The fatal flaw of Riot's narrative design - The important of plot in Character Development.

To be honest, I agree with the underlying foundation of the article.

Recently, Riot's narrative leader came onto a panel at GDC. You can read the full article at http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/...ames-says-devs , but to be honest this reveals a fatal flaw in Riot's narrative production that we've all clearly seen, yet haven't been able to put into words.

Plot exists to serve the character.

League has created a world full of two-dimensional characters.

The characters in isolation, can be seen as quite intriguing. A nice majority of them have a distinct personality, and an interesting backstory and motivations for what they 'may eventually get to someday.'

But, in their current form, they are missing a vital aspect, and this goes for every character in the League universe.

This is not to say the characters are 'bland', 'uninspiring', or just plain 'boring'. Riot has developed a myriad of interesting characters and personalities, and external conflicts within its cast, such as Jinx and Vi.

However, the absence of plot in this universe has severely hamstrung the growth of these characters, in that there simply isn't any.

Growth is what makes characters come into the world of three-dimensional characters. Luke Skywalker wouldn't be half the character he is today if he didn't go through the realization that Darth Vader is his father. Likewise, Darth Vader himself, wouldn't be half as strong of a character had he not gone against his ruler in order to save Luke at the end of the final movie. Even in Esports, having TSM make the decision to take Reginald off the team, is a piece of character growth that would not happen had this simply been a two-dimensional world.

Plot is the vehicle for which characters grow - without a way for a character to grow and develop, they won't become anything more than two-dimensional.

Who was Diana before she began to grow into the moon-loving anti-sun heretic we've come to know? What events transpired to make her become who she is today, to lose faith in the culture she grew up in? How did this effect Leona? Did they happen to be friends as children? Who was Twisted Fate as a child, and how will he grow in the future? Was he a rich kid who was orphaned in a horrible disaster? Will he grow sympathy for those in his former situation, and begin anonymously dropping off money at an orphanage? What was Lucian like before his wife's death? Did they have aspirations of having a child sometime in the future? How did his wife's death effect him internally, and how will it effect him going forward? Did Vi and Jinx truly have some form of connection in their past? Will Vi someday capture Jinx, only to be put in a situation where they need her assistance in order to ensure the safety of Piltover? What events transpired to make Teemo such a mentally disturbed Yordle? Did he come across his parents' corpses as a child, or was his mind home to the ghost of a watcher exiled from his home many millenia ago? Both?

I agree with the general view of the conference - Character is, by far, much more important than plot. People are much more attuned with stories of grieving families after a disaster than a spreadsheet indicating the number of people who died in that disaster. But, character alone is a fatal flaw. The plot exists to give the characters a medium to grow in. While it takes a backseat to the characters themselves, it is an important part of the characters that serves to add depth to them a thousand times greater than it would without.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope that the team at Riot will take these words into consideration.