The new direction of the lore, why it might be happening, and why it's problematic.

From the viewpoint of myself, of course.

Okay, so, as many of you have heard, they're planning to ret-con many of the elements of the Lore behind the game; the largest of these cop-outs being the removal of the Institute of War and The Summoners as an Entity.

It seems as though they are trying to tell a different kind of story than the one they may have started out with. The main difference being; the previous direction that the lore was going in told the story of a world. It gave us a backdrop of war, strife, and tensions between clearly-defined factions, using the champions as windows into this world and its cultures. It was a great way to merge the story and the gameplay, by using the champions to represent their factions, fighting for control.

Very likely one of the best examples of storytelling in MOBAs I've seen yet. And certainly not a small part of it's huge popularity.

However, there is a very clear shift here.

Lately, the focus of the story and narrative seems to be less about the world; It's not about the tensions between ancient enemies, or the looming threat of a world-changing war. It's not about Secrets Buried in Ice, or about silent, otherworldly agendas.

The new lore seems to be about the Characters, and not much else. We don't get to see the world through the lens of the Characters. Rather, we get to see the Characters through the lens of the World; and that's fine. That's a good way to tell a story.

But, perhaps, not a good way to tell THIS story.

A lot of the best parts of League, at least for me, have always been the secrets of the world at large. The Champions you get to play at are only one facet of a much larger picture, and that's very clearly visible in the old lore. It worked because you spent a lot of time with these champions, and playing each one you got a different view of the world. Vi's cynical attitude towards crime fighting, or Singed's heinous disregard for even basic decency gave you a look into their character, yes. But moreso they gave you a look into the cultures and values of Zaun and Piltover.

Look at Riven's lore, for example. She's a born warrior. Probably one of the strongest fighters in Noxus. In several senses of the word. So, what happens? She goes to War. She sees the atrocities committed by Singed, and what does she do? She shatters her own sword, and flees into Ionia. Abandoning that which she sees as immoral, or evil.

This is extremely effective as a piece of narrative. Through this block of text, you not only get a sense as to who riven is; a person of intense strength and willpower, but you also see into Noxus, and Zaun, as living places with their own moral values and their own conventions. It reinforces the idea of Noxus as a culture which is not evil, as most people seem to assume. Zaun as a nation believes in strength, and the worth of an individual. In Riven's silent protest to Singed's Crimes, she embodies just that.

But you also get a glimpse into Zaun.

"Zaun is a land of unchecked scientific experimentation".

Remember that? It's one of the fun facts the game tosses at you right after the loading screen.

But it's important. Because Singed's disregard for his own troops; his carelessness when it comes to achieving his percieved "victory", and his lack of hesitance when it comes to slaughter on this scale, tells us something about Zaun.

It tells us that in the culture of Zaun, nothing is sacred. Everything is expendable. It tells us that to the people of Zaun, no price is too great.

And this is what I love about the league of legends lore.

In these two paragraphs, they deliver us an understanding of not only the two champions which we'll be playing, but they also show us the differences between the cultures that they come from. They give us a sense of the world which we'll be playing in, not just the champions which we'll be playing as.

But we can see this on another level in their play styles and art direction as well. Using the same general example; think about how Singed plays in game. His poison trail, his Fling, and his adhesive all feel very... haphazard, in a sense. He's presented in game like someone with no regard for safety. They blend in his character and his culture into his kit in such a simple and elegant way.

It's a near-seamless merging of Story to Gameplay. And I love it.

The new lore, though, doesn't seem to have that same effect. Without the Institute, or the League of Legends, what reason really is there for the game to exist? No story is given for why they're fighting like this. It's a complete divorce of story and game. And a Disregard for what made League's Narrative one of the best examples of storytelling in games I've seen in quite a while. Without the League of Legends and the Institute of War to drive the champions and give them character, motivation, and intent, what we're left with is a story which clashes with the gameplay, and isn't suited for a MOBA game. One which resembles a story you'd put into an open, sprawling world, which you don't need the windows of the Champions to understand.

The removal of the Summoners as a concept is one change which seems especially strange to me.

The Summoners were non-entities. They were a concept which you could put any form of identity onto and they would fit into the world of the League. They could be larger-than-life masters of the universe, or they could be drones serving a larger purpose. But, more than anything else, they served an important function in the experience of the game.

You see, from the viewpoint of a Player, there is functionally no difference between controlling the champion from your computer, and actually physically BEING a summoner. They provided a way for us to insert ourselves into the narrative of the game and to become so much more invested in it than we otherwise would be.

League of Legends had so much strength in it's methods of storytelling; they had a happy marriage between Story, Gameplay, and Player, which resulted in the large, vibrant feeling of the world of RuneTerra.

But now, for one reason or another, it seems like the people crafting the story, are missing the forest for the trees, so to speak.

Those are my thoughts, anyway. And that doesn't necessarily mean that I hate the new changes; im excited to see where this new road is going to take us. Perhaps it will be somewhere nice, filled with grand adventures and a good story which we can all sink our metaphorical teeth into. The MOBA format has never been very conductive to stories on the same scale of, say, World of Warcraft. And, for as amazing as the old narrative was, it's important to remember that tying the story so tightly to a format of game which can't progress the same way that evolving, open worlds do, can be limiting.

But, at the same time, I am cautiously optimistic. Many of the elements which made Runeterra feel like a cohesive world have been taken out, and if they can't create something which fits as well as the other stories did, I fear that League will lose a lot of it's charm. League of Legends has a lot of strengths going for it as far as narrative is concerned, and my worry is that they aren't playing to those strengths, but instead trying to emulate the kind of narrative which other games use.