We're coming up on 6 months since new lore was postponed due to "technical issues"

DrCyanide··82 votes·3,609 views

How much longer can Riot hide behind this excuse?

37 Comments

OhOkYea44 votes

"technical issues"

They are trying to work on a compensation buff for the typewriter. Something about giving it a new paint job and then taking away the keyboard from the computer.

DrCyanide29 votes

Why! Why'd the balance team have to get involved! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!

SaltyToplaneGoat5 votes

I'd say this is more of a job for champ-up than for balance... The state lore is right now doesn't need a buff, but a total rework.

Jeddy0174 votes

I think you mean a relaunch Sion

Blue Moon Wolf5 votes

item 3070 Taric Amumu Yorick Mordekaiser Poppy item 3070

Blue Moon Wolf4 votes

I could see them buffing the keyboards by removing them and replacing them with quill pens because the writing speed of a typewriter is "unhealthy for the game".

Eyrgos5 votes

[{quoted}](name=Blue Moon Wolf,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=bq7nqArx,comment-id=00020001,timestamp=2015-03-03T08:25:57.274+0000)

I could see them buffing the keyboards by removing them and replacing them with quill pens because the writing speed of a typewriter is "unhealthy for the game".

"Lacks counterplay."

MonkeyDLuufy1 votes

{quoted}

"Lacks counterplay."

But then with counterplay it would bring balance. Rito don't want balance :P

Jeddy01721 votes

Because there are a lot more problems than just the tech issues...........they're busy writing the new stuff...........that should have been ready to go once the retcon was announced. Also there are structural changes happening to the team....................which should have postpone the recton because of the unstable environment at the team.It's like buying a house right after graduating from high school.Unless the structural changes are due to the retcon. Oh & they're.......no,that's it.

Voidac20 votes

"Shut up and buy some skins." -Riot Games

Dude, they'll never fix the lore for the older champs. We're literally going to get a Taric rework before we get any lore changes.

MonkeyDLuufy2 votes

{quoted}

"Shut up and buy some skins." -Riot Games

Dude, they'll never fix the lore for the older champs. We're literally going to get a Taric rework before we get any lore changes.

Best post of the day lol

LANWhale16 votes

Forgot about those Technical Issues, is there status on them?

As well i mean their going threw some structural changes as well. Why? Perhaps has somersetting to do with the retcon. Or maybe not. All I know is Narrative is dropping the ball on us. Really there is no excuse for what there doing. They should of warned us about the retcon, perhaps something along the line of," Hey Summoners, we will be taking the Lore in a new Direction and are informing you of this. So please feel free to say where you would like to see the lore go." Or something, anything than just saying," Boom, retcon."

Content should of been there on release. Some champions are completely a mystery because there whole lore revolved around the League. So why is this lore retcon still going? My guess they weren't prepared for it.

Which leads to the other problem, the Narrative team. No, i'm not saying they should get fired or anything like that, that's just rude. But rather they are going threw structural changes for a reason. But what reason could it be? What major event had the community so upset that they posted harsh things towards Narrative. End sarcasm. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if the retcon is why their going threw structural changes. They might be removing those who rushed the retcon or maybe those who opposed the retcon. Who knows.

Over all there's to many things happening with Narrative and they seem to have forgotten that there is a community out there suffering because of this.

KING OF MASKS15 votes

Hey man, writing up more than a couple sentences is specialist work, alright? The number of things that can go wrong while attempting to string words together to form meaningful and halfway decent storytelling content is simply astronomical. It doesn't even matter what method you use. Your keyboard might violently explode, you might splash yourself with ink from your quill pen, you could permanently disfigure one of your appendages by making one miscalculated strike while trying to carve the words into your stone tablet... the list goes on and on.

And don't forget that if you're part of rito's narrative team, you probably have to deal with at least one of the following scenarios:

  1. You are a monkey forced to sit in front of a typewriter 24/7 until you produce results, no matter how embarrassingly awful they may be.
  2. You don't actually exist.

So cut them a little slack, okay? Gamers are so entitled these days.

IS1d51f7fd0f8e2764617b02 votes

[{quoted}](name=KING OF MASKS,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=bq7nqArx,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-03-03T02:49:08.282+0000)

Hey man, writing up more than a couple sentences is specialist work, alright? The number of things that can go wrong while attempting to string words together to form meaningful and halfway decent storytelling content is simply astronomical. It doesn't even matter what method you use. Your keyboard might violently explode, you might splash yourself with ink from your quill pen, you could permanently disfigure one of your appendages by making one miscalculated strike while trying to carve the words into your stone tablet... the list goes on and on.

And don't forget that if you're part of rito's narrative team, you probably have to deal with at least one of the following scenarios:

  1. You are a monkey forced to sit in front of a typewriter 24/7 until you produce results, no matter how embarrassingly awful they may be.
  2. You don't actually exist.

So cut them a little slack, okay? Gamers are so entitled these days.

Shots fired

KING OF MASKS1 votes

Nay, my friend. The first shots were fired when the retcon was announced.

We just didn't realize it.

Learnding11 votes

.

ThatAutofillSupp2 votes

You speak madness!

Gapybo9 votes

At this point I expect them to reveal a completely new lore section on the website with new and fixed lore etc. Anything less would be a disappointment.

Chromatic Eagle8 votes

Do you really have anything left inside to allow disappointment?

ActuallyArrow8 votes

New lore: "Play the game"

Sharjo6 votes

My guess is...until the lore actually comes out. Cuz, you know, it'll have been fixed by then.

Auryiel5 votes

Knowing the lore team?

2 more years

DG Ashabel5 votes

The topic of "technical issues" is an interesting one because it heavily influences how the community perceives the narrative team.

Back when it was originally stated, the atmosphere on the forums was very different. Even people who strongly disliked the retcon, were still cautiously optimistic about things it could bring. While the poor quality of the Shurima videos was disheartening, there was still hope because maybe the narrative team was focusing their efforts on the actual lore entries.

Then the Azir and Xerath stories came out and, between stylistic errors in Azir's story and the derivative nature of Xerath's (especially combined with Xerath completely changing as a character) made the community wary. For better or worse, that wariness never subsided and for each time people got excited by lore delivery (Reborn and Rek'sai), they were disappointed by other points (Kalista).

At this point, a common perception I encountered among the community is that the narrative team are using the "technical issues" excuse to shift the blame for their poor performance onto the web design team. It's compounded further by new information we received from Rioters about how the narrative team works.

With all that considered, the final outcome of this debacle makes me wary. If the issue really is driven by technical issues and all the lore for champions will pop up as soon as it's fixed, the result will be wonderful. Yes, the lore might turn out bad in terms of writing quality (and let's be honest, most people here expect that by now), but it will still mean that the narrative team was doing something during their long periods of silence.

But if the technical issue becomes fixed and there is still no new lore, the blame-shifting theory will solidify and the community's agitation will explode into outrage.

What I'm trying to say is, it might be better if the solution comes after people forget the "technical issues" statement existed at all because the final result of this debacle has the potential to suck really really hard.

DrCyanide5 votes

Honestly, if Riot came forward and said "While there were technical problems along the way, this was really a management issue", I'd be 100% OK with it.

A management issue would explain why they got the go-ahead to remove the existing lore from the client before a new place for lore was ready. A management issue could also explain why said site is taking so much longer to complete ("feature creep" in the tech world). If there wasn't feature creep, then it's likely someone ignored the QA department when they said "this doesn't look like it'll be ready", which would again be a management issue.

I agree that the more time passes, the more skeptical the community is about what we'll finally get.

DG Ashabel3 votes

The problem with the feature creep argument is that I'm not sure what kind of features they could add. Lore is, at its core, just text. You can spruce it up, wrap it in trailers and such, but ultimately people will want good writing first. Shurima videos were pretty but were still torn apart for how bad the writing was. 1886: The Order was hyped so hard as this meaningful stories, but it still got torn apart for being boring writing wrapped in pretty Michael Bay visuals.

Yes, the Dawngate lore was awesome in how it was narrated by characters' voice actors, but that's not all that made it good. The actual writing was good and infinitely quotable.

I think the narrative team are so busy trying to defend themselves with bonus features that they fail to realize this. No matter how good the art and videos accompanying the lore are, they will still get blasted if the actual writing is bad.

SaltyToplaneGoat4 votes

Oh god I can't even imagine the rage that is to come, if suddenly a web-tech-Rioter spills the beans and says "Well, everything fixed MONTHS ago, don't know why there is no lore".

The boards would burn in flame and rage...

The problem for Riot: they are technically sitting on a time-bomb here. If they do nothing for too long it will blow. If they make a bad move, it will blow. The problem with this bomb is just: the longer it sits the stronger the bomb gets.

There are now two options: a.) If Riot has tons of stuff ready we will be flooded with content and they try to hold out until then OR b.) they admit that they fucked up (aka no content) and try to "blow the bomb" before even more bad mojo builds up.

Everything else would lead towards total disater for them... the worst scenario being nothing for ages and then still no result. As I said, these boards will burn with rage then...

The optimal result would be some hints and small spoilers for what is to come, to show the people that stuff IS coming. (and, following the bomb metaphor, that would be a perfect defusal)

QueenAqua4 votes

TBH, i don't want the lore changed. Once they start changing it, they are gonna keep their word about eliminating the summoners in the lore and gameplay. I feel like having that makes the game more immersive for the player, making them a part of the story and making the lore of the game more enjoyable as a result.

SaltyToplaneGoat3 votes

That never was a problem. Every kind of content, being text, audio, comic, animation, etc. could have been uploaded to the website. The excuse that the client is trash was worthless from the start.

Quepha3 votes

I'm not even surprised. everyone knew riot would take ages to fill in the lore section, if they even bother to do it at all.

Tal99223 votes

Well, they would come up with a new excuse, but the problem is they don't have any writers.

ZING!

DeusVult2 votes

The have been hiding behind the same issues regarding servers since Season 1, so it could be years before the new lore is released

but they will say it will be soon

SoonTM

LeeDark2 votes

Not like it matters. People only bought that excuse for a month at most, and some of us didn't believe it the moment it was said. They can't hide behind lies anymore. They cried wolf far too many times for that.

Ogaflow1 votes

I thought you guys all knew what was happening with the lore. They even stated it awhile back somewhere on the old forums. They are moving away from storytelling in the way most people are used to. Rather than simply spelling out a plot line and locking characters into the world, the plan was to reveal bits and pieces as they go to stay dynamic. They even said something about content not coming in just text. That is why we got the Amumu video and Sion webpage. They are experimenting with different styles of showing the lore.

I personally dislike this style they are taking but it is how they want to do it. Most of the newer entries feel a bit rushed and soulless to me, like the writer didn't really want to write the piece so they just used the first thing that came off the top of their head and submitted it. The videos are cool but they take far too much time to come out per one. The webpages I feel are my least favorite, a bunch of small edgy sentences that have little depth and feel like advertisements mostly. Often abusing the one liners designed to get your attention, other than that they are just a bunch of pictures and some music.

Riot is doing a fine job of putting out actual lore content, it likely just isn't the content the players want. Or maybe it is and the vocals are just a minority. I personally don't like any of the lore content outside the videos.

HellComet2 votes

That statement was from 2 years ago, around the Feljord event. The problem is the amount of stuff they've done can be counted on one hand.

Ogaflow1 votes

{quoted}

That statement was from 2 years ago, around the Feljord event. The problem is the amount of stuff they've done can be counted on one hand.

To be fair, I never said I like any of the new stuff they are putting out at all. There isn't much of it as you point out and what is put out feels more like advertising then actual story. For me the written stuff has too many buzzwords in them.

Dandymann1 votes

as long as they want yo. They don't even care. item 3070

Old Man Teeto1 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBK9O5nDJlM

My favorite video to describe incompetence.

More from Story, Art, & Sound

More by DrCyanide