For better or for worse, League of Legends has been one of the most influential games of the past decade, shaping the way that we look at free-to-play content, cross game promotion and professional competitive play. LOL has almost singlehandedly bought rise to the thriving e-sports culture in gaming and is the primary reason for that mid 2010's 'E-sports envy' that every publisher and their mother was suffering from. It proved to everyone that a game could be completely profitable by operating on a free-to-play model whilst charging for cosmetics. (although that's a lesson that the industry still has trouble learning.) And it even managed to get away with cross-promotion with various other game franchises throughout the years without causing an uproar, paving the way for Fortnite's all consuming promotional conquest.
All this legacy managed to spawn from an odd little multiplayer game with only one game mode and one map, who'd have thought? Riot games managed to turn this rather basic foundation into an entire universe full to the brim of lore, costumes and even a K-pop style music video. (Oh wait, make that two.) It was this dedication to building out their world which turned the heads of casual players and transitioned those who just played the game into those that lived the game. Other MOBAs have risen since LOL's inception, but they mostly fail to capture that spark that made League so special and influential. (R.I.P, Battleborn.) It's a surprise, then, that with an entire universe of lore to sit on, they've never expanded it into another product. No web series, no comics, no lore books and no movie. (Thank god)
Most would say that the reason for this is actually quite obvious; LOL may be dripping with lore but practically none of it goes together in a manner that one might call satisfactory. A lot of the short stories that exist between characters are superficial and designed to ingratiate the reader to that personality, not hint at a larger world. 'League of Legends' is very unique in that manner, as it's brand is built upon a universe of stories that are at odds with one another. In some ways it makes sense, afterall the gameplay is complicated enough to have players get a grasp on, without then trying to figure out a decent reason why it's all happening. Overwatch famously did awful in that department, feeding crumbs of a storyline that seemed to make no sense before giving up for a light reboot with this years' Overwatch 2. (Is that coming out this year? I can't be bothered to check.)
Okay, so adapting LOL into another product would be difficult, but perhaps such a transition is necessary due to the huge barrier stopping the growth of that game. That barrier being the aforementioned issue that the game is only one game mode and one map. What happens if, like me, you have no interest in the MOBA format? Well, then you don't get the game or join the community. Some folk out there positively despise the Assassin's Creed games, but are active consumers of the various related books. The same is true for Halo and the old Warhammer canon, (I'm not sure if the new universe actually has any books yet) as well as 40k. Meaning that leap from single video game to multiplatform franchise is the next thing that LOL needs to do in order to cement it's legacy into the next decade and set the stage once more. But then, how should they start with that?
This must have been the prevailing question rattling around the executive rooms at Riot Games not so long ago, for they established a project known as 'Riot Forge' with the soul purpose of producing single player games in the 'League of Legends' universe. Their labours would bear fruit sooner than anyone was expecting as during the VGAs the world received it's initial look at the first title to come out of the 'Riot Forge' product; 'Ruined King', much to the delight of the audience. As for the tease itself... it was pretty, meh. The trailer consisted of stylized frames that were mostly still with some light sound effects and ominous narration over the top of it. From studying the images we can assume there'll be a nautical theme to the game, with a seabound keep at the center of the action, but this is just speculation at this point at there was literally nothing concrete to go on regarding this title. At least we know the work of the developer 'Airship Syndicate', who recently created 'Darksiders Genesis', so we can assume this will be an action hack-and-slash affair with light rpg/metroidvania elements. (Although, again, there's nothing definitive on that front.)
So League fans had that tantalizing little teaser to sit on through this event, although that wouldn't be the only surprise as later that night we were all hit with another trailer. That's right, somehow 'Riot Forge' was working on two single player games at once. (The things you can achieve when you put your mind to it...) This second trailer was just as much a teaser but a lot better at setting the stage. The title in question, 'Conv/rgence', appears to take place in a high-tech Steampunk future (with actual animation this time around) featuring colourful explosions and spiky haircuts. We also know that this title will be an action platformer, so that's already more to digest on this title then 'Ruined King'. The thing that sticks with me, however, is the way how these two trailers perfectly encapsulate the dichotomy of 'League of Legends' lore. On one hand you have a serious, muted, story that looks like it's set in the 1500's and on the other hand you have a bright colourful future game the looks to be buzzing with energy. To some degree this speaks to the variety promised from the 'Riot Forge' project, however you'd have never thought that these titles were related unless you were specifically told so.
These two games represent the mortar and pestle that is working on the foundations of what Riot hopes will become an enduring franchise, and curiosity bades my attention to these titles at hand. A part of me has always wanted to be involved with 'League of Legends' and this feels like an olive branch thrust in my direction, which is likely exactly the kind of story that Riot Games want to be generating with this whole project. I like the idea of building up an interconnected franchise and I feel that gaming is the perfect medium with which to do that. Create a franchise from a flurry of different games and genres and you'll set the perfect catch-all net to bring millions more to your community than ever before, this seems to be the end goal for 'Riot Games' so far.
Although the projects in question are just other games, and seemingly small scale ones at that, I can't help but think of the future of this brand when they inevitably go multiplatform. (And I'm not talking about different gaming platforms.) This fills me with the same sort of excitement that I felt during the early days of Overwatch, until it became clear that the studio were more interested in building up a category of skins rather than working on building the brand. I want to see Riot Games succeed and surpass the likes of 'the Matrix' franchise, which spanned films, animations and games. (Although I sincerely hope that Riot stays away from films, for everyone's sake.) On the otherhand this may colossally backfire and end up devaluing the LOL brand to the point where no one wants to work on it anymore. Guess we'll have to wait and see.
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