Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Has anyone else stopped caring about lore?

Seth Lightheart·12/22/2014, 11:05:16 PM·23 votes·3,822 views
Has anyone else stoped caring about lore?

(I posted this a little while ago, I feel the same way if not more, and was curious if it still stands.)

Not to troll, but quite frankly as time has gone on with all of the changes and new champions lore, I have cared less and less about it.

It's funny because like WoW, I LOVED the lore. I loved reading the judgments and everything about the characters, and knowing more about them made me want to play that character so much more.

Don't get me wrong, some of the changes I liked, and some champions I enjoy their lore to no end. But so many champions feel so bland now I have started caring less and less.

Like I said before, i'm not looking to troll or start some fight with someone. Just was curious if anyone feels the same way?

TLDR; Quite frankly I have quite frankly stopped feeling anger or joy about the lore, and more of an ambivalence about it has set in. Anyone feel the same way?

52 Comments

TeemoJenkins12/22/2014, 11:10:47 PM18 votes

I still have a strong attachment to the Demacians and Yordles, but when I came into the game right when a lot of the lore generation was on its way out (that newspaper thing they used to do). In WoW I was For The Horde and loved the Red and Black, but have never felt so dedicated to any champion or nationality in League mostly due to the fact that the game isn't geared towards it.

I would love to see Faction based rewards: when you own all Demacian champions - you get a Demacian summoner icon. Do the same for all "factions". In Champ select give national champs borders around their portraits that show their affiliation. That would be stellar to me and a way to keep lore a tangible thing, while not being overbearing.

Lumus Avatar12/22/2014, 11:07:57 PM14 votes

I just cling to the lore that I knew and loved a reject a lot of what I see them changing, especially when the change negatively affects a lore I loved.

Penguin Eclipse12/22/2014, 11:10:49 PM13 votes

Honestly I never really cared. With that said it saddens me that the people who do care have been treated so poorly.

Linna Excel12/22/2014, 11:13:30 PM9 votes

Now that it's being retconned, pretty much yes.

Criomhthann12/23/2014, 9:39:17 PM6 votes

I stopped caring about the Lore around the time I figured out they were retconning the IoW. As more and more information came out, it turned out that I was completely justified in ceasing any form of positive investment in this garbage.

Now I am content to mock the lore and the lore team, because that's all they deserve.

Rebonack12/24/2014, 1:34:49 AM5 votes

One of the reasons I really liked League was because it had a framework set up to explain the game in a meaningful way.

That was something that always bugged me about DotA. The mechanics were vastly divorced from the gameplay. Why can you pick Furion on the Scourge side? Why am I killing my own minions? What does that accomplish in the game world?

But in League the Institute of War gave a reason for the whole thing. It was refreshing.

The Whamboozler12/23/2014, 9:13:50 AM4 votes

Riot certainly did. rimshot

Play me off, Johnny!

Dotintheparadox12/24/2014, 5:41:13 PM4 votes

I'm actually a relatively new player, and I'm very casual at that, however, when I heard about the journal of justice, I jumped at the chance to learn more about this game and it's characters, I read every single issue. The JoJ gave a great out-look on the world of Runeterra, provided great comedy, and gave us things to anticipate and hope for. Now, we're getting a possible spoiler for a new skin and/or champ in any video (Haven't seen one in the last two by the way.) most of our new champions have very little actual character (Yordle savages, while adorable, do not have much to say, thank god given his voice.), and all of our old champions are being boiled down further into clichés, that Riot already turned down a long time ago. Amumu, was suggested to be a dead human child in his originally planned lore, they turned it down because it seemed too messed up to them, and they wanted him to have some light-heartedness as a character. Before you say anything, the end of the new story actually confirmed it's internal one as truth, or due to mistakes implied it way too strongly.

Also, the safest assumption, currently, is that the narrative right now, is composed of individuals who were brought on board by Tommygnox. Although Abernathy was not a bad writer he did have a history of disregarding the fans of an established universe in favor of his own vision, this appears to have been passed down, but since Abernathy already left due to community outcry, Riot most likely cannot afford to replace the narrative team, AGAIN. However, it is wholly irresponsible on their part of not at least enforcing some guidelines to the lore, so that it retains its common themes (Gameplay connection, Summoners, uncommon Champion interactions.). This entire situation is as if we as the fans of the lore are the oldest child, Riot the mom, the lore our favorite toy, and the narrative team is the youngest who just broke our favorite toy because they can't respect "things" yet, but because the mom is too focused on other aspects of life, she just can't give a shit about it anymore.

Ultimately, with all the yelling and the screaming and the anger, I really just want to know the writing credits of our new "Narrative" team, that is a reasonable request, despite what anyone would tell you.

TheRainInSpain12/23/2014, 9:02:18 AM3 votes

I like lore, I love lore. I tend to play specific games because I like following the story/lore. But I don't play League of Legends because of the lore. I could care less if lore was even present in League. Riot can all but delete everything not related to the game and game related mechanics and I wouldn't bat an eye. Why? League of Legends as it stood never had any capacity to include any kind of lore into the game without resolving to using role playing people (e.g. Factions). A few items here and there based off of story-line tournaments isn't lore, in my opinion. League just doesn't have the depth of other media (Warcraft, Elder Scrolls, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc) and never had any true departmental support that other games can contribute to. My guess, the lore department is the smallest branch of Riot Games, and has stayed small while other departments got bigger. Unless there is massive official support for lore, most MOBA's don't really go into the depth found in other games that have lore (WoW, TOR, SC, EVE).

If Riot really wanted to support lore in League of Legends, it wouldn't be the way it is now. Riot's retconning and and "background" story is there to spice up the casual player's day, not to promote a story.

Riot would need to:

  • Reinstate the Journal of Justice, among several other "News/Story" items to promote a story that can be connected (timelines, etc). Riot would need to massively crank up the rate of media (comics, videos, website/client theme) to support this too.

  • Open up more game maps that show off the different regions of the game world, without their stupid idea that they must make an entirely new game for every map. At least one major map for each city state (Demacia, Noxus, Frejord, Zaun, Piltover, Bilgewater, Bandle, and maybe a resurfaced Shurima city state).

  • Officially sponsor tournaments that decide the fate of various story events, item changes, anything that affects the game world and champion development. If it's not direct balance changes, Riot must have the playerbase (or even specially created Riot Game teams) fight for the honor of the change. Like, new name for "Berserker Greaves"? Demacian vs Frejord tournament with the new "Berserker Greaves" being named after the winning city state.

  • Include a new "Faction Warzone" game mode where players play normal games based on city state versus city state rules. This would be used to help track statistics for required new champions (I hear Zaun lacks a Marksman) and influencing lore changes. Basically this would be the above tournament setting in a "Normal" game mode.

So what's the problem? The amount of work needed to pull it off. The lore department would increase by a gigantic proportion. The map department would need to at least double, to accommodate at least eleven major maps. Maps like the Twisted Treeline are fine, but maps like the Howling Abyss are not. Individual teams need room to develop strategy, not throw themselves aimlessly at the single path to the enemy Nexus. We've only got the Shadow Isles (Twisted Treeline). We'll need a map for Demacia (which could easily be a Summoner's Rift retcon), Noxus, Bandle City, Bilgewater, Ionia, Frejord (Not Howling Abyss), Zaun, Piltover, Shurima, and The Void. Minimal work sits at nine required maps for the map team to work on, whether they be nine full maps from the ground up, or eight and a retextured Magma Chamber. And don't get me started on the media teams. They'll need to at least quadruple their video output, release several Journals per month, and restructure the client/website as the lore dynamically changes. And then there would be the massive sponsored push for game modes and tournaments.

My opinion? Riot is actually TOO SMALL as a game studio to even think about supporting lore.

Post Script: Not once did I mention the need for an Institute of War.

4nth0l0gy12/23/2014, 5:01:04 AM3 votes

Yeah...I've grown a little distant from it. I think it's mainly that I have no idea where anyone is anymore. Is this retcon even permanent? Why didn't Riot retcon AFTER they'd implemented replacement lore? It's just so unclear and confusing, I'm kind of forced to not care.

Chezni12/23/2014, 5:17:20 AM3 votes

I kinda wish that they'd start bringing lore back... More fun when it's there >.

SecretAgentHulk12/23/2014, 10:12:22 AM3 votes

I started playing League a little less than two years ago, and only got into the lore maybe eight months ago, so I have no deep emotional attachment to the IoW or the minutia of a champion's judgement. I think these offer a fascinating profile—I love Lee Sin's and Lux's judgments—but I see the psychology and general life experiences of most champions as the same with or without the League.

I don't mean to demean the IoW in any way, and I understand why the old-timers are upset by the recent retcon. I just have no connection to that. Almost no champion released in the past two years has any good reason to be in the old League (only Yasuo, and maybe Zac, Lissandra, Vel'Koz and/or Kalista), and the releases of the past two years are the champions that introduced me to the lore of League.

I think of the lore behind League as kinda like the lore behind Super Smash Bros. There is no reason for Link to fight Pikachu, but if you play them, it is for one of two reasons: they are OP in your hands, or you like them for reasons outside the game. For all intents and purposes, LoL has been Super Smash Bros: Runeterra for at least a couple of years now, only the lore exists independent of any game or book.

Hopefully, with the increasingly hacky justifications for a champion's presence in the League gone now, the Lore team will be able to focus on bringing us history and world-building across eons, not just lore and newspaper clippings in a slowly-evolving present. To give us a League of Legends (just roll with the League part; are Link and Pikachu really Bros?) instead of an arena of heroes. I refuse to believe they've been twiddling their thumbs since they announced the retcon. Nobody gets paid to do that.

I'd also like to think the reason for such a massive silence is because they are working on some massive idea. Hopefully, they are silent only so that they aren't bound to promises and deadlines that may be broken (and, let's face it, to avoid the inevitable bitching and asking why it had to change), and once they have this put into place, they will again return us the the Edenic state that apparently existed long ago of engaging with the community.

(If you disagree with anything I've said, please just remember a) that I don't have the same lore experience as you do and b) this is opinion, not fact.)

kiloechoesp12/23/2014, 12:17:22 AM2 votes

I don't think League of Legends is going to introduce the lore anymore.

Watch the new champion cinematics. There's definitely a feel that there's going to be a singleplayer game.

Stars Shaper12/23/2014, 12:42:42 PM2 votes

Lore itself is still too vague. We still don't have anything about the "general situation" but rather all short stories about single champions that reflects bits of the world.

Mindspeaker12/23/2014, 1:37:59 AM2 votes

I haven't but it appears riot has . they need to make some cinematic , offline lore game , even just a web comic book something...

Kladdius12/28/2014, 6:20:23 PM2 votes

im really sad im a bit late to this thread. however, yah i was really into the lore for a long long time. i joined in early season 2 and i got into the lore. i fell out of the lore because they keep changing it and changing it to fit a new champ. for example i loved skarner's lore, about his people and what happened to him, i loved the extra lore they had when they were being interviewed on why they want to fight in the league ( Champs like Jarvan, Varus, Maokai, Brand, Skarner) but what really got me to stop paying attention was when they changed skarner and Maokai's Lore. Skarner went from being this actual character with story, and importance to just being this vicious crystal scorpian that was apparently guarding Azir's tomb or something, and maokai went from being a magic gorged, sentient tree who resented his existence, to being a fey sprite who possessed a tree. those just felt like major downgrades in story.

TerraRising12/25/2014, 3:45:51 AM2 votes

I'll keep it short:

It's perfectly fine to be excited about lore. However, I think the ship has already sailed when it comes to communication from Narrative or them accepting any input from us.

hyliandanny12/24/2014, 7:52:10 PM1 votes

Thanks for posting! I've been curious about fellow loredorks' stance on the changes four months ago. Great to see so many of us on similar veins of thought.

Yulen Xoshxius12/23/2014, 9:00:57 AM1 votes

I really want to get into the lore, but so far all I can find are little tidbits on the champion descriptions in the shop.

DragonShea12/24/2014, 2:04:15 PM1 votes

I think Riot has made a mess with the lore. I used to care but now I am indifferent to the lore of lol. Still with the current Changes I don't think all is lost, but since summoner where the core of the lore, riot need make a new core or else the lore will just a mashed up Frankenstein's monster and will fall apart faster than MasterYi can run.

Fırewall12/25/2014, 9:18:10 AM1 votes

I'm seriously worried about the big picture of removing the IoW, besides some champions losing their entire backstory, hmm... Jax, what about the city states? We've come to know Noxus as a war-waging country, the league is there to end all this wars, therefore Noxus as a city state was left devasted, they're bred for war, suddenly they are confined into an arena.

The point is, remove IoW. Who can actually face Noxus? Demacia perhaps, Freljord if they unite. What's stopping them from just rampaging into Zaun/Piltover/Shurima/Bandle City/Ionia/Bilgewater.

Without the IoW, imagine the things the Shadow Isles(assuming they have any sort of structural society) could do, we've been shown by the harrowing, that slowly, each year the shadows come forth more than they did last year. Soon bilgewater might disappear, then they'd reach mainland. And ofcourse, the biggest offender in terms of world destruction... the void champions. Remove the institute, and what is stopping Vel'Koz from walking up to Demacia's walls and just going like "IMMMMMAHHH FIRIN' MAH LAZOR".. "Thanks for your contribution".