It must be strange, for those on the outside, to see just how passionately lane-pushing fans care about seemingly the smallest changes to the games they love. Simple tweaks, buffs and balance changes can cause wild, uncontrollable forum fury. When Riot do finally release the new Summoner's Rift, I'm expecting the streets to fill with angry protesters in Pentakill t-shirts.
In patch 4.12, League of Legends received jungle timers—an easy way for players to check the spawn time on certain jungling monsters. In a new "Patch Rundown" video, some of Riot's development team try to reassure Evil Geniuses' Snoopeh that there is, in fact, any point to this whatsoever.
It's quite nice to see a pros and developers talk (reasonably) candidly about changes—albeit in the controlled environment of a Riot-produced video. Hopefully we'll soon reach the natural conclusion of the idea: developers and gamers face off in underground Fight Clubs, asking slightly pissy questions about a patch's change list while kicking each other in the shins.
Where that video not enough for you, you can find a full 4.12 run-down on LoL's blog .
