

6 clean up the community remove chat from the cs game and eg screens would help to make it more fun

silver0321 votes

well said

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