Why do I have this weird feeling that Riot somehow "lost interest" in their game?
So I have been playing since season 2, but nowadays I just lurk on the boards on some days. I didn't stop playing with a "big bang", because of X change or Y design decision, but just because... I couldn't bring myself to launch it up anymore. None of my friends are really playing anymore either, so that's too.
And recently things seem to have "changed". And coming from me I think I can assume that this is not some sort of irrelevant gutt-feeling. For one I was once invested into this game and the lore to the point where my life almost revolved around it. The countless LoL-themed T-Shirts in my wardrobe are kinda a testament to that, same as the blog I still use for shitposting, but that has still a tiny list of (albeit not very well written) fanfiction. Also, noticing such things is kinda my job. I'm in my last MA semesters in Media Studies, I wrote my B.A. thesis about LoL one and a half years ago, so I think I can trust my feelings when it comes to stuff like this, specifically with this game that I had years to observe now.
You all know the drill, weird game design decisions, instead of single champions entire classes are complained over now, Riot's Esport fetish despite the number of people who actually care about watching esport is almost as abyssimal as the players participating in it. Let's be real, we all know most people come to these large events like Worlds not because they are Esport fanatics, but because this is their "real life LoL convention" - a pillgrimage destination of fandom in some way. And it's completly ok for it to be that, one shouldn't just assume that Esport event is so much cared about just for the, well, Esport.
Overall Riot seems both incredible detached from their own game and playerbase, and doesn't even seem to show interest - and I'm not talking about certain champions getting the "step-child" treatment because maybe the original designer is not around anymore or no one at the Riot design team really likes them (Sej with her rework back then comes to mind, Cassiopaia, or the prime example: Karma) but rather it affecting the game as a whole. Back in the day you could never be sure if Riot was actually listening, they just kept twisting and turning the knobs and levers on the game, trying to get the darn thing to work out somewhat balanced. They were not always right with that they did, and occasionally harsh lessons were made after an entire community came up saying "TOLD YOU SO!", but overall we were at least getting somewhere with that. Not always where we wanted, but at least better than how it is now. Today it's somehow like Riot always says how well they are listening, but are gleefully aware that "listening" does not equal to "actually giving a fuck".
I feel somehow reminded to politics in my country now, there it also goes like this. Listen to the people, because people like being listened to, then do whatever you wanted anyways because fuck them what are they going to do anyways? But I'm getting off topic.
Even if I was to measure Riot Games by "small indie garage company" standards, which would be downright stupid by now, their actual output besides cosmetica is downright abyssimal. So let's see, a new character or rework every 6-8 weeks, and maybe 50 pages of lore and a handful for comics every six months (if we are lucky). Oh yeah three or more new skins every two weeks, but that's not gameplay content. It does not change the way how the game plays, it's nothing but optional eyecandy. Even by Indie-Standards that's pretty pathetic, you gotta admit that - or at least for the Indie I could understand it at some point, but a company of Riot's size and success? Inexcuseable.
The lore thing is especially sad. I really like LoL lore, but if we keep going at this pace, the game will have died a natural death before we are even HALF done setting the stage for all these stories that actually are taking place. I really want to root for it, but what worth is a tiny bit of lore every six months that is usually 100% disconnected from the little bit we got in the previous event? Going with this pace it will take about 5 more years to finish the basic worldbuilding, and the first proper overarching story arc will be concluded in ten. And no matter how optimistic you are, I doubt a video game almost a decade old will stick around another ten years - the only game that ever somehow did this was Starcraft in Korea, but there an extreme lot of coincidences came together all embedded into the context of the early 2000s, so that's not a realistic goal to aim for.
So, just where do all these ressources go? I mean, you got this massive company that once had the title of the biggest F2P game of the western world, that kicked off SC2 from it's once-thought indominable #1 spot of esports, and the output is... some fancy skins and... Absolutely nothing? I mean I could do without new content if that would mean the existing one would recieve full attention and polish, but sadly that's not the case either.
Oh I remember where a shitload of time and effort went into: a fucking BOARD GAME. Not to mention that those are hella expensive, so the opposite of what you want to sell to a F2P player, but also one you need friends to play. You know, SOCIAL CONNECTIONS. The thing you are not as likely to have when you play this game. Mechs Vs. Minions has probably been played once by 0,00000000001% of the playerbase here. Ressources well spent, amIrite?
At the same time with absolutely nothing being done, I wonder if Riot even still wants to keep their game running. Yeha, of course they want as it keeps bringing in money, but do they actually WANT to keep the game, or would they be completly ok with it dying a silent death, and then use all their server-infrastructure for whatever NEW game they are cooking up? I mean, if they actually ARE cooking something up, but all those ressources gotta go somewhere besides cheap-to-make cosmetic content.
This would actually make some sense economically. If i was Riot and was trying to make a new F2P success hit, then for one I'd want to avoid having both running at the same time, as they would cannibalize on each other's playerbases. At the same time running twice the infrastructure for servers and balance maintentance sounds horribly expensive as well, but if you just let one game die and move all the manpower and tech just to the next game, that project is suddenly a LOT cheaper. However, this theory all just sits on the idea that Riot can actually be that cunning and smart, and that they are really up to something, and that the current situation is not the result for incompence at the highest levels. It happens sometimes with Indie games that grow too quick too fast: the original creators have had a vision for the game once, and they keep sticking to it NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS - the thing is, that just because these people once made a game that blew up, it doesn't mean they have the skills of maintaining it or fixing the initial flaws it came with. But as they are the original creators, they hold authority, so a small circle on the high levels can doom the game entirely, no matter what the rest of the studio wants.
I really, REALLY hope that this is not the case with Riot, but given that it is an indie-studio that has grown fast, I can sadly not exclude the possibility.
Overall their decisions have been weird as hell in the recent years, it is almost as if they do not understand the nature of their own game. The runes are one example: you know what the old runes&mastery system should have been replaced with? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. If you want a different playstyle, play a different champion, we got over a 100 of those, and put the power lost in the champion kits. Not only does this make balance a LOT easier, but it allings perfectly with that playing a champion aims for: an empowerment fantasy. You are basicially playing as one of Runeterra's Superheroes or Villains, or whatever powerful individuals in between, so every gameplay power that does not come from the character but from outside sources detracts from that fantasy and the aesthetic. Items are kinda fine because they regulate the power growth over a single match... But for some godforsaken reason we needed to keep Runes and Masteries in some bastardized form, despite it doing jack-shit for the overall gaming experience.
Another thing is RNG crit. A relict from the time the MOBA genre was a fun map of a PvE/RTS PvP game with aesthetical roots in DnD. Yes crit existed as a stat in Warcraft, but let's be real it never made a difference if you had a fight of entire armies clashing. Yeah your hero unit has posibly crit, that might make a faint difference, but 99% of all other units involved did not, so in the end it didn't matter. In a PvE context it was irrelevant as well, for obvious reasons. The reason why this outdated relict is still held up as one of the design pillars of this game. that an entire class is built on, still eludes me. There is absolutely no legitimate reason for it to remain in the game, the problems are a lot more numerous then the benefits it brings.
And finally for last: this game was about strategy once. Objectives. Try explaining that to players who have grown used to seeing the BIGGEST BADDEST BOSS of the game, Baron Nashor, being popped in not even 12 seconds, not to mention the crumbling towers. It has devolved into a killfest with objectives being taken on the side, just in case you run out of killing to do for a few seconds.
Overall I just can't wrap my head around what Riot is trying to do with their game, the way it looks now is that they just stopped caring. This game is in decline, but since admitting it would mean a loss of profits (esport sponsorships and advertising deals rely on the shared illusion that the game is thriving), it's done silenty. It was already sketchy when Riot stopped publicating the player numbers, and it's not getting any better the longer they keep silent about it, especially when they had boasted with their numbers so much back in the day...
The only two options are that this is either a controlled process with some economical goal in mind, or just utter incompetence of a small circle on a high level. Anyways, I do not give this game much longer, especially not in the dimensions it once had. It's kinda the same thing that happened with WoW. We all wondered for years what game would come out of the shadows and "kill" the seemingly immortal giant, but as it turns out, games don't need to be "killed" - after some years they tend to die of natural causes as well, the whole process occasionally being accelerated by bad design decisions, or in this case, possibly through intentional neglect. Because this is what it feels like, no doubt.
Holy shit that was long. I should stop rambling at 4 AM... maybe the one or the other here can draw something from this, I don't know. Have fun reading through all of this lol.