Is there a Lore department at Riot anymore?

TerraRising·8/7/2014, 8:20:30 PM·13 votes·890 views

I ask this with all seriousness.

It doesn't appear that there is a Lore department at Riot at the moment. The last lore discussion from Riot about Lore came in March 2014 when their Narrative Lead gave the impression that "Plot doesn't matter" at a panel.

Since, then, nothing. Kitae no longer works in the Lore Department (she's apparently on game design now) and there's nothing from Tom Abernathy, the aforementioned Narrative Lead. Questions about whether the department even exists anymore go ignored or unanswered.

League Lore has some of the most hardcore fans the game has, yet the company appears to have abandoned the concept of expanding and correcting the lore without a whimper.

Honestly, I would be thrilled if I received an answer but I'm not expecting one. It's a shame, really, because the Lore was what attracted me to this game in the first place.

10 Comments

moogle8908/8/2014, 1:13:24 AM5 votes

I just wish we could hear some reassurance besides "We're working on something that's gonna be awesome." I was very shocked to find out that Kitae, who we knew as the lead Lore Designer for a long time, was no longer that without any sort of announcement.

I honestly think the Lore is taking so long because Riot is having to rebuild Runeterra from the ground up and make it work together instead of being a bunch of random places scattered about. I wish we could have some Q&As or some official open disscussions on Lore development. You value our opinions, why not ask for them? We can help you develop the world in a way that would hopefully please many people.

PhailRaptor8/8/2014, 9:18:22 AM4 votes

Hopefully if we keep making threads/discussions about Lore Riot will have to break down and either do something, or tell us more than "we're working on it, it'll be awesome!". That line gets really old when you hear it for 3 years (Xerath was the final League Judgement I believe, when Lore started fading away).

I want to know what Swain and LB's end-game is for seizing power in Noxus and infiltrating the Institute of War. I want to learn more about the old conflicts leading to the modern Freljordian tribes, between Lissandra, Avarosa, and ... Surilda? Is that how you spell it? On that note, we should probably hear more about the Winter's Claw tribe in general. I want to know what actually happened between Cassi and Sivir when they went to Shurima and "discovered" Xerath there. I want to know more about the Ruined King of the Shadow Isles, and why he is sending such powerful entities to join the League of Legends. I want to know more about Yordles. And I know I'm not alone.

But for some reason, despite much pleading and begging over the intervining years, Riot has said basically nothing. Champion bios have become much less descriptive. And now we are seeing signs that the Institute of War as a whole is slowly being retconned out of existence with no explanation.

Sunfield8/8/2014, 7:42:19 PM2 votes

Honestly, there are so little resources put into it compared to other departments that it could very well not exist. The last lore event was the frejlord one. Other than that, we got remade 1st person narrated lores and a bunch of lines for champions. Compared to the progress that was made in other parts of League... lore falls short. Balance? Lots of work. Artists? Skins, champions and new SR. Client and game updates? New client and performance improvement all across the board.

Lore simply falls behind Riot's standard flow of updates and work.

Impetual8/8/2014, 9:30:10 AM1 votes

Riot has shown us that it can provide high quality lore on a bi-weekly basis with the JoJ. There's no reason I can think of why we should have to wait years to hear about any new developments in Runeterra.

Pryotra8/8/2014, 4:29:58 AM1 votes

Wait, Kitae was sacked from lore duty? Link?

Also, if true, about time. One does not simply say, "plot doesn't matter," and get to keep their lead lore designer position.

Flintfall8/8/2014, 12:45:12 AM1 votes

Obviously lore isn't one of their absolute forefront concerns, so they prob moved lore people around so they could also help out elsewhere.

They probably still help out with lore, though that's taking a decline in what we see (they still come up with a lot of stuff).

King Astroslikk8/7/2014, 11:45:15 PM1 votes

I imagine what happened was that they eliminated the people on the lore department whose only jobs were the lore and kept everyone who could serve the company in other ways. Sure some of the people may technically be part of the "Lore Department," but their real job(s) have very little if anything to do with lore for the game. I'm sure they call upon one of the part-time writers though every time they have a new champion or something coming out. This just goes along with Riot's theme of "hush hush" which gives their fan base a glaring lack of clarity with the company's intentions. Just my thoughts though, no real proof other than the actions they've taken to back these words up.