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Debates: How important is lore, should it tie into the game more?

TheSpiritDragon·11/4/2015, 6:04:49 PM·1 votes·1,642 views

Alright so here's basically the discussion, how important is the lore when it comes to the League of Legends community as a whole? Does the amount of lore or lack there of have an effect on your appreciation of the game, or rather the experience of the game, any different? A friend and I had this discussion one day during and after a bot game of twisted treeline when the debate spurred between whether or not the lore actually had any impact on the experience of League of Legends. From my personal side I believe if the lore of the game were tied into events more often, such as a Zaun vs. Piltover event with a Piltover reskin of Summoner's Rift or perhaps more events with their own cache options to provoke a tie in with some story in the lore like the raid of Zed's organization, the lore would become much more enjoyable and immersive for the fans of these particular champions. I think that the lore should not influence champion's in game play however, for example if they were to give Annie half the power they suggest she has, she would be too strong to fight on the rift and that would just be no fun for anyone. But in the core argument of the debate between me and my friend, they were debating whether Riot even cared about the lore fans due to some heavy recons in the past and continuous neglect of actual connected plot line within the lore's released segments. The idea that Riot simply doesn't care about the lore is preposterous, as I can pull up many recent additions to the lore stories such as the Shadows and Fortune lore linked above or the Kindred story, which I will list at the end of this discussion, that clearly show Riot is putting the effort into pleasing it's knit picky lore fans such as myself. My argument however is not that the lore itself is neglected, but rather that lore based content is. Personally I was eagerly awaiting the halloween based event and skins that are usually released year to year, but was very disappointed to find out that the one for all event and the slayer skins, spirit fire Brand, and demon Vi, were all that we received at this particular point in the year. Perhaps I just expected too much being a rather recent addition to the game considering this summoner's rift is still actually rather new in the long run of the game's history being only about a year old or so now, and after all it's no secret that all of the artistic development and programming that goes into a Halloween or Winter map reskin is a long and taxing process for everyone involved, and who knows how long the summoner's rift map took to develop in itself. But with that said, I was eager to see the release of older legacy skins that I showed interest in before I even knew how to play the game. I eagerly was hoping on the 31st, there would be a launch of the harrowing event to follow up the Bilgewater event that I happened to miss by a hair of time when I originally hit that download game button. But let's be fair, a Harrowing event released as close to the Bilgewater event would have required extensive planning, man power, hours of work, and if you really want to be professional about the process: money. By no means am I angry at Riot for not doing this, quite the contrary in fact I understand, but I am critical that they missed such an amazing opportunity to make an event as they released segments of the lore. I mean how epic would it have been to see Spirits of the dead floating in the background of the Bilgewater reskin of Murder Bridge terrorizing the citizens while MissFortune Captain Fortune and say like Graves Graves did combat with Thresh Thresh, Hecarim Hecarim, and Kalista Kalista? I would have been hooked for days trying to get an Icon and playing this style of map. I'm sure that there will be a Snowdown reskin, in fact I can almost guarantee Riot knows that it would be a priority to get ready before December as opposed to my beloved Halloween based event. But even with all of their resources, Riot can only do so much and there are priorities to be set as sometimes opinions differ between fans. But in the end, the question stands, do you feel that Riot should put more effort into making events based on specific events in the lore such as a battle between the Void born champs and say like the Demacian aligned champs? If they did do lore based events more often what would you personally want to see? Even with all of their priorities like Worlds, season 6 prep work, and their long term rework projects like champ skins, holiday based reskins of maps, while juggling the patches, do you think Riot has the resources and just as importantly the funds to do these kinds of events? Do you feel character and story based lore adds to the gameplay experience on a personal level? Let me know!

Thank you all for reading, please do jump into the discussion whenever or however you feel like. I look forward to reading your inputs! Here, have a Doran's Ring! item 1056

-- Veit Setton

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9 Comments

Star Guardían11/4/2015, 7:06:40 PM5 votes

How important is lore to the actual game's quality? A bit, but not very. How important is lore to the IP (Intellectual Property) quality and player experience. VERY.

Why I say this, you may ask. The game LoL itself is still a good game whether or not there's lore. The only lore needed to make the actual game itself good is just a basic understanding of the champions. I would still be just as entertained by playing and watching people play LoL with out the lore. Everybody I know in real life (friends), who play LoL don't give two shits about the lore and they still enjoy and about the game as much as me (someone who care SO much about the lore)

HOWEVER, lore is extremely important to LoL as an IP, because it gets players to care about LoL as more that just a game. The job that Jaredan, Fauxschizle, Dino Paws, Ant in Oz and the rest of the Narrative and Foundation teams are doing at Riot is extremely important for the IP because it gets people to care about the world the game takes place in. I know for me, as of late, I've been interacting on the boards and reading lore more than playing the actual game. In doing so, the experience of playing the game is actually improved, which in turn makes it important to the game.

I know these two points are somewhat contradictory and I know my whole set up was kind of a red herring, but what I'm trying to say is. If Riot wanted to make LoL JUST a game, with no lore, LoL would be a great game. But since they decided back in 2009 to make lore an aspect of this game, lore is important and it does affect the quality of the game. I think if Riot keeps improving the lore (which they have been going and are continuing to do) a lot more players will gain a deeper appreciation for the game.

Now to address some of your points.

The Legacy (past) Harrowing skins will be released next patch. I personally, being and older Lol player, felt that the amount and quality of skins has been on par with previous years (Zombie and Slayer Skins). If we're including Demon Vi and Spirit Fire Brand as Harrowing skins (which some people don't) I'd say this year has been the best as far as Harrowing skin quality goes.

As for me, I hope the continue to do what they're doing with lore. I also hope to see more relevance in game to the lore (ex; kha'zix and rengar)

LordHippoman11/4/2015, 10:20:03 PM3 votes

I personally love the Lore stuff in League. For background, I started in Febuary of 2011 and started reading with Renekton's Lore, (The first champ I played, it was his free week), then hopped to Nasus' from there, etc. I thought there was a lot of charm to it (Never really got into the "You ARE the summoner" thing though), and I stuck with it, because I did like the Lore and I loved the game too. Slowly I got more into Lore, probably because the community was, as it notoriously is, pretty damn toxic elsewhere. I've watched everything from the JoJ Kalamanda issues and trying to solve the mysterious Talon note to the controversy over Jayce's original lore, from the retcon of the League to the stories of Burning Tides, and I've enjoyed my time there.

But to your average player? I don't think Lore is very important. Most players DO NOT want to read. I tried to convince a League playing friend to read the Lore once, and he responded "Why would I want to read when I want to play a video game?". Well, every RPG in the past 20 years exists, but I mean, okay. There's an issue with language barriers. League is played in over 10 countries worldwide. When Dinopaws writes Shadow and Fortune, all the English players can read it. Everyone else is going to have to wait on a translation, and if it's a GOOD translation, that can take a while, especially with the amount of wordplay and made-up-words that were used in that story. I've used this example once, and I'll use it a hundred more times. If you approach your average League player and say "Summoners were removed.", they will look at you and reply "What? Flash and Ignite are fine."

I think that can change, and I think we're actually on a good track for that. The first issue for getting new players into the Lore is convincing them to READ the Lore. The addition of more quotes on champions that have to do with their Lores (New Sion, Ekko, and Kindred are good examples) is a great way to start, because that's going to make the player curious. What the hell is a "Zaun" that Ekko keeps yelling about? And there's a snowball effect there. Another thing is cinematics. Even simple ones, like the Kalista one, are going to be easier for most people to digest than a long lore, but are going to be pretty good at drawing people in. As a bonus, they often don't use dialogue, which eliminates the language issue. A lot of people in the game community especially sneer and turn up their noses at the idea of "accessibility", but that's dumb. I saw a guy who must have been in his 60's playing League on his laptop at a restaurant when I was grabbing lunch last Tuesday. All kinds of people play League, and it isn't always the kind who usually get really into lore in games.

For me, Lore is a big part of why I still play League the most when I have (and very much enjoy) accounts on a few other games in the same genre. I like these characters and this style. But to attract more people into that, to make it matter more, I think the way Lore is delivered needs to be prioritized more. I think Riot can spare a tiny box on the client to show off Shadow and Fortune instead of more #BIGPLAYZ. The Lore department seems to get a little shafted a lot, and that's a shame, some of the recent stuff has been some of the best writing in LoL history.

Sneak Dog11/4/2015, 8:18:38 PM2 votes

I've found myself becoming gradually less interested in the game after Riots lore department lost my trust. I play pretty much exclusively with friends by now, instead of happily grinding that soloqueue. Sadly, Riot doesn't so far seem very keen on fixing that mistake they made.

A minimum amount of identity is needed for your game to stand out. A decent amount of lore will get you a certain group of players that enjoys these things. A good amount of lore will keep players around and even make them want to play your other games, merely because their favourite characters are in it.

LadyRenly11/4/2015, 8:21:20 PM2 votes

When I first started, there were some champs I didn't care for, but I read their lore and found them interesting and decided to play them now that I related to them a bit more.

Although the opposite did happen, too. I always thought Warwick was a dumb, mangy mutt, then reading the interaction between him and Soraka makes me hate the bastard even more.

Miss New Booty11/5/2015, 7:44:15 PM1 votes

Lore isn't so much what got me into League, I was more interested in the characters' personalities. But tbh those go hand in hand.

Like Soraka wouldn't be Soraka, if it weren't for the mishap with Warwick. Lux 's cheerfulness and patriotism is hard to appreciate without knowing about DEMACIAAA!!

I feel like lore isn't a huge draw-in for most people, but it's what keeps the people who like it happy :) Seeing it grow or understanding your character makes battles a little more fun.

Pikalicious11/5/2015, 7:37:48 AM1 votes

On a side note, 3 harrowing skins are still coming. Jinx, Pantheon, and Nunu. So don't bust a gut.

On a core note:

"Alright so here's basically the discussion, how important is the lore when it comes to the League of Legends community as a whole?"

or better phrased: How important is lore to the League of Legends community?"

Not at all; severely important to about 5% of the player base...which is definably "not at all" important.

"Does the amount of lore or lack there of have an effect on your appreciation of the game, or rather the experience of the game, any different?"

The lack of lore, or at least the lack of moderately creative and well written lore, has always been a hall mark of League. So no, the lack of lore doesn't lessen my appreciation of the game.

HOWEVER I agree that "the LORE -------would make the GAME would become much more enjoyable and immersive for the fans"

...if the lore was actually good; and I have bothered reading numerous champion profiles- the ones I main; and the Kindred story and some of Burning Tides. But the lore would have to be clever, creative, interesting and involve some sort of plot arc and be designed by an English major of Creative Writing with some sort of ingenuity and love for league of Legends. Which obviously...ain't happening. The lore thus far, I'll just be honest, is trash.

It's obvious, the lore certainly has the ability to make an impact: to further the enjoyment of those 'intellectuals' who play league. Thus far, the lore is literally the background noise in a Beethoven symphony. By that I mean, the lore is so bad that the token mentality is to ignore it.

When people come to a Shakespearean play, they want to see Hamlet... not watch people in all black fumble around and move props and backdrops.

The problem with League thus far: While backdrops are ESSENTIAL to the play, The lore is not ESSENTIAL to this game.

frigginmurlocs11/5/2015, 4:35:37 PM1 votes

To put it in a smaller wall of text than other responses, in no game should story take precedence over gameplay. It does not Matter how good or bad a game'a story is, if the gameplay is awful, no one will care about the story. Additionally, story should not interfere with gameplay in specific ways. An example of poor story-gameplay interaction is the burning tides gangplank Disable, while this decision make sense to those that read burning tides, those that chose not to read the story only knew that gangplank had been disabled for a reason not involving a gameplay issue

Muffinsong11/5/2015, 4:57:23 PM1 votes

Depends how the Lore is done.

The way the Lore and our freedom of choice for champ picks. Example Garen and Urgot on the same team. If lore forces specific teams as of now... its meh. This overall kills the real lore, since it doesnt match up with the story.

Lore needs to be brief. Some players only have enough time for maybe a game lucky if 2. If they have to get Lore shoved down their throats before playing then they might play something else. Some newer games have too long intros to get into the game.