Boards›Gameplay

What will kill the game League of Legends?

BlueBilberry··1 votes·1,360 views

Been thinking about this for a while - especially after seeing YT videos proclaiming the death of League with each new competitor appearing. And the changes over 8.10 to 8.13 and the constant "reworks" for champions got me thinking about this. And I think Gbay summed it up well when he said what will kill League is League itself.

The biggest problem that Riot faces is fear that its game will become obsolete. And I think that this fear could be what could cause the game to go under. The very actions that could be done to save or help League could be the very actions that kill it.

Each successive change - from nerfing the heck out of supports and adcs in botlane to having shoutcasters proclaim the rise of a new "bruiser" meta (when really it is an attempt to cover the fact that some people in balance really, really messed up) to the creation of what really are new champs under the names of old champs (e.g. Galio, Swain, Urgot, Irelia) - threaten to isolate and alienate their loyal community. We get attached to certain aspects of the game - and it hurts when it sees those things disappear.

Some members of the community call for "let's make bruisers great again" and "games are too long, make them shorter" - so they increase the amount of true damage and percent damage on health. Shields are too strong? Let's nerf enchanters. It takes too long to kill tanks and assassins are weak? Well, let's increase armor penetration. "I want to be able to play melee champs in the botlane again like I did in season 1." Well, let's nerf the adcs and see what effect it has.

Sure, they can turn to the streamers for advice in the hopes of preventing damage from the rise of the next Fortnite or PubG - but if it is not done with some careful and sober thought of what it means for the game as a whole, then Yorick could well be not the only one preparing the next grave. Yorick

24 Comments

Jamaree3 votes

Games this big don't just die, that doesn't happen. Eventually, something will shift in next to it and be just as big of a competitor, but dying, not gonna happen.

heroikc2 votes

{quoted}

Games this big don't just die, that doesn't happen. Eventually, something will shift in next to it and be just as big of a competitor, but dying, not gonna happen.

It's like that too big to fail argument.

Jamaree3 votes

{quoted}

It's like that too big to fail argument.

Basically, EA continues to be the worst video game developer and publisher period and yet still has record topping revenue and makes profits on their failures, Star Wars Battlefront 2, even though commercially reviled by its community still made its money back plus some.

Oil companies, movie studios, etc. Once you hit it to that degree, you literally can't fail anymore.

webstar19951 votes

Very true. COD is starting to die out though. Black Ops4 might revitalize them though.

Jamaree2 votes

{quoted}

Very true. COD is starting to die out though. Black Ops4 might revitalize them though.

I think that one is just self murder rather then fail. Had CoD just continued making a line of decent playable standard multiplayer based shooters, the game series would last for quite a while, but after Modern Warfare 2, they decided to start adding loot boxes, removing game modes because it meant less work, and blindly following trends instead of actually innovating. HELL, that still ties into the too big to fail thing because once again, CoD continues to be a financial success even if not a commercial one.

Edit: Even with Cod WW 2 and Infinite Warfare being shit and shady, they have still each sold 12 million copies and that doesn't even begin to account for how many lootboxes were bought as well.

webstar19951 votes

"but after Modern Warfare 2, they decided to start adding loot boxes" -completely wrong. Black Ops1 , MW3 and Black Ops2 had none of the sort. Ghost was just a shit game and so was advanced warfare after blop2. Then in blop3 loot boxes came out. Infinite warfare and ww2 had them as well. LOL you were 6 years off. If you look at the numbers, the MW and Black ops games were what really made COD money. The ratings and player base of the others are in the toilet.

Jamaree1 votes

{quoted}

"but after Modern Warfare 2, they decided to start adding loot boxes" -completely wrong. Black Ops1 , MW3 and Black Ops2 had none of the sort. Ghost was just a shit game and so was advanced warfare after blop2. Then in blop3 loot boxes came out. Infinite warfare and ww2 had them as well. LOL you were 6 years off. If you look at the numbers, the MW and Black ops games were what really made COD money. The ratings and player base of the others are in the toilet.

I meant 3 actually, I meant after 3, but accidentally put 2.

webstar19951 votes

Still 3-4 games off but ok

heroikc1 votes

{quoted}

Basically, EA continues to be the worst video game developer and publisher period and yet still has record topping revenue and makes profits on their failures, Star Wars Battlefront 2, even though commercially reviled by its community still made its money back plus some.

Oil companies, movie studios, etc. Once you hit it to that degree, you literally can't fail anymore.

Partially because they overhype it or get enough people curious enough to play. Yeah, the point where they truly refuse to learn. It's also there in an individual level.

Jamaree1 votes

{quoted}

Partially because they overhype it or get enough people curious enough to play. Yeah, the point where they truly refuse to learn. It's also there in an individual level.

While learn when you can still make shit tons of money no matter what.

BlueBilberry2 votes

Good point and a valid one. As we know, "too big to fail" is a bit of a fallacy. From the S&L fiasco and the Barings bank collapse, even big can eventually fall. And in each of these cases, it's usually a pattern of errors and miscalculations from inside the company that lead to the collapse. Remember Star Wars Galaxies. It once had a similar defence of its game - e.g., "it's built on a popular franchise", "the population won't let it fail", "Sony won't let it fail", etc. Where is the game now? The attempts to improve the game led to its eventual decline.

heroikc1 votes

{quoted}

Good point and a valid one. As we know, "too big to fail" is a bit of a fallacy. From the S&L fiasco and the Barings bank collapse, even big can eventually fall. And in each of these cases, it's usually a pattern of errors and miscalculations from inside the company that lead to the collapse. Remember Star Wars Galaxies. It once had a similar defence of its game - e.g., "it's built on a popular franchise", "the population won't let it fail", "Sony won't let it fail", etc. Where is the game now? The attempts to improve the game led to its eventual decline.

Deja vu.

BlueBilberry1 votes

The argument is that the seeds to League's destruction are going to be in the game (and company) itself. And unfortunately, they do die/fade.

Jamaree1 votes

{quoted}

The argument is that the seeds to League's destruction are going to be in the game (and company) itself. And unfortunately, they do die/fade.

Well it could be, but is hasn't gotten to the EA point of terrible. Honestly, when it comes to triple A developers, Riot is one of the better ones.

ZackTheWaffleMan2 votes

Riot

Lets have shrex1 votes

LCS

saltran2 votes

21

BlueBilberry1 votes

Not so sure - I think LCS has its place for Riot (even if some members of the community think otherwise).

Riot has to get its brand out there - and it is, in essence, advertising for the Riot brand. (Hence the reason why Riot is prepared to take a partial loss at running the competitive league.)

Further, it does offer a vital testing ground for its champions, balance, etc. At least with LCS, it also provides consistent data. The problem may lie where Riot chooses to take in too much information - i.e., from beyond the stable database generated by LCS.

Lets have shrex1 votes

{quoted}

Not so sure - I think LCS has its place for Riot (even if some members of the community think otherwise).

Riot has to get its brand out there - and it is, in essence, advertising for the Riot brand. (Hence the reason why Riot is prepared to take a partial loss at running the competitive league.)

Further, it does offer a vital testing ground for its champions, balance, etc. At least with LCS, it also provides consistent data. The problem may lie where Riot chooses to take in too much information - i.e., from beyond the stable database generated by LCS.

The game is in this current state because of LCS. Riot wants shorter games with more action, now it's everyone one-shotting everyone and game is over because enemy picked something that can one shot faster than the enemy. Skill expression is dead, macro play is dead (try playing Nunu even if you managed to counter-jungle, you will be useless because everyone having mobility will counter your slow, you'll just be a walking item 3089 )

BlueBilberry1 votes

I'll agree that the push for shorter games was a goal - but it was not LCS to blame.

The demand was created because the streamers of League of Legends content were losing marketshare and viewership to Fortnite, PubG and other competition. This was a perfect storm created apparently by:

  1. a clever marketing push by Epic Gaming to get Fortnite promoted at Twitch, and

  2. the coincidental changes in the Youtube algorithms which caused the social network exploiting community to get their viewership bumped up.

You see, streamers and similar content-creators are basically free advertising for League of Legends - and if they were unhappy and abandoning the game for brighter shores, then Riot staff probably felt that action needed to be taken.

However, the problems you highlight relating to tactics/strategy, the decline of simple champions (good bye old Swain, Galio and the soon to be reworked Nunu) and the insane increases in damage (true damage, % damage, etc.) are points I would agree with.

webstar19951 votes

Then why do they make so much money?

Lets have shrex1 votes

{quoted}

Then why do they make so much money?

Because this game turned into a Call of Duty / Counter strike game, attracting more and more "casu players". I don't care if they make money or not, if it's their only goal and not caring about their original playerbase, they failed.

Fullmetallic1 votes

They said the titanic was too big to sink...

Lord Malpercio1 votes

Riot will.

More from Gameplay

3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay764 comments
7,167
votes
3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay156 comments
3,510
votes
UPVOTE FOR URF
Gameplay606 comments
2,440
votes
Yes plz.
Gameplay456 comments
1,721
votes
3 Refunds per season, up vote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay114 comments
1,716
votes
When is ANYONE at riot going to address the awful new player experience?
Gameplay634 comments
1,383
votes

More by BlueBilberry

Bring back the Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock metas - PLEASE!
Gameplay46 comments
67
votes
Client Issues - Black Screen on Sign In/Unable to Play
Report a Bug18 comments
38
votes
"GG EZ" - Can we please do something about this childish crap?
Player Behavior32 comments
10
votes
Proposed Sona Changes....
Gameplay15 comments
7
votes
Nerfing Karma While She's Hurting??
Gameplay7 comments
6
votes
Can we get an option to change pings a bit?
Gameplay5 comments
5
votes