The ultimative economical potential of League's lore - and how the competition is not sleeping.

Observing how things that have a decade ago been shunned as "nerd culture" slowly dripped into the mainstream culture was quite fascinating to watch, especially as with the development of thechnology, especially when it comes to the internet, we have gained a whole new level of complexity that we can build our stories without sacrificing too much accessability. The Internet as an seemingly infinite archive allows catching up on all content you might have missed or can back you up with knownledge to make the access easier - this is pretty much the function of Riot's "universe" site, even tho it could surely be improved in terms of accessability.

As of right now writers don't really think in simple "stories" anymore, they think in entire "worlds".

The best example of this being Marvel and their movies and TV series. However, despite the fact that they are very successfull, Marvel is by FAR not in the best position to exploit their world-building strategy, mostly due to the constraints of the media they operate in. Comics can be a chaotic clusterfuck to get into, and even with series and movies you have to find the right "entry points", and it might as well look overwhelming when you start fresh out and have to watch everything Marvel has pushed out so far, both good and bad.

With League of Legends or Overwatch however, you can break everything down to one - relatively simple - video game. It doesn't exactly matter if you have seen all shorts, read all comics, or literally know anything: you can play these games, be good at them, and have a blast without knowing a single piece of lore. And this is what a good, no, the BEST entry point should look like: accessible with absolutely ZERO knownledge, yet pointing towards everything else.

Another point, now from an economical point of view, is that all the millions of players enthralled by the game are all POTENTIAL AUDIENCE. Imagine producing something and you know already that you will have AT LEAST a million viewers. This is a total difference from making a movie and hoping people like it enough to fill the cinemas with. A guaranteed audience as well as a distribution and advertisment platform frequented in numbers by the millions is absolutely thing to scoff at. There are people out there who would literally murder someone for this, that is how precious it is.

However, most of this has already been said, but let me throw in a new buzz-phrase into the mix. Altho it has not exactly been new, the concept has already been tried ages ago: "Episodic Gaming." Back when gaming culture was that weird niche thing and Half Life 2 was a BIG thing (for the younger ones reading, just google it), Valve had the idea of making small but more frequent games all for the Half-Life line. But it failed after two episodes for multiple reasons: first of all, the gaming culture of ten years ago was a LOT smaller, meaning less potential paying customers - and out ot those it only appealed to those who liked First-Person-Shooters, and at the same time the episodes themselves were limited by their overarching theme.

Allow me to elaborate on this last point a little: the Hitman franchise tried something similiar, but no matter how many episodes you make, it will always play like "Hitman", and with that only appeal to their core audience, while also running in danger of boring said audience through repetition and the lack of innovation that usually happens when you have some years between releases, AT LEAST on a graphical level. At the same time, you are kinda forced to play every episode, or you might miss something that makes future episodes hard or confusing to understand.

So "Episodic gaming" initially came with a whole load of problems, and now it's not a surprise it has not turned into a big thing - until now that is.

Now the economical limiters are removed through gaming having hit the main stream, and in terms of LoL or OV you already have a potential consumer base.

But also from a thematic point of view, when you don't start from a single game and its mechanics but rather from the narrative side, you can be incredibly free in what you make: I could see a shooter (Piltover/Zaun setting?) in the League of Legends universe as well as an RPG or a Hack'n'Slay (Shadow Isles anyone? A band of storm-survivors being washed on the shore, found my Yorick Mori and here starts the story how they help him fight the Black Mist), you could make a metroidvania platformer, you could make a puzzle or mystery game. The list of possibilities is endless and they might range from casual entertainment to several hours of narrative involvement, especially when you stumble into the "visual novel" niche.

At the same time you can break with the "chronological obligation". Say Riot publishes two small games. One about, let's say a Metroidvania-Platformer that has Ezreal jumping through Piltover and ancient temples, and another, let's say an mystery-adventure about a Noxian Centurio who has to find the spy that has infiltrated his unit. Both completly different games (one mechanics heavy and maybe cartoonish, one dialogue heavy and serious), but both part of the same world, and CAN BE PLAYED COMPLETLY SEPERATE FROM EACH OTHER. The only requirement is having a vague understanding that you get from playing LoL in general, making them equally accessible.

Also these games could be sold for RP, tbh some people pay more money for a digital costume than you'd pay for an entire indie game at times, so seeing this infrastructure used for this doesnt seem so weird to me. These games wouldnt need to be excessively long too. I mean, if I spend five to ten buck on a small game, I'm not going to expect fifty hours of entertainment.

So we have the infrastructure and the audience as well as an entire world to put into a medial format, be it now games, animation, comics, or whatever. And other than Marvel, Riot has an "ultimate entrance point" with their MOBA to introduce people to their world.

And now imagine the economical benefit by establishing a world-building franchise in the mainstream with a cultural impact bigger than what Marvel could bring up in the last years.

Just think about that a little.

[zombie-brand-mindblown]

That's quite something, isn't it?

However, there is a problem: people have a limited number of things they can obsess over, especially when it comes to ongoing franchises. Even with our mental capacity being supported by technology like the internet, there is just a limit. So whoever gets it done first and gets it right, gets to sit on the throne. Just how the Moba-market is pretty much dominated by LoL and Dota2. There is not infinite space at the top after all...

And while their potential is not as enormous as Riots, Activision/Blizzard is already running up hard, compensating for a lack of material and creativity with - as it is typical for Activision - TONS OF MONEY. Heck they even went as far as to found their own movie studio, and had a small "test balloon" started with their Warcraft movie already. However, Warcraft is not what they will put their cash in. Too clichee-loaded. Too old. Too much stigma from the dark early ages of gaming history. But Overwatch? This is where it all will go, especially as they also have a massive fanbase and it is a similiar "good" entrance point as League is.

However, in terms of raw money, Riot will never be able to compete with them. And they shouldn't as that would be doomed to fail. But: a well made 2D animation does trump a mediocre 3D animation, but costs far less to make and all extra money can go into polish and aesthetics. A polished retro-styled game might not be super innovative eye candy, but it surely tops a triple-A-level game if its core gameplay doesnt hold up, and comes with a LOT less of financial risk.

With style and intelligent work the difference in captial could be easily overcome, but that only works if Riot actually SEES the potential within the lore and acts accordingly, and to be honest I'd totally hate to see them lose to the moneybags at Activision/Blizzard. However, the race has already started, and Blizzard is also experimenting with how to implement lore, such as the current event (UPRISING, a multi-level co-op mission on a modified map) that is going on as of right now.

There are not many creators that are in a position to make their world slam into our culture, and many that try to do this with old franchises (such as the new movies from the HP-universe) are often dismissed as bland cash-grabs, which they often are. And to such a potential wasted is almost unthinkable to me.

Also, I'm a lore nerd who wants tons of new lore with these new medial products and games. That is pretty much my only motivation for writing all this, besides boredom and having to keep myself awake or I fall into an unpleasant food-coma induced by the Easter-celebrations today. I am not sure what's scarier: the obscene amount of food we made today for the family, or the fact that it all gets eaten with not a single bit being left.

So I hope you all have a pleasant Easter, and that some Riot employees are reading this and see the potential, and that they hire me, I have my Media Studies M.A. in a year, does that qualify me?

Sincerly, Speedweeb,

Ps: Also comment in the thread what games you'd want to see Riot make. But think small. Less Skyrim and GTA5 (altho these concepts surely would be awesome. Imagine a GTA-like game in Piltover/Zaun!), and more Indie or Retro games.