You're Living on Reputation Alone at this Point, Riot

And when it comes to lore, it's a damn terrible one, for the most part. Ok, so before you tune out because I don't like to mince my words, I'd like to preface this long post. I'm a big supporter of, well, pretty much everything you do outside of the lore. For the most part. But today I'm going to give you a piece of my mind, an honest and unashamed piece of it, and I ask you read it from start to finish, if any of you ever bother to stumble upon this. Ok, so. When you disbanded your lore department, it was the first time the ridiculous thought of quitting your game came into my mind. That was just, how messed up of a decision that seemed like at the time. And it still was. And it seemed and turned out to be then as it's looking now that you paid attention to what the community was saying and acknowledged them, and then went ahead and said, "But we're doing it anyway." and disbanded it. This game exists because of your lore. Or rather, this game's immersion and justification, the people running down the field 5v5 killing each other, makes sense because of your lore. Summoners use champions as pawns, er, call upon the support of champions in order to settle their personal disputes, and every now and then (once =.=), you did what the Factions.net team now does better and more consistently than you ever have, and you created a war between nations which pushed plot AND created champion designs and different game concepts from its occurrence alone. You did all of that, and then you told us you were "understaffed" and disbanded your lore department. Oh how funny. You were understaffed, but you seemed damn well capable of providing a champion background every time they came out and revamping Trundle's and Karma's lore whenever you wanted (let's ignore the tables people flipped after you skewered that). You created a war between the Freljord (which you then just left as a placeholder, but whatever at least it gave them presence). You did all of this, but then found a bi-weekly Journal of Justice was too much to handle. I do not believe that for a second. You cannot and will never be able to convince me you couldn't find a damn way to keep that going, to expand that department, as if there weren't thousands of qualified people who wouldn't have gladly applied to work for free to help you out if it meant keeping such an awesome part of the game intact.

I mean, do we even understand just how much lore has impacted the game, here? Doran's blades, shields, and rings? Those were MADE BY SOMEONE hired by the Institute. Wriggles? Found by Ezreal. Nocturne exists because of Summoners, he even murdered some of them. There are champions who's sole purpose and existence is tied to the League, who's sociopathic tendencies, and murderous rampages are kept in check because of the League, and you want to tell me you can't do ANYTHING with that!? I am...so, so very upset at you, as a player. But more demoralizing is how disappointed I merely am. I barely have it in me to even want to type this, because you have never listened to the player-base when it comes to lore. Ever. And when I mean listen I don't mean your response of "Oh no worries we read your posts, we like to listen more than we like to talk, blah blah blah observation and making sure things are 100% before we reveal them." Oh I read all of your red posts on that Dev blog, your comments. My particular favorite aspect was the contradiction between you claiming to want to open up discussion and enhance clarity, and then turning around and saying you don't like to post about things until you can say with guaranteed confidence that they're going to happen. Oh, so, what, the VAST MAJORITY of the player-base can disagree with you making these changes (don't believe me, start a poll, do it), but it's too late, you're just going to do it anyways? And when I say we disagree with you, don't pull "do you dislike our attempts to expand lore" as like, the question, I'm talking your brazen and ill-conceived, insane idea to chalk up the Institute as non-existent.

I've read almost all of the great and widely well-received posts players have made telling you not to do this, or to at least not fuck this up the way you have been, I've read all your comments and your Dev blog (and have down-voted and disagreed with all of them), and I would usually leave it at that. When stuff like this happens, I know there are people out there both more eloquent and intelligent with their frustration, but I am so panicked and salty right now, that I couldn't maintain my silence. And I know this seems like an entire post of me shitting on you, and it sort of is because right now you deserve it, but that isn't to say I don't have a shred of faith in you as a company to do well by the players... But you're on the thinnest of ice when it comes to lore, which you almost always muck up on a grander scale. Champion specific lore? You're about 50/50. Trundle was an upset and incredibly lazily done, but at least you placed him somewhere. And the way you did Freljord actually surprised me. But ever since you disbanded the lore department, those are about the only good things you've turned out outside of the upcoming Shurima patch, and the coolness of that remains to be seen.

What I'm getting at, here, the TLDR is this. I understand your want to create a world not hindered by the Institute. I understand you going "Garen shouldn't be chopping his sister up." I feel you. And expansion is fine. But you fucked up the moment the words "hindered by the Institute (or the game)" left your mouth. What is wrong with you? The game doesn't hinder the lore, it creates it, and you used to fucking know what that goddamn meant. This isn't a nice post, I'm not claiming to be 100% fair to you or correct in the examples I've pulled (years have passed here), but I am giving you what a lot of people are feeling and already talking about, and taking the time to type it out without sugarcoating my words or intentions. As Shinjusuke put it, if you want to take out the Institute, fine, do it in a lore-related way that makes sense, but don't just go pretending it never existed.

Here are some quotes I've pulled from comments and posts I'd like to just bring into the light:

"Just keep in mind EVERY time you guys have ignored people like me telling you you're making a BAD decision with lore, you've never done anything except completely disappoint the fans of lore you change. Particularly with regards to champs. Several friends of mine outright quit at Karma, who had been playing since beta. Had to convince my GF to stay after she saw how you immensely cheapened Anivia's character, and had to do it again just now with Skarner's character. LISTEN TO US FOR ONCE, JUST ONCE."

"It is entirely possible to create stories outside of the game context and have that context still exist. Have Demacia debate other whether they would prefer to deal with a Noxian incursion through the official league channels or through their own army, possibly risking league sanctions. Have a hearing other whether the allegations of possible Zaunite tampering in the summoning process caused the bond between Ez and his summoner to be too weak to handle in the latest show match. This is reminding me of why you guys decided to retcon Trundle's lore so heavily. 'We couldn't think of anything to do with this, so let's just change everything!' That's not endearing, Tommy Gnox."

"I'd rather be told a story about how the Institute of War was decommissioned/disbanded, rather than be told that it never existed to begin with."

"As a member of the community and ardent follower of lore, I feel it is the responsibility of the community to keep you, the narrative team, in check to some extent. It is our responsibility to make sure you don't destroy the thing you created." (Personal favorite).

Just...use your head here, Riot. I don't care how AWESOME your future plans are, do not, I repeat do NOT just pretend the Institute never happened. Listen to your community on this one, for once.