Riot Opeli: "why is it imperative that a 5v5 game is deeply connected to our characters?"

Impetual·Oct 24, 2014·72 votes·5,351 views

The Quote is in this link: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/miscellaneous/GPEPBymN-riot-it-should-be-pretty-clear-now-that-the-community-is-enraged-by-your-decisions-involving-lore

Because the whole point of having a narrative within a game is to deeply tie the characters to the game play, That is what gives players a sense of investment into the world that the game takes place in.

Here's my question to Riot:

Why wouldn't you try to deeply connect your characters to your game?

88 Comments

GrossOct 24, 201437 votes

Ehhhh, with a game that has a lore including 100+ '' main characters '' you are bound to have most of them interact with each other. Otherwise you just have a story with 100+ loose characters, and that's one chaotic ass mess.

IoW was a great way to link these champions to each other, and make the world feel like whole. But now, most of them don't even know each other, even though in my game, they play against each other, or for each other.

Deleting the one aspect that made the story a whole, makes it scattered and inconsistent, and also makes the gameplay more shallow. You just digest what's on the screen, NOTHING ELSE.

OnegarionOct 24, 201413 votes

I don't want to say that the retcons themselves are bad, but the way in which they approached it. I'm not happy like others with the retcons, but if they had a plan before they changed everything with having something fill that void with instead I don't think it would be as big of a shock. We got instead just a dismissed lore and nothing to fill it with. If they had something to fill it with we would have something to truly discuss instead of just anger about it being removed. It would let us discuss the difference and how it fits and maybe make people calm down, but thats not what we got. If they had just filled the void there wouldn't be this lore change as much.

OyddAWqJ5rOct 24, 201411 votes

I don't understand though. They say the League was impeding their ability to tell the stories of individual champions but in reality what does the League prevent? If anything they can just have Noxus or some powerful champion blow it up if they really want it gone. The summoners in the IoW are only as powerful as RIOT deems them to be. So if they don't want them to be an all powerful force that settles all disputes then they should make them simply a powerful faction that attempts to settle all disputes. Emphasis on "attempts". So basically, the only thing they have to retcon is their original decision of having the highest summoners being all powerful.

I wonder how many people are in this lore department. Obviously not enough if they can't come to this simple conclusion. This way all the current lores are still relevant and can still be expanded on like they already were.

OnegarionOct 24, 20145 votes

The problem though stems from both what I have said and the repercussions they have with deleting the IoW from the lore and moreover removing summoners. With the removal of summoners there essentially is no lore. The reason for the IoW was to stop wars that involved the incredibly powerful summoners leading the armies and causing much havoc and destruction during the wars. Now they act to control champions from the factions around Runterra to settle disputes humanely instead of through full scale war.

Now without the use of summoners then what is the purpose of the champions fighting? Where did they find these champions? Who picks the champions? Why is it 5v5? Who makes the rules? Why are there no more wars? There are so many questions that get opened up and many more than those that I asked.

I think if they had started from the beginning instead of this spastic retons. If I was the lead of this project I would have started from square one. Explain the new history of league. They don't have to go so far back as the old lore did, but just a basis. Then I would work on each champion that was started out from the beginning to get a good groundwork of the way the nations function and feel about each other changing what was needed. I would change lore as new champions like Azir came out to make it not seem so confusing why those around them still have the old lore.

I wouldn't do like they have it now and start with event only retcons (which isnt' bad in itself) and doing random retcons like Maokai out of the blue that don't really add up. During events they should have already had the full lore ready to go before the event started and slowly release the lore. They should not take weeks to release the full lore, but slowly divulge it through the course of the event. This is where I think only doing retcons around events is bad. You can't leave these wholes open and I think it goes back to what my initial comment was in that you can't take away without adding back first.

OyddAWqJ5rOct 25, 20146 votes

Well, whoever said that summoners led the armies. Both champions and summoners led the armies which for all we know could mean a champion is just as powerful as a summoner is. The main difference between the two is that summoners fight mainly using large scale magic attacks to eliminate many enemies at once whereas champions are more diverse in the way they fight but could very well be just as dangerous. And then there's champions who have received some sort of enhancement from a summoner before a battle, most likely making them stronger than a summoner in one on one combat or on par if they weren't already on par before.

Anywayyy. The purpose of champions fighting without summoners is just like why they would fight with summoners. They fought for any reason that gave enough reason to start a fight. It had nothing to do with summoners--they were just tools used in those fights.

Some champions were found and drafted (mainly uncontrollable threats to the general populace that no particular faction controlled ie. Cho Gath) while others became recognized as powerful warriors and joined willingly so that they could represent their side as a champion.

The champions are chosen by their city-states summoners most likely and the ones with no allegiance to any particular side are probably up for grabs for any summoner. Basically, Ezreal aside, champions are aware of when a League match will be occuring and probably discuss who should be chosen with their summoners. Then those chosen just wait to be summoned.

I don't know if they are always 5v5, but I'd assume all League conflicts are resolved in that form. Then again, TF and CS exist. Maybe both sides of the match agree upon which arena they wish to have their fight on?

The rules are made by the IoW. Most likely by the eldest summoners of them.

There are no more wars because the IoW either prevents them from happening altogether or stops them early on. And this generally never happens because noone is foolish enough to start a war with the IoW around. But whose to say they couldn't assassinate the most powerful summoners of the IoW and then take them down altogether? Or have multiple factions form temporary alliances to oppose the IoW?

There's definitely more than enough room for further exploration into this lore--and the IoW isn't stopping any of it.

Sneak DogOct 25, 20144 votes

I believe the field of justice closest to the battling factions is chosen.

OyddAWqJ5rOct 28, 20144 votes

Would make sense. But then again, Twisted Treeline? I feel like that one is never used then. Unless they allow 1v1's so Lucian can keep formally challenging Thesh. But I feel like he already kills everything on the Isles even with the IoW existing. Cuz I mean, plenty of people die to assassinations and skirmishes and whatnot. IoW can't stop every minor conflict.

OnegarionOct 26, 20142 votes

I dont 'think you know anything about the history of Runeterra. SUmmoners were the strongest individuals in all of Runeterra. Having one on your side gave a major force. A single summoner was the deciding factor. They were pretty much all powerful. Until a group of them decided to found the IoW there was relatively constant fighting by the records. Champions would not have the power to stand against a summoner at least very very few.

Next there is no purpose for them to fight in organized fights without something orchestrating them. The reason for the fights were to decide matters of the states. The famous Noxus/Ionia battle, which was really played in real time, is a prime example of why they fought. Read the JoJ about it and you'll find out about it. It was a huge deal. Continuing to read the JoJ you find more times where matches took place to decide the fate of issues between nations.

While the champions themselves may have been drafted only a few were permitted without a judgement. This was where the council decided whether you were able to be a true champion. While we only have a limited number of judgements it peers into the way that the council decides. They seek to make sure you are able and willing to allow someone fully into your mind to allow the control that one has during matches. If they didn't pass the judgement they were not allowed to be a champion. Those that got away with this are the ones that they wanted to keep a close watch on and the best way is fighting for them.

They wren't chosen by their city states at all. They became apart of that city state after they were selected i mean come on. THis is kinda like Runterra 101. Mundo was not a favored champion until he started winning for Zuan. Then he became the celebrity he is. He wasn't chosen by the people first, but after success. Some people just made more sense to be champions for their nation than others.

The point of my entire post is completely lost on you. I never once discussed as to why the old lore was bad or anything. Read it again and maybe you'll understand. I'm talking about the retcon and how they conducted it. They needed to go back to the beginning and set the landscape as a whole and not leave the old back story or holes in the story. Now it just seems like a terrible mash of lore. Those questions were posed to be answered with the assumption that the new lore was enacted and there are no Summoners and therefore no IoW. You completely ignored that entire part and attempted to show fa-lase in something completely different than the original discussion. Again plz reread what I originally posted and then answer again if you so choose.

OyddAWqJ5rOct 26, 20146 votes

I dont 'think you know anything about the history of Runeterra. SUmmoners were the strongest individuals in all of Runeterra. Having one on your side gave a major force. A single summoner was the deciding factor. They were pretty much all powerful. Until a group of them decided to found the IoW there was relatively constant fighting by the records. Champions would not have the power to stand against a summoner at least very very few.

Where does it say this? I've been here since the middle of S1 when LoL was first starting out. I've payed attention to all the lore and journals of justice. Never have I heard this.

DreamspitterOct 27, 20141 votes

I dont 'think you know anything about the history of Runeterra. SUmmoners were the strongest individuals in all of Runeterra. Having one on your side gave a major force. A single summoner was the deciding factor. They were pretty much all powerful. Until a group of them decided to found the IoW there was relatively constant fighting by the records. Champions would not have the power to stand against a summoner at least very very few.

Where does it say this? I've been here since the middle of S1 when LoL was first starting out. I've payed attention to all the lore and journals of justice. Never have I heard this.

Magic.

#Mogran Pass under attack (LoL Concept Art)

Remember this is the magic that made the world unstable. http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101003195051/leagueoflegends/images/e/e2/Mogron_Pass_concept.jpg

#More Uber Mage vs Hapless soldiers (MtG) http://www.artofmtg.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Wall-of-Fire1.jpg

XulsigaeOct 27, 20146 votes

Summoners don't represent all mages. Just because some mages brought the world down doesn't mean the IoW is all powerful.

OyddAWqJ5rOct 28, 20147 votes

Brand can do that too. Annie probably could too.

So basically, it doesn't say does it?

They had to contain Brand as well or else he would have set the world in flames. What makes him less of a threat? That wall of flames probably wouldn't even effect Malphite at all either. In fact, I can't really imagine half the champions losing to the summoner in the 2nd picture. Which probably means he's on par with champions.

GavranOct 24, 20143 votes

attempts to settle all disputes. Emphasis on "attempts".

This is utterly pointless nitpicking, but wouldn't it have been easier to just say

attempts to settle all disputes

OyddAWqJ5rOct 25, 20148 votes

I was trying to put extra emphasis on it. Redundancy has its place in writing.

SmokingPuffinOct 24, 20141 votes

I don't understand though. They say the League was impeding their ability to tell the stories of individual champions but in reality what does the League prevent?

Suppose I want to tell a story about a time that Jarvan outwitted Swain tactically on the battlefield. Gonna be hard to do in a world where the IoW mediates all disputes.

CadeSWOct 25, 201410 votes

Hard not impossible. The IoW didn't merely stop battle, They were "all powerful" maybe but not omniscient. They couldn't tell when battles would happen and sometimes merely contained them. Plus with the increase in power of city states and Void it would make a lot of sense if the IoW had increasing trouble containing aggression and occasional fights started happening or even allowed more combat but limited as much as possible. I mean the IoW can't/doesn't stop the war in Freljord, couldn't stop Kalamanda, and couldn't stop some invasions into Ionia from Noxus. Slipping a battle in here or there is definitely doable if you are smart enough. There is also the political and espionage "battlefields". ALTERNATIVELY have a lore match/event and a story about Swain/Jarvan where outsmarts him and out commands his team of heroes there. This is all pointless because Swain would crush Jarvan in a battle of wits but still.

OyddAWqJ5rOct 25, 20146 votes

Exactly. In fact it took them quite a bit of time before they were able to stop the fight in Kalamanda.

Literally An OwlOct 27, 20142 votes

You're thinking way too linearly about this.

Imagine that the Harry Potter series started with HP and the Deathly Hallows, progressing in exactly the same way as the book in real life. Harry and co. run around the British countryside for a while, come back to Hogwarts, and vanquish Voldemort once and for all. Some events might seem weirdly convenient, like the fact that Harry had a house-elf called Dobby willing to help him at all costs, but the story itself works out alright.

Does that stop Rowling from writing a story about stuff that happened before Voldemort died? A prequel, perhaps, to explore the true threat posed by Voldemort or maybe explain why Dobby liked Harry so much? Especially with the expanded (and partially immortal) cast unique to League, there's plenty of opportunities to make the history of Runeterra a real story.

SmokingPuffinOct 27, 20141 votes

Why accept the limitation that all large scale conflict must happen in the past?

Why mandate that every champion needs not only a good story, but a good story that's compatible with the IoW?

If summoners are the real power in Runeterra, why are we spending so much time telling stories about the champions and no time with the summoners?

I just don't see the upside.

XulsigaeOct 27, 20147 votes

Why accept the limitation that all large scale conflict must happen in the past?

Why mandate that every champion needs not only a good story, but a good story that's compatible with the IoW?

If summoners are the real power in Runeterra, why are we spending so much time telling stories about the champions and no time with the summoners?

I just don't see the upside.

Why do we need large scale conflicts?

Summoners are A power, not THE real one.

It's not hard to be compatible with the IoW as it wasn't so intrusive as it's being made to to be.

Merely because Riot didn't spend much time on the summoners doesn't mean they couldn't. Indeed, there were some stories about them and how they acted, Reginald Ashram and Lee Sin coming to mind.

DG AshabelOct 24, 201420 votes

Serious businessman answer: because deep connection between the characters, players and the game means they would have to deliver as much lore through the game as possible, which would have made for fewer opportunities to sell various "lore-related" merchandise such as books and cartoons. That's kind of important because a huge chunk of League audience is 16-year olds on a quest to become the next Doublelift and DVDs are actually in their expense range. Yes, we old farts would gladly burn hundreds of dollars on figurines and accessories, but kids aren't the type to do so.

The old reference to League as Super Smash Bros. should clue you in that they're approaching the whole thing like a toyline. Advanced game design and narrative integrity aren't as important for Riot right now as making money off champion-themed merchandise is.

CupcakeTrapOct 24, 201421 votes

Indeed. I think Riot's aiming for some Runeterra media empire. Maybe it'll work and make them tons of cash; if so, I guess at the end of the day that's their call. I'm increasingly thinking that we need to find the silver lining here: if Narrative is abandoning the lore of the game League of Legends itself, then the lore community needs to step up and fill that void.

On the bright side, abandoning LoL's lore is better than doing it badly: it'd be much more awkward to build up fanon about what happens with the League if Narrative were constantly putting out badly written League stories. The fact that they're not means we have a blank slate.

On the downside, the same pattern of behavior that led up to the surprise retcon of the League of Legends, Summoners, and the IoW could also, if it remains unchanged, lead to some pretty destructive rewrites of Champions and settings. Mark my words: pretty soon we're going to get a Bandle City with no Mothership, where Teemo is just a cuddly friendly fuzzball who's bravely volunteered to fight for his friends, and so on. They'll probably relocate it right next to Piltover, because without the international forum of the League, it's hard to explain long-distance interaction.

And pretty soon Jax will be rewritten to be a generic badass who uses a lamppost not as a self-nerf but because it's a super-awesome magical lamppost that's the most powerfulest weapon in all of Runeterra™. The kids you mention will eat it up: the same kids who think a book series about a brooding dark elf with speshul glowing lavender eyes who has the deadly sword technique of spinning super-fast is mega-cool.

It is time for us to go into the fanon west, and diminish, and remain the League of Legends.

WhitakkerOct 24, 201410 votes

It is time for us to go into the fanon west, and diminish, and remain the League of Legends.

Most poignant sentence ever uttered in regards to the retcon.

SkyhawkeOct 24, 20148 votes

Cupcake, why do you have to go after my favorite fantasy character.. :'( I agree with everything else though.

UPfreelyOct 24, 201411 votes

As a player who was not very interested by lore before the changes. This kinda distances me from it even more. It no longer even feels familiar as its no longer connected to the game.

TerraRisingOct 24, 201410 votes

Opeli doesn't work with Narrative anymore.

MotajoOct 24, 20144 votes

Opeli doesn't work with Narrative anymore.

Who does? Is Jaredan the only one left?

LordHippomanOct 25, 20145 votes

Runaan, I think. And CarnivalKnights, maybe?

I don't blame Opeli for leaving, Narrative has to be like the roughest job at Riot right now. Except for whoever has to fix Azir's million bugs.

ShokahOct 25, 201410 votes

Seven degrees is fine - but doesn't explain I dunno "playing the &$#king game?" Not creating the illusion of player connection is okay for some games sure. I don't pretend I'm doing anything but killing time when I play Tetris - but when I played WoW, I was a proud member of the Horde. When I play games as characters I pick them because I'm going to invest the time to learn and enjoy their stories. Even if it's as simple as the frigging Doom marine.

So yeah, they retcon the IoW, that's fine - now everyone just wanders or sits home or something until there's some thing to fight for/over. They aren't gonna start whacking champions so what point is there in a story of vengence that won't ever be resolved? I'll buy you a beer the day they murder a champion IN lore. Two if they delete him in game.

Even if I decide that the disconnect is 'okay', the retcon is fine - my issue is this - I still want my Champions to be presented as who they are in the lore we get. Trundle, Karma, Xerath all got toolboxed to shoe-horn in some new champs faction wise. Sion's story has been the best thing so far - but it's BARELY about Sion. It's more about Noxus (the Black Rose, Swain, etc) in general.

Crappy 'omg how did the bloodline survive' "mysteries" and nonsensical transformations from traps aren't doing the new lore any favors.

CriomhthannOct 24, 20149 votes

Holy shit, THANK YOU OP. This is like General Game Design 101. There is no reason why this has to be explained to somebody who supposedly does this for a living.

Rinky DinkyOct 24, 20147 votes

Did a rioter actually say this? Really? Wow, talk about a failure. Lets just remove the lore altogether. We should also take away champion names and refer to them as Character-1, Character-2, etc.

It honestly shocks me that something so Ignorant could be said. What kind of people are you putting on your lore team riot?

DioBrandohOct 25, 20146 votes

I think we can conclude by now that Riot has no idea how writing works

brusqueOct 24, 20142 votes

As a player who was not very interested by lore before the changes. This kinda distances me from it even more. It no longer even feels familiar as its no longer connected to the game.

Can you be more specific? How is the new Harrowing video not connected to the game, for instance?

Sneak DogOct 24, 201410 votes

The video doesn't care that the game exists. The connection between the lore and the game is one-way now. The lore doesn't care whether the game exists or not. Only the game cares that the lore exists to the extent necessary to use the champions from this lore.

brusqueOct 24, 20142 votes

The video doesn't care that the game exists. The connection between the lore and the game is one-way now. The lore doesn't care whether the game exists or not. Only the game cares that the lore exists to the extent necessary to use the champions from this lore.

I understand this. But the current form of the lore and videos doesn't disallow for gameplay to affect the lore more directly in the future, right?

Sneak DogOct 24, 20146 votes

It doesn't disallow it, but the previous format had it built in the very premise. Currently it feels like all we're getting is just lore that is completely detached from the game. Shurima/Freljord/Reborn had no relations to the game at all. The game got demoted to a cheap smash bros. instead of immersing the player and bringing the lore to life as the game. I liked the influence points to unlock champions, the rune pages and how all game mechanics were explained in the canon.

Right now, we have no immersion whatsoever safe for playing characters described in the lore.

SmokingPuffinOct 24, 20142 votes

Why wouldn't you try to deeply connect your characters to your game?

It's limiting the types and kinds of stories you can tell. In the future, Riot is going to want to do more with the Runeterra IP, whether it be other games, books, comics, or movies. If your plan is future expansion into more different media, you don't want your whole storyline and lore feeding into Summoner's Rift and small-scale proxy conflicts.

A broader base of lore, with tales from all corners of Runeterra and conflicts both small and large, will give you more to work with in terms of growing the IP and making it relevant to more people.

Sneak DogOct 24, 20148 votes

Wouldn't books/comics work amazingly with the IoW? Isn't the IoW a beautiful place to group up your main characters before they go out to do their heroic task? If you want politics, the IoW has a representative of all major political parties. You can have anyone meeting anyone in the institute.

Now you have everyone bound to their own country, bound to their factions' conflicts and bound to a faction or be irrelevant in the larger story. I personally preferred binding everyone to the institute.

SmokingPuffinOct 24, 20142 votes

My main beef with the IoW is that there are tons of things that you can't do if it exists.

War between Demacia and Noxus is awesome. IoW says that can't happen.
Varus hunting down each Noxian who razed his village is awesome. Instead he'd have to be content with not-really-killing Noxians on the Rift.
Fugitive Yasuo scouring the land to clear his name is awesome. Fugitive Yasuo joining the League is nonsensical.

Sneak DogOct 24, 20146 votes

War between Noxus and Demacia is currently limited to skirmishes. This is sad indeed.

Varus can hunt down Noxians all he wants, why would the institute of war care about a mass murderer?

Why wouldn't he join the League, gain (not enough) information, continue roaming?

SmokingPuffinOct 24, 20142 votes

Varus can hunt down Noxians all he wants, why would the institute of war care about a mass murderer?

As I understand it, the conflict between Noxus and Ionia is subject to the League. Varus can fight for his side on the Rift, but that doesn't exactly result in dead Noxians.

Why wouldn't he join the League, gain (not enough) information, continue roaming?

In the IoW flavor of the lore, champions are exceptionally famous people. Being famous is pretty bad for fugitives. He'll never be able to leave the IoW, so it strikes me as impossible for him to clear his name in the IoW flavored lore.

DG AshabelOct 24, 20148 votes

As I understand it, the conflict between Noxus and Ionia is subject to the League. Varus can fight for his side on the Rift, but that doesn't exactly result in dead Noxians.

You understand it wrong, I'm afraid. There were multiple cases of the League not particularly caring about murders so long as they don't cause yet another Rune War. Graves murdered numerous people when he broke out of jail in Zaun (a city that is well-known for human experimentation), and Malzahar has been peacefully running his cult despite practicing an occasional human sacrifice. Varus may be judged by the laws of whichever city-state in which he commits murder, but the Institute isn't a law enforcement entity and aren't responsible for arresting him.

In the IoW flavor of the lore, champions are exceptionally famous people. Being famous is pretty bad for fugitives. He'll never be able to leave the IoW, so it strikes me as impossible for him to clear his name in the IoW flavored lore.

Or he can just ask Summoners to teleport him out of the Institute whenever he needs to leave, and cite privacy reasons for why they shouldn't teleport anyone after him.

Earl EulrichOct 24, 20149 votes

War between Noxus and Demacia is currently limited to skirmishes. This is sad indeed.

Yea, but that´s not because of the IoW - but rather because both sides aren´t interessted in an all out war as long as they don´t have really good reasons to think they can win that war deceisively...it´s just a cold war szenario/stand-off. If both armies would just go all out the IoW surely wouldn´t be able to stop it without destroying itself in the progress.

OyddAWqJ5rOct 28, 20145 votes

Exactly. And I feel like the newly appointed Grand General of Noxus has had a plan to take Demacia by force that he has been setting up ever since he rose to power. And I feel like somehow making the IoW unable to interfere has something to do with it.

SlaaneshineOct 24, 201411 votes

Wouldn't books/comics work amazingly with the IoW? Isn't the IoW a beautiful place to group up your main characters before they go out to do their heroic task? If you want politics, the IoW has a representative of all major political parties. You can have anyone meeting anyone in the institute.

Now you have everyone bound to their own country, bound to their factions' conflicts and bound to a faction or be irrelevant in the larger story. I personally preferred binding everyone to the institute.

If you read the old JoJ, this is exactly how the old old lore was set up and presented. The League was neither a good or bad thing, but a reality which made things interesting and complex. Creating conflict in which a community can take sides and hold its own ground in what it believes in is how a lot of successful MMOs, books, comics, etc., are created. Take Warhammer for example. The community is one big hate/love fest, which constantly gives the lore a reason to survive and continue as it does in a such a vibrant way; hence why it has survived for over 20 years. Though Warhammer's has considerable freedom in how the whole universe is created, it functions similarly to how League's was created essentially: One center reality which the whole universe circles around and creates infinite conflict with. Therefore creating infinite story potential.

Leaving the universe as open as Super Smash Bros is not something League can really do from what I can see. Nitendo's characters already have incredible amounts of story binded to them, while League's 100 champions simply do not. Especially so if it is all retconned out of existence! So don't leave the league empty. It will leave it hallow and hallower as time goes on, and then what do we get? CoD. An empty, mindless game made to milk the market like an addictive drug.

OyddAWqJ5rOct 28, 20146 votes

But why not make League your average fantasy world rip-off. Sounds appealing right? I like all my fantasy universes to be as unoriginal and easily relate-able to WoW as possible. /sarcasm

SlaaneshineOct 28, 20146 votes

But why not make League your average fantasy world rip-off. Sounds appealing right? I like all my fantasy universes to be as unoriginal and easily relate-able to WoW as possible. /sarcasm

Exactly though. League was unique for a while. It was a fantasy, but it had more political violence than actual violence story wise. A lot of fantasy games involve "I'm going to slay the dragon terrorizing the land!" While here we had "An institution is basically trying to control the world through magic, political meandering, and cloak and dagger. How can my nation become supreme/survive in this conflict? Not to mention all the independents either in forced service or personal reasons.

Sure, for the point above, one can argue, for example, that Jinx has literally no reason to be in the League. But I say she all the reasons to be. Not only does she get to blow up more people and stuff, but she gets all the attention in the entire world, and the permission to keep wrecking havoc. It's that kind of reasoning that can create so much other types of interactions and character development to make playing the characters so much fun.

And for those that say they care not for the story line, I can Garen tee that you really do care, you just don't notice it. It's minor, it's there, and it helps create a love for a game that has lasted as long as it has.

CriomhthannOct 25, 20144 votes

I can see how league limits the type of story (I don't think that's a bad thing at all; all cogent stories have boundaries), but I don't see how that translates to the type of media. The IoW didn't really care abour conflicts outside of major conflicts between states. Civil Wars, mass murders, cloak and dagger, etc were completely consistent with the IoW.