IronStylus sharing more thoughts on the Sivir visual update.

Continue reading for a few posts with IronStylus discussing sharing tentative plans with the community, delivering on expectations, and more!

To get the ball rolling, a summoner asked if there would ever be a chance for players to preview and share opinions on upcoming, major champion changes as they are coming down the pipeline. He cited Trundle changing from a Jungle troll to a Ice Troll with a totally new story as an example of something he didn't like and thought could be improved on.

Here is IronStylus sharing his stance on the matter and the problems created by running such things out the community early.

"This is pretty unlikely to happen. Things can always change. Things do always change. This comes back to setting expectations again. We don't want to put out something and have everyone become attached to it and then incur wrath when we have to change it for an emergent reason. 

If I do something like.. "We made Sivir a pirate because she's now from Bildgewater! *boom, concept*" some, or a lot, of people might really fall in love with that. Then let's say, oh snap, we think she's actually a better fit in Demacia, well then ****. We just pissed off everyone who was in love with Bilgewater Sivir.

The forums aren't necessarily the best way to get opinions on stuff that's in production. We run internal labs and give surveys for that, showing players who have attachment, our planned changes. We then do... science... to get actionable data. Davin is the expert on this. He works with a lot of content creators to vet characters through channels that we can extrapolate meaningful data from.

Additionally, we're dealing with a ton of feedback through directed channels, internal review, and bringing in external data. Those are systems we can more easily and effectively cultivate, rather than a poll on the forums which only a small fraction of the player base is going to be exposed to. When we seek targeted data, when we review heavily internally with key people, and when we let teams iterate, work together, and execute, we get a manageable development. 

Believe me, there's nothing I like more than showing off art. There's tons of stuff we want to show because we're excited about. But simply throwing it out into the ether doesn't serve the purpose of effective discourse, targeted analysis, or provide conducive channels of feedback.

The discussions here are great for brainstorming, theorycrafting and inspiration. I personally get a lot of that on the forums, it's why I show up. But we have to take a more targeted approach when we pass our art through the vetting process. We need some standards of control in order to get info we can effectively act on."

He reiterated that point, saying:

"We've been bitten by being to assertive with promises and premature feature reveal talk in the past. We have to be cautious. We don't want to make a promise for something we can't deliver on."

In response to a few summoners discussing how they hope Sivir retains her bikini top look, IronStylus shared his thoughts on Sivir's attire.

"Here's the thing. I'm fine with cleavage, bustiness, whatever. But when you have so little space to work with in terms of visual storytelling like we do with Sivir, retaining a bikini top isn't as potentially impactful as clothing, decoration, or just some other cool form to create visual interest and give the character some life other than just a tabard, gauntlets, bikini top and boots. 

We always have opportunities to strip down, tear open, expose, pump up, or otherwise put emphasis on the female chest.

I get it. I really do. I think Eve is perfect to have overwhelming assets. I think it's great that Miss Fortune is a bombshell. I'm alright with Zyra being only covered up with leaves. Those are things that have some relevancy, even if only fleeting, to their character, or how their character is perceived.

With Sivir we have so many opportunities to make her into what people know her as but is currently not delivered in her current visual state. We can deliver on a fantasy that's holistic and compelling. We can make something out of pretty much nothing. And we can still make her really sexy and really powerful

I'd rather us not be held back creatively just to retain mere pixels of uncovered chest real estate."

When asked if he could elaborate on plans to make Sivir's weapon more prominent and unique, Ironstylus commented:

"I think we can make it something very rich in terms of lore. But I'm absolutely not ready to elaborate on that yet!"

He continued:

"The thing is so damn big, it should hold more significance than, "Ey, it's my weapon of choice!" Also, it's screaming to hold some sort of significance other than "Ey, I'm Sivir's weapon of choice!" It's a lot of real estate that could be used to tell a story."

Lastly, he also reminded us that each skin will be updated.

"All the skins will get a pass on them. We're currently re-concepting the skins. It's the same pass that Nidalee, Annie and all the others got."