Boards›[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous

What the Narrative team can do

Omnipherious·9/7/2014, 1:16:11 AM·3 votes·820 views

Fellow lore aficionados,

In the past few days, we got a blog post and the first Rioter responses about lore happenings in a long time. Whether we are happy, disappointed or a mix, isn't the point of this thread. They admit they fucked up with the silence, they agree there were other approaches and possibilities, but to quote Vayne, "The die is cast". Dwelling on what could have been and our displeasure will accomplish little moving forward.

We cannot expect great change to come all at once, even preseason changes come in waves, lore will be no different. Riot has manufactured an opportunity to redo lore and all that is left, is for them to deliver. The brave few who post are getting massacred and it has become clear (to me at least) that even with after the blog post, they are unsure about execution because they are terrified of fucking it up. So, I urge whoever is passionate about lore to join me and help figure out what the Narrative team do to earn our trust back over the next few months.

Context Let us move forward with a couple of things in mind: (1) Lore is basically on a fresh canvas (2) Champions will stay true to their nature (3) Faction relationships and principles are the same (4) Rewrites are inevitable as history of the world is uncertain, ongoing stories unclear (5) Some updates will be delayed (champion[s] tied to texture/gameplay/.. updates OR an event)

So friends, with the above in mind what are the safest things Riot can explore or tell us about? Without giving away future events and all that jazz of course.

All this talk about Runeterra and Worlds... We don't even have a map First thing that comes to mind for me, is information about the world. Right now, there are no pages on the main website that either provide a map of the world or its regions. This is golden opportunity #1 to me. Riot loves interactive pages for storytelling, the recent tease and releases exemplify this. So why not start with a world map clickable regions or events, some darker than others depending on the amount of information available?

For example, we mostly know what needs to be known about the main cities (Demacia, Noxus, Piltover, etc). So hovering over one of those could give us insight into culture, lifestyle and characters we're familiar with while also linking to other relevant events. In the case of Piltover, it's all about progress right? So there should be a little event marker, tab, something, that links to the carnage caused by Jinx (heck, link it to Get Jinxed and add a paragraph of deets).

Places with lots of potential for intrigue like the Plague Jungles, Shurima and Freljord, just display what is known so far, end the descriptions with uncertainty. For example, we know Freljord's ancient past from numerous sources and about the current/recent conflict. No need to divulge how Lissandra killed Avarosa until the event/story is ready, just make a brief note of it. Say that things are uncertain because of whatever reason, link back to those Freljord pages and show the balance of power with the voting results or something. That's plenty of info about Freljord without giving away future stuff, heck, you could add little teasers or easter eggs on the page, I don't know. Same applies to the upcoming stuff for Shurima.

Hell, if shit isn't ready but you are working on it, you could literally just put a "?" on the map that says "upcoming event" or "exploring Runeterra: part 3" when you hover over it. Bam, context provided and expectations managed. Every time a new champion is added or some shit goes down you could have a link back to this interactive map so that new players can continue to discover these stories while old timers can go hunting for new info to speculate away.

I've always wanted to be a baker For the characters that aren't slated for any lore changes (within the foreseeable future), why not update the lore to better reflect the current approach? For those already using the current approach (Lucian, Thresh, Yasuo++), why not add tiny expansions for things related to the world?

For example, what was Yasuo doing during Noxus's invasion of Ionia? Was it a simple he did not take part? Didn't know cause he was already on the run? Where is Lucian? On the Shadow Isles hunting Thresh? Going to and from? Just tiny bits of insight where you can.

For characters that reference Summoners or the Institute, either just replace with what you got for the new or put the little placeholder like the "?" above. For example, if you guys haven't decided how Nocturne fits into all of this you could put a some text about him being an enigmatic entity whose allegiances are unclear or some shit. If you want to add something like, "Oh, he/it is known to be friendly/indifferent to Hecarim but not Mordekaiser", that's cool. If you don't that's okay.

As expected of the one I would call my rival This is another place you could provide context, if you want to. Some relationships are not as cut and dry as Rival/Friend. Some more complex relationships like Garen and Katarina for example, they are Rivals but there is an event, sequence of events or circumstances that make it so (affiliations, duty, nature of their encounters, etc), share if you want.

Your turn Alright guys, what do you think? Do we want a map? You have different ideas for things the Narrative team can do? Let's hear them, but remember the following:

(1) Lore is basically on a fresh canvas (2) Champions will stay true to their nature (3) Faction relationships and principles are the same (4) Rewrites are inevitable as history of the world is uncertain, ongoing stories unclear (5) Some updates will be delayed (champion[s] tied to texture/gameplay/.. updates OR an event)

This is Riot's chance to deliver but the how is uncertain. Let's work within these limits and help them out!

1 Comments

Sneak Dog9/12/2014, 12:26:05 AM1 votes

Apologies, rant incoming. It's just hard not to rant when you've been ignored for so long while you see Riot doing something that seems to go straight against their normal mottos. I do hope I kept it constructive with solid arguments behind the ranting.

My main issue is that they aren't starting on a fresh canvas. They have done the Freljord event and it should be far enough in the past to judge the lore department based on it considering it is part of their new lore. They say they want to maintain champion identities during the retconning, but there's proof of the entire opposite.

Trundle got retconned in the Freljord event and received a thorough update in-game too. Read his old lore and compare this with the troll you see and hear in-game. They're not the same. What I want Riot to do is to go back to Trundle, for he is to me an obvious example of how you don't preserve identities. Until then, I cannot invest in the new lore, for I do not trust Riot to handle this investment well. I can only look at it from a distance with squinty eyes, feeling like I should have been excited but can't be.

Even worse is how close they came to maintaining his identity in his background story. Trundle would have done all those things, it requires only some minor rewriting as to how he did them to make it the old Trundle. I'm not sure who wrote his voice-over lines though, those above all betray Trundles identity.

I haven't heard any Rioter say anything about willingness of going back. I haven't seen any Rioter flat-out say it isn't the same troll, it's always with this bit of uncertainty. It's been so long since this event, I suspect the lore department is just going to go break their word of maintaining identities and keep the new Trundle and let my beloved old Trundle rot (hehe). Either that, or they don't want to 'spoil it' while I'm here incapable of enjoying their new lore due to it.