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Between Two Turrets - Come chat with Jaredan! [COMPLETE]

RiotA Small Man··16 votes·47,660 views


Welcome to the latest installment of Between Two Turrets, a Q&A series through which we connect you with various Rioters to chat about League, life, and anything in between. You can expect an installment every two weeks or so, with Rioters from all over jumping in to spend some time with you on the Boards.

This week, we’ve got Narrative Lead Scott “Jaredan” Hawkes!

Ahoy!

I'm Scott Hawkes, known on the boards (and by the unfortunate ADCs who play alongside my support) as Jaredan. I'm the Narrative Lead for League of Legends, which means I'm responsible for strategy, recruiting and overall quality for the Narrative Discipline on League. The Narrative discipline on League works on teams such as Champion, Champion Update, Voice Over and beyond with an eclectic bunch of talented folks form other disciplines to make new stuff for players.

Since joining Riot two and a half years ago I've worked on a bunch of things including a variety of Champs, Events, the Foundations team and some stuff you will hopefully see very soon. I can also be an awful tease.

Before Riot, I was an Editor-in-Chief at a couple of gaming-focused publishing networks, a teacher of English Language and Literature for nearly 10 years, and a freelance editor at the same time. I feel very old.

Outside the bonkers-in-just-the-right-way halls of Riot, I spend my time proving how patient my wife is while we raise our two joy-grenade kids.

My passion is for character and story and getting both into the hands of players.

So with that in mind, what would you like to know? Who is your favorite Champ? Why? Is this how it works? I don't know!

381 Comments

Hellioning22 votes

Are you prepared for the angry lore fans?

RiotRiotJaredan8 votes

More than happy to talk about anything, even the sore subjects.

Hellioning10 votes

Alrighty then...

Why are you removing old lores before you can add the new ones in? Jhin's passive is longer than some of the Shurima lores that haven't been expanded upon yet.

Sharjo1 votes

Well those removed lores that have yet to be replaced are endemic of the tech issues that have since been resolved, but also Riot changed their format for champion lore around the time they fixed things up, so those with missing lore actually won't have had lore written in the new format (that being a bio with colour text (colour text is a short story with a champion in it)). They probably have colour text, but I'd imagine they wanna put out the proper format and not just the colour text.

Also Shurima's champs are getting lore in the new format in the foreseeable future.

Hellioning2 votes

You know, I like Riot, but their continuing...I don't want to say perfectionist streak, but that's the closest thing I can think of.

I don't want the absolute best most perfect thing. Sometimes I just want something to tide me over.

RiotRiotJaredan5 votes

We strive for the best we can, and we understand how perfect can become an enemy. The time it's taking is purely because of it takes time tohit the quality bar we have with the current size of the team we have. We are not willing to lower the quality bar to speed up the cadence.

I personally believe that the damage that "just OK" causes lasts longer than the absence of content that we want to rectify.

Of course, we want to both hit a good cadence and do good quality. Right now it's a choice. We're working towards changing that. Sorry for the pain it causes, I share the frustration, while I admit to being one of the folks causing it.

We want to do you and the Champions justice and we don't want to fix an error by making another one.

Photos of Ghosts4 votes

How was Skarner's lore bad before Kalamanda was retconned? He was legit cool, and a much more enjoyable and less generic character than "oooh spooky beast somewhere in the sand"

ModCaptainMårvelous9 votes

No, Jared, no stop. WE ask the questions. (Vi is my fave though)

So, for you, how difficult do you find it to be to oversee 130+ characters? Is it no big deal? Makes your hair turn grey? Maybe some champs are easy but others make you sweat nervously?

RiotRiotJaredan7 votes

I like to think the grey hair makes me look distinguished. Seriously though, lots of people have the pleasure and responsibility of keeping an eye on our cast of incredible characters, both in-game and out, I just try to support those endeavors wherever I can, however I can.

Most of all, even when it's challenging, it's more fun than anything else I've ever done, and I've done some pretty fun things. I'm very proud of the work we, and by we I mean Riot, have been doing on the champs. None of them are easy for the teams who spend months putting them through a cauldron of feedback to put them in the best place possible.

Champ and Champ Up teams are kicking arse, in my humble and totally not biased opinion.

Serith Vastyne9 votes

Can we expect a massive Targon event soon(TM)? :P Leona Diana Pantheon have some awesome short lore on the PBE and I'm so ready for more.

RiotRiotJaredan10 votes

I would not label anything related to Mt. Targon as an event as you may have understood it in the past, but you are certainly going to be hearing more about the place that scratches the sky very soon. And by very soon, I mean by a definite date that I'm not going to specify just yet (sorry, the joys of game development).

It's going to be exciting to see how you react to some of the info coming your way and it will be great to see more folks from Foundations and other teams talking about Targon.

Fasmodey7 votes

Which champions are homosexuals? Probably not going to be answered but at least I tried my chance.

And, will we see the deep description of Ascension Ritual?

SDhrek2 votes

{quoted}

Which champion are homosexuals? Probably not going to be answered but at least tried my chance.

And, will we see the deep description of Ascension Ritual?

The background to the Ascension Ritual would be really nice to know, but I would love to know the official homosexual champions more then that to be honest. :c

Fasmodey3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Zero De Knowl,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=QwQdE2dw,comment-id=00060000,timestamp=2016-02-16T21:42:15.784+0000)

The background to the Ascension Ritual would be really nice to know, but I would love to know the official homosexual champions more then that to be honest. :c

Agreed. But even if it's going to be happen, I hope they dont use the stereotypes.

RiotRiotJaredan12 votes

Stereotypes bad.

Uselessskillz9 votes

{quoted}

Which champion are homosexuals?

In the wise words of Harrison Ford "Who gives a shit?"

Most champions don't have a given sexuality, if you REEEEAAALLY need to play a homosexual champion to make yourself feel better, follow the popular belief that Taric is fabulous for more than his fashion sense and his obsession with "precious stones" ohhh myyy

RiotRiotJaredan7 votes

All I'll say on this subject is it's one dear to my heart, and my main concern isn't whether they are, it's how do we do a good job in not making it all they are. Because that's when bad story happens.

There's certainly a possibility of a deeper description of the Ascension Ritual, but we'd likely do that in a specific story about one of the ascended champs and their rise to a rather specific kind of power. It's possible, but no plans at the moment.

Solidair33 votes

So is this you confirming there are in fact lgbt champions? I won't press for names.

Fasmodey2 votes

{quoted}

So is this you confirming there are in fact lgbt champions? I won't press for names.

Hmm, probably there are. I dont think making every champion straight or asexual would make sense.

Though, we have only one champion that has nearly confirmed sexuality, and that is Jhin. They said he has no interest on woman or man, he is more like gunsexual or something, which means he is probably asexual. I dont think he has sexual fantasies on guns, it was probably a joke.

The other thing is, a lot of champions are not human. I dont think Nocturne has a sexuality, or Brand.

Solidair34 votes

How dare you. There is nothing on runeterra more pure than Nocturne's love for Vayne

And obviously. It would be nice to hear the words from an official, though. So many companies are afraid of the word gay. Visibility, even in a video game, is an important step in taking down barriers.

Photos of Ghosts1 votes

Because the word "gay" presumes a specific culture, not mere, factual homosexuality. Not all homosexual people would like to have that stickied over their face. And not all universes would see the development of such a culture.

Solidair33 votes

well what I'm looking for is mere factual homosexuality. Again, for visibility's sake.

jdizzle3674 votes

I know Galio is basically forgotten by the community right now. He is so forgotten that he doesn't even get the forgotten champion joke exposure Yorick and Swain get. So he is probably low on riot's priority list but with the new Poppy lore Galio doesn't even have a real backstory now. Is he going to get a new reason to end his vigil over the bones of his master or is he stuck in some sort of limbo indefinitely until he gets a rework in the very distant future? I really feel like Galio had this great protector theme and personality but he was usurped by Braum as the archetypal gentle giant. I think that Galio currently has no place in the league and riot is just pretending he never happened beyond some sympathy buffs (and one really random nerf) every now and again.

RiotRiotJaredan7 votes

Trust me, we care for every one of our Champions, they define who we are and what we do in-game and out. However, we do have to prioritize what we tackle (or I'd be taking Volibear out for a waltz on the ice right now) for a variety of reasons, and ChampUp is the team that tackles that thorny issue rather bloody well. We have had discussions about where Galio is in the world, but nothing I can delve into right now. Galio has his fans here at Riot, believe me. We'll take care of him, and not in the misguided gangster kind of way.

Kei1433 votes

Did you ahve any say in the promo-teasers such as Jhin's teasers?

If so, did it have to be those 4 champs (zed, sona, garen, vi) that got killed? Did it have to be in that order?

Ever thought of providing that extra information that we get on the Boards through champ Q&As, back to the lore fans who have missed a champs Q&A due to: 1) don't visit the boards 2) New to the game 3) missed the Q&A because of timing related things and can never find it ever again?

Do you decide in your meetings before a champs Q&A what you can reveal to the players, what needs to be kept a secret, and what "we can respond to that" when the question comes up?

During Champ Q&As, who decides which questions get answered and who gets to answer them?

Fallen God Keima2 votes

Those teasers were confirmed to be noncanon. But I have a question in regards to it as well. Are Zed, Shen, and Jhin going to have an event? If so, that would make sense. Adding the other characters from the teasers into the event would be pretty incompetent story telling according to a lot of players, including myself. Are there any plans regarding that?

RiotRiotJaredan4 votes

The characters you mentioned are very important to each other's lives going forward, though that doesn't mean we'll be doing an event like Bilgewater or The Harrowing with them. The other champs in the teaser aren't in any immediate plans to come in contact with Jhin. However, Jhin plays on the stage that best fits the art he's working on. No matter where it is.

Solidair31 votes

Will Shen and Zed have lore coming alongside Jhin's color text?

Also, when is that slated to hit us? Next week? Next month?

RiotRiotJaredan4 votes

In the next week or so.

Fallen God Keima3 votes

I'm happy to hear that. A lot of media as of late cough Walking Dead cough has killed off characters before their story actually gets any payoff. I've enjoyed this game for a long time and I want a richer experience out of the lore, not a bunch of murders that are abrupt and random, without payoff. There are plenty of good ideas that don't involve killing them, such as a connection to Sona's parents, maybe an in-game thing like with Rengar and Kha'zix, but involving Zed and Jhin. Sorry about me being annoying, Sona is my favorite character lol.

RiotRiotJaredan6 votes

Sona's my main. I love her rather lots. And you're not being annoying in any way, shape, or form. We won't do death for the sake of death. That's just a cheap dramatic device. Death isn't off the table though.

Bloody hell, that got dark quick.

Hellioning1 votes

I'm genuinely curious; how are you gonna manage death? Even if it is completely unrelated to the game, it'd be a major mood killer if someone really got into a champ and wanted to look at their lore, only to be told 'they died a couple months back, sorry.'

RiotRiotJaredan5 votes

I'd say we handle it very carefully. It also depends on what medium we do it in, is it something we intend to be fully encompassing for all aspects of League (that's unlikely, as a dead Katarina in a story would still be alive in the game)?

Death isn't a necessary thing to do, but it's not something we want to take off the table. We'd hope that player who took the time to look through and find that a Champ had died in a story would also find incredible stories that would make them inspiring to play.

Can you think of a character in popular culture who died, but you still adore?

Hellioning6 votes

Lots of characters that I care about died but I still like them, and that's mostly because their stories have ended. I'm not upset that Kakyoin died at the end of Stardust Crusaders, because Stardust Crusaders ended a couple of chapters later. Even if he survived, he would have shown up in only cameos later, if that. As such, I don't get upset that he died because his story was over anyway.

To contrast, League is not going to end anytime soon. If Lux dies and then League's story continued for another two years, I'm gonna be upset that Lux either A) does not show up, or B) only shows up in flashbacks, which limits your storytelling potential.

Also: The primary difference between League and other stories is the fact that this is a game that isn't going to remove any champs for any reason. Except reworks. As such, if Lux dies in story, I'm going to be reminded of her every time I play her in game, or someone else plays her, or whatever. If a character that I like dies halfway through a normal book, oh well, I can just put them out of my mind, but if I'm constantly reminded of their existence, it makes me question why the author killed them off in the first place.

Ekko Will Rekko 3 votes

I would like to get straight to the point.

Are there any plans for Wukong & Master Yi?

RiotRiotJaredan11 votes

I'll get straight to the answer: Yes.

Yi is likely to have a bit more attention in the nearer term.

Solanar3 votes

Hi Jaredan. Evelynn Evelynn has always been my favorite champion. The deadly stealth assassin femme fatal, but her lore has always been non-existent. Has the team already delved into her past and just waiting for the right time (ie Visual Update) or what direction would you personally take her. Also, what is your favorite lore you've written for League?

RiotRiotJaredan10 votes

Yeah, currently Evelynn is the dangeorus femme fatale who muttermutter from maybeIdunno who wants to somethingorother. There's a pitch around her that we think is rather cool and will define her in a way that doesn't contradict anything so far. Ok, she doesn't have a lot to contradict, but still.

It's just a matter of priorities and the right time, but we have Evelynn on our minds too.

Merxamers2 votes

Hello! My favorite champion is Morde, and i loved his new lore.

It seems like there's been a holdup on getting new lore released that's not tied to events or champion releases. What are those stones in the gears? What's the expected cadence for new and updated lore to be released this year?

RiotRiotJaredan4 votes

Hello, Merxamers! I'm glad you liked it. I think the team did a great job. Also, is it just me, or does anyone else absolutely have to shout "Mordekaiser!" in the same tune as "Holy Diver!" whenever Morde is mentioned? It's got to the stage I have to make myself sing it in my head so I don't disrupt meetings. Anyway...

The stones in the gears are purely bandwidth, prioritization, and quality. We make a lot of things that need some Narrative lovin' (yes, it's the most literary, dull lovin') and we're a discipline that continues to undergo a lot of changes. We're hiring some senior writers to ensure great craft and leadership, but that takes time.

We have some new, small teams that are working on the things you mention and the clearly expressed unhappiness from the player community has helped make them happen.

From a philosophy standpoint, when it comes to recruiting to grow our bandwidth, we'd rather have a somewhat limited scope and be ferocious with each other about our quality bar than get more story out with inconsistent quality. Doing both more and better isn't as easy as it can sound. However, we are committed to upping our cadence while increasing our quality. I'm sorry I can't specify the cadence as that's dependent on a number of different teams and I don't want to pre-empt their work, but I'm very hopeful 2016 will be seen as a progression from 2015 in a pure story sense.

Also, I don't think releasing story alongside other stuff is a bad endeavor at all. Usually it's a veyr positive one. Will Shen's story be any worse because it's released at the point of an update? Often, it'll give the story the attention it wouldn't get otherwise and might get folks who weren't even aware of our story world a chance to find out about it. To me, it's just about committing to telling story, and giving each champ and story the love they deserve through quality of execution and the right place to see it. If it's as part of an Event or other release, then awesome. But I understand wanting to read/watch/listen to things that have been originated wholly for their own purpose. We're working on that too.

We want the best of both worlds. Cue ST:TNG theme.

There are a few things we've been working extremely hard on that are coming to fruition, but we know we still have things to fix, things to prove, and trust to earn.

I believe we're on the right path.

Hellioning4 votes

As a counterpoint, if the only time lore gets released is with the release of something else, then people begin to think that lore exists only to advertise that 'something else'.

RiotRiotJaredan4 votes

I get you, hence wanting to produce some story that is clearly for the sake of story. My counterpoint to that is that we only ever write a story for its own merits, even if it is planned to come along with something else.

We didn't write Burning Tides to promote the map, for example. Sure, there were things that were fun things to mention, though it mainly came form seeing the map and being inspired, as other teams were when they read the story.

We wrote Burning Tides to be the best it could be for its purpose of being a story. We wanted to explore our characters, TF, Graves, MF, and, of course, Gangplank. We wanted to show some parts of Bilgewater that would leave an impression. Keeping that helps us to inspire other teams. Other teams make things that are inspired by our Champions and story. We are inspired by the things teams make (such as Champions, the stars of our stories) that make us want to write things.

I have absolutely no problem with that.

To me what matters is that we never write story from a standpoint of "What can we sell?" And we don't.

I get your perspective, and Riot values the idea of telling a story because it has its own necessity. That's something I rather love about this place.

BruhWhoYouThink2 votes

Jaredan,

Hallo! Which existing champion lore will be updated next and which champion/event/feature are you most proud of in league that you worked on?

Thanks!!

RiotRiotJaredan7 votes

Hallo, Bruh!

Targonian Champs are up next.

Hmm. Maybe Burning Tides? Most of the writing I've done has been in small bursts, and we were a bit adamant about getting a chunky bit of story to players, so to be a member of the writing crew on that was a bit special. Even if the writers room smelled like the inside of a farmer's slipper.

It was odd though because most of the pride I take is in seeing members of Narrative and the teams we work on knocking it out of the park. Whenever Champ Team puts something out as audacious as they have been, I get warm in my happy place. My happy place being a pizza buffet.

I'm very hungry.

Where was I? Ah, yes! Moments like when WAARGHbobo took me through his first story sketch for the champion now known as Jhin and it made my skin crawl. In all the right ways. Or when FauxSchizzle wrote the story sketch that became the story for Chronobreak. Small moments where I'm inspired by the work done by those I work with because I know players are going to get a kick out of it. Even if it's not everyone, if I can see passion in the work, and believe there will be players who will reciprocate that passion, I get excited.

That didn't sound dirty did it?

JustCasual1 votes

As Riot is quickly growing and battling the balance of priorities and resources, where do you see Riot's focus and direction in tackling the Lore specifically? For example is Riot focused on developing immersive stories for new champions, writing a quick lore for all champions, strong focus on linking all the stories of all champions, etc.

How is the balance for working at Riot for a father and husband? Do you know if it's similar/different from those working in the eSports side of things? One of my biggest worries about a possibility of a future with Riot is the work/life balance. I understand people love their jobs and Riot's atmosphere so working there is great, but for those that aren't single that have responsibilities outside of Riot, I prematurely assume that it takes a certain spouse or family to have a family member working at Riot (I hope I'm wrong).

RiotRiotJaredan9 votes

We don't have a strong focus on linking all the stories of all the champions as it's not really a goal of ours, but the rest of the examples are all things we will be doing and are doing.

There will be stories that will happen on the epic, global scale that will have a large cast of champs at some point I'm sure. But there is just such a huge array of big stories that we want to do first. To use the Marvel cinematic analogy, we need Iron Man before we do Avengers.

It will likely be a mix of those things you mention though, that balance and variety is something we're having conversations and planning about.

To speak work/life balance. here's a personal story, buckle in:

I'll tell you the work/life balance used to be very difficult for me (I have a wife and two kids, I get your concerns), but it wasn't because of Riot, it was because what I mistakenly thought Riot was. When I arrived here I thought I needed to bust my hump to just keep up and show that I was bringing value to the discipline, the teams and to Riot. This place is full of immensely inspiring people and wanting to feel like I fit in got me in the mindset of working on everything I thought I could help with. Also, I fundamentally believe in Riot being a player-focused company, and I saw things that I thought I could help with in getting things to players and tried to jump on everything. I was here way too much.

Fortunately, wiser heads prevailed. Some folks took me aside and told me to ease off the throttle, including members of Narrative, such as my manager. It's an important lesson to learn: Riot isn't like some companies where crunch is the norm. We want everyone at their best because then they are producing their best for players. Also, if you're not sure if you're doing the right thing, just bloody ask someone, they will tell you with honesty, detail and clarity. You don't have to work all the hours under the sun and moon to disprove a perception that only you have.

It's a lesson I learned the hard way, but it emphasized my faith in Riot in the exemplification that we take the time to see what each other is doing, partly to ensure we are not making decisions based on assumption.

It's a company where a director will take you aside and say (pardon the language), "Dude, stop working so fucking hard."

We trust people here to get the job done because we hire exceptional people. We very much want them to stay that way, so we constantly encourage Rioters to get that balance right. It's just common sense for the Rioter and for Riot.

Mhihnj3 votes

New champ: Jaredan confirmed. The lore is already released

RiotRiotJaredan14 votes

On a third hit I remove a comma splice.

JustCasual4 votes

Well this response was a lot better and thoughtful than I expected. Seriously, thanks for the transparency, information, and personal testimony <3

RiotRiotJaredan5 votes

Thank you!

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