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League of Legends no longer feels like our game anymore.

Melledoneus·8/16/2018, 6:04:42 AM·289 votes·28,207 views

It doesn't.

It used to be about gamers talking to gamers. A skins team that tried its best to be good on champions and thematics and not half-ass its skins, but has improved even more with breathtaking skins. A music team whose skill has grown more and more astonishing over the years. A lore team with an ever-widening and ambitious vision of its worlds. And a balance team that made sure each decision would make as many champions fun and possible to play, but has now lost that feeling.

Let me explain: When I started playing back in Season 4, I could play most champions I could access. I lost a lot of times because I'm that guy who asks for like 3 or 4 samples of new flavors at Baskin Robbins every time. I tried every flavor of champion. But I remember seeing so many champions in every game I faced and played them all within a week or two. The game had players for all champions, even for abominations like old Yorick and Poppy. But the best part was they could kick your ass regardless of how unpopular their champion was. It was about the better man, not the better champion.

Sure, it wasn't perfect. Zed was a loose cannon and Kassadin was literally permabanned. But for the most part, every champion was playable, and any champion was viable. Because it was our game.

Nowadays, it feels like Riot is taking a traditional dev stance on everything. Stay silent on crappy stuff going on. Talk only about what we can talk about. Now it seems they just encourage only what is popular with balance changes, and just balance the game around professional players duking it out in these huge eSports events where the players are forced to watch rather than play.

When did this happen? When did we go from Rioters and players to Riot and the players? It all feels so distant now. When did we transition from Rito pls being a common joke phrase to an actual cry of desperation to be heard?

I don't know about you guys, but I remember a time when we could just throw an idea out there and Rioters could be our catchers in outfield, bouncing ideas left and right. A time when it felt like we were talking to fellow players rather than a faceless corporation with its representatives forced to keep quiet about most issues. A time when it felt like we could actually make a difference.

It shouldn't take a week of rage posts, a guy losing it on stream because of a Jax bug, a drop in player-developer relations, or even an entire playerbase following a champion pleading for buffs to get Riot's attention.

Yes, the game has gotten bigger. But the Boards have not.

Can't we just sit down and talk like we used to?

230 Comments

Ok sure but why8/16/2018, 6:12:21 AM179 votes

instantly loses mod status

ModCaptainMårvelous8/16/2018, 8:07:45 AM72 votes

I don't know about you guys, but I remember a time when we could just throw an idea out there and Rioters could be our catchers in outfield, bouncing ideas left and right. A time when it felt like we were talking to fellow players rather than a faceless corporation with its representatives forced to keep quiet about most issues. A time when it felt like we could actually make a difference.

Welcome to an indie studio going big time.

That's what happens. Like, no lie. You can't talk to the community as much because you have more work to do. You can't just meme about because what if someone takes offense and makes a big expose post? Hell, I've been told that lore team rioters are forbidden from reading fan fiction on the off chance they borrow an idea. Imagine how that must feel.

Riot's not the buddy-buddy indie 50 person studio it used to be. It has benefits and drawbacks. For what it's worth they still do communicate more than several companies I've played games with (much as people will tell me "NU UH RIOT SILENT ALL THE TIME") but the change has come due to the size and growth of the game.

We're never going back, sad as it may be.

TitanAnteus8/16/2018, 6:17:24 AM53 votes

You can still play most champions though! It's the community's hyper meta-focused mindset that has changed.

Amumu can still work. Mordekaiser can still work. IN FACT HE DOES A GREAT JOB! Hecarim is still amazing. Mundo is still great. TF is still a fantastic addition to any team comp. Garen is still great. Ashe might actually be straight up OP. Ahri is strong as hell. RekSai is actually good.

Outside of VERY few champs every champ is viable. I still win with Azir btw.

Do they get played? No. The community's obsessed with "the best" that even in norms they tryhard to the point of ruining their own fun.

Regarding Riot communication, I want you to honestly think about that for a second. The boards was actually full of people willing to challenge themselves to improve on the game. Back b4 websites gave you the best rune setups you had people ask, why they choose certain runes and masteries on champs, and how exactly to counter Darius and whatnot.

New boards? They complain about the Akali rework... AKALI!

Not only that but there's a ton of avenues to communicate with the community now and they do that via their twitter and reddit.

Look at Nunu. They kept the robot HAHAHAHA laugh and his ult is basically the same. Why do you think they did that if not for listening to the boards? The Aatrox rework is WORD FOR WORD what the community clamored for, but when it came out all the silent Aatrox "fans" came out against it. The support role has changed to be so much more fulfilling now to be attractive to all players and that's because of the community. They are listening. It's absolutely 100% completely obvious that the community has an impact on the game.

TheSingularity8/16/2018, 6:21:27 AM46 votes

Esports is probably the biggest factor.

They're making the same mistake as Blizzard have with Starcraft 2 and overwatch. If you neglect your casual base and don't provide a fun enjoyable experience, they will fk off just like that. They don't owe any loyalty and when they leave, so does 80% of your esports scene. Casual players are the fuel for this game. As much as it's nice to think the ultra try hards reign supreme, it simply isn't the case. The ultra try hards are that penny percentage of players in masters and above. A measly 2-3% of our population.

Starcraft 2 died, it's western esports scene is non existent. Overwatch is dying. There may be flashing lights making it look alive, but it most certainly is dying. League of legends will also die if Riot doesn't divert from their current path

Rock MD8/16/2018, 8:14:34 AM32 votes

Riot doesn't balance around pro players and the pro scene nearly as much as you think, or else they wouldn't be nerfing Quinn, Wukong, Garen, or Yorick.

They care about the game for players as well but because you're one of the mains of ~10% of the roster that actively gets put in place for how much he contributes to pro play, you're projecting that on the entire game.

Does Riot SOMETIMES balance for pro play? Yes. Does Riot cater to pro play? No. An extremely high number of changes Riot has made, especially in the last few patches, are made almost exclusively because there was a big uproar in Gameplay and Reddit.

Like, you can't tell me after boards crying constantly for lower damage, and Riot responding with rune nerfs, individual champion nerfs, and eventually changes to make Duskblade and Stormrazor not stack, that they're coddling the esports scene.

Trollmanship8/16/2018, 11:51:01 AM15 votes

The problem is the state they've put the game in makes it impossible to play sub-par champions. In the past you could make them work. You could play passive, you could farm out games, you could cheese if that's your thing, you could play aggressive, you could focus on teamfights, focus on split pushing, etc. The current meta? You play aggressive early or you lose. Cheesing has basically become meta where you dive your opponent level 2 and if you're able to trade kills you win because the level advantage lets you dominate for the rest of the game. Macro game is pretty much entirely based around sending your strongest people to siege their towers over and over, and split pushing is nearly dead for anybody who is playing in their correct elo range.

D357R0Y3R8/16/2018, 8:30:57 AM14 votes

{quoted}

every champion was playable, and any champion was viable.

Fuck no you talk about season 4, old sion old poppy were troll picks, Talon was literally shit until they reverse powercreeped him (nerfed everything else for years until he becomes the best) GP was unplayable

you can never say that at one time we had "all champions viable" that is just not true

deltemp9515128/16/2018, 5:18:29 PM14 votes

Toxicity up Creativity down Balance nonexistent Gameplay not enjoyable

Game is going in the shitter.

FixHealsRemoveGW8/16/2018, 1:53:03 PM13 votes

I think it's rather funny that a moderator makes such a post, because I think the community is trying really hard to create their own reality where they can shift responsibility for anything towards Riot and the balance team. The moderation team very much fails at creating an environment where critical thinking is promoted and gives way too much room for desinformation, prejudices and hateful rants to exist and dominate the public view. It would be your responsibility to make reasonable dialogues possible again.

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/community-moderation/d1ZpVMQ8-is-moderation-affected-by-the-popularity-of-an-opinion

I am a player and when I want to discuss different opinions I get attacked by the masses who don't want to discuss. Downvotes and shallow posts is what I am getting instead of good arguments.

It used to be about gamers talking to gamers.

Maybe the gamers back then were more open-minded and didn't consider anything that threatens their rigid ideas as hostile and malicious, no matter if it's Riot or another player.

The majority of board users right now doesn't even respect Riot's decisions when it's based on statistical evidence and reasonably explained, because they have their own reality where rationality is dead.

Nowadays, it feels like Riot is taking a traditional dev stance on everything. Stay silent on crappy stuff going on. Talk only about what we can talk about. Now it seems they just encourage only what is popular with balance changes

Speaking of popularity... popularity is not the same thing as meta. Except it becomes the same thing when players no longer think critically. It seems like Riot can easily make something popular AND meta just by doing some placebo buffs and it stays meta until Riot changes it again after being forced to do so by the community.

I think it's possible to break a meta without intervention from Riot but it requires players that think individually and are looking for solutions themselves instead of asking Riot to give them solutions or taking part in circlejerks where everyone agrees that Riot fucked up and nobody questions anything.

Douglas Funnie8/16/2018, 12:22:54 PM11 votes

Finally, a Mod willing to express their true feelings about the game instead of kissing Riot's as*, blaming the community, or trying to argue with people on the boards fishing for upvotes.

The truth is, Riot was so eager to cater toward casual players, they wanted to reduce the skill gap. "Runes Reforged" was their idea to make League accessable for casual players and noobs. Allow less experienced players able to compete against higher skilled players by being able to one shot their opponents and rely on RNG elements and in-game quests. Riot made campaign ads for "noobs", forced Pro players to talk about being noobs, and made commercials and fan-made low tier Adobe Flash Animated ads on YouTube.

The game became dumbed-down due to

  • Overloaded Runes
  • Overpowered Runes
  • Overpowered Champions
  • New/Updated Cha!pions with overloaded kits
  • RNG elements
  • Zoe
  • Klepto
  • Dragons
  • Plants
  • Scuttle

The problem is that Riot failed for both casual and competitive players. Which is why we are seeing casual/retired pros/pros/competitive players leaving the game.

At first, they tried to mask the problem with the competition mode "clash" but that failed.

Now, they are desperately committed for a casual game mode with RNG elements known as Nexus Blitz...

Luckily, Ghostscrawler stepped down from the Lead position for League. As soon as Ghostscrawler left, Both Meddler and Scruffy acknowledged the problems we have been facing for 9 months since Pre-Season 8.

Although the damage is still high across the board, there were small improvements on recent 8.16 patch. I have faith that Meddler and Scruffy will make changes for Pre-Season 9. I'm not talking about changes for the sake of change. I'm talking about the necessary changes that improve League and make it a better experience.

Elkington VI8/16/2018, 9:40:04 PM10 votes

It stopped being my game when Riot removed Dominion.

Spank the Fox8/16/2018, 11:11:22 AM10 votes

Season 4

Oh honey.

Jbels8/16/2018, 10:21:58 AM9 votes

I honestly think the biggest issue is that Tencent is now strangling creative control out of Riot. I know people will look at me and claim my tinfoil hat is on too tight, but look at the facts. China is one of the most influential esports scenes, probably only behind South Korea. League of Legends is extremely popular over there, and to top it off, Tencent is a Chinese company. They have a vested interest in Riot making money, but they don't care where it makes the most money, they'll develop it into a game that the region that generates the most money will love

For League of Legends, that's China, with internet cafes allowing you to play League for a set amount of time . I wouldn't be surprised in the least if Tencent had forced Riot's hand on making the games shorter in order to maximize gameplay time at the cafes back home. The sad thing is that even the Korean players are complaining about how much this meta sucks, but their complaints go on deaf ears.

A Friendless Boy8/16/2018, 10:31:06 AM8 votes

https://cybersport.com/post/riot-games-tencent-butt-heads

Tencent aren’t satisfied with Riot Games. I don’t know how much Tencent have affected League, but there could be something going on in the background we don’t know about. Despite the fact that Riot state that everything is fine, I think there’s trouble in paradise.

What if Tencent are forcing Riot to do bad business? People are flaming Riot like hell, but what if Riot’s just shield to Tencent?

Teridax688/16/2018, 3:56:48 PM5 votes

When even volunteer mods, people who willingly dedicated themselves to curating the Boards and their communities out of passion for them and the game, start making this kind of post, something is deeply wrong. As someone who once did the same, I can strongly relate. There was a time when I loved League to bits: its gameplay and flavor made me into a dedicated fan within days during Preseason Three, and as an aspiring game designer I found its intricate systems mind-blowingly full of potential. As I got closer, and delved into the community, I got to see the developers in action, communicating non-stop with the player base, and producing design documents and roadmaps that made perfect sense: even if the game was far from perfect, there was still the feeling that it was going in a solid, clearly-defined direction, one where Riot learned from its mistakes and kept innovating for the sake of its players. I remember Xelnath brainstorming alongside the playerbase for a Xerath, Gragas and Yorick rework, the first two of which successfully shipped and remain to this day. League and Riot both felt good not simply because the game was clearly improving, but because the relationship between players and developers was largely one of mutual respect, friendship, and collaboration.

Since then, that relationship has completely inverted. Instead of developers talking about how much they like their players, we instead have developers talking about themselves and how great their ideas are, while simultaneously showing open mistrust, even outright dislike or disrespect for the players they're meant to cater to. It's not that long ago that people like Sanjuro or Cactopus spent their free time, free time that Rioters keep claiming that they do not have, outright insulting players on League-related channels, before leaving the company entirely. There is no clear roadmap to the direction League is taking, because League keeps changing direction, often completely contradicting itself from patch to patch, and at this point almost always going against the design pillars Riot had set for themselves: upon leaving his position, Ghostcrawler openly admitted that Riot added Zoe to the game, knowing full well that she was, by the QA lead's standards, the least fun champion to play against. It's been ages since we've had any sort of design document regarding the principles or terminology Riot uses for their design, and in general it doesn't feel like Riot actually cares about enlightening us on their development process anymore. What has once been a relationship of mutual trust, respect and co-operation has now become one of open antagonism, with players and developers second-guessing and opposing each other at every turn.

All of this could perhaps be excusable if it were considered a successful strategy, but by all rights Riot hasn't been growing from this. The company has chosen to hide its player count and revenue since 2016, suggesting neither has increased since then, and the information they have not been able to hide suggests a pretty consistent decline. Increasingly more people are leaving, including people that were passionate about League, and both the game and company's presence on the internet is dimming, with the biggest piece of media attention they've received in a long time being a lengthy Kotaku article lambasting their toxic internal culture. Whatever strategy Riot has chosen in communicating with its players, if there even was a strategy to begin with, is not working. To some extent it also feels like there's a significant degree of apathy at Riot with regards to this, since many Rioters have shown themselves fully aware of player complaints, and some even promised to improve things, yet it's been years and we've had no positive change. We are quite possibly at the lowest point for Riot and League yet, and what's worrying is that the company seems to be in no hurry to fix things. We're definitely not yet at a point where League is dying, but we are definitely reaching a point of no return, if we haven't reached it already, where Riot simply won't be able to regain its former glory if it continues ignoring its problems.

Pika Fox8/16/2018, 4:35:19 PM1 votes

The hell are you on about? Literally every champion is viable at the competitive level, the lore is infinitely better as are the skins.