Boards›[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous

What could cause the decline of league?

slippykitten·3/19/2015, 7:19:09 PM·2 votes·3,032 views

Looking at a lot of the very very very poor decisions Riot has made, league is still a ton of fun. I was curious what people thought would actually make them stop playing.

Some of the bad decisions that have NOT caused a decline are:

  1. Lore obliterated - like we might as well remove it all together, its so bad my brain hurts even trying to read it. But yet, it isnt a deal breaker

  2. Balance issues - Many of players favorite champs have been reworked, changing their identity entirely. Regardless of whether it was good or bad, players losing their favorite champs hurts, but apparently not that much

  3. Connection troubles - East coast ping still unacceptable, frequent connection issues and ping spikes. But apparently , even for east coast players, not a big enough trouble not to play.

There are many more but what is so interesting is that Riot has made a game so darn fun that people will play it even when they cant even play it! Thats pretty impressive IMO

So tell me, what could riot actually do that would cause you to stop playing?

24 Comments

Eleshakai3/19/2015, 7:41:16 PM4 votes

The only way LoL is going to die is if Riot stops supporting the game.

A small minority will consider every decision Riot makes to be 'terrible', but the majority will generally be fine with it. As long as Riot continues working on the game(doing ranked seasons, new champs, balance work, etc.) people will continue playing it.

You consider the lore to be 'obliterated' I consider the old lore to be deserving of obliteration since it was a complete dead end with only one logical conclusion for every story. Very few champs have 'lost their identity' through balance reworks unless the champion's identity was inherently unhealthy(like Skarner). Most of them have maintained their identity, but people simply choose to not remember those reworks.

I have quit the game, but I still see it as being a success. I just can't ethically support Riot's change to leaverbuster(no I was never punished, warned, or anything), but I don't expect the majority to agree as much as I'd love to see more people approach this game with a healthy mindset but I can't expect that.

Nothing Riot does short of stop TRYING to do things with the game will cause it to die - just like WoW, to be honest.

GundayMonday3/19/2015, 9:25:41 PM2 votes

Stop listening.

Only Play Darius3/20/2015, 5:10:10 PM2 votes

Releasing more champions like Kalista

AMYS GRAVE3/20/2015, 5:40:23 PM2 votes

The new player experience could also cause the decline of lol.

The problem is that this one is more subtle. All the other things you listed (among other things) have each had negative impacts on the playerbase and slowly push people away, but if no new players join then the game shrinks and vanishes into obscurity.

Daen3/19/2015, 7:41:15 PM2 votes

Personally, I actually think that inattention to the community is the most likely thing to kill extremely large market-share games. When a game has been around for a long time and with a large following, mechanics eventually get stale. There are three main things that keep people involved past pure interest in the game:

  • Time/Money Investment
  • Player Loyalty
  • Community Bonding

The first one is pretty obvious, if you spend $300 on skins you're not as likely to decide one day "well that was fun, guess I'll move on" as someone who hasn't put much money or time into it. The second is a bit more subtle, because no one really realizes it's actually a factor until it's too late. If your playerbase isn't loyal to you as a company or your game's ecosystem, other games can become more appealing to them and siphon off your community.

The third is probably the most subtle, because it doesn't do much on its own. It directly affects the other two, however, which is why it's also probably the most important. A community that has lots of strong ties is more likely to have a larger time investment, which correlates with a higher money investment. It's also likely to be more connected and involved with the company, thus heightening loyalty.

OhOkYea3/19/2015, 8:13:05 PM2 votes

half life 3 gets released

DogKing10/30/2015, 1:59:36 PM1 votes

Honestly ive played 5 games of preseason 6 and im done, after playing league for about 1 and a half years now i cant see myself playing with all this new bullshit, at least not regularly maybe once in a while with friends

Katy chan Dragon3/19/2015, 7:34:46 PM1 votes

Leaverbusting me because I got lagged out of a game, due to a problem with the server. I wasn't even the only person who kept getting lagged out. I was running 300 mbps, no other windows open, still had a consistent 7000 ish ping. I exit the game and tried to reconnect, hoping that would help, but the game had ended by the time I could, so I got leaverbusted and that pretty much made me angry enough that there's a pretty good chance I might never play again, which sucks because this game is fun as fuck, but that's just adding insult to injury.

Linna Excel3/19/2015, 7:36:38 PM1 votes
  1. I think balance issues could cause the decline of LOL, you just wouldn't hear about it so readily.
  2. If people stopped buying skins (or riot doesn't make enough money off of them)
  3. A superior MOBA comes along and steals a big chunk of LOL's paying fans
  4. Several smaller niche MOBAs come around and each one steals a small chunk of LOL's paying player base
  5. Steam get a ToA that prohibits you from having LOL on any steam computer you own and deletes your LOL files.
  6. Riot gets bought out by EA, EA ruins the game, and closes riot.
  7. The big one happens and LOL's servers fall into the ocean.
Skilled Theory3/19/2015, 7:21:13 PM1 votes

Taking away ranked play