League of Legends vs World of Warcraft - Which Characters Are More Compelling?

[Deleted member 52442]

Alternative wording - which world would you rather see explored in movies and television centered around the most recognizable characters.

In one corner we have WoW, the biggest MMORPG with characters that have been fleshed out since their original Warcraft games (and maybe more someone might tell me). Sylvanus is introduced as an annoying (living) high elf in Warcraft 3 trying to stop you (Arthas) from attacking her city. And now look at her in the latest expansion cinematic.





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In the other corner we have League of Legends, the biggest moba, which flat out has less current headway made in exploring their characters, but they make up for the lack of quality exploration with a large quantity of characters who have appealing and varied backstories, and occasionally they get deeper looks into their psychologies through short stories and/or cinematics. Any person briefly glimpsed in the backstory of a main character can, and has, become a "main character" aka a playable character, and just the experience of playing them gives insight into who they are in their world based on their abilities, quotes, and even how they move.

 

[Brazil]

World of Warcraft is more interesting and fun simply because there's cohesion between characters. Some League champions don't even make sense in the same world as a few others.

 

[DSP]

I say wow because I really know jack about LoL characters, the story doesn't exist in the game, it's only outside material (which no one reads). It is maybe great but I imagine most of the players have no clue and the main appeal of the characters is their appearances. Execution matters, they could be great but if nobody knows might as well not exist.

 

[Deleted member 16908]

I don't play WoW but WoW wins simply because the lore is a big part of the actual game. The League stuff is cool (see below) and often extremely well-executed but you have to go outside the game to see it.

 

[Luigi87]

I don't play WoW but WoW wins simply because the lore is a big part of the actual game. The League stuff is cool (see below) and often extremely well-executed but you have to go outside the game to see it.

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This is where I'm at.
I mean, I know some of the LoL lore (though a lot of it has changed in recent years), but I had to do that reading on my own. As said earlier, execution matters.

 

[Richietto]

I always felt LoL characters were all over the place to the point where they don't look like they even belong in the same world as each other. Heck Smash Bros. is a game created of characters from separate worlds and they feel far more cohesive and of the same world than League does. I choose WoW easy.

 

[botossi]

LoL does have charismatic heroes and a really unexplored history, if I had to pick due diversity and expansion potential, would be LoL

 

[xeroborn55]

I played both games for probably similar amounts of time, hours upon hours. LoL in a landslide. Even now, ~4 years since i last played a LoL game I could probably name at least half the characters off the top of my head. They are just way more memorable than the nothingness of WoW's characters.

 

[Shoichi]

The characters in WoW are fun because they range from lore that Blizzard created through many decades where all the characters involve one another. If only they didn't keep killing off their best lore characters every expansion...with LoL I really don't get that same sense of cohesion

 

[Ashilyn]

If Riot would do more to openly explore League's lore and history instead of shunting it into short stories that most people don't get to see, I honestly think they would win this by a landslide. I love Blizzard, and I've loved WoW for more than 20 years, but there's something really attractive about Runeterra and the multiverse Riot has built since the lore refresh a few years back.

It just feels like they do next to nothing with it.

I know they just put out a lore book of sorts, but I really think they need to start flexing that content a lot more, and finding better ways to integrate it into their game(s!).

 

[Death Penalty]

League of Legends backstory, as it stands, is useless fluff that isn't used in the game and is basically concocted to sell characters/skins. WoW's current storytelling state is abysmal and it still wins this by a landslide.

 

[Deleted member 13645]

Warcraft 3/early WoW characters for me, but after they killed off a bunch or butchered them with Blizzard's poor writing: League of Legends

If Riot would do more to openly explore League's lore and history instead of shunting it into short stories that most people don't get to see, I honestly think they would win this by a landslide. I love Blizzard, and I've loved WoW for more than 20 years, but there's something really attractive about Runeterra and the multiverse Riot has built since the lore refresh a few years back.

It just feels like they do next to nothing with it.

I know they just put out a lore book of sorts, but I really think they need to start flexing that content a lot more, and finding better ways to integrate it into their game(s!).

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That new animated series they have coming looks fantastic



God I want to explore that world so much. It's so neat.

 

[Arebours]

LoL/Riot has the worst kind of deviant art aesthetic.

 

[DeusOcha]

Blizzard due to a more limited roster and reoccur through the story. But don't believe for one second Blizzard cares for storytelling cohesion. They are similar to Riot in being beholden to the "Rule of Cool" philosophy with consistent retcons over the past 3-4 xpacs.

 

[Finaj]

While WoW's main storylines have been anywhere from "this is pretty decent" to "this is fucking abysmal," a lot of side stories and zone questlines have granted us with numerous interesting characters.

Most notably in BfA, we were given Zandalari King Rastakhan, Princess Talanji, Taelia Fordragon, Flynn, Jani the Troll God of Garbage, etc.

Jaina's story of reconnecting with her mother (Katherine Proudmoore) is genuinely really good.

Also it gave us Bwonsamdi, who is just the best.

 

[Deleted member 15395]

League's characters are as generic as they come. Ironically, some of them had more personality when they came out than after the big lore retcon-update (like Katarina). WoW may not have the best overall narrative but it's got lots of interesting characters.

 

[HK-47]

Neither are memorable

 

[xch1n]

LoL/Riot has the worst kind of deviant art aesthetic.

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I have no idea what this means, but if it's an insult, that's pretty lame and low. There are a ton of talented people who post their art on deviant art, and the artwork in League, especially in recent champion and rework stuff, is excellent.

 

[Ferrio]

WoW, but only because it's a series that was built off of 3 games + a huge mmo. League being just a single Moba doesn't give it much room to explore it's characters.

 

[Watchtower]

Voted for WoW because of the stronger sense of a lengthy continuity of characters and events, regardless of how shaky that's been.

LoL's lore has been fully rebooted at least twice and IMO it's always going to suffer relatively because of that. Say what you will about the original lore, it at least thinly justified having this anachronistic hodgepodge to play with and build up. It's taken years to hammer out Runeterra into a cohesive whole but that doesn't shake off the fact that it was never initially designed to be such.

 

[Syril]

I used to really like LoL's fluff when they did that in-universe newsletter that did interviews with the characters and wasn't taking itself so seriously.

 

[BackwardCap]

LoL has a way more diverse and interesting roster of characters. WoW's cast all look the same but that's mostly intentional.

 

[boy power]

For LoL even trying to be somewhat diverse, I'll choose LoL.

 

[Wulfric]

The WoW cast is certainly more memorable. It's like a family drama/soap opera. Characters like Arthas and Illidan are pretty much iconic at this point.

LoL characters are flashy but you can't really learn about them inside the games.

 

[Ashilyn]

Warcraft 3/early WoW characters for me, but after they killed off a bunch or butchered them with Blizzard's poor writing: League of Legends



That new animated series they have coming looks fantastic



God I want to explore that world so much. It's so neat.

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Lord, I already forgot about the animated series. I'm so hype to explore Piltover more in that.

 

[Artdayne]

I'd probably favor LOL honestly, both games are probably my most played and I just like the diversity of characters in League.

 

[VirtualCloud]

Warcraft easily. Can I name league characters? Sure can, do I know any of their back stories? Nope and since they arent in game I dont care to find out.

 

[Lumination]

League is a hodgepodge of characters, lore (quality and otherwise), and locations. There are decent vignettes in a vacuum, but I can't help but roll my eyes when people try to take it seriously. Even though I can name 30x more League characters than WoW, it's not even close.