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Trying to Understand

Speeks Engrish·11/27/2014, 5:37:27 AM·10 votes·1,969 views

Hey Riot,

Never actually made a discussion thread of my own before, but this topic has really been bothering me lately and there doesn't seem to be a place where my questions are fully answered, so I figured it's at least worth a try. I'll try to keep this short and simple.

Earlier this month, you guys announced that you were going to split the game of LoL from it's lore entirely; essentially turning the game itself into a "Smash Bros of Runeterra" thing. A lot of people have already given some excellent insights as to why they think this is a good or bad decision, so I'm not going to dig up those ghosts here. My purpose in posting this thread is to ask you, the game developers, a very simple question: Why?

To date, all that I've been able to find on this subject from you guys has been written to the effect of "we got writer's bloc and decided to can 5 years of lore, start over, and write a storyline whose only relation to the game itself is that you get to play as famous heroes from the plot."

Now I know I'm paraphrasing and that there's probably a whole slew of reasons behind this decision, but none of us players have been privy to them. That's why I'm asking the question here. I want to understand the reason you're yanking out the central plot point for the champions that I've come to know and love as part of Runeterra. Sure it was always a bit quirky, but it worked and it made the game seem a little more than "just a MOBA." Suddenly the struggle had context and victory or defeat kinda meant something more than just personal pride and more or less IP. You're about to take all of that away from us and i can't help but wonder why?

It doesn't save you time or money; revising the central lore AND that of over 100 Champions (some of whom are called Champions purely because of the League) is going to be extremely exhausting for your writers. It's not an easy out from the constraints of having a League: everything in the game has loads of references to summoners and the League itself and will take months, if not years, to undo. It's not what the players want, as so many angry/sad/puzzled posts and polls before this have made abundantly clear. It isn't even a good solution for writer's bloc, apparently, as the lore for the new champions released since the announcement could easily fit into the constraints of the League. I'm trying very hard to see a valid reason for ripping out the heart of the game and saying it is no longer relevant, but unless you're trying to publish a novel about Runeterra in the near future... No, no that would still work with the League in place.

I don't understand Riot. So please, help me and the rest of the player base to understand. What is going on over there that is causing such a sudden, massive upheaval in the game and its background? Is there any way we could change your mind on this, or perhaps some sort of compromise that could be reached?

Please talk with us. Consider what you're doing before charging into the bushes alone. item 2044

32 Comments

Helmight11/27/2014, 6:24:45 AM5 votes

The basic upshot of their reasoning is that the Institute of War and the so-called "constrictions" that it placed on storytelling was too prohibitive for them to move forward. I would also postulate that Riot's narrative team underwent a massive staff change and the new writers wanted to tell their own stories without being constrained by what's already happened. We also have Riot slowly moving away from the slightly comedic tone they took with previous lore and establishing a more serious one, so the Great Retcon plays into that too.

This isn't to say that I agree with anything they've done, but I hope at the very least it clarified things for you.

Slaaneshine11/27/2014, 7:12:30 PM4 votes

Only issue I see with this Great Retcon occurring is that Riot no longer has a central conflict to push the stories of the characters anymore. They have literally no reason to exist and fight each other in this arena except solely for shits and giggles. The league gave them a reason. The reason Super Smash works so well is that all those characters in the game already have tons of story underneath them to warrant a fantasy game where you get to beat the crap out of other characters from different worlds for shits and giggles. League doesn't nearly have that.

Omnipherious11/27/2014, 8:08:43 AM2 votes

I think the retcon outrage is slowly dying down.

Since the infamous blog post, we've gotten the most communication + story in a while. Sure, it's not the same story but the essence is the kind of the same and they are dead set on making it work this time round.

I can understand where Riot is coming from with their decision, the whole 'constricted story' and what-not. That doesn't mean I wasn't outraged when I first read the blog post; I was furious and felt betrayed.

Even so, in the back of my mind I took notice that this was the first post about lore since forever. They aren't backing down from the comments either despite getting a flame grilled.

Personally, I decided to wait and trust them. They said they would be more communicative in the coming weeks, they said they would do more events/give more tidbits but they wouldn't change direction; okay, I want to see this. I decided to give it a chance and try to find new excitement in this new lore direction because I think Riot has been doing well in other areas (reworks, art, balance).

Since then, I think they've done pretty swell so far. I'm still salty about the retcon (as I'm sure many are) but hey, they are keeping their word so let's see where this goes.