Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

@Riot question about story mixed into the game play

ImTheSideKick·1/13/2017, 4:31:28 AM·4 votes·3,073 views

Remember how there was a reason for all the champions to be gathered in one place. and all have a Equalized power

example. in old lore: teemo and his poison could hurt a mighty cosmic god and even kill him because the summoners would adjust both of their powers to match one another.

and brought them together to fight each other to settle conflicts that other wise would result in war and deaths. this way no one died

but in current lore there is no way to limit ones powers... Syndra. Aurelian Sol. Kindred. zil even bard would be god tier

even zed master of shadows. morde who basically has a massive army and cant be killed (can but cant.. who can get to his remains? ) Illinois who has a god fight for ... sorry.. with her or ekko who can rewind time to repeat a fight till he wins.. taric cuz powers

all of these would be way stronger then lets say... teemo... ashe.. trist... J4. garen and so on

Anyways my Question is. will we be getting a new reason why all these champions are brought together and are fighting? why would ashe fight her husband tryda? or vi fight her partner cait? why would peace loving karma fight a time rewinding good kid, and sure we all can see why Garen would fight Darius or Kat but why would he fight J4?

I know there doesn't need to be a reason why or how they can fight each other, but wouldn't it be cool if there was? again XD

31 Comments

RiotFauxSchizzle1/13/2017, 5:39:42 PM9 votes

My perspective: It's exactly as you stated. Limiting a champion's power for them to be brought into an arena severely limits the kinds of characters we can create. Suddenly, my job would be less about creating (hopefully) compelling characters with flaws and disproportionate power levels or gods and myths, and more about figuring out justifications and explanations for why champions are not at their full potential or how a yordle could kill a star god. This isn't to say we are eschewing rules, but rather embracing a different set. As a writer, I don't want to have to explain gameplay via story and character. My goal is to have story and character enhance the game play fantasy.

Again, as someone who was not involved in the decision, but is working within League on the narrative team, this is how it impacts my role, and the strengths that I see in divorcing gameplay from the story world. Is it painful to players who loved the old lore? It would be remiss of me to ignore it or write it off. Our goal is to be true to the characters over the old story, because everything is character.

The story world opens up when you don't have to justify why Kennen can zap Kindred to death (?) or why Tahm Kench can devour Bard in game. Instead, we can focus on characters, relationships, their world, and their stories, all of which reinforce the gameplay.

Does this help? Please forgive me if I inserted my foot in my mouth somewhere.

Yadid1/13/2017, 6:50:11 PM2 votes

They used to be connected, you're right. That's one of the things I've found missing in this revamping of the Lore. Orianna had a purpose for being in the League and on the Rift. Now we have a different backstory and a really fleshed out character - and that's fine. The only odd thing is it leaves out the "Why are we here?". While the new lore gives you a personal feel for the champion and enables you to get 'into' the abilities and personality from the "TLC" champ dev gives, it leaves out a core component tying this amazing lore to the very game itself. Why are they in the League? Why are they fighting? This is where the old lore's emphasis of such was brilliant. It put the players (read: summoners) into the lore as a final component of each champion's story in order weave a complete narrative of what League of Legends is.

Variks the Loyal1/13/2017, 7:28:22 AM2 votes

There's no reason why champions are fighting in Summoner's Rift. Doesn't need to be.

Us playing games of League is akin to playing with action figures and toy cars in a playset. It's just for us to have fun with. It holds no bearing on the story. As such, Riot doesn't need to be limited in what champions they can make. They can have someone as powerful as Aurelion Sol, and someone as small and inconsequential as Teemo, and make engaging stories with them both because they don't need to be connected.

GemCrash1/13/2017, 8:16:55 PM2 votes

I still haven't seen a single piece of new lore that is better than its old version by far. I used to be a crazy fan of lore and digged so deep into it. But with more and more lore rewritten into garbage it finally reached a point I don't care about lore anymore. --------------a player from season 2

Solidair31/13/2017, 10:43:16 PM1 votes

I sincerely hope not. Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I'm not interested in hearing about teemo's battle against aurelion sol.

I really don't care about that. I want to hear about their motivations.

TyrekGoldenspear1/13/2017, 9:02:04 PM1 votes

I mean, the old lore didn't have very good reasons besides the all-powerful summoners doing everything. But that just feels like the easy way out.

I'm pretty sure League gets away with this the same reason Overwatch does.

Think of the League lore being like a big storybook with all the lore and media all intertwined, the game itself is like a battle arena where the fans get to play their favorite champs. Granted this line of thought would make more sense if a movie came out...

nosafterburn1/13/2017, 9:06:06 PM1 votes

Garen v. J4 fight? I can totally hear it now...

Garen : (lookin in fridge)Hey bro, have you seen my pudding cup? (looks up to see said pudding cup getting finished)

Garen : WHAT. THE. HELL?!

JarvanIV : pfft... Royal privilages are the best. Thanks for the snack it was tasty. Next time get triple chocolate; strawberry-vanilla is for losers.

Garen : DEMACIA!!!!!

XinZhao : My leige have you seen my pokki?..... OMG GAREN WTH ARE YOU DOING?!

EROTIC RAID BOSS1/13/2017, 7:00:33 PM1 votes

I think you just gotta accept that league of legends is what the name implies. It's legendary figures from runeterra of all different levels of power. Like ssb or other fighting games you cant really justify everyone being equally powerful with a story device. It's just awkward