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Anyone else feels like Riot's writing style is kinda...lacking?

Darius Strada·4/4/2018, 4:48:45 PM·5 votes·743 views

I mean, they have good ideas for world-building and characters and plot but the way they go from point A to point B is kinda...I don't know how to really express myself but, boring? Like, the way they describe things, places and people is kinda, I don't wanna say amateurish or childish, but they're kinda boring and generic, lacking detail and expresiveness, like they would rush things up just to be done with it and move to the next thing.

This easily seen in Karma's new lore, which is very generic and uninteresting and in Zoe's lore, were she blows a bunch of people and it's no biggie. I know she's still a child but if she's old enough to appreciate boys like Ezreal, she must be old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. And even if she didn't, Riot should make us understand that she doesn't know what she's doing, but they kinda didn't? What do you guys think of the new lore? Any new lore that you particularly liked? In opinion, I kinda liked Irelia's new lore, Yasuo's and Riven's are not that different so they're still cool and I have mixed feelings regarding Karma's and Lee Sin's new lore

TL;DR: Riot has cool lore idead but don't really know how to express them.

7 Comments

Johnny El Rojo4/4/2018, 5:50:15 PM5 votes

Because what we have for now, is just the basis for what they intend to develop later. The problem is, with literary more than a hundred characters, they have to take a loooong time before they can do that with any of them. So far, they have only accomplished that with MissFortune and Lux .

Like, I think they really should follow the Black Library of Warhammer trendline, and just start to publish novels or short story compilations in paper in order of really develop the characters and the world to an acceptable extent.

I'm literaly begging you to let me pay money for reading your stories, Riot. Don't let me hanging. But most importantly, don't let my money hanging.

TheHappyReaperz4/4/2018, 7:54:16 PM4 votes

Have you read Where Icathia Once Stood, or Burning Tides? Both are really good lore pieces by Riot. I get how some people look at champion lores and think that it is underwhelming, but I feel this is less Riot failing to make good lore pieces, and more people expecting something different. Take Karma. I can guarantee some Karma players hate the new lore, because it doesn't represent what they think Karma should be. I don't think the lore was badly written, but as I'm not a professional author or editor, my opinion on the matter doesn't really have that much meaning. So, I plugged it into an essay grader.

Evidently, Riot's writers have a "solid grasp of which phrases to use in their writing", with an above average use of sophisticated vocabulary. However, their use of transitional phrases was average, with the tone of the story being too passive at times, and their sentences began too simply, in an unsatisfactory way. So, there is that.

Tesla Effect4/4/2018, 7:24:21 PM3 votes

Yes, specially since the unnecessarly world building elements in short stories that would confuse the reader (example being just stating some places without any proper detailed context regarding them). I know they get very few instances to write any lore since bio or faction lore updates are few and far between, but any specific story needs to be work by themselves. Also using fancy words or sentences that takes the average reader out of reading the story, when they can just use simple and easy to understand words. Overcomplicating a specific story with unnecassary elements is, well, unnecassary.

Additionally they need to dumb more lore general or characterwise than they have ever done previously, cause when the MOBA game dies, people will only have the lore left and if they continue this pase and format of lore releases, then there wont be much for people to actually care about.

One of my biggest issues is that I frankly dont care if a character gets a massive lore change, because they werent fleshed out to begin with. Not to mention none of them had any character arc through series of stories , all of them currently live in a state of lore limbo and that needs to stop.

LordHippoman4/4/2018, 11:56:28 PM2 votes

If you're referring to the prose used, I disagree. It depends on the story, but there are some really good pieces.

"Garden of Forgetting" is kind of the king here, but anything by Dinopaws or Jellbug tends to knock it out of the park with regards to description.

If you mean in terms of plot progression, it is a bit frustrating to receive so many origin stories, but that's mostly a flaw of the format of Lore, with the only real stories a champ gets being on their release, with a few big exceptions (Burning Tides).

Axzarious4/5/2018, 9:25:22 AM1 votes

Riven's lore was change a whole lot. Removing her belief in the Noxian ideals she cherished, and her desire to save that Ideal and her country was an important aspect and added a great deal to who she was. I really hope they simply decided to 'dial the clock back' and have the re-discovery of the Noxian ideal and the desire to save her country from it's problems be a major part in her story. I'm really hoping it wasn't removed for the sake of simplification because some can't wrap their head around it or feel it makes her too complicated as a character. Riot already squandered two great characters rife with potential by obliterating both Karthus and Xerath and replacing them with cheap, cartoony imposters.