Originally Posted by Linna Excel

There's a fine line that you can cross though. You drop too much core stuff and you'll lose appeal to your core audience. Take GW2, it's overall a well made game and deserves for the most part the accolades it got.

That said, at times I can interact with other players in a 30 minute lol match more than I can in a few hours in GW2. It's also very ADD compared to the original and it's hard to build a relationship with other players because after one event is over, the scatter into the wind. For its popularity, it's also very lonely at times. People might have hated the old THK or some of the desert missions, but they were memorable and caused you to plan and interact with your party in order to win.

Originally Posted by Kijitow

Just gonna put it out here that Melee now has a larger competitive following than Brawl.

It's gonna be at EVO this year.

Originally Posted by The Fatalii

The new final fantasy games. Everything after ff10 just blows. No free world map and ****

Originally Posted by Morello

It's a tricky topic, because our job is to make decisions based on what players not only want, but need. Let me explain that a bit.

Determining what players want is actually pretty simple - your most invested users tend to be very vocal and will put effort into making sure they're heard (ie; most forumers!) This is a good metric of understanding what players want, at least for high-engagement folks.

What players need is where players don't proclaim a desire for something, but it helps provide something they say they want. Many times, this is more than a single solution - it requires several steps of implementation to reach a result, or takes time to bake in many cases. Let me provide two example of want vs need, and why want cannot be the only driver for developers;

At Riot, we nerf champions. Nerfs are rarely wanted (and many times, unwanted). But, players want to have a fair experience with a variety of options. Additionally, a game without power caps and heavy power creep (something still happening faster than I'd like...) can disrupt the core game design focused around choices, decision-making, and strategy. To accomplish this, we need to nerf champions, even if players don't explicitly want us to.

To use your example, in the pattern of Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, the changes to easier raid content and more accessibility is actually informed by a want that a lot of players expressed - IE, raids were content that was exclusive from them and they wanted a piece. I respect the guys who make WoW (and its success is a testament), but this is a good example of where the developers should have recognized the core need of exclusivity and the right tuning of that, and steered away from players said they wanted. Personally, I think Burning Crusade is a sweet spot.

The above is a fantastic example of why we have to make tough choices and not always just do what players ask us to do - it's not always the right course of action.

The problem you're speaking to, in my opinion, is when developers think they always have that answer and that being a developer gives you divination into what that is. In my mind, game development isn't about having answers - it's the ways in which you find them.

Our interaction on here isn't just lip-service, it's so we can better optimize decisions around player wants - and explain what players need when they don't want it. This informs us a lot, but we make decisions based on a number of factors - player desires and feedback being one of them.

I hope this helps explain how I feel about this, and how the developer/player interaction looks to me.

Originally Posted by Statiqhock

I know I'm bringing from way back but : why is it archaic? waht makes it archaic? Is it particulary unfun? I tought it was just a skill you had to learn to play, one that's not inherently funbBt that become kinda fun when you manage to do it while keeping up with everyone and you can meddle with your opponent's last hits. Just like ther are in every game and part of the reason you (or at least "I") play video games. To master new tricks.

edit : after reading a bit, I,m actually pretty happy with myself. I actually enjoyed and remember fondly most of the games people are QQing about here. I recognize most of what people mentionned, but I still enjoyed the game. [insert sense of moral superiority here]

Originally Posted by TheCøøkieMonster

DID you run ingame survey for the population to see upon login?

Let them opt out of the poll or do the poll for 10 RP ... lol or free ...

Let us use our voice and be heard.....

The top 5% in ranked IS NOT the population....the population is 100%

Originally Posted by Cidat

Morello:

One thing I notice about multi-player games is the ability to enter and exit a game freely, and not be inherently penalized for it. If we are playing a FPS and there are thirty people on each team, players come and go as they please, and if someone does bad its no big whoop.

However, League of Legends is fundamentally different from these other multi-player games in this respect. When we are matched up, we as the players are forced to stick with whoever we are randomly paired up with. We can leave at the character select screen, but there will be a waiting penalty to reenter a game. And in ranked we get penalized points now.

Unfortunately, there is a problem with this set up, because trolls have more power over the people who want to sincerely play the game. The very last ranked game I was put into, there were two friends who obviously que'd together and then trolled the entire team at the character select screen, and AFKed leaving us at a 3 v 5. I smelled them out as trolls right away even before the game began, but I didnt have a choice. I had to stay. Sure I reported them, but reporting is little satisfaction. I didnt deserve a loss, and instead of being mad at the trolls I want to turn my attention to the design of the match making process.

Its like at the olympics when one of the fencers lost her Gold medal, not because of her skill, but because the rules the Olympic committee were set up in such a way as to cause confusion. Or the ping pong players who took advantage of the match making set up, and throwing games so they can be placed in a more favorable match up . Certainly, throwing a game on purpose is not good sportsmanship, and shame on them, but its not the ping pong players fault for wanting to take advantage of poorly designed match making rules. The fault lied with the Olympic committee for not thinking things out, and they are more to blame than anyone else.

League of Legends is a great game, but ironically its not a game design issue that is causing problems. I personally feel its the match making process that is causing the greatest ire for the fan base. This is a game that requires a high level of teamwork, and to put 10 people randomly together in a game dosnt easily reflect the abilities of each individual. We feel lost as individuals.

Is there anything you can say or add to this?

Originally Posted by Eloquid

I only partly understand this, but... How much focus do you need to remove cast time from Sivir's ulti or just a little bit increase her range to make her relevant again. Or make it obvious when Rammus's W is active, the particles are not visible in teamfight. These are just examples of things that community was asking for ages and it can't be more than 5 minutes work for makers of these champs, but we still get things nobody asked for and most will never like while what we want keeps getting ignored.

Nasus' buffs are good sign, but still some notorious and really needed changes are happening too slow.

Originally Posted by Shosuko

Of all of the games I've played over the last 10 years, Riot is the least of my worries.

They don't always get it right, but the amount of time they do is impressive. When something does go wrong, they admit it and fix it. They also pay a lot of attention to the fan base, without just doing what the fan base wants.

I'm really proud of Riot, and feel every penny I've dropped into this game has been more rewarding than any other. Even now where I'm not playing this game so much (we all go on breaks) I'm still buying a few skins I like b/c I know I'll be back.

Other games that have dropped the ball typically do it b/c they won't reverse a decision. This is the single worst offense a game developer can make. Let's face it, no one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes. Bad companies turtle up and ignore the ragings hoping the players will "see it their way." Riot cops to it. Even if they don't revert, they explain their logic behind it. Their developers always have amazing insights into game development and game balance that I appreciate, even when I disagree.