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Riot, don't copy the Heroes of the Storm model for your Lore.

Impetual·11/16/2014, 10:21:59 AM·54 votes·7,992 views

Riot, this is a sincere thread from a long time fan of yours. I am currently still a fan, but I fear that you are heading in a bad direction.

A direction that may reduce LoL to being just another forgettable MOBA.

I know that you Rioters are probably tired of hearing about players arguing your lore changes, but please, hear me out.

The impression that I have gotten out of Riot's new lore direction is that they want to make distinct characters, and then have them battle each other in a way that doesn't exist inside of their lore.

That is exactly what Heroes of the Storm is! ...except that LoL's characters don't each have their own games in which to develop their lore...They only exist within the game "League of Legends". Making LoL's lore (within its own game) much more important than the lore of HotS.

League of Legends was special because each character within the game was connected, through the actual existence of the "League of Legends" and the "Institute of War". That was one of LoL's unique strengths that Riot has decided to forsake.

In the direct disregard of Runeterra's old lore, this game is basically being restructured into a rip off of Heroes of the Storm, except it lacks the multitude of games that surround and support its characters lore, and instead takes from the Lore of Runeterra...which doesn't even have stable lore as many characters backstory's involve the Institute of War which doesn't exist, and/or Summoners which were never there.

Riot, If LoL is going to thrive, it needs to continue to be different! It was, and for some reason someone at your company decided that was bad, and I'm pretty sure it's gonna hurt you guys in the long run.

In its current state, I don't really care about Runeterra anymore, because not only does it not exist as I know it anymore, there doesn't even appear to be any reason to care about it anymore

Many champion backstory changes, Summoners don't exist anymore, the Institute of War never existed...WHY SHOULD I CARE ANYMORE RIOT?! Runeterra isn't what it was! It doesn't feel special anymore! It doesn't matter anymore!

I no longer have any reason to play your game over the competition's.

The story doesn't matter, because not only was it was completely restructured, but*** because it was restructured into a state where many characters don't even make sense any more.***

Riot, you had your lead over your competition, and you're throwing it away in an attempt to copy them.

Please, learn from this mistake, and realize what an awesome thing you had going with your old lore direction.

Riot, League of Legends had a huge advantage over its competition with its unique and interesting lore. You have thrown that away. Now things are going to come down simply to gameplay.

Riot, it feels like you have already threw away your advantage, and you have very little time to get it back.

79 Comments

Pinker 1011/16/2014, 4:47:26 PM20 votes

Riot's lore team isn't copying blizzard bro. They got lazy, couldn't figure out that it would take ten seconds to write a compelling iow overthrow, decided their only way out was a retcon, did a retcon, went oh shit, we fucked up, and "quit."

Fuckin idiots.

FlubbyDG11/16/2014, 1:27:27 PM11 votes

Firstly, the idea that the creators of the original Dota are "copying" the non-lore of HOTS is silly...it implies they're copying a copy of their own game. Second, League is the most played online game. The threat of it becoming "another forgettable MOBA" is non-existant.

While Dota referenced all kinds of characters and created it's own (a la Smash Bros), Dota 2 also remains lore-less. Should LoL strive for better? Sure, but I think their retcon was needed. I'm a player since 2009 closed beta, and I've always wanted the League taken out of it - there are a number of threads in my history specifically asking for it!

I believe what Riot said is true - the League limits and shrinks the potential of the Runeterra storyline. Every. Single. Character. has to be shoehorned into "...So He Joined the League of Legends!". It's unbelievably cheesy, tiresome, and for many champs flat-out contradictory to their story.

And you want to talk about content delivery? Oooooh, boy. Let me tell you, I think Riot has made HUGE leaps there. The Journal of Justice was an absolute joke - trying to tie in skins into the lore ("TF was spotted taking tango lessons!"), and having bussiness-style interviews with champions like Shaco, Eve, etc? The newspaper format was boring to read, the constant references to elections and "city-states" incredibly dry for a fantasy world.

The champion trials were not much better, since (once again) they only existed to forced some contrived reason for every versatile character to join the League, where their actions and rivalries wouldn't matter since they're being controlled by some nameless summoner for some nameless political issue. Yawn. And Cringe.* What a boring, uninspired reason to fight...because nameless political issues.*

The Shuremia, Freljord, Shadow Isle events are immersive, cool, epic in scope - everything I'd want from a games presentation. The comics and music videos, the interactive sites created for new champs, there are all leaps and bounds ahead of a bunch of written blurbs and exposition (not that I have anything against reading, but the "wow" factor is important for first impressions).

Damorion21511/17/2014, 4:43:15 AM11 votes

Simply put:

Riot doesn't give a fuck about the lore, never have, never will. Just shows how much of a fuck they give about the community as well.

Deep Terror Nami11/16/2014, 10:48:00 AM10 votes

I don't know anybody that RP's in a LoL match. The lore can exist outside of the game (which the community has proven and continues to show through its own storytelling). Keeping the lore separate or minimal doesn't affect the gameplay if you aren't roleplaying. I don't care about the inevitable avalanche of downvotes; I'm only speaking facts when I say the vast majority do not join or leave based on lore, or believe it somehow affects their fun when playing. The lore was always more detached from the gameplay than you'll admit, which you don't because it would mean you might have to accept that what you want probably won't happen.

Athenes Lulu11/17/2014, 6:04:09 AM8 votes

Rito got lazy trying to write legit stories, so they just deleted the IoW altogether.

So where do I go again? Maybe I should try to find where Veigar lives! Wait, I can't...

Shiny Ditto11/17/2014, 10:18:01 AM7 votes

I've always enjoyed league's Lore. Since the game was devised, it's lore has evolved and grown into something interesting and dynamic. Places, events, and characters worked together to create a sum that was greater than the parts.

Then Riot decided to give up on a lot of fantastic lore-related programs. One of my favorites: Journal of Justice. I can understand the reasoning behind that though; it wasn't overtly popular and it doesn't generate direct revenue.

But when Riot decided to intentionally mess around with previous character's Lore from something great to bland garbage... that crossed a line.

When they change Lore to things entirely different, that's when I can no longer care about the Lore, because clearly not even Riot can take it seriously.

McDestiny11/16/2014, 6:01:36 PM6 votes

I somewhat agree with OP. I actually like the direction they've taken in terms of the recent lore events, and redoing character motivations to fit the new world makes a lot of sense as well. Getting rid of the league though is an odd step. Ultimately, the game itself involves characters, many of whom are enemies, fighting on teams in an artificial and consistent setting. That made sense when it was viewed as a sanctioned League Match.

Now... why are Jarvan and SIon on the same team? Why do they respawn after dying? Why are they always fighting on the exact same battleground? How do the matches we participate in as players actually fit into the context of the changing world? These are the questions I think Riot Lore needs to answer, and I'm worried they've written themselves into a corner.

Of course, maybe they assume, possibly correctly, that nobody will care about how the gameplay fits if the characters are cool. Personally it bugs me, but who knows...

Chromatic Eagle11/16/2014, 5:31:35 PM5 votes

I'm not sure why you compare LoL with HotS lore-wise considering Blizzard's approach to it is probably more like Super Smash Brothers. A more accurate description would be their new game Overwatch. A collection of characters whose story will be told in outside media like videos and possibly comic books. Sorta like what Riot is doing now. There's little to no connection between Overwatch's story and their gameplay, like how Riot is planning on making LoL.

2pudge1cup11/17/2014, 3:18:39 PM4 votes

Some of the old stuff was very good (fiddle). It's been downhill since riot decided to shove a bunch of champs into freljord for no apparent reason. They shouldn't change it, but the horse is out of the barn, and they will.

Diahane11/21/2014, 5:15:34 PM3 votes

Oh people complained. Hell I complained, the ME3 ending is a joke of narrative legitimacy raped up the ass, and taking the reader-writer contract and burning it in a bonfire of piss and gasoline.

It still sold extremely well.

You know that people actually buy the game before knowing its story, right? And that having loved two titles of a series tends to push you towards buying the third? And that if you loved two titles of a series you could just as well think that those complaining must be idiots who don't get how good it must be until you eventually realize they were right?

Your argument was that people don't give a fuck about the story. Then why did you complain, no matter how bad it was? You don't give a fuck, like everyone, given your argument. You complained and others did too, because people do care about story. It may not be all the people, it may not always be the top priority, but people like stories. If not, books wouldn't sell. There is a whole market area for those who don't like stories and it's about games like CoD, it's totally fine, really. Then there's the area where story matters. And it's stupid to take all games, look at completion ratios and say that story doesn't matter because they are low. We could argue instead whether LoL should be in the area where story matters and we could agree on the fact that probably the major part of the player doesn't care about the lore of LoL. But then, if it was so, there was no reason to do the retcon, which only alienated the minority who cared about lore if the majority still won't care about it.

SlackerboyTC11/16/2014, 4:28:58 PM3 votes

How does one roleplay in a moba?

patmax1711/17/2014, 9:26:33 AM3 votes

Actually, I don't see all these problems. Mind, i like LoL's lore, I really do like reading backgrounds, and god do i love lore-based events (think shurima), especially when they bring the story forward/unveil new details on champions (coff sivir coff)

And that's the point: there is a game where the story of che caracters can evolve and develop, and that game is called League of Legends. Just give Riot the time they need to eventually get the whole machine moving, I don't think you can judge their work at the moment, as it's in a transitional phase where most existing lore is dismissed but no replacement lore has yet been established, and we have not had many events yet.

I too am not a big fan of how Riot decided to handle the "IoW-problem" (i'm sure some good writer could have done something decent with it without just forgetting about it and pretending it never existed), but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, for now. With the Shurima event they showed what they are able to do with the lore, and this gives me hopes for the future :)

NA111/21/2014, 2:40:26 PM1 votes

Is this post some kind of joke? Do you have any, ANY idea how small your 'lore interested' position is, statistically? Are you that clueless about game statistics that you think LoL's lore affects their sales in ANY way?

Seriously, go to GamaSutra and read some articles about telemetry for completion rates for game stories, and other related telemetry about story interaction video games. You will be shocked (apparently) but how absolutely uninterested most players are in the story and lore. They want gameplay.

Be happy Riot is doing anything for Lore, because they are losing money on it.