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What are ways Riot can do an interactive, canon, story-based lore event without effecting game play?

a little shadow·7/16/2017, 2:30:32 PM·5 votes·550 views

I really love some of the characters in League and the Lore is what truly brings them to life in my eyes. The short stories and the countless other ways they are filling out the characters is wonderful. Thank you Riot, you are making something really cool that I truly enjoy. Being able to somehow interact with this universe outside of just playing on summoners rift is something that I really, really want. So naturally events are something that could be really special to me. Unfortunately that hasn't really been the case. I started playing after the Burning Tides event, a little less then a year ago I believe, so I never got to participate in that but looking back and reading all about it and hearing stories from my friends it seems like it was really amazing. So, when I first heard about the Riven vs. Yasuo event I was beyond excited.

Finally, I thought, I get to be part of the universe. However, while the event was still fun, it did not leave the impression I was hoping for. They did a lot of things right I think. Making the event interactive and giving us constant goals with missions was fun. Checking constantly on the battle tracker to see which side was winning(go order) made it feel like I was actually fighting towards something. Having the rewards for the winning side made me want to keep on fighting. However, like I said, I think the event could have been a lot better. My main gripe is that everything that happened didn't actually matter. After words we said gg, everyone got the Yasuo icon, and that was that. No real lasting effects other then that Yasuo emblem reminding me that I lost. There was no actually story implication. Riven didn't actually lose, Yasuo didn't actually win. So while during the event I felt like I was taking part of something, after I felt everything I had done was pointless. Even if my team had won and I had got that sweet sweet Riven icon I'm pretty sure I would feel the same way.

Like I said I didn't actually get to play the burning tides event but looking back on it I feel there were more lasting effects and there was more going on during the event. A new map during the event, Actual champion changes, Champion skin just for playing in the event and new interesting lore that can be enjoyed over and over even afterwards. Other then emblems the only thing I got from this event was the skin that I bought, that anyone can still buy. To be clear I'm not asking to make Dawnbringer Riven a skin that could only be bought during the event, I just want lasting effects so I can feel as if the event actually had some kind of significance. I crave actual progress to story or new content and I am willing to have things change for this to happen. I know that a majority of players would disagree with me however(I heard a lot of people were mad at the disabling of GP for example). Anything that can take away from game play in any way or force something on the player base is going to receive criticism. I realize that. And I think that that, along with other challenges, is why the Riven and Yasuo event was not any kind of canon story. Just a separate, fun, somewhat meaningless event.

TLDR: Which brings me to the point of the entire post. What are ways Riot can have an interactive, canon, story-based lore event without effecting game general play?

I have an idea or two myself that I will post in the comments but I would love to also hear anything the community can come up with.

7 Comments

BLACK REALM GOD7/16/2017, 2:44:34 PM6 votes

easy. you know those shopkeeps on aram? they talk right?... wouldnt it be great if rift and twisted treelines did too?

a little shadow7/16/2017, 2:42:53 PM3 votes

I think a really interesting concept to play around with would be to do something like Overwatch does for their events. A separate game mode. I think this is by far the easiest way to keep normal LoL and lore events apart. The new game modes don't have to be flashy or anything.

One idea I have would be something like a doom bots of doom style tower defense. You could have say Demacia Vs. Noxus event going on lore wise. Noxus is invading. So, picking only champs from Demacia, you and a team of 4 others have to stop the relentless onslaught of the Noxian invasion. After so many waves a Noxian champ comes and will try to siege. Imagine a Darius the size of that giant Teemo! His q range will be brutal, that's for sure. I know this is a lot like the Overwatch Halloween event but I really like the idea of defending against the Noxian army and this is the bst way I could think to do it.

In generally I think playing with the idea of PvE for lore events is a good one. It takes away from being able to make it a constant living battle but makes it a lot more controllable from a writing stand point.

It defintely doesn't have to be PvE though. If Riot were willing and able to make a new map you could easily have on team be Demacia, defending the front gates of the city and one team be Noxus trying to invade. They could even put it on the Aram map with some tweaks.

I'm not allowed to post multiple comments on my own thread so I'll just add more ideas to the bottom of this while I have them.

Missions is something that I think has a lot of potential for story telling. I just really disliked how they made you have to buy in to get the full experience. I bought the Order Pass and didn't feel like It was worth the purchase. I personally didn't do the missions to get a bunch of free stuff. While the free stuff was nice, I looked at the missions as what I needed to do to help the order prevail.(I'm a nerd I know fight me) So having to buy into that kind of sucks. I think missions by themselves shouldn't be the driving force behind an event. It is more to continue to immerse players in what is already happening in the event. Do any of you remember how they changed minions skins for Project or how for worlds they will add banners and emblems in the middle of the map. Missions, in my opinion, should be complementary like that. Going back to my Noxus vs. Demacia example the missions could even be something like "Play 10 games as a champ from Demacia/Noxus" "Kill 10 champs from Noxus" Things like that.

Another feature I think should be talked about is the battle tracker from last event. I really liked that becuase it made everything more real time. However it is kind of a bummer knowing that there will be an outcome you don't get to see also it makes it much harder to plan an elaborate event from Rios perspective. So maybe instead of a team vs team type of thing it could be more of an overall progress bar! Say if riot tends to have Noxus win the invasion it could be a bar of Demacia's remaining troops and when the bar goes down to 0 Noxus gets in. Somjething like this is problematic becuase it would change all of the Demcians lore right? But I think there are ways around that through the other forms of storytelling Riot has proven it could do. I personally love comics and loved the riv v yas comics. So after Noxus gets in we can get a comic of Garen vs Darius in the throne room. Garen wins and sends the army packing with their leader defeated in battle. Wrapping up the event, adding to the lore, but not changing the fundamental set up of the established lore. Maybe having Noxus get all the way to the throne room is pushing it. Maybe it is just a random battlefield(this makes the retreat a lot more realistic but its a professionals job to smooth out the details I'm just brainstorming!)

LoliKnight7/17/2017, 3:17:25 PM1 votes

The Bilgewater harrowing gangplank vgu was done long ago, and we've never had anything of the like ever since. Feels odd tbh. Ofc nothing is going to come off of this unfortunately.

ForgottenLuck7/18/2017, 12:45:20 AM1 votes

I find it would be cool if some of the RGM had different maps, like Nexus Siege be in Mount Targon, with it seems the very own Mountain trying to stop you (the enemy team of course), Bandle city for the Teemoing, and Ascension to be changed to a more Shurima looking Map

KuroCaliber7/18/2017, 1:21:41 PM1 votes

I think it's could happen around another major vgu, as it was gp who got us burning tides. I have my fingers crossed for a major event when Swain vgu rolls around.