As others already know, I'm not on the lore or narrative team - but I am nosy and ask questions about it when I can. Hope I qualify for the 'any Rioter' requirement for the thread!
The answer to "Are things progressing?" is a solid YES.
Now, to give what little else I know (and it is very little - I'm sorry).
The tl;dr is - Stuff is being worked on, think in terms of months, stay suspicious!
The tech issues - those are the ones with probably the clearest timeline that I've found. No, I can't tell you what's involved or when, but it's not just a lore issue - it affects a few other areas too. Which (cynically?) is probably why it has a fire under it to hurry up. Think in terms of less than a year, more than a month - but as with all things, that is a development best guess and could turn into 'never'. This one is at least on the good side of likely.
**Lores **- This one is harder to talk about, even than the vague stuff above. They write them (and I know a writer who seems a bit sad that their character story hasn't got to you guys yet) but there have been shifts in focuses for the team. Might be due to the fallout from the retcon, might be due to changes in leadership. Might be for other reasons that I don't even have awareness of! I heard some optimistic news recently that would answer this question soundly, but again - it's several months out AT THE EARLIEST. That particular news may turn into 'never' but realize that I don't mean lores in general. Like - I could say that "burger = never" but you'd still get food at some point, just not that particular burger. Man, I hope I don't get fired for this burger analogy.
Discussions - Oh hell yes. So much discussion. I sometimes get to sit in on them, which is a great window into the process for me (and helps me develop my skills in other disciplines - always be learning!) Discussions are being had at all levels of the narrative side. The one regular discussion I regularly go to has discussions and decisions on the regions and cities and cultures, on the underlying metaphysics and belief systems, on the relationships between the champions, and more. That's only the one I'm in, which is a long, low burning one. There are more I don't see.
Fan opinions - Yes. Opinions looked at, yes. I won't say anything about the fan-fiction side of things (because that's a hornets nest and no mistake) but opinions on champions etc. are definitely looked at. Several times there have been calls to discuss champions (which went badly and/or weren't attended by red-names enough) because it's one way to find out what *elements *of a champion you guys really latch on to.
I know that the changes to Xerath and Trundle etc. pissed some people right off - and I could, in my innately diplomatic way, try to argue that the underlying core of both of them didn't change depending on your perspective (and you could all shout me down and call me a traitor - as is your right - especially as I'm not a Xerath or Trundle main) but if you have a champ that you want to make clear what the core motivation or struggle is - then writing about it here and having other players confirm and discuss it with you will have a non-zero chance of being read.
For example - I'm a Sona main - there was a discussion started by a player here a while ago about Sona, her kit, her old lore, and what we, the players, thought was her core. To me personally - I think that she probably has an unhealthy protector/oppressor relationship with her etwahl instrument - and if I were called to rewrite her lore, then I'd probably ensure that element was the core of it. Now, if someone else here felt that Sona's core motivation was her need to be the center of a crowd (maybe inspired by her aura-creating kit) then they'd ensure THAT was the linchpin of her story.
Now - don't worry - I'm not writing any lores here! (I'm actually trying to write some spare-time fan-fiction of my own, but reddit won't give me any writing feedback - bah.) But I'm saying that some champs have several aspects to them. Maybe it's a 'desire for power' - and some interpret that as a desire for magical power, and someone else interprets it as a desire for political power via magic.
So yes, I'm pretty sure they read your opinions - because they want to know what resonates most strongly with us all. Otherwise sometimes they hear 'blue' and go 'cyan', when someone else meant 'periwinkle'. (Bear in mind, that if every single shade of blue is shouted as the 'most critical' shade, then something's gotta give).
Commence the keelhauling!
