League of Legends has simply grown too big for its lore-breeches in its hugely successful five year existence. Now, the devs have taken to completely overhauling League Of Legends' narrative content in a move sure to upset some fans.
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Get the full story over at the developers' narrative blog, but just in case that's a whole lot of tl;dr, here's some of the most meaningful tidbits, as relayed by Tommy Gnox (but really the whole narrative team).
On the former necessity for the now-restrictive formulas: "In the early days of League, we created a fictional background that would justify how players could control champions during games. We came up with concepts like Summoners, Fields of Justice, an Institute of War, and indeed, the League of Legends itself - all in an attempt to provide fictional context for in-game action. 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."
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On the story-nerfing of Champions: "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."
On de-canonization: "Does this mean older story efforts like the Journal of Justice and League Judgments are meaningless? Of course not. In the same way that we can go back and enjoy old books, shows, films, art, and comics that have been superseded by more recent interpretations of the same material, League's original lore remains a cherished part of its history. From comic books to classic literature, exploration of the same creative space in vastly different ways is a natural part of storytelling."
Star Wars Expanded Un-uhh, I mean Star Wars: Legends fans have certainly heard that one before! What do you think? Are you upset about earlier lore being erased, do you welcome change, or do you simply not care, as long as the gameplay remains tight?
