Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Should League have an Official Webcomic?

Igotlazy·12/10/2015, 11:06:44 PM·78 votes·5,828 views

http://i.imgur.com/K5Ztcuy.png

**There was at one point in time, a MOBA by the name of Dawngate being developed by EA. Though it looked promising, it was eventually cancelled due the game's inability to develop a large community by the end of it's Open Beta. I'm bringing up this story because Dawngate had an incredibly interesting way of developing it's lore which I honestly think League should adopt. It had a Webcomic, known as "The Dawngate Chronicles". **

Here's an example of some of the pages. https://cmmedia.global.ssl.fastly.net/459a1345f29ce1ed0455/24892348/960x1250.jpeg https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/disp/5ed4f717114079.562b5e739f1ed.jpg

The comic was updated 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and had a few story arcs throughout it's run, usually with the focus of familiarizing readers with the Heroes in the game. It was good, like really freaking good. The art was amazing, the stories were engaging and fun, being able to see the characters you play as interact with their world and other Heroes, it was all just so well done. It is in my eyes, how MOBA lore should be handled. The Poppy and Ekko comics are some of the most well received pieces of Lore ever created, Why can't a Webcomic be the main way League's stories are told?

86 Comments

paradoxiq12/11/2015, 4:49:05 AM14 votes

Hi League ppls! I was Dawngate's EP. Just got pointed here by the twitters and wanted to write a thing ...

Story is ironically challenging in this genre: MOBAs are games defined by characters, yet the gameplay can't afford the moments required to develop those characters beyond their mechanics. Nor should it: games are not stories, and in MOBA, the expression of skill through the character is not only paramount, it's really all that matters. Gameplay first. No time for cut-scenes in a 10 player pvp game!

But good stories and the characters that bring them to life are fucking beautiful, and they make the expression of the character through those mechanics so much more meaningful and fun! Somehow, games are stories, or they want to be ... they certainly share something core with them through agency and the resulting connection we all have as players.

So while gameplay was always paramount, we also invested in deep world-building for Dawngate, and in funny ideas like match-up specific VO between characters, and in vehicles like the Dawngate Chronicles web comic to explore how to could bring characters to life. To be honest, It was all for science. We did it because we dug it and believed in it and we wanted to bring gameplay and story closer together: some of it worked, some of it didn't.

So on behalf of the crew who brought the Dawngate Chronicles to life: so glad you guys dug it ... we all loved making it!

"Splash of color!" :)

Necron XCIX12/11/2015, 4:26:51 AM9 votes

Favourite page in the whole comic

http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dawngate.gamepedia.com/5/58/5.3.jpg

While I eventually stopped playing the game for various reasons, I absolutely adored the comic and I was sad to see it die out along with the game. I would love to see LoL attempt something similar

ViashinoWizard12/11/2015, 2:22:21 AM8 votes

Man, I miss Dawngate. Salous was my favorite hero in any moba I've played.

turkeyBACON12/11/2015, 3:48:55 AM8 votes

Kinda surprised King of Masks hasn't shown up yet in this thread.

Back on topic, while I think a comic would be great for league I'm not convinced that Riot has an actual overarching narrative story for the game. League has the problem that it might just have too many "main" characters that it might be nearly impossible to give a satisfying storyline for each. Maybe Riot could pull it off but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Leadpaintchips12/10/2015, 11:46:49 PM7 votes

What is up with people bringing up Dawngate recently? It DID have some amazing lore around it, and the gameplay had some really good ideas put into it, but it's been dead for a long time.

It just makes me sad that I can't play that anymore. . . .

BeastOG12/11/2015, 4:43:50 AM4 votes

Man I miss that game. I had such a fun time whenever I got on. And don't get me started on the amazingness that was Renzo. It was the game that solidified my hatred of EA as a company when they shut it down. [zombie-nunu-bummed]

Fuzzyears12/11/2015, 10:16:50 PM3 votes

I miss Dawngate. I had so much fun playing their version of support. (Mina FTW)

Blitzidious12/11/2015, 2:26:35 AM3 votes

I wouldn't say it was the games fault for not bringing in enough players, or the company that made it, I'd say it's more EA's fault for having the Universal name of "Worst fucking company ever".

Ralanr12/10/2015, 11:13:57 PM3 votes

I really liked the comic despite never getting into the game. It allowed for some interesting storytelling.

But a webcomic would remove any hope of connecting the lore and gameplay. I know they aren't trying to do that, but I'm holding out hope.

Beyond Legends12/11/2015, 7:07:07 AM2 votes

As much I like the idea of a web comic for League, I feel like currently it is just not ready for such things. Runeteraa or Valoran is still very under develop as a whole and I would rather see them fleshing those out rather than a daily or weekly web comic.