@Riot, Did You Actually Have A Plan For How This Lore Retcon Would Work? Doesn't Seem Like It.

Impetual··66 votes·3,085 views

As much as I dislike the idea of the lore retcon being done at all...I gotta admit, it's really being done badly. Rather than being done quick and neatly, it's being dragged out over months and years. It's starting to seem like Riot doesn't know what it's doing with it's lore anymore... but to be fair, it's been years since it did.

edit: "Just to put my comments in context, I'm a really big fan of how Riot was in the early days. I remember the stuff they did during season 1 and 2 and think that they had an amazing mindset towards developing LoL and treating its playerbase with respect....It's just that, I feel like they've lost focus on the things that they used to do, like the community and lore related things that I believe helped LoL surpass many of the other MOBA games. I wish they'd go back to their roots.

As an example: Has LoL ever had players have a battle as significant as the Noxus vs. Ionia?

My worry is that Riot is seeing LoL's success in the MOBA world, and assuming that it will continue to dominate it, despite the lack of support for the out of game stuff we used to get, which I believe helped make the game such a success."

I mean seriously, when third party sites are making fan-fiction that is way better than your lore, you know you got problems. (shout out to league factions, keep up the good work guys, you're doing a better job than the narrative team! (from a player perspective))

How long has it been since the lore retcon? And How long are we still waiting for the re-written champion bios? We still don't know what Jax's deal was. Seriously, this kinda stuff is months overdue, if not years.

Seriously Riot, it feels like you never had a plan and don't know what you're doing.

If you decide to retcon the lore, be ready to retcon it....don't leave us in this weird space where we don't know what is and isn't cannon.

P.S. The retcon was a silly idea that you should reconsider. Undoing the lore retcon would probably benefit LoL in the longterm, despite the hate you'd get for changing your decision this late in the game....at least in my opinion.

It may not be too late to fix Runeterra's lore...

37 Comments

Sagemage9 votes

We've waited for this lore retcon (for what feels like) longer than waiting for Half Life 3. When your players are comparing you to Valve's HL3, you're in for some trouble.

And some raging players.

New meme idea: ROIT Lore retcon confirmed.

Narasimha2 votes

We've waited for this lore retcon (for what feels like) longer than waiting for Half Life 3.

If you think ANYTHING compares to waiting for HL3, then you haven't waited long enough.

Dotintheparadox2 votes

Are we forgetting the people who actually wanted another Duke Nukem game?

CupcakeTrap9 votes

{quoted}

New meme idea: ROIT Lore retcon confirmed.

Kalista new lore much better imo

I mean seriously, when third party sites are making fan-fiction that is way better than your lore, you know you got problems. (shout out to league factions, keep up the good work guys, you're doing a better job than the narrative team! (from a player perspective))

Thank you. We've been quiet lately; a lot of us had to spend some time scurrying back to RL work and catching up on all the things we neglected during the previous arc. (WHY DID WE HAVE TEN ISLANDS? WHY NOT SIX ISLANDS. WHY DOES NYROTH HAVE 20+ LORE UPDATES. THIS IS NOT OKAY.) We're also doing a lot behind the scenes to make sure next arc runs better. I thought about it and made the difficult decision that I'd rather Factions be inactive for a few months than launch into another half-prepared arc. I really, really hate putting out bad lore, and I also hate having to interpret and enforce untested rules with glitches in them that playtesting could have caught.

While I'm glad you're enjoying Factions, I think it bears mentioning that everything we do is based on Riot's work, so let's give them credit. They're also quite open to their community creating spinoff lore projects like Factions; they could be nasty about it, but they're very supportive. I've also enjoyed some of their recent lore; I thought the Rek'Sai piece was a standout success. (And it just so happened to mesh with my view of Noxian society, which made me happy.)

Ultîma2 votes

{quoted}

Kalista new lore much better imo

Thank you. We've been quiet lately; a lot of us had to spend some time scurrying back to RL work and catching up on all the things we neglected during the previous arc. (WHY DID WE HAVE TEN ISLANDS? WHY NOT SIX ISLANDS. WHY DOES NYROTH HAVE 20+ LORE UPDATES. THIS IS NOT OKAY.) We're also doing a lot behind the scenes to make sure next arc runs better. I thought about it and made the difficult decision that I'd rather Factions be inactive for a few months than launch into another half-prepared arc. I really, really hate putting out bad lore, and I also hate having to interpret and enforce untested rules with glitches in them that playtesting could have caught.

While I'm glad you're enjoying Factions, I think it bears mentioning that everything we do is based on Riot's work, so let's give them credit. They're also quite open to their community creating spinoff lore projects like Factions; they could be nasty about it, but they're very supportive. I've also enjoyed some of their recent lore; I thought the Rek'Sai piece was a standout success. (And it just so happened to mesh with my view of Noxian society, which made me happy.)

Hey Cupcake,

I'm kind of getting bore of the competitive aspect of League and would like to play with Factions. I've checked out the website but I find it a bit unintuitive to navigate. I'd love to participate - on the NA server - is there a possibility to hook me up with your community?

Thank you! :)

CupcakeTrap2 votes

{quoted}

Hey Cupcake,

I'm kind of getting bore of the competitive aspect of League and would like to play with Factions. I've checked out the website but I find it a bit unintuitive to navigate. I'd love to participate - on the NA server - is there a possibility to hook me up with your community?

Thank you! :)

Sure! If you'd like to get in on some matches, try the Intermission page.

What was confusing about the website? I'm trying to clean it up and streamline it, particularly with new people in mind.

Ultîma2 votes

{quoted}

Sure! If you'd like to get in on some matches, try the Intermission page.

What was confusing about the website? I'm trying to clean it up and streamline it, particularly with new people in mind.

Hey CupCake!

I had no idea the page I was looking for was Intermission matches - the content of the page is very comprehensive but the title lead me to believe this wasn't what I was looking for. Perhaps removing "Intermission" from the title or replacing it with "How to get started" would better direct new-comers such as myself to what we need.

Looking forward to participate to a couple games :)

CupcakeTrap1 votes

{quoted}

Hey CupCake!

I had no idea the page I was looking for was Intermission matches - the content of the page is very comprehensive but the title lead me to believe this wasn't what I was looking for. Perhaps removing "Intermission" from the title or replacing it with "How to get started" would better direct new-comers such as myself to what we need.

Looking forward to participate to a couple games :)

Ah! Good idea. I'll see what I can do.

Yeah, it's a little confusing since we're in Intermission. Usually, people get directed to a "sign up" page to declare for a faction, but obviously that's not applicable during Intermission.

See you on the Fields!

VardenSalad3 votes

I actually don't think Riot EVER had a lore team; it was just something picked up collectively by a bunch of employees and they got the OK to make content. As soon as someone decided to put a "greater focus" on lore, they've done nothing. Absolutely nothing. And it's so hard, as someone who's been around for so many years, to see the Everest-sized drop-off in content in the last 2-3 years.

I don't know what happened. Does the company that exists now look like it would put in the effort to maintaining a Journal of Justice, simply in terms of fan interaction and content generation? That Riot is dead.

Marinaras Trench1 votes

Well the amumu video is kind of contradicts your last idea. But still they need to communicate with us more then anything

The Red Warden2 votes

The Amumu has been confirmed by many Rioters, to not be related to the lore. It is just a stand alone video that doesn't have any impact on story.

Marinaras Trench1 votes

I was talking bout this, but I see your point

{quoted}

I don't know what happened. Does the company that exists now look like it would put in the effort to maintaining a Journal of Justice, simply in terms of fan interaction and content generation? That Riot is dead.

The Soulforged1 votes

{quoted}

I actually don't think Riot EVER had a lore team; it was just something picked up collectively by a bunch of employees and they got the OK to make content. As soon as someone decided to put a "greater focus" on lore, they've done nothing. Absolutely nothing. And it's so hard, as someone who's been around for so many years, to see the Everest-sized drop-off in content in the last 2-3 years.

I don't know what happened. Does the company that exists now look like it would put in the effort to maintaining a Journal of Justice, simply in terms of fan interaction and content generation? That Riot is dead.

Back in the old days, they had a decent team, but even then we didn't have much outside of the JoJ.

marshal the pyro8 votes

i just chose to go by the original lore until they actually tell us what is actually happen in the lore other than summoners and the league don't exist. because so far they've said they get teleported to not-summoner's rift by not-summoners to fight in the not league of legends for who cares why?

GrimBeast6 votes

I personally liked the retcon. As they said, it was a bad idea to effort to revolve the champion lores around the league. There's not as much room for conflict between the champions due to how strong the league was and they also need a good reason to join. With that said, they haven't really done much with lore after the retcon. What they should have done is to retcon the lore when they can quickly follow up with some good new lore, showing us how they made the right decision. They're just taking too long.

Awoof4 votes

Wouldn't making the league weaker/different have been a much easier change?

That aside, while champions now may have more room for conflict, they have less room of interactions with champions that are not directly involved in their story, don't they? Of course, you could argue that, say, Ashe and Orianna having no reason to ever meet each other isn't losing much important story, but I'm not a fan of these isolated one-dimensional stories.

Xulsigae3 votes

They really don't have that much more room for conflict as none of them can die. Same stakes as before.

Awoof4 votes

Oh, you're right, I guess. I mean, they 'could' die from their perspectives, but we know they won't because they are needed in a magical smash brawl arena.

Criomhthann5 votes

No, they didn't. They already admitted this when they said they hadn't bothered to think of or plan out what framework would replace the original AFTER they had begun retconning everything.

KING OF MASKS4 votes

Do you have a source for that? I don't remember any such admittance.

If that's true, then... well, I guess I don't have any more faith in rito's narrative team to lose.

Criomhthann1 votes

It was on a thread regarding story conclusions a few months ago. A red said something to the effect of that one of the reasons everything was taking so long regarding lore and stories was because they didn't have a framework for it (this was post IoW).

Chromatic Eagle5 votes

What pisses me off is how the big reason they're delayed is due to underestimating their own technology. They made something more difficult when they didn't even need to do it in the first place. You honestly mean to tell me that people who don't have the time to read the lore on the clients will suddenly want to go to the website and read it? Their logic during this entire retcon has been illogical. What seriously happened to them over the years?

Impetual1 votes

Lol, good point man. Totally agree.

SEKAI3 votes

Let's not mention the countless champion quotes and lore relations that refer *directly *to the summoners' existences and how they're overwatched by them in combat while also being assisted by their suggestions and spells on an arena that to this very day, is still called "Summoner's Rift".

Like what the actual %#&, wow please.

Just revert the lore retcon, it's better that way.

Jeddy0171 votes

Yeah,they're working on removing any mention or references to Summoners from champ bios. For some champs,they just have to erase a sentence or 2.For other champs,they'll have to completely rewrite their backstory.

Chromatic Eagle4 votes

They are divorcing story and gameplay. They're two completely different things instead of being connected.

Killer X 123 votes

I was upset when they announced it, but i tried to be positive, and have a little bit of faith...but really it seems like they don't care.

Athenes Lulu3 votes

"We want you to do the speculative work, that's how you tell a story." -tl;dr on Rito's direction on "narrative".

But the problem is things are rolling out way too slowly... might as well not make those kind of flashy "clues" at all. Also, telling the same ideas using 3 different means doesn't really mean anything either (Kalista, I'm looking at you).

WastelandKittah3 votes

The orgenil lore STILL made no sense in the months before it was retconed im not sure why you people don't understand that,take off the nostalgia goggles, the concept of the league failed hard in the end and requires a reboot.

oRexo2 votes

I agree. Part of what dragged me into being so obsessed with League is the thought of finding out how everyone ties into each other's lore. I loved what they did with Sivir and Shurima, but like you said, this kind of thus is long overdue.

not a starburst2 votes

I am genuinely confused as to what Riot thought would happen when they announced the retcon of pretty much every story they had written. I'm less angry and more upset and genuinely bewildered by the logic behind the decision. Granted, there were a few plot holes in the old lore. Some of it was very lacking or vague, some had inconsistencies, and yet others were kinda cliche, and I won't deny that doing something was necessary.

But saying eh, too much work and throwing 75% of it out the window? And then not saying anything about what was going to happen next? All I wanted and want to hear is yes, we have a plan, and it's X or sorry, we're still working on it. And if it happens to be the latter? I'm grateful that you chose to be open and honest with us.

Kögâ1 votes

Remember when they halfed teemo's ap scaling on his ult and said- "don't worry guys, we'll fix this in a later patch, its just a bandage nerf!" That's officially a year ago now.

Jeddy0171 votes

Well,we're talking about the lore team here.That's something for the balance team.

junglerboy161 votes

I would have much preferred Riot leaving the old lore alone, and then announcing the retcon shortly before releasing the new lore. They don't (and apparently cannot for legal reasons) actually listen to our feedback, so there is no point in making it public until they can release the finished project, not these half baked "lore snippets" they have for certain champs.

Ariel the Cruel1 votes

Sure they did.

step 1) delete the IoW 2) remove the champions from the IoW 3) replace champion lore with place-holder text. 4) ??? 5) Profit.

TwoD1 votes

Just wait, I'm pretty sure somewhere around this year they will have something for Leagues new lore.

Impetual1 votes

Surprise Surprise, No Riot Responses.

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