Will a Featured Game Mode ever stay for good? :(

John Berserk·7/22/2014, 11:08:26 AM·2 votes·1,556 views

I am aware that the point of a featured game mode is to be something new that comes along to "freshen up the game", something smaller and enjoyable, but not as resource heavy as something like Dominion, TT, or ARAM. That's fine and all, and I do enjoy the rotation aspect of it, but honestly, while some of these modes are fun little experiments to play maybe once or twice or maybe a few times with some friends (Hexakill, Doom Bots...eh), others seem like they have a ton more "staying power" (ex: One for All, URF) and would only serve to make the game a lot more enjoyable overall by providing more options for relaxed play in between Normals and Ranked games.

So, my question to Riot (even though I probably already know the unfortunate answer), will we ever see a Featured Game Mode come and stay for good? And no, I don't mean rotate back in only to rotate out in two weeks. When I say stay for good, I mean stay for good, permanently.

5 Comments

RiotRoboLions7/23/2014, 1:26:39 AM6 votes

It could happen! The problem with game modes is that we do some specific one-off stuff in code, scripts, and other things to enable the alternative rules that are so fun. For example, to make Syndra work for OFA we had to work hard to make sure the game understood what to do with so many Sydras and balls that previously were considered to "belong" to other Syndras, etc. This works great inside a given patch but as things progress, are changed, balanced, etc, they have to be done such that it doesn't break any of our game modes. So in a world with permanent game modes there is a serious commitment to maintaining those modes patch over patch.

For now, we are focusing on making new fun game modes to keep things fresh, and iterating on older game modes to attempt to improve them when we bring them back. Eventually we may have a mode that is so well polished and popular that it's time to make it permanent, we're open to that possibility, but we aren't there yet.

Kao Atlantis7/22/2014, 2:01:59 PM1 votes

I suspect it takes quite a bit of server resources to run the featured game modes and that the amount of people who play them drop of sharply a week or so after they have been featured. Probably they will all come back at random times, but I am not sure if they will ever be permanent.

MissFortune

Flamecowz7/26/2014, 2:24:41 AM1 votes

Me and my friend actually came up with an idea to help fix this problem without making it too hard for Riot. If you want to check the idea out, here's the link. Enjoy! http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/summoners-rift/iAwtb1FL-problem-with-featured-gamemodes-and-solutions-riot-please-read

Edit: and sorry for posting my thread on yours, I just want to show you my idea