Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Saying goodbye to the Lore and League

Talos of Altmora·4/24/2016, 12:45:39 PM·24 votes·3,029 views

Hello everyone, this is probably going to be my final post ever on the boards. As you know, I have written about the new Targon and my hate of it for about three post, and another post that was an open response. This was actually my first time in exposure to the boards and I met a lot of other players and found myself trying to answer questions, type up responses to those who agreed and disagreed with me, and generally had a good time. I'm not even kidding, everyone I've interacted with on the boards (aside from a few special cases) have generally been polite, and I can appreciate that at the very least, there are good and honest people in the community that I can appreciate, and maybe even call a friend.

Sadly, that brings me to this post, where I would like a revelation I've had about the Lore in league of legends. I have stated many times that the lore was the main draw for me, characters all with a distinct personality, fun gameplay, and interesting stories were plentiful. It drew me away from DOTA 2 (which, while lots of fun, doesn't have that much of a story behind it IMO) and introduced me to the world of runeterra. I loved it, but most of all I loved Targon. While I genuinely liked ALL the characters released (Teemo only in pure lore terms, I still think he's a dirty little weasel in-game) I noticed the lore retcons that happened before my time (about 1.5 years ago from what I can tell), and to be perfectly honest, I could see the fans being upset, but since I had just joined, I shrugged my shoulders and kept playing, reading the lore, and falling in love with runeterra.

Then, Burning Tides happened. While I was never really invested in Miss fortune as a character, I found it shocking that a woman who, from what I could gleam from the old lore, was someone who could kick your ass if she needed to, she would prefer to use guile and get out without killing someone, orchasted the whole thing. I also thought Graves and TF's reason for there new grudge wasn't as good as the old lore (Aregor Priggs mean anything to you?) and the circumstances behind Tf's Betrayal (if you can even call it that) made Graves look like an idiot. However, I rather enjoyed the story because aside from a couple of changes, it captured some of the spirit of old lore. However, to write such a story, they changed an aspect of MF's character, I noticed this and decided to let it slide.

I didn't read anything major from the lore until the announcement of Targon. As I have said, Targon was my favorite setting in the lore. I loved the setting, an ancient Greece-like setting with a badass Spartan, A noble Defender with the power of the sun, and a vengeful woman with the power of the moon. I loved that mountain, so it came as a surprise when I read about new!Targon and all the changes they have made to it.

I won't go into detail of what exactly made me dislike it so much, but the Mount Targon they gave us and the old! Mount Targon are completely different settings. I hated it because the one thing I wanted out of it, development of the current characters, didn't happened. Instead, we have strangers with the faces of friends. The new Targonians have a superficial resemblance to the old, but everything I loved about them is gone. It was at this point I started to post on the forums.

Reading through all the responses I got, many people agree with me, and there are a fair number of people who disagree. However, I came to a realization recently. The Lore team seems to care very little about what was previously written. Now, don't get me wrong, I feel that they do care about the characters, and wanting to tell good stories with them, but it seems the story takes precedence over established characters. They "reinvent" them. It seems to me they lose what makes the characters unique, granted they still are unique, but they may as well be different people.

And then there are the reworked champion's like Poppy and Trundle, they are completely different people compared to the original. Trundle's changed background and personality was pretty glaring to the community. Poppy's new, up-beat personality is in direct contrast to her old one, and while I liked new poppy at first, her old personality made her stand out from the other yordles. Still, I will say the gameplay has improved for them, but at the same time I'm sure fans of the old characters aren't exactly happy about it.

The way I see it, those champions that we know and love are gone. Old!Targon? Gone. Old Trundle? Gone. Old Poppy? Gone. The lore team has gotten rid of them, in favor of something they consider better, even the League itself, what gave the game it's name... was deleted. In all honesty, I feel that the lore in no longer worth being invested in. After all, what I liked about the old Targon was gone without a second thought. So was the IoW, so was the Freljord, so was Shurima, ect. Heck, the direction they're going in makes me scared for the characters I love, because how soon until they're strangers wearing the faces of friends.

There is nothing anyone can do about it either. I swore to never buy a product from League with real-world money. I hope other fans of the lore take a similar standpoint, but in all honesty I don't think there are enough to do it. I'm at a loss at what to do. I mean, I love league, I love the game, and I'm proud to be apart of the community. At the same time, I don't want to see what I loved be destroyed like this. If a rioter is reading this, please don't give me an "I'm sorry," or "We hope other stories will be more interesting" just promise me that you'll stop changing characters into different people.

To tell the truth, I always wanted to work for the lore team. I love writing, I love the characters in League, I figured it be a perfect fit. Then Targon happened, and I tried to redouble my efforts to improve my writing and hoped that by the time I got there, I could Bring Back Targon. Then I looked at myself and realized that it made me no better than them, after all, I understand some people (for whatever strange reason) like the new! Targon. Who am I to undo it?

I have decided that after I finished Tales of Targon, I will stop playing League of Legends. Maybe I'll come back every once in a while for a game and to see what's up, but I don't think I can ever muster the same enjoyment out of it like I use to. I love these characters and I still do, but soon, unless we do something, they'll be different people. I don't know what lies in league's future, but whatever it is, I have a feeling I don't want to be apart of it.

Thank you for reading this. Even If you disagree with or have disagreed with me, I would like to say thanks for rewarding my other post and for trying to change my mind. Even if it didn't work I can see the passion you have for it. . I will still check out the comments section for this and answer question, but I will be focusing on Tales of Targon: Leona. I hope this isn't goodbye, at least hopefully not. I hope we meet again

37 Comments

UomoAfide4/24/2016, 4:24:18 PM6 votes

When i read the title i was prepared for the next childish rant about lore and was ready to downvote it. But after reading all this i don't think i should, you explained very well the motivation about your disappointment on LoL's lore and didn't insult Riot's way, you just stated what you think was best in your opinion. Always a shame when someone decides to leave a forum with such a rich discussion treasure, but it's your choice and i understand something has broken between lore and you and that's just sad to hear. Farewell and good luck to wherever you might want to go after this experience on the LoL board and thanks for every constructive discussion you might have helped build here.

Hige4/25/2016, 4:04:49 PM5 votes

I have to kindly disagree, I don't want to stirr anything but here you have a player that has been around since Nidalee was released, that was around 6 years ago, at that time I loved the game as it was, just another pc game, stories for characters were there but they never clicked, they felt cheap and done in a matter of minutes, to name a few Sivir being a dominatrix of sorts with tons of money, Pantheon being some war dude and Gragas being just a fat guy who drank wine, neither of them were interesting characters.

I do mention Pantheon because when he was released, mount targon wasn't really a thing, it was called mount gargantuan and Pantheon didn't belong to the Rakkor, he was a STANPAR, yes, like spartan but all mixed up, that's how bad lore was back then, you can search the old archived boards and you'll find people complaining about the awful lore that was going around at the time.

I wanna get my point across without writing a wall of text so I'll try to cut to the chase.

Pantheon's character was given small band-aids all over the place, in order to keep him in line with how the world of runeterra was evolving, with the release of Leona we saw the new name of Mount gargantuan, Mount Targon and with it they got rid of that horrific Stanpar name, sadly, Leona herself wasn't a full character either, the lore team back then STILL made stories on the get go like: "hey here's sun lady, how can she be more sun?" instead of delving into what a character really is they just conceptualized something akin to a base idea AND THEN they tried connecting it to runeterra, hence why Leona was a Rakkor and childhood friends with Pantheon just so they could avoid another Taric-esque character where there's no connection to the world itself.

And that's the key word here, connections, in the past, characters had a very small view of the world, for Sivir, she was a rich kid who knew nothing else, it didn't matter that she was from one of the biggest city-states, no, she apparently lived locked up in a castle and went out for adventures once in a while, she had no friends, no rivals, not anything, and it was this non-sense the reason why lore started to be updated, in order to better understand each character we need to understand the world as a whole.

The problem? band-aid fixing, this was the case even for new characters, for your beloved Leona this happened as well, Leona was the first female tank of league, so naturally they wanted to connect her with a war theme and the artisan of war was the perfect anchor, see how tacky it looks?

-"Well, she's our first female tank, if we connect her with pantheon she'll stay somewhat war themed" -"What's the best way of connecting two characters that look completely different from each others?" -"CHILDHOOD FRIENDS!"

There was an obvious lack of thought into old lore, at the time they weren't able to understand how to connect all of these stories that happened to spurt every time a new character was thrown their way, they thought the institute of war was the answer at some point, but that definitely wasn't working (The IoW is the end of the story, not the beginning) and then they realized that developing runeterra was the way to go BUT you can't fit characters in there that weren't thought to fit in since the beginning, so you gotta make changes, take away everything that doesn't help character development (childhood friends) and deepen what does (Mount Targon isn't a city-state, then what is it?)

Ended up with a wall of text... damn.

Anyway, I find it amazing that you fell in love with the Frankenstein stories of the past but you cannot blame the team for trying to fix the approach of the game's lore. For someone who's been here since the beginning, current lore is a HUGE improvement from what we had, the characters changed, yes, but not understanding this is simply denying that the game had an infancy state and that currently lore is a teenager, a bit odd at times but starting to bloom into something awesome and not just because it's riot games, no, when you read the stories without holding a grudge you realize they're amazing stories on their own, the type of stories that make superhero movies nowadays!

Blood Magicks4/24/2016, 1:26:36 PM5 votes

I feel for you man. I think Riot lore teams should recognize LoL champions are close friends to some of us. Changing a single thing without looking carefully into what the fandom already thinks/feels (as is well known, League fans OVERANALYZE, sometimes in a good, sometimes in a bad way) is a major risk and hazard.

Trylobyte4/26/2016, 1:54:29 AM5 votes

While I'm indifferent to the current lore changes and will often take devil's advocate in those cases, I find myself increasingly worried for characters whose lore I do care about to get their turn under the Lore Team's knife, so to speak. The removal of the League was something I was okay with, I could see why it was done - It prevented real conflict and was too much of a deus ex machina. The Freljord conflict isn't going anywhere, but if you look at the goals and personalities of the three leaders it's obvious why. Shadow and Fortune... it was good, but it stepped down the enmity between Graves and Twisted Fate, and made Miss Fortune a lot smarter than she used to be. Okay, some changes there... Then we got the whole Targonian 'space empire' thing out of nowhere and, as of right now, it doesn't really add anything to the story beyond a way to bind Aurelion Sol to the place (and there were a lot of other ways to do that). It honestly seems more goofy and out of place than anything, and isn't even expanded upon beyond the idea of the Aspects. Pantheon was a flat character before, but he's almost flatter now, and intentionally so. And Leona and Diana lost a lot of the subtext, nuance, and realism behind their conflict, and that's what really has me worried. I do care about the lore of Kayle and Morgana, whose lore has yet to be updated and whose stories are entirely defined by the sort of thing that got scrubbed from the Leona/Diana conflict. The idea that there can be two sides, irreconcilable, but neither of them explicitly wrong. The idea that a good cause can be represented by an evil person. The idea that characters can change and evolve over a long period of time without necessarily being aware of it themselves. And seeing what's happening with the rereleases of current champions, I'm worried all that is going to go away in favor of a better-written, but more generic, conflict. And in looking at that, I can understand your concerns as well.

While I'm not going to stop playing the game because of the lore changes, since ultimately the game and the lore are different entities, I can see your point and I respect it. I wish you the best on your own narrative work.

LoquaciousKumqat4/25/2016, 5:35:04 PM3 votes

Aside from Panth, Diana and Leona didn't change much if at all, and Taric is better. Also, the Targon lore WAS NOT AN EVENT. It was never meant to push the current story forward, only provide origin stories.

Did Poppy even change at all lore-wise?

Burning Tides was AMAZING in every regard.

Shen and Zed and Jhin's backstory was actually pretty damn interesting.

Like it or not a lot of the old lore wasn't very well done. If the character is good, they will try and keep the parts of them we recognize. If not, they sometimes have to reinvent them. This is understandable.

Point is, more often than not Riot has been hitting it out of the park with the new lore more often than not.

Can't wait to see what they do with the Void.

Kadavik4/24/2016, 3:59:18 PM3 votes

Bye :(

rand0mredneck4/25/2016, 9:20:37 PM3 votes

Hope the door hits you on the way out.

Warlord Dienekes4/24/2016, 4:33:23 PM2 votes

Well, cheers mate. Hope you find a different better game to occupy your time and thoughts.

Villiers4/26/2016, 3:52:08 AM1 votes

Okay. Rammus

BillyisaBAMF4/25/2016, 6:48:47 PM1 votes

I loved the post it makes sense. However don't you think you are letting the lore get into the game play a little too much. The champions attitude and backstory does not matter when you play the game. When you read the lore's compared to the old lore I see what you mean how they have changed so much. Even reworking the champions. They don't do this because they think it would be a better story they do it to match their reworks. To bring champions that aren't viable in the game back up to par with the rest. Is there a reason for them to change the lore when they do that? Not really, but the lore team has a job to do, and if they aren't revising some old champions lore, or working on a new champions lore (which might require tweaking other lore to make the new champion fit into the game) they would just be sitting at a computer getting paid for nothing. The main point of what I'm trying to say is It's their job, and they know some people won't approve. Not every decision is easy. Not every decision is the best one to make. However jumping off the lore talk the game play really has nothing to do with the lore. A ton of players probably have never even glanced at it. The game play and the lore are two completely separate things. Minus all the little lore related character dialogue in game. The champions play the way Riot wants them to play even after a rework of abilities you just get used to it. I really don't see a point in quitting the game if you enjoy the game just because the story and origins of the characters are changing. The sad fact is they are going to keep making changes, and it sucks I know. However the game is good, somewhat balanced (lol), and fun most of the time. So if you enjoy the game keep playing. You just might have to find some new story to get invested in.