Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Leave the VO alone. If we're "still Summoners in the game", then let us be Summoners in the game.

CupcakeTrap·10/15/2014, 4:28:46 PM·93 votes·8,555 views

http://i.imgur.com/65hgUYh.jpg

The Narrative team has expressly stated that it is severing the link between lore and gameplay. It is now preparing to replace LoL's lore with new lore that does not involve the League of Legends or Summoners, but does use some of the characters from the game. When asked why there were still Summoner Spells and a Summoner's Cup, and why the map was still called Summoner's Rift, Narrative answered (somewhat dismissively) that "you're still Summoners in the game."

I propose we hold them to that.

The Narrative team felt "constrained" by the League of Legends, and says it needs complete freedom in creating its new fiction. That's a subject for another day. Here, I'd like to make a more limited request:

If we're "still Summoners in the game", then stop stripping Summoner references from the voicework.

Narrative has given up on explaining Summoner's Rift or the matches fought on the Fields of Justice within its lore. It has no plans for providing a story context for the matches we play. That being the case, I propose that the League and Summoners continue to be used within the game itself.

Much of the most entertaining Champion voicework relies upon the idea that the Champion is telepathically linked with a Summoner (the player) who is assisting and advising them on the Fields. This increases immersion by connecting players with their Champions, and offers an opportunity to flesh out the Champions' personalities without having them mumble to themselves like lunatics.

Chogath Cho'gath sees stains upon your soul. Perfect. MissFortune Miss Fortune thinks you have dangerous eyes. She likes that. Veigar Veigar accuses you of telling a short joke. Lux Lux urges you to stay positive. Nocturne Nocturne is in your mind and wants to know how that feels. Does he scare you, Summoner? Swain Swain is already five steps ahead of you.

Summoner's Rift doesn't exist in the new lore, at least not yet, but it's allowed to stay in the game. I don't see why Summoners need to be singled out for erasure, especially when doing so is detrimental to immersion, and cuts out valuable opportunities for interesting or entertaining dialogue.

93 Comments

Merxamers10/15/2014, 4:36:38 PM59 votes

Mordekaiser reminds you that you only need to click once, fool!

Hyrum Graff10/15/2014, 5:06:26 PM27 votes

I think that it makes the most sense to remake the fields of justice to inlude summoners as cannon, like so:

Write a single story that involves us as summoners. We don't live in Runeterra, at least not at the same time as the champs. For example, maybe we're humans, on earth, in the future, and Esports has evolved into the way that nations settle disagreements (instead of wars). When we do battle on the rift, we're actually summoning the essence of the strongest heroes of legend. That's why it's called the league of legends: the champions are literally from legends. Now it makes sense, how champions can "die" yet return to the battlefield. Once this is established as cannon, Riot never needs to tell a story set outside of Runeterra again, if they don't want to, because all that's needed to establish a champ in the league is them being worthy of legend (although I think there's a lot of potential if they wanted to tell a story set in the future here).

Note that the earth example is just one - you could take a similar situation, but set in the future of Runeterra, so we're summoning our own historical figures to do battle for us.

Digitality10/16/2014, 12:03:03 AM20 votes

I dislike the excuse that they're feeling restricted in the first place. It's the hallmark of every bad fanfic writer that cannot work within the terms of an existing setting to tell their story. The art of contrivance is a fundamental core skill that any good writer should have developed early in their career. A lot of old lore did need to be updated, and I wholly understand that part. Such editing could have been done in a way that didn't destroy the existing framework though. Quite easily given how relatively loose the setting was to begin with. There were already numerous untapped plot hooks that had yet to be explored which could've achieved the goal.

Gunpoint10/15/2014, 11:43:52 PM14 votes

Woah woah woah, where are the six wizards... The six wizards who channel the energy from the moon into the Nexus. Uh, Riot, this game doesn't make any sense anymore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTuN7ZJ0g50

LeeDark10/15/2014, 6:20:55 PM13 votes

I'd honestly prefer they try to introduce the lore into the actual game. The disconnect between the lore and the game is the major problem I had with the retcon. To just give up and admit there is NO connection whatsoever is to declare that immersion is completely unimportant. Personally, for me, it would eliminate any reason to care about the new lore at all.

Legacy of Xion10/16/2014, 4:34:52 PM11 votes

Mfw people keep assuming Summoners were gods.

Meh. People dont even know the lore.

Riften10/15/2014, 8:07:58 PM10 votes

I agree, I actually fell in love with League for the current lore and the idea that these champions were being advised on the Summoner's Rift. I was so sad to hear it was going away.

Beardyface8610/17/2014, 7:50:40 AM8 votes

I honestly think they can maintain at least the summoner aspect of the lore to add that immersion. Otherwise, almost all of the terminology becomes meaningless. (League Of Legends) So there's no league(Game Name)? Ok, that's not an optimal choice because some champs(JaxLeeSin ) actually draw their interesting story from the league(Game Name). If Valve can somehow maintain the immersion of the same 9 people on 2 different teams(TF2) killing each other for nearly 7 years, I think this lore can provide even basic immersion for its players. Summoners are US, summoners are how we connect to the game. Riot might as well just write fanfic about its characters because the actual games going on are nonsensical. At least the League gave us players a reason to feel like there was some sense to the team compositions. AND KUDOS TO RIOT FOR DECIDING WANTING TO TAKE OUT THE VERY NAMESAKE OF THEIR GAME.

Its like if Skyrim had nothing to do with the actual land of Skyrim.

weihe12310/16/2014, 2:19:12 AM6 votes

how will it work with Ahri ? she needs the league to sustain her human form... other wise she'll just be a fox...

YouLostMe10/15/2014, 5:33:14 PM2 votes

What VOs did they remove references to summoners from?

GenoXx10/15/2014, 4:50:33 PM2 votes

Well, for some reason, people are still bitching about the summoners thing. Even after they were told of upcoming lore.....meh