devtrackers.gg
Before I begin, I'm just going to say that I'm new to long posts, so if my thoughts aren't necessarily organized, please bare with me.
Anyway, on to my point. It's no secret that many people are not happy with the current direction of the game. It seems that toxicity and trolling is becoming more prevalent with each passing day, and major League content creators and personalities have/are leaving the game. I haven't gone out and surveyed people or anything, but just based off of what I've been seeing and hearing, it seems like there is a fairly large group of players that feel as though they aren't being catered to. So this got me thinking, would Riot make a Classic League Server? Here, I am going to try my best to list off some reasons as to why this could and SHOULD be done, as well as possibly quell some of the concerns that this may yield.
This could help with the toxicity and trolling problem that exists today.
If a MOBA came out today that provided a similar yet unique experience to League as it currently exists, would you consider making the switch? For some people, the answer to this question is yes. However, they CONTINUE to play League despite not enjoying it as much anymore because of reasons such as being too invested, maybe they're a little addicted, they might have a faint hope that it will return to the "golden age", or see no genuine competition to League in terms of the gameplay experience it offers. Because of this, when these people hop into games (ranked especially) they flame their teammates after every single mistake, go AFK if they believe they are more likely to lose, or start trolling. In their view, they are playing a game that they don't enjoy, LOSING, and having to sit there while the game persists, usually enduring a few failed surrender votes along the way. Based on what I've been seeing and hearing on Youtube, Twitch, and even in some of my own ranked games, a lot of this frustration comes from the current state of the game and the direction that its heading. If there was a separate Classic League server, it would offer these players a gameplay experience that they are familiar with and enjoy, without compromising the current version of the game.
Older players who feel as though they have been abandoned by Riot would have an avenue for fulfilling gameplay.
Does anyone remember old Gangplank? How about Graves? Evelynn? Nidalee? Over the years, Riot has reworked/heavily altered many of their older champions. They've undoubtedly done great work with many of these champions; However, there were players that played these champions extensively, even thousands of games for some, and they feel left behind by Riot. Granted, champions that are reworked typically keep a major part of their kit, they just don't feel the same. The old feeling is whats important here. The map doesn't feel the same. The items and champions don't feel the same. Not saying there's anything particularly wrong with that, but providing the old feel that brought the players who originally made this game what it is today would help restore people's faith in Riot.
An undertaking this large would usher in a renewed interest for League of Legends.
While sifting through the numerous gaming news articles and Youtube videos spawned daily, I'm constantly left asking myself, where the hell is League? I remember when League was the King of Twitch, Youtube, and basically all the other forms of gaming media. Now it seems like all I ever hear about is Fortnite, while League is just quietly existing. A Classic server would be a pretty big deal in my opinion. You'd be hearing about it everywhere, even on outlets that aren't necessarily focused on League. Look at what happened with Old School Runescape. The announcements of classic WoW servers and the Starcraft Remaster also generated similar levels of hype. All I'm saying here is that this would put League back in the spotlight, and bring back old players who quit long ago, while perhaps bringing in new players as well.
I'm sure there's many more upsides to creating a Classic League server, this is just what I could come up with after pondering it for a few hours. I feel like these 3 things would be a massive positive boom for the League Community. There are concerns that I'm sure people might have though, so I'll attempt to go over some of those now.
A Classic Server would divide the community.
I don't believe this would be the case. In every instance that I can remember, the introduction of Classic servers usually generates a high high level of hype, but after the dust settles, the Classic server takes only a small portion of the already existing community, while also obviously bringing old players who are no longer part of the community back into the mix. Here is an interesting graph that shows the player count of Runescape after its 2007 Classic server was created. During the month of its inception, OSRS (Oldschool Runescape) and the modern "EoC" (Evolution of Combat) were tied in terms of player numbers, but in the years at followed, The EoC overtook the OSRS server by roughly 10K players a day for the following few years. I know there are some variables in play that can't be tracked, such as Bots, but this I feel is a pretty good estimate of the general interest between the 2 servers. You might asking yourself, "If the EoC had roughly 30K players according to the graph, and OSRS had 20k players, doesn't that mean that OSRS took almost half of the Runescape players?" Actually no, the EoC only had about 30-40k players online on average (There isn't a graph that I can find that shows this but luckily there's a video). As the evidence suggests, almost all of the OSRS players were returning players who had previously quit the game.
Creating a Classic Server would occupy development time/cost money that isn't worth worthy of Riot's investment.
I'm going to have to strongly disagree with this one. There is currently a League of Legends private server called "League of Memories", set in patch 4.20. It's currently in a playable state with multiple working champions. It is being developed my a small team of individuals, who of which are being led by a guy who's only 19 years old. If these kids can do it, I don't see why a multi-billion dollar company with some of the world's most talented developers can't do it.
I can't think of what other concerns people might have, but I'd be glad to hear it from you guys.
Anyway, on the off chance that I somehow succeed with this post, and Riot announces they're releasing a Classic server some day, here are some of the things that I'd personally like to see:
• A "hands off" approach by the developers. Ideally, it would be set in Season 3 or 4, or any point before the map update honestly, and not get any patches. Of course the usual server fixes/optimization, MAYBE bug fixes if necessary, no balance changes though.
• Functional 5v5 Draft and Ranked at the very least. Not a 3v3 fan myself but I'm sure there's demand for it somewhere.
• Possibly its own independent client, maybe even akin aesthetically to the old client.
TL;DR
A Classic server, in my opinion, would be great for the community. It would reduce the toxic attitude people have towards League of Legends and Riot. It would bring old players back to the game, and renew interest in League of Legends. For these reasons, I believe it would be in Riot's best interest to at least consider the possibility of creating a Classic League server.
External link →