On February 07 2013 05:00 LaNague wrote: disappointed by the evasive answers to good questions.
But nothing the interviewer can do about it, when the interview partner decides to anser like a politician, all you COULD do would be playing inquisitor, but that doesnt work on people who dont actually have to give you an interview.
Which answers were you unhappy with? :O
i was unhappy with him evading the matchfixing problem enirely, but i guess they just cant talk about it too much either way. Then i was unhappy that he didnt talk about how riot is panning to balance now after preseason (heavy nerfbat to beat the top 3 champs back into line every patch vs maybe a more longterm balancing), but when i reread it, i guess that wasnt really in the question. Then he also evaded the north vs south map balance and did not comment on the suggestion to seperate blue and firstpick at all. The game is over 3 years old, there is enough data.
but thats just me, overall i just would have liked some actual thoughts about the two big problems competetive league has, possible map imbalance and lack of balance stability by wild patching.
The matchfixing question we actually dropped on Dustin ten minutes before the interview, so I'm surprised he actually answered it on the fly instead of vetoing it. I think the main thing to take away from his answer is that they're aware of possible corruption and will be actively looking for it during the season. It's obviously a concern for Riot. There's not much else to answer unless you're looking for possible punishments, etc.
The Blue/Purple question was something close to our staff (Yango included :3). But it's Riot's stance that more data is needed and I can respect that. Their overall reply is "We don't think the stats warrants action yet but if things become more drastic, we will consider switching FP to Purple side".
Map imbalance is an issue but it isn't a hindrance yet, so requires more data. In regards to (over)active patching, it's not something we asked about but I'm of the idea that patching can slow down drastically. It's already good news that Riot has slowed down Champion releases from two weeks to three.
yes, sorry. The interview is good, i didnt think my first post in here trough, its too confrontentinal :p Maybe next time you get an interview we will hear more about their balance strategy
also yes, i know they cant prevent matchfixing, the aram showed it. But would be nice to know if they maybe thought about analyzing suspicious games or something (ofc that was not rly neccessary with the aram ). Them controlling players hardware isnt all that interesting.
On February 07 2013 04:19 CatharsisUT wrote: It's not original, but thanks so much for the coverage. I started playing LoL because of the TL subforum, and now I've totally switched from SC2. It's nice to see that it has become (IMO) the best place for LoL coverage and analysis, even if we aren't "official."
Maybe not "official", but certainly professional. Once again, the staff make me proud to be a TLer.
On February 07 2013 05:44 LaNague wrote: also yes, i know they cant prevent matchfixing, the aram showed it. But would be nice to know if they maybe thought about analyzing suspicious games or something (ofc that was not rly neccessary with the aram ). Them controlling players hardware isnt all that interesting.
I see what you mean. I think they will be watching a lot of things like a hawk. I wouldn't even be surprised if right now they have a few private investigators keeping tabs on the teams(very unlikely but not impossible).
On February 07 2013 06:20 SidianTheBard wrote: Well done, great interview. Man, I love TL so much, between sc2 & LoL this site just rocks for the amount of content you guys bring out.
Thank you for all your hard work!
This+1
I also started playing LoL just from reading this sub forum, and even though im in Bronze, it has helped me quite a bit to strengthen my game.
edit: BTW Interview was very appreciated and I love all the content TL puts out for LoL. Its all really high quality stuff!
The only thing I didn't like is his answer to the jungle question. He states Riot wants less early jungle pressure, more variety in jungle picks, and more presence in teamfights. Right now I think these goals have not been met at all.
Firstly, jungle pressure early is basically gone. So this was successful. Though I do have to point out half the reason this is the case is because of early warding. Personally I'm a fan of early warding because I remember terror days where top lane was complete shit because of early jungle pressure.
Secondly, there are no viable junglers that actually build a significant amount of damage. The closest thing to this is the Vi build that XJ9 has started doing. Even then, its 1 damage item and then tanky, which is 100% something we've seen before. Shaco, Lee Sin, Ganplank, and interestingly, Amumu, have all been played as some sort of damagey bruiser/tank. Its funny because they've all been nerfed heavily. So Riot seems to be talking out of both sides of their mouth: They want champion diversity, but the only good DPS champions are either very new (Vi/Hec builds from XJ9) or they are nerfing (Shaco, Lee Sin) or they have nerfed so they are unviable period (Gangplank) or only viable as tanks (Amumu). So any attempt at champion diversity out of the jungle has failed completely because Riot has nerfed Damagey bruisers. The best junglers are tanks and bruisers that build tanky. This isn't because Warmogs is op or something, this is because straight up how the jungle functions, how it has always functioned, and how Riot has decided to balance melee heroes who are actually capable of dealing lots of damage (IE nerf them all).
As to more presence in teamfights I'm not sure I even know what that means. If this means that junglers can get more farm, that's strictly not true. Junglers are getting an okay amount of gold, but honestly, the only way for a jungler to ever get carry levels of gold is to steal lane creeps and to purposely take kills from ganks instead of giving them to his actual carries. Both of these are straight up suboptimal play. Junglers right now function fine in teamfights though, and I'm 100% okay with the concept of the Junglers being a 2nd support slot. I mean, if that's not what Riot actually wants, for jungle to be locked into this 2nd support slot, then, okay, that's cool too. If presence means something else... meh, maybe I'm completely off on this.
Nice interview, though I'm questioning the validity of balance related questions. In the interview Dustin himself says that he is just relaying RiotGeeves's answers to the questions. I appreciate how candid that is from Dustin, but perhaps the next interview should be a double header with the originator of the comments.
This is quite good stuff. There's always a gap between players and game designers that will always exist as you can't please everyone all at the same time. On the other hand, for a game several years old, the fact that Riot are (as a whole) up to date on trends every week is promising. Games have stood out without any changes made to them for a very long time (looking at you BW) from the game developers, yet Riot has stood out as marquee game designer in many ways. They have quite a bit of money from me, and I'm very pleased with how well they treat their game.
Dustin's a nice guy, you don't just need this interview to have gotten a sense for what kind of guy he is. I'm glad you got this interview Neo because shit like this, and getting to know voice actors, all these unexpected peeks into an industry that's very close to its consumers, are exactly what make us TL readers so much more informed than a majority of players. Where else are you gonna have 27 pages of posts about serious trolling?
Really nice interview! For the VP of E-Sports we don't hear from him too too much so it made for a good interview. Can't say I am happy with his response with games not being a BO3 but we will see how it pans out.
EPT
I think the main thing to take away from his answer is that they're aware of possible corruption and will be actively looking for it during the season. It's obviously a concern for Riot. There's not much else to answer unless you're looking for possible punishments, etc.
