Open Letter to Riot's Lore Department

Hiya!

I've been playing this game since Vayne's release (that's May-ish 2011) and have spent upwards of $3000 dollars or so on this game, and I honest to God don't regret a dime of it. Well, with the exclusion of Lollipoppy. The recent discussion about lore just reached my ears, and I'm honestly very conflicted. I don't write this from a position of "what the community wants" or "what you should do" because I honestly don't know how I feel about this whole situation. I don't intend to bash anybody, point blame, or tell you how to do your jobs. I just want to voice my thoughts, maybe help me get them in some semblance of a line so I can sleep tonight. Sorry if this starts to get incoherent as a result.

Over the years (and especially after the release of the best champion in the game, Vi), I've grown to be very invested in the lore of the game, and I've always felt it had an interesting and unique niche. The lore of the champions and the lore of the game felt very intertwined, and I grew invested enough in it to delve into writing my own fanfiction based in what I believe to be an extremely vast and deep world. It's a beautiful environment full of well-developed characters and I love spending time in it, daydreaming about champions and how they interact with others, the League, and the world around them.

I get the distinct feeling you won't be surprised if I tell you this recent news comes as a big fat curveball.

I'll admit, at first I was a little bit angry. It's a big, huge, gigantic change to something that has been absolutely set in stone for (in my case) years. A lot of vocal people aren't happy, and I can understand why. I can also see why you guys want to expand the world. As for me, well, I'm not angry. I'm definitely very stressed out, like how I deal with many big big changes, but that's to be expected.

I wanted to write this to say that I have an extremely large amount of faith in you guys. People complained about this feature and that balance decision and this bit of lore, I did my best to have faith and in the long run just about every change I was worried about has been for the better. You guys have the best intentions at heart, I'm sure of that. I've seen too many shitty devs to know that you guys don't behave the same way.

But, to put it quite honestly, I'm scared as all hell for the future of the lore.

Taking out the very foundation of the game's world (and it's inarguable that the Institute of War was a founding pillar of Runeterra, which may have been part of the problem) is a huge decision and it will absolutely change the face of the game. I can't say I know all of the reasons behind the decision. I can't say I personally know where I would take it. I have ideas for how to maybe lessen the impact of the changes, but like a lot of people I can't say it's a perfect solution, just my own attempt to make sense of the changes presented to me.

I still don't know what the hell to think about all of this, so I'm defaulting to having faith at this point.

I trust that you guys wouldn't make a call like this because "herp de doo this shit was getting boring", and I trust that you have the best interests of the story in mind. As far as I'm concerned, as long as you don't delete my baby Vi I'll still play the game.

I'm worried and nervous and stressed out and quite a bit afraid of what the future might hold, but I trust you, Riot.

Listen to the people that want to help. We're confused and concerned and we love the game as much as you guys do.

Get some sleep, drink some coffee, and do the best job you can do.

-FreestyleKneepad

P.S. If anyone feels like replying, I'd really appreciate trash talk being kept to a minimum. We've all got our opinions, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of a bucket of hate from the community and I know they don't, either.

P.P.S. I have homework due in a couple days. Gonna be a bitch to focus with this in the back of my head.