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Great. Now we can't expect seasonal events from Riot anymore.

Shinjusuke··90 votes·5,066 views
A note about The Harrowing

"In Runeterra, the Harrowing can strike any day of the year, not just on a certain night/month, so only being able to tell Harrowing stories in October felt a little restrictive.

Having said that, we are still going to be releasing a Harrowing story this month... but the next one could come at any time.

Ant"

Is that how the Harrowing works in Runeterra?

I wouldn't know, because you guys decided to throw out the story and not give us anything afterwards and I wasn't invited to the exclusive club there at RIOT who does get to know the most basic things about the universe.

Also, what a convenient way for RIOT to absolve themselves of any and all accountability regarding seasonal lore events.

I looked forward to the Harrowing and Snowdown each year. I buy the Harrowing skins almost every year to support RIOT and send a message to them as a consumer that "I like these events". But apparently, that's not gonna happen any more, because now that RIOT is moving to not "constraining" events like the Harrowing to a particular month or time of year, any ability we have regarding holding RIOT accountable to doing these few-and-far-between events is now gone.

The claim is "but guys! Now we can do any of these events at any time of the year! yay!", but at literally anyone who has actually paid attention to how RIOT has handled lore or balancing of League of Legends the past few years, anytime Riot says they're going to do something, it either happens disgustingly far in the future or not at all. Hence the joke "Soon tm", which is so well-known that I'm fairly confident every Rioter is aware of it and what it means at this point.

So I look forward to seeing my next Harrowing in 3 years, because frankly RIOT, any time your community backs you up with patience or trust, you give us the finger. Every time. This isn't going to be any different. There's a point where "faith" turns into "naivity", and any logical person should've realized by now that when you guys promise us something lore -related or promise to "keep a close eye on" something, it's just a way to buy some time until the majority of the community forgets that promise.

I wish I had the same faith in you guys to do what's best for the community and the game that I did 5 years ago. I sincerely, honestly do. But I'm not an idiot, and you treat us like forgetful idiots. It's a terrible shame, but it's a reality.

66 Comments

SSJTribe48 votes

Yeah, seems like a really bad idea to me. Like, I enjoy feeling the holiday spirit when I log onto league. It won't feel the same if suddenly next year the harrowing is in April.

Baseball3b13 votes

Agreed.

I'm all for spontaneous events, but they need to leave the holidays ones where they are.

Sgathach20 votes

I was fearful this is what they meant. Halloween is my favorite holiday and always has been, so to hear that they might not do Harrowing right now in favor of "doing it whenever" really, really disappointed me. A good Harrowing would have made up for the terrible skins they decided to do this year too, but now this?

I don't want to experience Harrowing when its hot as heck outside. Some of these seasonal things are FOR A REASON. Who is telling Rioters this is a good idea? How did these ideas even go through?

Ludovico12 votes

I honestly think, that they planned the event for the expected time, but didn´t get everything done.

This is just the easy way out of the "We didn´t finish in time" problem (regarding ALL seasonal/lore events).

Crownsy9 votes

[{quoted}](name=NaCl Goddess,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=Z6AnGMW8,comment-id=0005,timestamp=2015-10-15T06:02:27.048+0000)

I was fearful this is what they meant. Halloween is my favorite holiday and always has been, so to hear that they might not do Harrowing right now in favor of "doing it whenever" really, really disappointed me. A good Harrowing would have made up for the terrible skins they decided to do this year too, but now this?

I don't want to experience Harrowing when its hot as heck outside. Some of these seasonal things are FOR A REASON. Who is telling Rioters this is a good idea? How did these ideas even go through?

There's nothing more to it than this. Worlds is in October. They want all focus on that, and they know that we are suckers for the seasonal skins. So, they will do a "harrowing" event during the off season, when they need to make money.

This is the kind of thing that's killing league for me. I'm just about done. I'm to the point now where i only play when I can get a full team of people I know, which with all of them not playing as much/ taking a break is snowballing into "ya, screw it. rather play something else."

Daedalus87113 votes

Going to fed up when we get a snowdown in June.

I know there is the Southern Hemisphere, but how many of them actually see snow?

Noctius2813 votes

When they decide to make an event out of season, no one will be in the right mood and the skin sales will plummet and THEN they will understand one of the most basic things about "supply and demand" that any company selling a product should know

I love Harrowing skins but I don't use them out of this time of year because it doesn't feel right

Not having yearly seasonal events will bite them in the butt big time... they just don't realize it yet...

just a memory10 votes

Well, I'm again continually surprised by how Riot finds new ways to weasel out of doing anything.

We cannot trust them to make meaningful updates to the game engine. Or to balance champions. Or to ease the experience of new players. And now we cant even depend on them to create seasonal themed maps during the SEASON they actually happen in.

I have never heard a player say, "Gosh, I sure hope I get to play the Harrowing during February and the Snowdown during July." What sort of batshit logic is this? Does anyone at Riot actually do any work? Why is everything always SOON tm or NEVER tm.

Kat Head9 votes

Yeah, Riot logic strikes again. Whatever the community likes and desires Riot will find a way to do the opposite.

MeesterMoo6 votes

Have you seen the new shadow isle champions lore? It's ridiculous. They changed it all to 4 sentence paragraphs. It's like they want to mass appeal... Oh wait.

Lintu Puck6 votes

those are just the short forms. simple little snipets like what you get on the back of a game box or dvd case. the long forms (like with Kindred and Fiora) will becoming by the end of this month or next.

Vicarious1176 votes

For me it greatly depends on what else Riot plans on doing. Like maybe they'll do a Harrowing event next year in May, but come October they'll still have some kind of Halloween event for us.

I mean if this decision is for them to have more room to "maneuver" with their lore specific events and they'll just replace them with events for the actual real world holidays, since every single one of us definitely still lives in the real world and celebrates most if not all of the real holidays. If they do it that way then I have no problem with them making this adjustment.

However, if they are in fact just throwing all timing out the window and will just start to ignore the real holidays so they no longer have any commitments to make in regards to events, then I completely agree with the OP, cause that's simply ridiculous should it be true.

So I hope it's not, and you guys are doing what I mentioned first instead, I really really do......

BastionKross5 votes

Riot has trouble developing things on a deadline (as we've seen many times before), and having an event ready by a certain holiday is a strict deadline since that holiday can't be moved back or delayed.

Instead of working to fix the problems that prevent themselves for meeting deadlines on time, Riot is just removing the deadlines entirely. That's like spilling milk all over your bed, and instead of doing the work to clean up the mattress and sheets, you just haul the bed out back and burn it. There's no mess if there's no bed, right? This is less of a solution, and more laziness.

I'm not mad at you Riot, because I kind of expected this. I'm just disappointed in you.

Crownsy5 votes

Translation:

"Hi guys, Worlds makes us alot of Money. Unfortunately, it occurs right around Halloween. WE don't really give a damn about the seasonal events, aside from the money the skins bring in. So, going forward, whenever we have 5 skins ready to go with a theme, we will release them and call it "The july harrowing" or some bullshit, and you guys will buy the skins."

"Thanks! Remember to watch LCSBIGPLAY$ so that we can get more sponsor money!"

Vera5 votes

All this is doing is helping to destroy whatever good will they may have built with their customers.

Try as hard as you like, Riot, I'm never going to watch your stupid "esport" nonsense.

Lol@Halloween ("Harrowing") in the Summer. Give me a break.

Lintu Puck2 votes

esports helps draw attention to league itself. Worlds is something the participants put a lot of time, money, sweat, and even risk their health in. esports has helped gaming in general raise itself up in the world to try and get people to see gamers as more then just middle-aged do-nothings living in their parent's basements.

Noctius282 votes

[{quoted}](name=Lintu Puck,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=Z6AnGMW8,comment-id=000f0000,timestamp=2015-10-15T14:54:38.484+0000)

esports helps draw attention to league itself. Worlds is something the participants put a lot of time, money, sweat, and even risk their health in. esports has helped gaming in general raise itself up in the world to try and get people to see gamers as more then just middle-aged do-nothings living in their parent's basements.

The merits of Worlds is not in question The problem is them destroying what is arguably the biggest seasonal event for any game for Worlds Why not change Worlds to another time of Year?

Why decide to delete the Harrowing?

Why do this to the none pro fans?

THAT is the problem, not the fact that worlds exist

Lintu Puck4 votes

Harrowing is not deleted, they are making it an event that could strike at anytime, and it actually makes sense in-universe.

Noctius282 votes

[{quoted}](name=Lintu Puck,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=Z6AnGMW8,comment-id=000f000000000000,timestamp=2015-10-15T15:40:24.704+0000)

Harrowing is not deleted, they are making it an event that could strike at anytime, and it actually makes sense in-universe.

Harrowing, as in that time of year in which the shadow isles are more powerfull then usual and spread the black mist to capture souls?

Yes it's deleted, because that time of the year has always been October, meaning during Halloween

They can make all the story events they want (they probably won't) But those will never be THE Harrowing unless they happen in october

Plus COULD has always spelled bad news for the players, because it usually means "Never"

And why exactly do you think it makes sense in-universe?

Lintu Puck5 votes

if the time of the Harrowing is always the same, then the rest of Runeterra can easily prepare for it, and even possibly mount a counter attack against it. And yet all that has happened so far is that a traveling Noxus Warship was quickly sunk by it and Bilgewater has barely been able to hold back one of the more recent encroaches thanks to a quick and very uneasy partnership between Gangplank and Miss Forturne leading a combined armada, while farther off Nautilus had been seen doing his utmost to stop The Harrowing on his own. If Runeterra's population knew the exact time frame, then the people could honestly find a way to unite and force back The harrowing, or even take this battle to the Shadow Isles themselves and end things once and for all. Now if The Harrowing can instead strike at any time, then it becomes a LOT more scarier and more dangerous then we once thought. Then there could be no planning and your only hope would be an early warning. Think what would of happened had The Harrowing rolled across the waves during the Burning Tides event? Miss Fortune's Coup d'état over Gangplank could of actually doomed all of Bilgewater. THAT is terrifying in hindsight.

Sgathach6 votes

Who the heck says Runeterra goes by the same linear timeline we do?

I don't think they did this because they cared about the story. They did because it's a really convenient excuse for not having gotten anything prepared. Or maybe they saw how bad the Harrowing skins were and figured, "Oops we need to make Harrowing even better this year, gotta put it back a week or a month to add content."

It really doesn't matter if Runeterra can prepare an attack for Harrowing or not. This is for us, the consumers, during the month of October when its spooky scary skeleton times.

I do not want to enjoy spooky scary skeletons when its 110 degrees outside in June and the only thing scary is whether or not my air conditioner will break down.

Noctius283 votes

1- You yourself just showed how everyone needed to prepare for the Harrowing before hand, they needed to make uneasy alliances to be able to deal with it and barely made it even with team work, when everyone knows each year the mist gets bigger, teamwork and preparation is already the only way they survive It would go against the lore for them to suddenly be able to stand against the mist without being ready for it

2- Who in the player base cares? I love lore, it's my most favorite part of the game and it's the reason I started playing and it's the reason I keep coming back And seriously... a Harrowing outside of Halloween is not interesting, the danger is not the same, because the mood is not the same

Halloween puts us in the right state of spirit to appreciate and enjoy the stories of the Harrowing

Outside of Halloween they just feel weird and irrelevant... like a filler on a show

Can you get in the X-mas spirit during July? cuz I sure and shait can't!

PS: How the hell have you not realized yet this is their way of avoiding the responsibility of doing that ONE thing every year without fail that gave us some lore and fun for the "Possibility" of it happening at another time, if at all?

Kitty von Tuna5 votes

I love how they turned Summoners Rift into a big Winter wonderland at the winter before. Just playing in the snowcovered land with it's rivers frozen gave me a nice feeling

Sgathach5 votes

Let me appeal to Riot from a company/industry mindset.

Starbucks is well known for its Pumpkin Spice Latte, right? Everyone loves it and they make a ton of money off it. So why don't they have it all the time, or in the summer?

Because it's not the same. Autumn is when pumpkins are grown, the season changes, weather gets colder and rain begins to fall. Autumn is the time of HARVEST and in the Harrowing the shadow isles champions HARVEST SOULS. How about that for lore based?

Restricting something to a certain date that people look forward to can be a good thing. Not only that, some of us might be thinking "hey Harrowing/Snowdown is coming maybe I want to save some money for those skins." But when you surprise us in the middle of July with Snowdown and we're broke WE KIND OF CAN'T GIVE YOU THE MONEY YOU SO DESIRE.

KING OF MASKS4 votes

So basically...

"We literally have nothing prepared, we blew our load with Burning Tides, we're totally fucked... just push the Halloween event back to this coming spring."

Sgathach2 votes

Basically yes.

Lorinne2 votes

But, they ARE releasing a Harrowing Event this October. They're just saying that the next one could possibly come before or a little after next October.

KING OF MASKS1 votes

The wording in Ant's post tells us that we're getting a Harrowing "story" -- not an event, not an actual full-blown Harrowing, but a story. I'm interpreting that to be something along the lines of one of their lore pieces. So yes, we're getting Harrowing content this month, but not an actual Harrowing.

Further, I'm going to assume that we're not getting the next Harrowing in November or December either. If we were getting a November Harrowing, then this note seems a little pointless; a lot of earlier Harrowings stretched well into November, so it wouldn't be all that unusual to delay the event for a month or so. And Snowdown is meant to happen in December, so unless they're pushing that back as well, it would be rather weird if we were to get the next Harrowing right next to Christmas. In which case, no Harrowing event for 2015.

I could be wildly off, but that's how I'm interpreting the red post.

Noctius283 votes

{quoted}

But, they ARE releasing a Harrowing Event this October. They're just saying that the next one could possibly come before or a little after next October.

no, they meant the next one may NEVER come out Because now they don't have the pressure of doing SOMETHING at least once a year

Maybe they will, maybe (probably) they won't

Not that this year we get a story, not an event, just a story, probably an old one that is not relevant at all to the lore Probably something like the kindred story about the girl

Was it a nice read? sure Was it important or even demonstrated more of Kindred's personality? No

Lorinne2 votes

If this was the last Harrowing, they would say so.

I think you guys are sorta jumping the gun on this one. Rito's been unreliable in the past but they aren't the completely incompetent villains some of you are making them out to be.

Not like we've gotten a true "event" every year, anyway. And Riot has improved a lot lately when it comes to events and lore. The Blidgewater event was amazing, and all the extra lore pieces (including the Kindred piece) have been awesome as well. They didn't sell the Kindred story, it's not like it was a money grab. It was just for us to enjoy. You'd think people would appreciate that instead of ignoring it and claiming Riot doesn't care about events or lore when they've made clear improvements to attempt to prove otherwise.

You say that this could mean there's never another Harrowing, but it's probably closer to meaning we'll get one or two smaller Harrowing events or story bits a year in addition to the normal "Halloween" event. They would be open if they were just gonna scratch the event all together. And there's no reason for them to even think about doing that in the first place.

Why don't you save the whining until after they fuck up? I could understand the presumption that it would be horrid if they've been doing bad lately, but considering the improvements and efforts they've made lately for events and lore I don't see any reason to be so extremely negative.

IcyPepper4 votes

URF at April Fools Harrowing at October Snowdown in Winter

and so on and on. You've always stuck to this, and made it tradition.

Come on, people don't call Christmas (or your winter holiday of choice!) restrictive because it's only in December, and I don't think Halloween is restrictive because it falls on the same day.

Come on, why are you suddenly dropping out of tradition? As much as we like surprises, we also want things to look forward to beyond champion releases. That's what hype is for -_-

Krizalid3 votes

Not a bad thing to me, if being honest. I got tired of waiting for a single event over 340 days every year. Especially when its disappointing and I realize that I have to wait once again.

Ludovico7 votes

So you´d rather settle on 1 event every 1 1/2 years? Because that´s where this is going to go.

Noctius283 votes

Guess what I'll be playing and wasting my money on during Halloween? (hint: It's not League of Legends)

Celestinas2 votes

{quoted}

Guess what I'll be playing and wasting my money on during Halloween? (hint: It's not League of Legends)

GW2 for me. Halloween event AND the expansion on the same day vs League? Yeah no contest.

Valor Bot3 votes

Man, this would have been my first Harrowing too. I joined at the start of 2015 so I didn't get to experience last year's Harrowing (which was pretty neat by the looks of it). Been waiting for this year's event for months now and I gotta say I'm kinda disappointed with this news (and the new skins). Seasonal events are fun, Riot! They give us something to look forward to each year. Breaking that holiday spirit sounds like a big step in the wrong direction.

Lorinne2 votes

Why are people saying that it won't happen this month? The post that you are commenting on SAYS that there will still be a Harrowing Story this month!!!

It's just saying the NEXT one could happen before or a little after next October.

Valor Bot1 votes

It's not coming in a big cohesive package like it has in previous years though. So far it seems like all they're giving us for the Harrowing this year are the three (highly controversial) skins and a story. This post pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter:

As spiffy as the Bilgewater story was (and it was fun to read) the in-game tie-in is why that event worked out so well.

The slaughter-ship crew skin group seriously set a new, higher standard for the 750 rp skins as it was easily one of the best sets ever, and the graphical updates to GP and MF, along with an actual, in-game effect from the story on GP was why that worked, and why it was ok.

This whole de-coupling of in-game content from the story isn't cool, and as much as Riot wants to make the backstory more relevant, this is a session-based game with, admittedly, a neat backstory, but without in-game assets to tie to those stories, they're a LOT less impactful.

I'd be interested in a full-blow Shadow Isles story w/ website like Bilgewater if it came with all of the in-game stuff that Bilgewater did - that's why the Shadow Isles events for the Harrowing in the past have been so good, it's once nice package, the video + story for Kalista and those spooky skins worked out great, just like Bilgewater.

So take this away - the Bilgewater event, while not tied to a holiday, is the way to introduce this kind of stuff. Words alone are not enough, at least not when they're representing what's traditionally been a big event with in-game content.

Peridition3 votes

I'm kind of torn about this.

On one hand, it makes sense. The Harrowing is just when the Shadow Isles grows and the Black MIst envelopes a part of Runeterra bringing the denizens of the Shadow Isles with it. There's no reason this couldn't happen at anytime of the year.

On the other, the Harrowing has historically always been a Halloween event in LoL. And losing a specific holiday event doesn't sit well with anyone. People genuinely enjoy the themed skins and events that go with our holidays and October is prime time people wants spooky skins and champions.

So I'm fine with this change is Riot plans adding a new Halloween event to take the place of the Harrowing. But otherwise this is just a bad decision.

Piggy81742 votes

I think they're just doing this so that, as you said, the harrowing isn't constrained to a specific time any more. I hope that they keep doing Halloween events though, I like the feel of having an event like this during Halloween. Essentially I'm agreeing with your point and this post is pointless. +)

Matezoide3 votes

''Heres a Harrowing timeline where they all take place on the same day.''

''Heres the Harrowing skins for this year, go buy them!''

''Harrowing lore? Lel it doesnt actually take place on the same day huehuehuehue''

  • Riot

See, thats the problem with lore atm. Everything can be retconned out of nowhere in a random post. Remember when Lissandra became blind 2 years after her release?

Livin like Riven3 votes

Okay, I don't think I've ever accused Riot about something but this time I'll say this; this is either total incompetence or a complete disregard for anything that isn't eSports.

I am severely disappointed with this. Shocked too. Smaller MOBAs and other online games in general rolled out some Harrowing theme or something. You'd expect one of the biggest online games atm to get the same treatment but, way to go, Riot.

A Swarm of Koala3 votes

Don't worry guys, Lunar Festival isn't going anywhere because Riot doesn't want to anger our Chinese Overlords.

KingWanahakalugi2 votes

I can see why people like the seasonal events, but I can also see Riot's point of view. HAVING to provide a specific type of content each year at the exact same time can be difficult. Especially when you have other projects in the works. If you have something on the list that you would like to do, it would completely suck to HAVE to drop it so you could get a specific set of skins/features out by specific date every year at multiple points. I do love the events that Riot puts on and I look forward to each and every one. However, I'm completely content with Riot releasing them at points that allow them to provide the best content instead of perhaps rushed or unfinished ideas.

The Illithid2 votes

My complaint would be that I saved up a chunk of change to make sure I could buy the harrowing skins I like, if there are any, because I knew the Harrowing would be around in October. If the might suddenly go "BOOM, Harrowing!" in mid July next year, I probably won't buy anything from it unless they give me more than a month's notice.

Bottom line for Riot: Having unpredictable events hurts your expected revenue!

The Loveless2 votes

Lore comes and goes, I can accept that. But can we please have some variety in the map skins? I'd love to see snowflakes again or a wonderfully spooky Rift with darks, oranges, reds, purples, yellows, and various Halloween-like ornaments.

twinkbrain2 votes

item 3070

Solideus2 votes

Why would it be a bad thing that they can do Harrowing stuff more than once a year?

Axxlon2 votes

{quoted}

Why would it be a bad thing that they can do Harrowing stuff more than once a year?

Because it's a Halloween event and there's no reason to do so unless it specifically pertains to a champion's lore.

Solideus1 votes

Only difference is they'll have Halloween and Harrowing separately, it seems to me.

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