The new games of Riot are the best asset of League of Legends (and the biggest threat)

Riot Games has had a banner year crowned with a massive, millionaire sports tournament and the announcement of a series of new games. The League of Legends Universe has never been so developed. The company publishes a tradition book about the vast fantasy world it has built up over the years. There are metal albums, a K-pop group, a Marvel partnership, a hip-hop single and the stuff of a magical girl universe.

So far, there is only one problem with the success of Riot. All of this content is reintegrated into the core game, and League of Legends is not big enough to contain the ambitions Riot has for the franchise.

Riot Solution: More games, including two in the League of Legends universe. Riot believes that creating more entry points into the IP will also make casual gamers invest in the tradition.

Lots of traditions

At some point, the tradition was a stupid addition to the core game of the League of Legends. There were newsletters from reporters in the universe exchanging on dating gossip and funny facts. It took almost a decade for Riot Games to develop the lore of the League beyond a series of vague, eternal secrets. In fact, there was a complete reboot that changed the whole concept of League of Legends.

Now there are stories to read, in a collection of genres ranging from Lovecraft’s horror, to knight and banner fantasy, to pirate power struggles. Riot clearly insists on this tradition; It continues to invest time and effort in cinema, hologram concerts, comics, merchandise, music videos, short stories and lavish animations.

It does not matter how many comics and stories and Epic Tales writers can turn. Most of the stories and information remain in League of Legends. Why invest in a massive fantasy epic in a universe that exists to complement a competitive Esport title? Why browse through YouTube videos with in-game interactions? Why not just . read a book?

This is a problem that needs to be resolved before Riot can support things like an animated show that dives into the world of Runeterra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA-v_LB3Qpc [/ embed]

If a game is not enough

Here’s the League of Legends game that keeps following the game during its countless attempts to reinvent and expand it: it’s not accessible, and never will be. The game has over 140 champions, each with unique abilities and various items. If a player is not used to a top-down strategy game, they are usually lost immediately.

Add that League is a competitive game where you get into a team with four other people who are all invested in winning, and that League of Legends can soon become a nightmarish carousel that devours evenings and ruines friendships.

For example, two characters like Swain and LeBlanc might have entertaining story interactions that reveal much of their dynamism and the greater history of Noxus. You could talk in a League of Legends game. That’s a really cool experience, but what if I do not hear it because I want to focus on laning? It is difficult to reconcile competition concerns with in-game lore at best. It is impossible for a new player to try to wrap his head around 10 champions with completely unique abilities, in addition to concerns such as the recent hit, kite control and avoiding jungle swarms.

Kha’Zix is ​​a popular league champion who has a hard time getting his way.Riot Games

A broader basis

Non-League of Legends projects such as “Project A”, a developing hero shooter, give Riot the opportunity to extend his reach to a new audience . but they are also risky. At the 10th Anniversary League of Legends event, many of the projects shown fit perfectly in the Riot wheelhouse of Runeterra.

There is a league card game, Legends of Runeterra and a fight game without a title. The growth of Teamfight Tactics, Auto Chess-inspired Autobattler, is growing. Maybe you’re not interested in learning how to handle the camera and the huge hero pool of League of Legends. But with a wider range of genres, it’s easier to attract players to a new project such as the K-pop phenomenon K / DA or the magical girl Old-Universe Star Guardians.

Some of these games have been in development for eight years when Riot found out how they might coexist under titles like Hearthstone, but they are dramatically more accessible. Polygon’s Charlie Hall, who has never played a League of Legends game in his life, believes Legends of Runeterra is “too good to ignore”.

However, these more accessible titles have one obvious drawback: the time of day.

Riot Games

To taste yourself

There’s just so many hours a day, so much hard drive space and so much attention a person can have for online games. League of Legends fits easily into a schedule if anyone is interested in adapting it, but what about League and Legends of Runeterra? What happens if players have to decide between Riot’s products . and what if the crown jewel of the league is tarnished by these new titles?

Even with all these new entry points, the league canon is still endlessly thought-out and has been in the game for thousands of years – not to mention the decade of revisions, retakes, and more elaborate additions. Part of the reason why Riot was able to become so experimental and throw away so many canons is the fact that the core game would remain untouched by these changes. What happens if there are multiple interactions in different game genres that need to be monitored and kept up to date? How do you tell stories in such a sophisticated setting?

Will the whole structure eventually collapse under its own weight? League of Legends is a valuable IP, and it remains to be seen whether it will be further developed or brought to its knees by splitting in so many directions. After waiting for years for the answer to riddles like “What happened to Katarina’s father?” To find, I’m looking forward to the current era of league traditions. I see stories progress and work towards conclusions that I can remember for the first time. From here, it’s all about making that sustainable . which is easier said than done with such ambitious and diverse plans as Riot.