That awkward moment when a game that's not even out for a month...

SaltyToplaneGoat·Jun 8, 2016·7 votes·1,165 views

... has more cinematic lore material and comics than a game that has been around for more than half a decade. And I'm not sure if the three stories we have (altho Bloodline felt more like a filler without any real conclusion tbh) now and a handfull of colour texts can make up for that.

Ya sure, Blizzard got the money and bigger divisons to get stuff like this done but... comon Riot, you had YEARS to deliver. The guys over at Blizz really make you look bad with that, ya know? GET YO LAZY ASS TO WORK, GODDAMIT!

27 Comments

SharjoJun 8, 20164 votes

Blizzard has had over twenty years to perfect this way of doing things, has several franchises with which to experiment with, has numerous dedicated teams for this including cinematics teams, started with story being a powerful driving force in their games since day one as opposed to just something on the side, and didn't reboot their lore half way through. Coordinate storytelling for League's a fairly new concept and they're effectively still finding their feet, especially since they're still trying to discern what the best way to actually deliver the story is.

Also said reboot isn't even done yet, so there's that too hinder things too. It's like...I dunno about sixty five - seventy percent done in terms of actual lore from what we've seen over the years, and then about a quarter done with the actual lore structure now? Something like that.

DarkRitualJun 8, 20161 votes

The fact that the lore reboot hasn't been finished after a number of years is quite telling in itself.

SharjoJun 8, 20164 votes

Telling as to resource management, shitty pipelines and broken systems, indeed.

At least the cadence for stuff's improved somewhat. #GettingThere

SaltyToplaneGoatJun 8, 20161 votes

The reboot is taking ages now. Do you know what happened when DC rebooted their entire universe? They new #1s for almost every major character in print. And most others of the new 52 followed one or two months later. Total time of reboot: not even half a year until the first arcs were completed.

Meanwhile Riot: total halfassery trying to get it done behind the scenes and still not doing anything to speed things up. We have still about 10 champs that have zero reason to exist within the world. If you want to do a reboot, at least get the ones that are most affected by it done...

KrigjerJun 8, 20161 votes

DC: a comic book company first and foremost. I would put money on that most of their employees work on story and art, with merchandising and everything else having small teams dedicated to it, if not outright given to a third party so the main team can focus.. ON STORY.

Riot: Primarily a game company. Gameplay and balance come first, lore second.

You're comparing apples and oranges here.

redniwediSJun 8, 20164 votes

cinematic lore material

Right... Those cinematics really didn't have that much lore in them you know. They were there to show off the action more than tell a story. Each one had hints to a deeper lore in the game, but nothing more.

I can't speak for the comics, as I didn't even know there were any, but just comparing the cinematics to the stories that have come out from Riot's story team I have to say Riot has more lore out.

Don't confuse the subtlety of Blizzard's story team for quantity. Players love subtlety in lore, but you're talking about quantity here.

DarkRitualJun 8, 20161 votes

The one cinematic has potentially set us up for Doomfist being released. The Winston's had a good amount of background info to understand where things sit today.

redniwediSJun 8, 20162 votes

As I said; hints at a deeper lore. They were still far more action than story.

SaltyToplaneGoatJun 8, 20161 votes

Dunno, Wiston's Flashbacks, the Assassination of an Omnic leader by Widow, the personal struggle of Hanzo and Genji, heck, even the one with Soldier 76 that is pretty much just him kicking ass has intel on the everyday life, such as rascism towards omnics and how Overwatch is/was percieved. Sure, there is a lot of action in there, but there is also a lot of lore.

redniwediSJun 8, 20162 votes

I would, obviously, disagree. It's the subtlety thing again for me at least. They hint at pieces of lore in the cinematics that could easily be made into cinematics and stories just on their own.

Every good story has hints toward other stories, but it feels like there are more hints than story of their own in those trailers.

On the other side look at the Bilgewater story line between Graves, Twisted Fate, and Gangplank. That is the sort of thing I'm comparing the cinematics to.

Don't get me wrong, I love the cinematics from Blizzard and I'm excited to see more lore from that world, but it's nature as a teaser trailer for the game keeps it from delivering on the story I'm after.

Fondling GemsJun 8, 20163 votes

There were a bunch of projects, most of them ended up getting shut down.

SaltyToplaneGoatJun 8, 20161 votes

I wonder why tho. Usually a good orgianization would look like this: somewhere in the future there is a big event that has many or maybe even all champs involvedt to varying degrees. Like Marvel's Secret Wars or DC's Future's End. Then you make it so everything builds up to that. Here you have to be cautionous so nothing starts contradicting itself and often stuff gets stomped.

Then you have the champs open for reworkes that are still in the process of redefning them, so stuff gets stomped here too.

However, there are also TONS of characters that are not directly involved in this or any future event that can have their adventures as they please. Get two authors and two artists and tell them to do another comic about Poppy for example. Or about Fiora. Or about Draven. It doesn't have to be much, it can even be comedic, an episode in their life or just a glimps into their everyday reality.

Or literally everything about secondary characters that are no champs. What's the story of Rafen? Or that Shuriman Trader we met in bloodline who live sin that old icathian house, how's he doing? And maybe he finds some voidrunes in there, who knows? ^^

Sure, champions can and maybe even should have cameos in such stories, but there is no need for them to be central.

Get several small teams and within months you would have enough material, you might as well sell it in a comic store. I'd buy it btw^^

The major problem here is the ABSOLUTE LACK OF CONTENT. And the two cinematics we have are flashy trailers, nothing more. So actually they don't really count as they contribute nothing to the lore.

Fondling GemsJun 8, 20164 votes

I know a bunch of lore basically got invalidated when the whole lore change about summoners and the institute of war went down.

Also note that LoL started fairly small and wasn't a lore oriented game at first, it was more designed in the style of most fighter games where there is a list of random characters that have bare minimum to no lore at all.

SharjoJun 8, 20165 votes

League's had many growing pains, quite literally, considering how quickly the game blew up and how quickly Riot had to grow to accomodate for this. They built a tiny house that several million people wanted in, and they've been playing catch up, building a metropolis from this tiny house ever since.

Scary DoorJun 8, 20162 votes

When I started playing League (in August 2011), I had no idea it had lore, then when I found out, I didn't really care. Why? Because if I want a story I'll read a book or watch a movie, if I want to play a PVP game, I'll play a PVP game. It's really that simple.

When your product doesn't just sell itself (like League does), then you have to glitz it up with superfluous nonsense like Lore, cinematics, etc. Not to say that these aren't neat additions, but let's be honest... very few people play League of Legends for the lore. Note: I didn't say "no one", but I can't ever remember a time where I was in a game and someone said "did you know Katarina's story" or "hey Darius' story should is interesting!" Yep, things no one says.

RPGs are a great place for stories in games, MOBAs are a great place for PVP. Thanks.

Colgate GatorJun 8, 20161 votes

Blizzard has always been known for their love of lore and videos. (Original Starcraft comes to mind).

KrigjerJun 8, 20161 votes

The way I approach these questions is...

I'm a lore nut. I LOVE learning the stories and about the world a game is set in. When it comes to MOBAs and FPS games... I just don't care. We play quick matches that last half an hour, with set characters and set abilities...

I care about my characters in an MMO / RPG where I can design what they look like. I can give them backstories and personalities. I need to know about the world so I know how my character interacts with it. In a game like LoL where you enter a lobby and get a game, then leave once victory or defeat is achieved, there's no reason to become attached to any of these characters for me. I haven't even watched a single Overwatch 'lore' video, that's how little I care. I'm just always surprised that people care so much about the lore in a game where lore doesn't really matter for gameplay.

Finally, you have to remember that Blizzard started with a game from scratch. They built it from nothing, so yeah, they were probably writing lore from the very beginning so it's cohesive. LoL was much smaller when it started- they had the basics for a world fleshed out but as I said, it's a game based on matches, so you don't really need much because MOST people don't care about anything beyond gameplay. Now that the game is much more popular, they're rewriting EVERYTHING, and trying to make it cohesive as they go. I think that's a lot of work- and maybe they're taking too long to do it, I wouldn't actually know. I don't work for Riot and can't speak officially on it.

AlüeJun 8, 20161 votes

Not to mention blizzard is sort of known for there lore... i mean there is a reason warcraft rose to popularity.

LirikJun 8, 20161 votes

lets the salty fanbois of league commentary begin now [slayer-pantheon-popcorn]

RookPusherJun 8, 20161 votes

Here's how I feel about Lore.

I play for PVP. I listen to Intelligence Squared U.S. debates while playing.

The problem isn't lore. It's how you spend your time.

cuddlykitten4Jun 8, 20161 votes

Let me get this straight, you're whining cause Blizzard can make better lore. I mean, all there games have nothing but lore. I think I'll stay with the fun game rather than another boring, tired Blizzard game. Also, to be noted, Blizzard is far, far, far more corrupt than any other game company out there.

SaltyToplaneGoatJun 8, 20161 votes

Starcraft has been the Nr.1 Esport for over a decade. But sure, *their games have nothing but lore...

cuddlykitten4Jun 8, 20161 votes

First off, until you can show proof of this statement I'm calling BS because technically it's League for viewers, and for highest earnings it's Dota2 by far. Just becaues someone plays it doesn't mean it's not boring crap. I've played Starcraft and honestly I think it's total crap. It's extremely boring. Also, they have made how many games and only one can yo ueven start to defend? Kinda proves my point. Blizzard is dying and will be gone soon. OW won't stop that. Pretty sure it's numbers are already declining in fact. HotS again? I think so.

cuddlykitten4Jun 8, 20161 votes

You won't believe me though because people are never wrong. In fact, the only reason I know this stuff is my best friend is a Blizz fan boy and likes to argue this shit with me. I researched my shit as far as Blizz goes.

cuddlykitten4Jun 8, 20161 votes

In fact, if you look into the numbers, it's League that killed Blizzard.

SaltyToplaneGoatJun 8, 20161 votes

Yes but before that "killing", that happened from 2010-2013, Starcraft dominated the szene, starting from 1998.

You must be quite young not to know that. Better do some research before you post, or you just embarass yourself.