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The Institute of War is actually a great plot device.

GuiltyGecko·9/5/2014, 3:47:08 AM·76 votes·3,447 views

I'm writing this from my phone, so bare with me.

So as many of you know, Riot is getting rid of the Institute of War, Summoners, and the League. The reason given, is that these items are constraining. Now, I don't want to insult the Lore writers at Riot, but as a Web comic writer, I have learned a lot about how plots develop and evolve.

I'm incredibly baffled, that Riot would throw away such an incredibly creative trope in favor of a separate story and gameplay experience. What am I talking about? It's called the Obstructive Code of Conduct. Basically, it is a plot device put in place by the author that is supposed to NEVER be broken by characters of the story, but the thing that drives the plot is how the characters deal with, bypass, or ignore the code/plot device.

For example, in Star Trek, there is the Prime Directive. Basically no one is allowed to contact developing species. Did the writers of Star Trek just say "Welp, guess we can never have Captain Kirk crash land on an alien planet." Hell no! The Prime Directive was a rule, a plot device, that was made to be broken! Other examples? Harry Potter: Never say you know who's name. Lord of the Rings: Never wear the ring.

League of Legends? It's supposed to stop war and solve conflicts. That doesn't mean it has to work! That's the story right there! Break your own rules! That's what creates a driven storyline! How did the war start? Why can't the League stop it? Who is involved and why? These are all ways to explore the Lore, and this is just one simple idea!

My point is, the Institute of War isn't constraining at all. It's only constraining IF YOU LET IT BE, but as Jinx probably would say

"The League of Legends, was made to be broken." - Jinx

42 Comments

TwoPacalypse9/5/2014, 4:15:44 PM7 votes

The Institute made perfect sense in the context of league. It let you have incredible powerful champions, and gave them reasons to fight.

An equivalent real world situation would be if all the nations of the world gave all their nuclear weapons to the U.N. and gave them the power to regulate world conflict. Any time there was a dispute, it would be settled by an arena style battle between nations in question, with the winner achieving the same result as winning a war without killing innocents or decimating countries.

It let you explain why champions could die over and over in a game.

It explained why the game was held in an enclosed arena, instead of a battlefield.

It let riot implement lore events (The Ionia vs. Noxus game).

It even allowed for champion interaction via lore outside of the league of legends!

DG Ashabel9/5/2014, 7:55:11 AM6 votes

I said this on Surrender @ 20 and I'm going to simply copy/paste that comment here, because my thoughts are very in tune with your own.

"I both welcome the change and think they've gone a bit too far with it.

I think taking out the Summoners and Fields of Justice as the core driving force of the story is a good idea. That said, I feel Institute of War had an interesting spot in the narrative as a kind of UN of Valoran, an unwieldy organization cobbled together from representatives of all nations that is desperately trying to keep the continent from not falling apart into yet another Rune War and mostly failing.

I agree that it shouldn't be a godlike presence in champions' lives, but they should've stuck with it existing within the setting."

I'll add that there is plentiful room for nerfing Institute's influence. Last time we heard of continuous lore, Institute suffered a huge blow to their credibility due to the war in Kalamanda. Why not use that incident as an explanation for the Institute losing most of their power and falling back into a more investigative role, with only a few agents who work hard to keep peace between nations but not necessarily succeed. Turn the Institute into S.H.I.E.L.D., pretty much.

It's ironic that they keep mentioning old X-Men comics as "one of those things that are no longer canon but still widely enjoyed", given that all of those comics are still canon. In fact, there is no easier way to lose your fans in comic books than executing large exaggerated retcons like these. Don't believe me? Look at Taskmaster and how he flopped from one of Marvel's most popular super-villains to the rock bottom of their charts when they changed his lore. He was featured in video games like Marvel vs. Capcom 3 back before the retcon. Now it took an April's Fool Gag for Marvel Heroes developers to sneak him in.

VardenSalad9/5/2014, 6:45:57 AM4 votes

This discussion boils down to this:

How does Riot fund their game? Money from players.

What does the absolute lowest common denominator player like more than anything? Winning.

What does the absolute lowest common denominator player dislike more than anything? Losing.

What happens when only a very, very small segment of your playerbase actually gives a shit about the direction of your game enough to make a way-too-fucking-long post in the comment section of a thread with no likes, upvotes, bumps, whatever? That group has no power. Because group size is power. And power is money.

So, to sum up, you have a very, very large fanbase you're currently pandering to that wasn't around in the beginning of your game to watch the current lore be put in place and integrate into the community. You want their money, but they don't like that they don't understand what's going on: why is X champ Y blah-League-blah-Darius-blah-Swain? They're confused and reactionary, fickle and quick to spurn novel ideas or concepts. But you need to keep them; they're already here, correct? What's the easiest way to not stop the hype-train? Do absolutely nothing different. Welcome to the past 3 years of League.

You also have an intensely rabid, but small segment that puts in the effort and cares about your game, why people do what they do in it, why the design looks a certain way; basically, why you built the game in the first place. This group has a voice out of proportion with its size. However, your game is large. These people were your lifeblood for the early times, but you no longer need them to sustain growth. "I will not be cowed by faithful since-beta lore nerds!" you cry triumphantly. "I can do whatever I wish; I have the money. I have the power. I can make it so that this group will never leave, because they never have before. These faithful beta-nerds will still be here."

You press go, and the machine prints money. You used to remember that there was a reason outside of just making money that the game existed, but you shrug and conclude that you must have made the product to make a buck, there can be no other reason to make a game, right?

Right?

Zeta9/5/2014, 4:19:46 AM4 votes

EXACTLY. Anything that creates obstacles for characters is potential for a story.

PhoenixSlayer139/5/2014, 4:45:17 AM4 votes

There's a slight problem with that though.

The Institute of War was shown to be nigh omnipotent in the Journal of Justice. They actively controlled champions, stopped wars with time magic, and more. People would start to question why the Institute got so impotent if you put your idea into effect.

sp4419/5/2014, 5:38:36 AM3 votes

They planned this for two years guys, doesn't matter how much you squirm, the IoW is gone.

I highly suggest you take a break, go make some tea, take in deep breaths, and come back with a clear mind and come to terms with it. It sucks, I know it, but there isn't much else that can be done.

I just hope that Riot actually follows through with it for once, and actually start cranking out lore at a rapid rate.

...But let's be realistic here, they're only exploring the lore through yearly regional events that retcon beloved characters.

CupcakeTrap9/8/2014, 9:41:44 AM2 votes

Runaan's recent post again fails to address the central problem: that the game League of Legends no longer has any backstory.

The first task of a game's backstory is to explain the game. That can be simple, e.g. Street Fighter II with "they have a giant tournament to find out who's the most awesome fighter", or it can be complex, e.g. Mass Effect. Wherever it falls along that spectrum, it performs the same basic function: it explains what's going on when the game is played.

Riot's narrative team seems fixated on running off in some other direction to write a bunch of fiction about characters from the game, which has absolutely nothing to do with the game itself. Say what you will about the original plot: it added some flavor to the game. I enjoyed the in-universe feel of Riot beginning emails and such with "Greetings, Summoners!" It seems the Narrative team does not find that kind of immersion valuable.

They wring their hands and agonize about how it's just impossible to write good stories with the League (I happen to disagree) … but don't seem at all troubled with saying, "yeah, we'll keep calling you Summoners, and, uh, I guess the Champions will keep their lines for now, but no, we don't have any idea what that's supposed to mean."

Something as trivial as "the League is now an arena where Champions come to hone their skills" would at least fill that crucial gap.

I do not want to hear any Rioter making snarky comments about the old lore being "an excuse plot". That is the first layer of every game's backstory, and the greater embarrassment is not getting a little too enthusiastic about explaining every detail of gameplay, as the old lore did, but in completely failing to establish this primary layer, as is the case with the new lore.

kiloechoesp9/5/2014, 8:27:39 AM2 votes

My problem with the plot? The ending is spoiled. Every plotline leads to the same thing: the fields of Justice.

You know exactly how it goes: the champion joins the fields of justice and stays there for the rest of their life. The end.

dialMARK4acti0n9/5/2014, 9:29:41 AM2 votes

Why I do respect your opinion, the League's story was never about "the League" it was about the characters. Story can't progress unless the League is non-canon. Otherwise, it's like: "Oh I joined League, so I guess I'll never find about who killed my master! Oh Riven? Naaaaah..."

IMTOOJUICY9/5/2014, 6:38:07 PM2 votes

The Institute itself is a feasible concept, imo. However, I think the summoner concept is flawed for a video game universe, especially if Riot aims to flesh out the LoL verse in the form of a full-length movie (this is a major driving factor, I bet). You can only learn about prominent summoner characters like Reginald by reading about them, not playing as them in-game. If Reginald was introduced in some LoL movie, this would create confusion for people who only play the game and never bothered to read any lore addenda.

I mean, if you could play as Reginald on SR (Reginald, the Summoner Champion!), then he's no longer... a summoner... he's a champ now.