On the bright side: No matter how hard the Bilgewater event will fail in terms of lore...

SaltyToplaneGoat·Jul 12, 2015·48 votes·2,479 views

... I highly doubt that my hopes can be set any lower.

Even in the case of catastrophic failure I would be just sitting here, thinking "Well, it's Riot, what was I even expecting? I could expect pig to fly and that would have a higher chance to happen than Narrative actually deliviering...""

Dear Riot, you have lowered my expectations to a level that I might be even impressed if you fail to meet them this time. But why do I keep getting the feeling that you will manage to exactly do that? Well, we will see in two weeks I guess...

23 Comments

DWT12345Jul 12, 201515 votes

I think the event will be great, and give us a lot in terms of expanding the world, but I think that as soon as the event is over, Riot will just go back to their old ways, just like the Shurima event. Nothing's going to change, we aren't getting any new regular updates, its just the usual predicted annual event.

SaltyToplaneGoatJul 12, 201524 votes

Oh in terms of GAMEPLAY the event will be interesting, no doubt on that. I mean, just look at these new items for the gamemode...

But in terms of lore I barely expect anything to move, unless they make the event resonate until Halloween, when it's time to bring out the Shadow Isles again as Bilgewater's primary involvement with the world is their proximity to the Harrowing.

But the timeframe is too big, so they either get another event (Probably a noncentral region such as Ionia) in or they will do what they can do best and simply do nothing.

Freljord and Shurima have proven it that Riot has no idea how storytelling works in their medium. I don't even have a bachelor (media-science) yet and could write you a 40 page thesis about the possibilites you have with the tools you have when working with this kind of thing. (In my method I view it as a system with things you can do and things you cannot. I call it "clockwork analysis". How does it work and what can we make it do?)

The most puzzling thing: It could be so easy. The community does not want cinematic trailers all the time. Sometimes they just want a short story. Or a moment of a champion being silly. A text describing a encounter between champions, maybe directly or as a tale. Summed up those small drops of lore form the world and the constant stream of small releases keeps the audience hungry, yearning for more.

Also, there needs to be more lore in the actual game. Medial Para-texts are fine from time to time, but if something is not "in the game" it is somewhat "less worth" in the viewers perception (unless we go full cross-media storytelling and establish a serious frame, such as an animated series could do).

We need more voice-overs. More taunts, more item flavour texts, more seemingly useless buffs (think of "this champ is a flipping ninja"), but with biographical importance. Imagine playing a champ that is a criminal and you have the buff _ Branded for the murder of High Councellour XY_

Just because the type of game does not favour typical linar storytelling it does not mean that we cannot establish and create personal stories and represent them inside the game.

Going back to the buffs. Imagine a lore event that involves a murder and several champs are suspected. During several court-protocols the suspicion wanders from champion to champion. Until now, nothing so special. But what if. IF they all get "buffs" in the game, like "suspected of killing xy. Under survelliance by the orders of Piltover Supreme Court". Those could vary as "assumed main culprit", "Witness" or whatever...

But. Those buffs change whenever a new piece of the story is unveiled and the positions change.

Well, that's just one idea from my side here, I might be getting a bit too worked up about this. If I, a single dude that sometimes writes fanfics, can come up with enough ideas that could keep lore running, then what is narrative even getting payed for?

FailedWizardJul 12, 201513 votes

[{quoted}](name=Kyoki Shinkuro,realm=EUW,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=TQiXHVQW,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2015-07-12T21:27:34.863+0000)

Sometimes they just want a short story. Or a moment of a champion being silly. A text describing a encounter between champions, maybe directly or as a tale. Summed up those small drops of lore form the world and the constant stream of small releases keeps the audience hungry, yearning for more.

They had that, it was called the Journal of Justice.

They canned that.

SaltyToplaneGoatJul 13, 20155 votes

No, the JoJ was an attempt of some newspaper that somehow should contain EVERYTHING that barely worked out for obvious reasons and I can understand them scrapping it.

But they learned the wrong thing from that. Instead of finding a new way to present a text of lore, they simply decided "muh people don't want to read", which is downright wrong. If something is written well people will love reading it...

Also, IF you want to go with the newspaper approach, show us the same event inside multiple newspapers. The demacian "Royal Courier" will have a different point of view than the Noxian's "Frontline Report" or the "Piltover Times" ^^ Also, I think there will be more than one newspaper by fraction, especially in Noxus or Piltover/Zaun...

The articles inside these can be COMPLETLY IRRELEVANT FOR THE CHAMPIONS ("Sensation: Shuriman Nomand finds cactus shaped like a dong"), but it's something that fills the world with more depth.

Newspapers or generally every form of simulated media is one way to go, but Riot could also publish stories outside of these. There is literally nothing stopping them from doing so.

sp441Jul 13, 20151 votes

Y'now, I hate reading books, and even I could sit down and read the Journal of Justice. Either ADHD is more common than I thought, or Riot just pulled that "People don't want to read" bullshit out of their ass.

SaltyToplaneGoatJul 13, 20151 votes

This isn't a matter of ADHD, but one of writing quality. If something is written horrible no one wants to read it, simple as that.

But the problem here is something else. Somehow they think of reading a 700 page novel and reading a four page short story as the same thing. I'm not sure where exactly they have pulled it from, but your assumption might be correct with that...

Iceborn PippinJul 12, 20159 votes

Accept no substitutes for your daily rationing of disappointment.

SeductiveGrandpaJul 12, 20155 votes

Dude....did you like just come back from a REALLY REALLY bad SR game? Calm the fuck down, I mean its gotta be infuriating to them that they're trying to deliver something only for these damn posts appearing every day telling them how shit they are. I don't even think you are individual people rather one person thats just really pissed off and posting on separate accounts... Do be aware just because they're a company of people doesn't mean they're a brick wall, they have feelings too and it must really be a punch in the stomach to have to read this shit DAILY. Calm down and wait, you don't need to keep posting these pointless threads that stir up the worst in people. If they fail, they fail, you dont need to beat them over the head with it, they could probably identify a screw-up when it happens. I like to believe that they'll change it and I myself believe they will finally deliver.

SaltyToplaneGoatJul 12, 201518 votes

Hmm, no, mostly because I decided some days ago to not play until they fix the imbalance caused by sated devourer as it renders my favourite junglers useless... but that's another story. If I had a shitty SR game you would rather find me on the gameplay and balance boards, just saying.

Also, formating. Do you do it? Your post is a total pain in the ass to read... Is it so hard to press enter at some times?

They had years and years, buteven that what they delivered failed and I have seen things done better by amateurs on a second rate college project.

There is no excuse for a group of professionals screwing up this hard.

SeductiveGrandpaJul 13, 20151 votes

This JG Kayle was extremely scary and she could easily destroy my team and the kicker was that she wasn't even fed, late game she was a freakin minigun.

Sorry about the formatting too. I was sleepy and I really didn't feel like spacing it out.

I'm just saying, this is like the whole "Zac needs a skin" thing, people just won't stop whining about it, I mean I know you're disappointed and all but i'm pretty sure they're aware they've messed up a lot in the past as the Story & Art section tells this EVERY day.

Its hard to be excited about this event because every time I look through the boards, I find one of THESE posts. I mean, its just my way of doing things, hope they finally deliver, if not, so what?

I believe if they don't come through now, they'll come through later. Professionals can make mistakes, they're human too, and I believe it'll live up to its expectations. If you don't or others dont, thats your opinion, downvote this if you want to, but you could at least be a tad nice to them. Braum

NorthernDruidJul 14, 20154 votes

Well said.

To be fair though, it's gonna be hard to take any real worldbuilding attempt from their side seriously when they now have a history of ripping out core setting details on basis of factual errors of their own lore, and then just leave it at that for almost a year. Blaming "technical issues" for not getting out anything, when what they really needed to do was get the basics of the new setting detailed easily and thoroughly ASAP.

"Technical Issues"(tm) didn't stop them from detailing the changes to Summoner's Rift, nor any of the other champion reveals.

So why isn't the basic core elements of the new setting detailed yet?

Because there are none.

Because they're not trying to make a well connected world anymore, they're trying to do isolated short stories.

SaltyToplaneGoatJul 14, 20151 votes

I still wonder what those "technical issues" are - and why they just cannot tell us. I mean, if those were really difficult tech issues there would be no problem with saying "Yo fans, we have this problem and this is WHY the lore process is delayed". I just wonder what kind of tech proiblem they mean since all I want is them releasing some text...

Davy CrockettJul 13, 20153 votes

Meanwhile Graves can't have a damn cigar!

SaltyToplaneGoatJul 13, 20151 votes

Ah, yes, that is important too of course.

Their censorship decision still pisses me off by just thinking about it. Riot, JUST GIVE THIS MAN HIS GODDAMN CIGAR!

Ähem...

Ok, back to topic now <_<

Ariel the CruelJul 13, 20152 votes

I like the items though.

SaltyToplaneGoatJul 13, 20153 votes

They look kind of awesome. Money-making shield? Teammate disguise? Hard cc (a short pull) on an item?

Froma gameplay perspective this event is going to be extremly rad. But it's the lore aspect of it that worried me...

GreenLoreJul 14, 20152 votes

Overall I am not getting my hopes up here,I'll rather have low expectations and be positively surprised than having high expectations and be disappointed.

We'll see how good it is gonna be,the shurima event itself wouldn't have been disappointing if it weren't for the whole "short lore without full lore"-mess.

Emperor TimeJul 13, 20151 votes

it's a moba not an rpg guys.

AnidanJul 13, 20156 votes

Unless a game specifically sets down with the intention of not telling a great story (and some do exactly that and that's perfectly fine) then a story is what people will expect. A story is possible and it's evident that some types of people crave a story. They crave being drip-fed lore that makes the world seem alive and constantly moving.

Right now, the Journal of Justice, one such source of a lively world, has been canned. Two wars, that I can remember at least, have been waged since we've been able to play and participate in. One of which was declared no longer canon (Ionia vs. Noxus) by way of dissolving the League itself and thus making it no longer a mediator in the fight, and the other is ongoing last I knew with no updates since the 'event' ended (War for Freljord). What a war, right? So much going on that we haven't been told a damn thing in months. It was a war that was big enough to engulf Trundle, a completely unrelated champion entirely who had his lore, appearance, and voice over changed to reflect his new role in the Freljord, but not big enough to warrant even a canon conclusion? We have murderbridge, but that gives nothing substantive in terms of lore for the battle itself. Then we have the Shurima stuff ongoing now, and Shadow Isles stuff, and now Bilgewater. But the thing is: Those are huge events, but they don't necessarily give way to a vibrant and breathing, living world. They give way to a turbulent and tumultuous world, yes, but if we all we have to go on is the political violence then we can only see our champions as avatars of their political factions, and we know that, as living people ourselves, that nobody is simply a living avatar of their political faction's ideologies, so we see an incomplete person that we want to know more about. We want to know motivations, we want to know daily minutiae, like how Morgana ran a bakery, or what celebrations a place like Noxus or Zaun might hold.

What I'm seeing is a disjointed mess that seeks some sort of organized rhyme and reason. We're seeing a big picture, but we're using such a low resolution that we can see none of the finer details.

SaltyToplaneGoatJul 13, 20152 votes

The JoJ was canned for a reason and I can somewhat understand the reasons for that. But then they replaced it with... nothing. It's like they thought "Oh, our one time attempt failed so we might never try anything text related ever again".

I can understand them doing it with events, but even now they are doing it wrong. Those events have to go over into each other. Once an event ends another should loom on the horizont. You could even put them on fixed spots in the year: Freljord in Winter, Shadow isles on Halloween, in the summer Bilgewater and Shurima, Early Spring Ionia (lunar revel),...

But right now it's nothing... one events come through and nothing changes anyways... nothing happens for ages again.

OuttaControl56Jul 14, 20151 votes

At this point, the map and the exploration of Bilgewater as a setting has had some very nice canon added to it. Natives and native religions, fishermen hunting Leviathans, etc...

I'll take what I can get man. Beats nothing.

SaltyToplaneGoatJul 14, 20151 votes

Dunno, but right now we have... almost nothing, apart from a dated map and a few, really rare hints that can be found somewhere without any further explanation on the subject. If that's all we can get thats somewhat close to nothing...

OuttaControl56Jul 15, 20151 votes

Well the shopkeepers VO might add some more spice...

....As Is aid, it beats nothing!