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So, what happens to Dominion?

TerraRising··4 votes·1,439 views

This post will be snarky, but the question is still legit.

Nearly two months ago, the competitive Dominion community came up with this post in the old boards . In short, the Dominion community wanted a ranked mode after years of it not happening and Riot said "No, we consider Dominion an abomination and don't want to legitimize it." Riot tried to offer some (weak) alternatives to a ranked mode, but the community completely rejected them as pointless.

So, I ask the snarky question: What happens to Dominion? • Will it remain a mode where Player Referral cheat bots will reign supreme? • Now that the Dominion community have been run off by Riot (so much for "being all about the community," eh) to prepare for another upcoming MOBA, is there an still the (rather weak) impetus to continue trying to balance that map or have Riot gone just completely given up on it as well? • Should fans who care about other similarly treated parts of the company's oeuvre (Lore, for instance) expect similar treatment from Riot as they narrow their focus and resources towards specific goals and projects?

17 Comments

Kholdstare134 votes

Expect similar treatment for all parts of LoL.

Morello wins.

Riot doesn't care about its customers. They don't even want players anymore. All they want are e$ports viewers, and that's the only thing they will support.

Onegarion1 votes

The problem with that model is that without the players you lose the viewers. If there are no viewers they are fked. They should be putting the game first and the esports second. Even doing an integrated stream like Smite does for its client.

Chavez Obama3 votes

Nothing happens. It keeps bleeding out.

Same issues, different year.

http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=12513879#post12513879

(Link from 2011. Morello posts about competitive potential, people are nervous about lack of support)

In fact, the new forums change and riots reiterated stance basically blew up the remaining community, bleeding it out faster. Riot took the CLR and blasted away the calcified players. Heck, the URL for the maps and modes section is summoners-rift.

PracticeYellow2 votes

I found this thread looking at the boards to see if anything was done to separate the maps in this section, saw Dominion and thought I would stop by.

Nearly two months ago, the competitive Dominion community came up with this

The competitive Dominion community did not come up with this, there was one individual who felt the need to speak for others who do not share the same opinion he does. Everyone already knew that ranked Dominion was not coming. We played the game mode solely because we like the mode more than we like SR, and because of the fact that majority of the people who played were cool to hang around. Thus we became a small community within League of Legends. Would ranked be nice? Hell yeah it would be. But getting mad because someone tells you what you already know is stupid.

Dominion continues to exist, as it has been for the past few years. Only difference is there are now less people who play the mode at a higher level. Bots are still a problem, queue times are still a problem, but the community is still here. Well, at least the ones that weren't here on some false hope but actually here because they enjoy being a part of this community. Some people are moving to a different game, most notably HotS. I even see some of those people online from time to time, when they poke in to see how things are going. As far as your last question, I don't have an answer for that. All I can say is, if you want an answer to that you should look in a more Riot populated area of the boards.

If you still enjoy playing Dominion, play it. Even though I haven't been able to play much League in generally lately, the DD chat seems fairly quiet but ready for conversation to spark. Earlier today I went in there and had a good conversation with some people who are still lurking around there, and those were the people who provided the best conversation in that chat room even when Dominion was more popular and not on the fall.

SmellsLikeFatGuy1 votes

I gave up a long time ago. Sad really as dominion kept me from quitting League forever when it came out. Now it's just ARAM and seasonal modes for this guy.

TerraRising1 votes

I think everyone, from Riot to the Dominion player base, gave up. To be fair, Riot gave up a long time ago and was just doing a half-assed effort to keep it balanced.

Ohforfsake1 votes

I gave up a long time ago. Sad really as dominion kept me from quitting League forever when it came out. Now it's just ARAM and seasonal modes for this guy.

That's exactly how I think as well. I played dominion exclusively until ARAM came out, then moved over to it. I just got sick of seeing the same few champs dominate dominion game after game, so moved over.

SKOBODO1 votes

The main issues with the mode itself are tied to the map mechanics now, not problem champions. Map specific balance tied to champions wouldn't accomplish much, since the mode is reasonably balanced and quite possibly the most balanced when it comes to champions.

Things like the quest system in particular should be fixed. The player base should expand as well, although I'm not sure if that's going to happen.

FDru1 votes

Things like the quest system in particular should be fixed.

That's not even in the top 10 of Dominion's biggest problems.

And there's really no point in making any changes as long as the game is literally teaching newcomers to play like shit. And no, I don't mean in the general LoL sense, and yes I am talking about personal score.

SKOBODO1 votes

That's not even in the top 10 of Dominion's biggest problems.

It's not if you include "meta"-issues like Riot's lack of support in general and the lacking playerbase. But as far as the mode itself goes? Yes, that is one of the main issues, and it should be solvable. There currently is no super-huge problem champion that needs map specific balancing, and I can't think of any gameplay mechanic that is as harmful to the mode as the current quest system.

Personal score is ignorable, and while it's misleading, I don't think it's a huge issue.

Behold the Void1 votes

I was generally in this camp but I did recently experience a game where a Leblanc went 2-10 and insisted she was doing the best because of her personal score (she basically only capped points and was getting killed all over the place) and this was a mid-MMR game. It was the most infuriating thing ever. So I'm willing to come down a bit more harshly on the "fix the score system" because that should never happen to anybody. I wanted to put my fist through my computer screen.

TheVishual1 votes

This has been an issue for forever but Dominion's player base is so small its never really been a pertinent issue for Riot... There's so many more important issues to be taken care of (the most glaring I would say is relocation of the servers to the central US) that I doubt it'll be fixed anytime soon

FDru4 votes

This has been an issue for forever but Dominion's player base is so small its never really been a pertinent issue for Riot... There's so many more important issues to be taken care of (the most glaring I would say is relocation of the servers to the central US) that I doubt it'll be fixed anytime soon

Dominion's playerbase was 200k+ strong at one point, there was even a healthy draft mode population. Riot didn't care about it then, either.

DrCyanide1 votes

Here's the real question:

  • Can the rest of the community trade in the current "perminant featured game mode Dominion" and replace it with "perminant featured game mode U.R.F."?
IronAegis1 votes

As others have stated, the Dominion community as it was known was purposefully killed off by Riot. I'm not entirely sure as to the how or why, but it doesn't much matter now. I used to play ARAM and the like when not on Dominion, but I've given up on this company in its entirety at this point. Simply awaiting my HOTS invite.

Onegarion1 votes

HOTS doesn't really look that great to me. Its a super simplified version of League and Dota with a heavy focus on objectives that make the game completely unfair for the other team. I've seen streams and its a little to casual with no items/gold, but it really is cool with the unique look on objectives even if the power from them is completely OP.

Chavez Obama1 votes

I've only been in the HotS alpha for about a week, but it feels pretty fun already.

I imagine once they get the game more polished, it will be a very good game.

It embodies what Dominion should have been (fast and fun).

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