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I hope Narrative just swallows its pride

IS1c1d21220aa58ffe97d65·1/7/2015, 3:16:42 PM·28 votes·3,382 views

When Tommy Gnox first published that DevBlog, it sent a surge across the Lore fanbase, a negative surge. It has been months, a full quarter even, and yet no significant effort has been made to appease and resolve the issue. In all great relationships, its always the better half who gives in to the needs of the one that significant to him/her. In our case, the Lore fans, we can surely say that this divorce you are doing is tearing at the fabrics of what we love about this game.

Before that DevBlog came up, I would play an average of 3-4 hours of League a day, and I actually spent around $150 on Garena Shells (I play SEA). As of late, I don't even bother turning on the client 80% of the time I'm online. The game just became stale to me. I can't explain the feeling that I have.

I know you may have your reasons for "not going back on 'words said/left by people who used to work for you'" but really it's doing more harm than good. You guys are homogenizing the lore, something that League actually stood to oppose back when it started. I believe League is hinged on the same ideals that made X-Men such a hit when it was mainstream: the misfits could relate to the characters. However, I think League added another layer that is just way more significant than being relate-able, it gave those misfits a place to belong to. The IoW was the glue that kept the hodgepodge of randomness that was LoL its own flavor.

You know what Riot? You are acting like President Business in the LEGO Movie. Yes, I'm going there. I'm using that analogy. You are destroying all the uniqueness that was in your game and turning them into one homogenized product which you can market easier. I think this is why League lost some of its flavor, it seems like it sold itself out. I hope a person from Narrative actually reads this and actually gets a change of heart. Just like all those lego pieces, you guys can still put back the Lore back into its hodgepodge-y self again. Give us back our home, give us back our Summoner cloaks, give us back Lee Sin being one of us before, give us back the stories we deserve.

49 Comments

Narasimha1/8/2015, 1:50:55 AM7 votes

Probably won't happen, if only because the new Lore is actually good. Slow in coming about, aye, but the quality itself is actually appreciable. If it was horrible, then we'd have a leg to stand on.

Dotintheparadox1/8/2015, 12:58:21 AM4 votes

As a person who has read every bit of the old JoJ, I have to say it was a hundred times more "League", nay, Riot in it's essence than anything the current narrative team has written.

FOR THE TRUE RUNETERRA!!!

Ouroboro1/9/2015, 5:11:42 AM4 votes

Bump.

To be honest, I agree. They've destroyed something precious to me.

NorthernDruid1/9/2015, 11:26:50 AM4 votes

Y'know, the really sad thing about this entire ordeal, is how good the old stuff was (not necessarily from a quality standpoint, but i'll get to that) and more importantly, how Riot haven't really released anything lore-wise which would be denied by their oh-so-constraining IoW. And how they haven't even given any clue as to what the new base lore is. Before I can get excited about measuring the new lore up against the old, there has to actually be some new lore to measure. So far they haven't really retconned anything, they've just taken stuff out without putting anything back in.

So what is the League of Legends now, in it's setting? What are summoners? what is the Rift, the Crystal Scar? What is the base premise of the fiction they no longer have that foundation for.

That's what i'm wondering.

What's the base idea which should be the first i'm introduced to.

The old one was the best piece of gameplay/story integration i've seen out of the western market since Assassin's Creed (the original one that is), and even does better than it, and tackles a more difficult concept.

So the thing that really upsets me about the retcon is that the gaming industry needs more gameplay/story integration not less. We need to make lore a more present part of the gameplay through an official "story" mode (ala Factions) not rip it out because there's too few new champion ideas that fit, there's starting to be too many champions in League as is.

Story wise, the parts they tore out were the only parts which made their universe interesting. The IoW and the LoL were the only distinguishing features of their setting and their story. Along with Summoners and the backstory of great magical wars threatening to destroy the world, they had a kind of unique little concept, and one which had a lot of potential. Especially for gameplay/story integration, and audience participation once you placed the players directly there in the setting as people with political agency.

But I guess it's not the book the current people wanted to write, too bad they're writing for a game, not a book (or a comic or a movie, or a tv series, or any kind of static medium, but a game). And writing for a game means accepting the game, and working to make the player feel connected to the game world as often as possible.

Guess what, Sona adressing me as Summoner, makes me feel connected to the game world, makes me feel that using flash is me casting a spell on her that instantly moves her a certain distance. Trying to check out who this character is supposed to be and seeing a short story does not, it makes me turn away because I don't have the time, focus or interest to digest a short story when I just want to find out who they are before I try them out during their free week.

I won't ever feel connected to someone i'm supposed to be when they're a preset character. I can feel connected to their story, their action, but i'll never feel like I am someone if I can't mold their personality myself.

Too bad Rito decided progressing the medium was constraining and decided to revert to telling a story alongside their game instead of letting their game have it's own fiction.

Demonsolder211/10/2015, 5:44:50 PM3 votes

I cried!

Impetual1/8/2015, 8:54:30 AM3 votes

Well said

Blade of Justic1/9/2015, 3:45:14 AM2 votes

Part of me hopes that they continue retconning champs just so I can see them dig themselves out of the hole that is trying to take the summoners out of Nocturne's and Lee Sin's lore.

It would be something like this:

Lee Sin was a summoner guy who was blinded born blind by protesting fighting in the Ionian Place/Noxus war.