League of Legends players are known for sometimes taking the game a bit too seriously. For many summoners, observing wildlife such as frogs, dragonflies, and the elusive “cute” duck sighted in the PBE is an annoyance that distracts from playing the game. Well, Riot continues to show that they put people first, adding a new menu option that will allow players to hide “eye candy” while playing.
“Recently we added an option to the Game tab in the menu called, “Hide Eye Candy”. Some of our more competitive players requested the the option to hide some of the less subtle movement on Summoner’s Rift. We added the option to disable things like butterflies, dragonflies and the water wakes to help competitive players focus on what they care about, the gameplay.
The next PBE deploy should have the hook-ups enabled. Let us know if we missed anything that should’ve been added and if you have any other feedback regarding this new option.“
“It should have a slight impact on performance,” they added. “But honestly not enough that it’s worth toggling on for that. Setting your video quality to the lower settings will make a much bigger difference than this toggle.”
Some comments managed to bring up some salient points regarding competitive sports having stadiums full of fans, often being distracting for player. Riot defended, “As a video game, we’re not bound by the same set of problems and if we can improve competitive integrity by making an easy change like this, I believe we should.”
And for anyone who is primarily concerned about the “cute” duck but would otherwise like to hide eye candy, Riot recently edited: Only ambient critters that persist after 1:55 will be disabled by this option. You can continue to perfect the dark ritual necessary to spawn the Duck.
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Nevertheless, this small but considerate change illustrates how committed Riot Games is to improving the player experience. While many will see this as a pointless move to appease the minority, it shows how Riot Games will do just about anything to insure that its customers are happy.
What do you think of the changes? Will you be hiding the eye candy? Have you seen the cute duck? Let us know in the comments below!
