Compared to Other Companies, Is RIot Doing a Good Job?

Impetual·Sep 22, 2015·7 votes·909 views

While Riot is currently has one of the most popular games on the planet under its belt, there doesn't seem to be much (if any) of that success translating into them producing a better player experience.

Lore wise, Riot is pretty much at rock bottom. They've retconned the lore of League of Legends, except they haven't actually bothered to finish it.

Half of the character's in the game don't make sense and lore is a mess because they can't seem to be able to hire someone to write it.

11 Comments

FloRaider42Sep 22, 20158 votes

At least LoL had a lore, but it became to complicated to continue it and needed a revamp (which admitedly takes a tad too long) But what about other "Moba's" ?

Smite: The God's of the world's pantheon have come together to fight each other... Because the humans stopped worshipping them, because they think they don't exist... Yet most battles seem to be held on earth... Were everyone could see that the gods exist... Which makes the entire conflict moot.

Dota: At least makes some sense (if you can call it that) The Nexuses are two opposing "Gods" that brainwash the minions and heroes into fighting each other and the "Champions" have backstories that vary in quality (some better and some worse that the current lore [in my opinion]) mainly because a lot is kept open for interpretation.

Heroes of the Storm:

"Legends speak of a place where worlds collide and mighty heroes battle for dominance..."

There is a timy wimy space storm in which heroes from different universes come together and fight... The different characters have lore from their main games, but they vary greatly in quality and require you to know the main game the character comes from.

Strife: The "Heroes" fight in an arena because they train for a coming battle from an old prohecy... Why they don't use the minions or the magical respawn ability in that battle is up to interpretation :P The characters have different reasons to join this organisation. Some good and some badly written.

So yeah, "Moba's" and Lore seem to be hard to combine and the only reason why LoL gets called out for it, altough other games of the genre have similiar or worse Lore, is that LOL used to have a good Lore that sadly ended up having too many plotholes and getting retconned.

Only time will tell, how good the retconned Lore will be, but don't badmouth Riot because they have gone through the effort of making a Lore work in this setting, when no other game in the genre seems to be able to.

######All mentioned opinions are mine and mine only

FloRaider42Sep 22, 20151 votes

summoner 14 Cue Flame

ImpetualSep 23, 20151 votes

{quoted}

At least LoL had a lore, but it became to complicated to continue it and needed a revamp (which admitedly takes a tad too long) ** But what about other "Moba's" ?**

Smite: The God's of the world's pantheon have come together to fight each other... Because the humans stopped worshipping them, because they think they don't exist... Yet most battles seem to be held on earth... Were everyone could see that the gods exist... Which makes the entire conflict moot.

Dota: At least makes some sense (if you can call it that) The Nexuses are two opposing "Gods" that brainwash the minions and heroes into fighting each other and the "Champions" have backstories that vary in quality (some better and some worse that the current lore [in my opinion]) mainly because a lot is kept open for interpretation.

Heroes of the Storm:

There is a timy wimy space storm in which heroes from different universes come together and fight... The different characters have lore from their main games, but they vary greatly in quality and require you to know the main game the character comes from.

Strife: The "Heroes" fight in an arena because they train for a coming battle from an old prohecy... Why they don't use the minions or the magical respawn ability in that battle is up to interpretation :P The characters have different reasons to join this organisation. Some good and some badly written.

So yeah, "Moba's" and Lore seem to be hard to combine and the only reason why LoL gets called out for it, altough other games of the genre have similiar or worse Lore, is that LOL used to have a good Lore that sadly ended up having too many plotholes and getting retconned.

Only time will tell, how good the retconned Lore will be, but don't badmouth Riot because they have gone through the effort of making a Lore work in this setting, when no other game in the genre seems to be able to.

######All mentioned opinions are mine and mine only

Saying that LoL shouldn't have decent lore because other moba's don't is a stupid argument.

Riot has shown us in the past that LoL can be better... Provided Riot actually wants to support the lore of its game rather than taking the "cut and run" retcon approach.

The point of player feedback on the forums is to help Riot make LoL the best game it can be by providing feedback.

Ideally, LoL's lore shouldn't be on par with other moba's. It should be better, and has already proven that it can be.

When we discuss how the should be, we shouldn't accept sub-standard lore as an inevitability.

FloRaider42Sep 24, 20152 votes

I am just saying that Riot as a company needs to keep their fundings in check and pouring a lot of time and effort into creating a good lore is a risk, especially since other companies don't need to worry about that and therefore could get an advantage.

I pointed out that Moba's have bad lores, because it is insanely difficult to write a believable lore about an universe where every two months an entire nation can rise from the sands, the local devil decides to join the fray and the physical embodiment of death decides it's time to go full time hunting, while all old stories would need to stay canon.

ImpetualSep 24, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I am just saying that Riot as a company needs to keep their fundings in check and pouring a lot of time and effort into creating a good lore is a risk, especially since other companies don't need to worry about that and therefore could get an advantage.

I pointed out that Moba's have bad lores, because it is insanely difficult to write a believable lore about an universe where every two months an entire nation can rise from the sands, the local devil decides to join the fray and the physical embodiment of death decides it's time to go full time hunting, while all old stories would need to stay canon.

In my opinion, one of the reasons that the League of Legends succeeded while it was in its infancy, over all of the other mobas, is that it's lore was much better than most mobas!

Granted, after LoL started getting so popular, the bandwagon new players probably/maybe started to outnumber the lore loving new players making them less significant...from a business perspective. but some of us are still here, and are feeling a bit shortchanged by the retcon.

From my perspective, lore hasn't gotten better after the retcon. I used to love this game's lore. I followed every new release as it happened every second week. It was fun to speculate on the political intrigue of the Institute of War and laugh about the random shenanigans that champions would get themselves into. It made Runeterra feel alive.

I don't get that feeling anymore. Now it feels like we get a lore event 2-3 times a year that feels more like an action movie screenplay than a narrative for a fantasy world. It lacks the character of the older lore, as well as the lighthearted nature that used to offset the serious stuff.

The new format for releasing lore via events actually makes it seem to matter less to me. Because these events each seem to be happening within their own bubble, they don't feel like they actually affect the world in any meaningful way, and the possibility of future significance doesn't make it any better in the present. It is what it is. Pretty good, but not as good as what Riot can/has offered.

FloRaider42Sep 24, 20151 votes

from a business perspective

And Riot is a business

Since the original question was: "Compared to Other Companies" I have to say that Riot takes the cake as you can still can read up on all old stories and ignore the "retcon". I know it's bad that they don't focus on lore anymore as I loved the old stories, but you can't expect them to pour in tons of effort when they have no real gain from it. I still dream about a retcon that surpasses the original lore, but I realize that Riot has other priorities and don't hate them for it.

As for the Lore atm: Yes it's bad that they "retconned" it without any replacement, but in my opinion the story was getting messier and slowly out of hand with 127+ champions and I am not extremly turned of, but I understand that other lore enthusiasts would be very irritated by Riot and respect their opinion.

DecritSep 24, 20151 votes

I think hots one, at the end of the days, is the best one at the moment.

People meet. wanna brawl. no shit.

I mean at least is functional and honest relative to the game you are playing.

DigielfSep 22, 20154 votes

its not ''one of the most popular games'' its THE most popular game, there has never been a game more populated than lol

ShénzhìSep 22, 20152 votes

Popularity does not mean it's interesting. Popularity is keeping a hold on a playerbase and I see how they do that, and that will not last as long as it has.

There are other embedded flaws that I know will just unmake this game, and competitors will show something where players may identify good quality, compare with perceived bad quality and criticize it heavily. An example: [read this]. What's funny is Riot Game's LoL impedes itself that competitors don't even have to compete. They just have to make a quality product. Easy for them and looks like they're already getting ahead (I assume). Intolerable old kits compared to acceptable new kits: Which one is infuriating? Which one fuels community toxicity?

{quoted}

Half of the character's in the game don't make sense and lore is a mess because they can't seem to be able to hire someone to write it.

It's all part of the joke. Regarding stories and character backgrounds, I've questioned whether they're going to pull through or not.

There is so much negativity about this game that I think most it's throttling positive things too much. Curing symptoms and not the source. I won't be surprised if all its conditions exacerbate 'toxic community' episodes as symptoms of incoherent design that this game is. However, if they can saturate a comprehensive fictional world and its character's backgrounds from which champions adhere to (new and old) may greatly support player experience though I think it's so out of proportion that I doubt Riot can pull it off. Then there's the hysterical outbursts from this community when something changes. This new Kindred champion doesn't really make sense, either. This whole fictional world doesn't make sense - it's a fkin Petaminx.

Extreme logic: competitors will be competitive and they don't have to try so hard against LoL.

Valaran NaraSep 24, 20151 votes

Well, if it makes a difference "A Good Death" which involves Kindred mentions that there was a war going on during the time of the story. There was also the mention of 2 cities, neither oneo f them being said to be in either city faction which means they're attempting world building and not just saying "Oh, this is Demacia and this is Noxus. Oh, and all these people right here get Shurima skins, cause the Emperor of Mashed Potatoes and Gravy commands it.

DecritSep 24, 20151 votes

I have mostly 2 other multiplayer references: World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2. Mandatory disclaimer "this is just my opinion on it"

Let' s start with guild wars 2: a well reviewed game from a somehow tiny company that never managed to get a lot of popularity ( Aion is more popular in comparison, for good or bad reasons ) but is faring more than well. Compared to lol they bugfix a lot less, have a lot smaller betatesting, some issues are left open for months or years ( both of bugs, exploits or balance) and communicate with ups and downs on the forums ( with some general topics replied almost daily, while others might be untouched for months or years necromancer cough cough) and sweeps of game content every month or so. Still, as i said, the company is somehow tiny, the game is still polished and of quality and those issues are not so satisfaction-breaking as they seem so i am not mad at them at all. Compared to LoL they manage to not do as much, but they do the best they can given their situation.

Then let' s pick World of Warcraft, that i have played mostly in Burning Crusade/Wrath of the Lich King/Cataclysm era. I have foggy memories about that exactly, but i remember balancing rotating around "the flavor of the season", waiting the end of a season to do real sweeping changes ( that however are way minor in comparison to the ones of lol for obvious reasons ), the game content getting fleshed out without too much care of keeping it up with a consumistic fashion ( that can be seen while traveling between zones of different expansion: in one continent the warchief of the Horde might be Vol'Jin, then in the same continent is Garrosh instead wich came before him and in some others Thrall, the one even before him! ) and that creates ambiental discrepances; community collaboration and communication got a great step up since WotlK and the efforts of people like Ghostcrawler that opened it up more, but Blizzard still keeps itself "high and mighty" while sends community carers in its own, or at least mostly as i have seen for now. Probably i should not compare those 2 games that are so far different from each other in therms of mechanics, but even comparing LoL to the golden era of WoW we can see that LoL keeps more than well the comparison, without sacrificing all the older content as WoW did.