League of Legends Retconns its own Name, Players out of Game

[Paragon Fury]

Since I didn't see a newspost about this, and it seems kind of important when something like this happens to the world's largest and most profitable game. It also happens to be the final nail in the coffin that made me quit League (among other things in the game).

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/creative-spotlight/dev-blog-exploring-runeterra2

After a while, these early choices began to create unexpected problems. Every new champion needed a reason to join and remain in the League, and as their number grew, the net result was that over time the world started to feel, well, small, and eventually less interesting. The institutions we?d designed fostered creative stagnation, limiting the ways that champions, factions and Runeterra itself could grow and change. Furthermore, the very idea of all-powerful Summoners made Champions little more than puppets manipulated by godlike powers. The background we?d created to explain in-game action was ultimately restricting the potential narrative development of the game?s defining characters.

Faced with these limitations, our use of narrative elements tightly bound to the original vision (Journals of Justice, Judgments, etc.) dwindled, because they felt fundamentally restrictive to our hopes for a more vibrant and expansive world. In response, we started (with efforts like the Freljord event and recent champion bios) to tell stories that explored the furthest limits of League?s original creative framework.


For those not in the know, the original story of League of Legends was this; after many, many years of devastating war and conflict, the most powerful Magi on the world of Runeterra banded together to come up with a solution to prevent the use of magic and warfare from literally tearing their world apart. Their solution was the League of Legends; an arena where countries could pit their Summoners (Players) vs. other Summoners (Players) to settle disputes and conflict in a controlled, ordered fashion and prevent further damage to Runeterra. Summoners would do battle by controlling heroes, mercenaries, monsters, adventurers, mages and others who would come to the League seeking fame, glory and riches (or other things).

For a long time, this was the core of League and pretty novel and entertaining concept. And now Riot has completely scrapped ALL of it. As of the posting of that article, Riot has retconned and declared the very name of the game, and the players therein non-canon and no longer a part of the game.

Personally, for me this beyond stupid and just goes to show how little Riot cares anymore - especially when for months on the forums players have been repairing their broken lore and smoothing it out FOR THEM.

It also affects their champions too, because so many of them are left with little or no lore thanks to the removal of the League and Summoners. Champions who no longer have lore/story include:

Ahri
Annie
Brand
Draven
Ezreal
Fiddlesticks
Fizz
Jax
Kayle
Leblanc
Lee Sin
Maokai
Miss Fortune
Morganna
Nautilus
Nocturne
Pantheon
Rumble
Ryze
Sejuani
Shaco
Skarner
Sona
Taric
Vel'koz
Wukong
Zilean


Just......yeah.

 

[Altorin]

they'll get new lore I'm sure. Probably just a reworking of the old lore into a larger scope.

and honestly, it's lore in league of legends.

 

[Thebazilly]

I don't think the lore was ever the strong point of LoL. It's always been a bit silly, especially since Riot needs to keep adding champs at a steady rate to keep people interested. (What are they at now, 150 or so?)

Personally, for me this beyond stupid and just goes to show how little Riot cares anymore

Riot has never cared about their player base. There's such a huge number of people and such a high turnover rate that they just wait out whatever shitstorm stirs up and face no consequences for treating their fans poorly. In Riot's eyes, they don't have to give a shit.

 

[Zhukov]

Meh. The old concept was shit on a stick. Damn near anything would be an improvement.

That said, we're talking about the lore of a bloody MOBA here. I'm shocked that anybody would care in the slightest.

 

[Rayce Archer]

Wait wait wait

You played League of Legends for the STORY? Let me just get my head around all that. Because I don't think they ever say what specific background issues matches are resolving. So did you... like rolelay that? Like before every fight do you spam chat about OK GUYS THIS ONE IS TO DETERMINE CONTROL OF THE DISPUTED KRUNAO PENINSULA WHICH IS CLAIMED BY BOTH IONIA AND NOXUS AND HOW ITS VAST RESERVES OF TIN WILL BE EXPLOITED? Do you single out characters meant to be your character's nemesis? AH AT LAST TEEMO HAS TAKEN VENGEANCE UPON UDYR PAST DEBTS ARE PAID!!!!!!

I'm sorry I'm just desperately fumbling to work out why the story of LoL matters at all and so help me I can't do it.

Re: TheBazilly: I p[layed LoL, then I got bored of Summoner's Rift and I stopped. I never gave them any money. I'd wager that yeah, most players are like me- fly in, drop a little change MAYBE, then vanish. No real point pandering to us with storytelling.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

Honestly, this is one of the best decisions they could have made. Trying to fit every champion in to having a reason for participating in the League was really, really holding back the potential for any kind of meaningful storytelling.

All it means is that the lore behind the champions you cite will be in line for a major revamp. Hopefully they will be replaced by new, more compelling stories that aren't all heading towards the same "and then he/she/it joined the League".

Also, where did this rubbish come from about Riot not giving a shit? I mean, for sure they could hurry up and release another map (why they shelved the fiery map is beyond me) and actually justify their enormous team, but this isn't a decision taken because they don't care. If they didn't care they would just have left it ...

 

[DoPo]

For those not in the know, the original story of League of Legends was this; after many, many years of devastating war and conflict, the most powerful Magi on the world of Runeterra banded together to come up with a solution to prevent the use of magic and warfare from literally tearing their world apart. Their solution was the League of Legends; an arena where countries could pit their Summoners (Players) vs. other Summoners (Players) to settle disputes and conflict in a controlled, ordered fashion and prevent further damage to Runeterra. Summoners would do battle by controlling heroes, mercenaries, monsters, adventurers, mages and others who would come to the League seeking fame, glory and riches (or other things).

Wait, this is the premise and you follow this description with

For a long time, this was the core of League and pretty novel and entertaining concept.

???

HOW? The concept is not novel and not entertaining. The concept is old and an excuse for people to fight. Though I suppose the latter could be called "entertaining". It's not bad, mind you, I just don't think the premise by itself is entertaining - more like what it can lead to.

Anyway, this has been all over the place - heck, Unreal Tournament follows the same premise - future, blah blah, people fight because it lets of steam prevents wars or something. It's also been the premise for multiple other works outside of gaming - because a is set up where participate. It's there to justify people battling. Robert Sheckley wrote his version of it called The Seventh Victim [http://like-the-hunger-games.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/books-like-hunger-games-seventh-victim.html] (scroll to the bottom to read it) back in 1953. But we need not stop there, we can trace the premise back to ancient Roman times and the gladiatorial battles but also other kinds of competitions.

Personally, for me this beyond stupid

It is. Again, the story is there to justify people smacking each other until one team wins. What more do Riot want? Champion X participates in the League. Champion X has these abilities because he has this background. The same thing that DotA did and even then the backgrounds were all over the place (Dota 2 slightly brings them together but not really that much). Claiming that the concept "limits the narrative elements" of the game implies there were narrative elements - there is mostly a name and job. As if the Avatar from Ultima was the creative mastermind behind the "narration".

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Hahahaha wat? There's LORE in League of Legends?

Is it like "Lo, but the Champion Fiddlesticks called mid early, and was ganked five times in succession, and was declared to be a feeding noob, to which he replied "Fuck you wh0res" and rage quit, and the team had to try and come back down one, and their efforts proved fruitless. Thus ended the great battle of the Suck My Cock Rangers vs the I Banged Your Mom All Stars."

 

[Rayce Archer]

Hahahaha wat? There's LORE in League of Legends?

Is it like "Lo, but the Champion Fiddlesticks called mid early, and was ganked five times in succession, and was declared to be a feeding noob, to which he replied "Fuck you wh0res" and rage quit, and the team had to try and come back down one, and their efforts proved fruitless. Thus ended the great battle of the Suck My Cock Rangers vs the I Banged Your Mom All Stars."

Dude, Fiddlesticks has like REAMS of bio. See, he was summoned into existence as an artificial combatant but the ritual pulled something EEEEEEEVILLL into the world and now he sits alone in a dusty cell lest any who approach him be killed in an instant, released only to enact his horrible will on the fields of battle.

How the keep him locked up when he can teleport is utterly beyond me, but there's probably no tall grass wherever they keep him stowed away so maybe he's scared to try. AND THAT'S THE TROUBLE with their canon- EVERY character is the biggest baddest ass around and can whup anybody in a fight because they're just so AWESOME. Then you play and oh no, that midget in an airplane can TOTALLY KILL my haunted suit of armor that feeds on plague dead. It's like WH40k a bit, that way.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Does the game still play the same way?

If so then who the hell cares? I mean seriously, who cares about the "story" and "lore" or league of legends? It's a fucking multiplayer game, it doesn't need a story, people are just there for the gameplay.

 

[Twinrehz]

I liked the original lore of Mordekaiser, he was some sort of thing that came out of an alleyway in somewhere. Later, it was retconned to that he was human all along, making him more boring. I guess it was hard to explain the pentakill mordekaiser skin.

OT: You quit playing LoL because of the lore? While not exactly bad, it wasn't worthy of a Pulitzer either. Their retcon of lore has largely passed me by, except for the one about Mordekaiser, which was one of those that I really liked. Still, it didn't stop me from playing it. My own reluctance to play PvP-games, and the sheer boredom of playing Co-op vs. AI did that.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

Who plays LoL for the story? That's like going to McDonald's for a salad.

 

[AtomChicken]

It's difficult to create "interesting" story in the sense for MOBA games, reminds me of a Extra Credits episode where they talked about the difficulties of Lore and narrative in fast-action RTS or MOBA games.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Well, that's disappointing. -_- Then again, the writing was on the wall for a while now, since Jinx and Gnar haven't really been given reasons to join the league in their lore (despite me coming up with a very amusing reason for Jinx, actually.)

Personally, I think it's a pretty sad loss. I liked the concept of the League. Without it...Why are these characters fighting? What is the point? Why THEM?

I know that it has no impact on the game itself since no one really "plays" League for the lore, but still, it was a nice thing to have in the background. A nice little justification for what was going on. The game will be less with it gone. I kinda liked feeling like I was a summoner giving orders to a hero instead of, you know, being that hero. There are enough games where I AM the hero, so having one where I was just the guy giving them orders to increase their effectiveness in combat was a bit refreshing. Again, it's not something I woudl think about while playing all the time, but it was still a neat concept.

Not to mention this completely screws up Jax's lore, which I found to be a really amusing one. XD
"Oh, he's some no-name mercenary, he's not going to-...Oh, he got in without even needing a test. ...OH WOW, he's so strong we have to nerf him. Oh WOW. He's nerfing himself in protest by using a lamppost as a weapon. And he's still unstoppable. I...Ok, let's just...let him do as he pleases...Oh GOD, he's still using that lamppost... ;_;"

I hope they find something neat to replace it with. If not...Well, I'll miss it.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Hahahaha wat? There's LORE in League of Legends?

Is it like "Lo, but the Champion Fiddlesticks called mid early, and was ganked five times in succession, and was declared to be a feeding noob, to which he replied "Fuck you wh0res" and rage quit, and the team had to try and come back down one, and their efforts proved fruitless. Thus ended the great battle of the Suck My Cock Rangers vs the I Banged Your Mom All Stars."

Dude, Fiddlesticks has like REAMS of bio. See, he was summoned into existence as an artificial combatant but the ritual pulled something EEEEEEEVILLL into the world and now he sits alone in a dusty cell lest any who approach him be killed in an instant, released only to enact his horrible will on the fields of battle.

How the keep him locked up when he can teleport is utterly beyond me, but there's probably no tall grass wherever they keep him stowed away so maybe he's scared to try. AND THAT'S THE TROUBLE with their canon- EVERY character is the biggest baddest ass around and can whup anybody in a fight because they're just so AWESOME. Then you play and oh no, that midget in an airplane can TOTALLY KILL my haunted suit of armor that feeds on plague dead. It's like WH40k a bit, that way.

The Summoner Spells (Flash, Ignite, Teleport etc.)? No champion can use those - thats why they're called Summoner Spells; we, the Summoners were using them ON the champion we were controlling, not the champion using them by themselves.

I liked the original lore of Mordekaiser, he was some sort of thing that came out of an alleyway in somewhere. Later, it was retconned to that he was human all along, making him more boring. I guess it was hard to explain the pentakill mordekaiser skin.

OT: You quit playing LoL because of the lore? While not exactly bad, it wasn't worthy of a Pulitzer either. Their retcon of lore has largely passed me by, except for the one about Mordekaiser, which was one of those that I really liked. Still, it didn't stop me from playing it. My own reluctance to play PvP-games, and the sheer boredom of playing Co-op vs. AI did that.

I didn't quit because of the lore; it was just the last straw of many that finally made me go "Nope. Done.".

 

[Truth Cake]

What a lot of people seem to be keen on ignoring is all of the lores that turned out to make a grand total of zero sense because they had to connive some way for that champion to get into the League in the first place.

Nami- "I need to find some magic gem or something to save my race from dying therefore LEAGUE OF LEGENDS!"

TF- "I'm trying to avoid this guy I screwed over who's a bit pissed at me therefore LEAGUE OF LEGENDS!" (and of course, that guy he screwed over is also a champion in the League, so he doesn't have a reason to be there at all)

Yasuo- "I'm trying to find someone who framed me for murder... LEAGUE OF LEGENDS!" (the fact that the person who DID the murder is actually there is just a coincidence, he doesn't even know who framed him but of course he goes to the League anyways because everybody who does anything in that world goes to the one and only landmark in the world, the League of Legends.)

I can go on and on with all of the other lores that had to pull some reason out of their ass for that champion to get into the League, but I won't waste anybody's time.

Now I'm not saying that just deleting it entirely is the best possibility, it's just people seem to be willfully ignoring all the shit parts of the current lore because of 'IT'S DIFFERENT AND THEREFORE WORSE' reasons. Though I never much cared for the current lore, and I doubt I'll care for the new lore either, really it's just background noise for the gameplay, so whatever. I'm off to play League rather than talk about it.

 

[Muspelheim]

Aww, it was a good bit of framework lore there. And frankly, as much lore as League of Legends ever needed.

Does the game still play the same way?

If so then who the hell cares? I mean seriously, who cares about the "story" and "lore" or league of legends? It's a fucking multiplayer game, it doesn't need a story, people are just there for the gameplay.

Well. It's a bit like cover art. It doesn't matter in the greater scheme of things, but it's still not a reason to phone it in. An alright backstory that sets up and support the scenario (all the arena fightin') isn't vital, but it's far better than nothing at all.

Quite a few people won't care, but not all of them.

 

[AtomChicken]

I pray they give Ahri some decent lore. If not, LoL needs to get new writers XP

 

[BabySinclair]

And this could have been neatly wrapped up with a single "Major catastrophe occurs, the League itself is shattered" story at which point the summoner's college is dissolved, new characters no longer have to join the League, and maintain the established lore.

 

[The Wykydtron]

The amount of retconn here is fucking stupid. There ARE people who care about this stuff (myself included,) way more than you would think and i've seen plenty of rage threads around other gaming sites. They retconned their own name, that's a bit overboard surely. Summoner's Rift? Summoner Spells? IP doesn't make sense now cuz there's nobody to influence with your Summoner political powers or whatever. Honestly, how much did they think this through before they came out with this massive burst of "lol non-canon now XD"

It's not that the lore being changed that affects people, it's how so many characters suddenly make no sense. Sona's entire voice lines now make no sense since now she has no telepathic link to anyone unless she's suddenly a schizophrenic with a voice in her head telling her to kill shit, Orianna makes no sense since the only reason she exists is because the original human Orianna died in tower dive training (not kidding, look it up before they erase it) Nocturne should now be an unstoppable dunking machine with no Summoners to bind him, Cho'Gath should have ended the world by now afuckingpparently... I could go on forever. People play this game because they want to play their favourite characters, that's the top reason I find. Suddenly half of them have non-canon lore and the new lore will probably be total wank.

Yes just offhandedly saying "so they went to League to fulfil X ambition" wasn't great but it was something, now all the new people get a little short story about them with zero connectivity to League I.E Gnar. Seriously. The fuck was that shit?

Oh and they just invalidated 5 or so years worth of fanworks, some of which were even asked for and/or showcased in community art spotlights and competitions. As bad as some fanworks are, that's pretty inexcusable. It's the one that really gets me somehow.

Rito. Pls.