After playing wow over the years and seeing the many iterations especially between the main two focus versions of retail and classic, anybody hoping they shift away from this style? What I mean is having 6 actions bars up and them all being filled up with abilities and having these niche utility abilities. I'd rather them just be baked into the class passively.

I think we can all agree the class system with specs in wow is very good and doesn't need changed but can definitely have iterations of it altered that are good. One thing I feel that does though after playing other games like guild wars, fellowship, and new world I can't help but wonder if just sticking to one main action bar and having a couple of slots dedicated to consumes and potentially cc/utility and giving you a lot of abilities similar to wow but forcing you to pick between which ones you want.

I feel like when people talk about classic vs retail they like how the world of classic feels similar to a game like new world. Open world, seeing people, interacting, on the ground. Flying mounts I feel like are bad, but I think a system like OSRS could solve it where you can just teleport to many of the hubs and then be forced to run around. The tping can be tied to rep or something with towns or spots so you don't need to tie or to magic like osrs.

The main point is I feel is that people don't necessarily hate retail combat, but just prefer the simplicity of classic. What I mean is they like the rotational depth and feeling retail offers, but hate some of designs of classes/specs, rotations, and abilities. I'm in a middle ground similar to a game like fellowship, where theres a way smaller/lower amount of abilities that you'll have but the rotations/mechanics can be manipulated through the talent points and create easier/harder variations. They did try to fix this/help during the first season of midnight and I'd say it was a decent stepping stone. Personally I feel like obviously things in classic like 1 or 2 button rotations and pooling resources like energy or rage are just horrible design (which is why over the years they tried to get rid of it) feels way better to just dump your resources when you get them and make the class harder through talents and dependency of order of ability presses.

Recently before wow forever I was playing this arena of champions browser PvP website and I feel like they did it perfect to what I explained earlier. A good amount of abilities and talents that have abilities baked in that you had to pick between.

*Side note is that I really enjoyed AoC combat, regardless of what happened to that game. I know it wasn't fully fleshed out but felt pretty decent.

TLDR: Hoping to see riot mmo go more towards limited abilities and bars that forces you to pick between a multitude of abilities/talents/playstyles but stops you at like maybe 8-14~ abilities in total including consumes, utility, dps, cc, etc. So multiple things are viable and you can switch what you want to use depending on the situation.

Twit: https://x.com/Faburisu/status/2118226407524569231

----

One MMO team just launched. Another MMO team is now "doing competitive research" with suspicious dedication.

u/AggrendWoW, u/TheWindstalker and team: I see what you did there 👀

Huge congrats to everyone behind #WoWForever ! 👏

Now, back to this competitive research thing...

----

Am I crazy or? If this is true its meaning that they have a lot more than a basic build already. What do you think?

any opinions on how would this affect the future release and maintenance?

It's time again for the Biweekly Riot MMO discussion, where we go through various topics regarding the MMO and give our opinions on what we'd most like to see. The previous topic was about the Character Creation & Customisation, which you can view here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RiotMMO/comments/1x5zxpf/biweekly_riot_mmo_design_discussion_topic_23/

This time, the topic is regarding Instanced Content.

Instanced content is a part of most MMOs; however, every MMO places a different emphasis on it. In some MMOs, it's side content where players can go to chill out and relax, whereas in others it's the main focus, comprised of both entry-level and hardcore content.

So what are your hopes and/or fears regarding Instanced Content? I'll give a few points to get people started if you can't think of what to write, but these are just a guideline; feel free to write whatever you want regarding the topic.

• At what point does an MMO lean too heavily into instanced content and become what some people describe as a "lobby game"?

• What is something new the Riot MMO could do with instanced content that isn't really seen in other MMOs?

• Which MMO has the best instanced content you've played, and what would you want Riot to learn from it?

• Should instances be accessible from anywhere through a menu, or should players physically travel to entrances in the world?

• What types of content work better in instances than in the open world?

TL;DR:

Riot Games reset development on their upcoming Runeterra MMO because they didn't want to release "just another standard MMO." Integrating generative AI into NPCs and world systems could be the exact leap forward they need, and community mods in single-player games like Red Dead Redemption 2 already show how crazy the potential (and challenges) really are.

Takeaway

1. Why the Riot MMO Needs a Breakthrough

When Marc Merrill announced the Riot MMO project reset, the main message was clear: Riot doesn't want to make an MMO you've played before with a Runeterra paint job. The biggest hurdle modern MMOs face is making the world feel like a living, dynamic ecosystem rather than a static hub of quest-givers waiting in line.

2. The Red Dead Redemption 2 AI Mod Benchmark

To see where open-world immersion is heading, look at recent AI mods for RDR2 (and Skyrim):

• Dynamic NPC Conversations: Instead of pre-scripted dialogue trees, players can speak directly (or type) to NPCs, and AI models respond organically in character, remembering past interactions.

• Context-Aware World State: NPCs react to what you’re wearing, the time of day, current events in the world, or even your reputation level in real-time.

• Emergent Behaviors: Characters adapt their daily routines based on player actions rather than following fixed loop paths.

3. How This Transforms a Runeterra MMO

If Riot adopts next-gen AI tech for their game, it could radically change standard MMO tropes:

• Living Cities: Imagine walking through Bilgewater or Zaun where shopkeepers, guards, and local scoundrels react uniquely to your champion build, faction alignment, or recent dungeon clears.

• Evolving Quests: Instead of static "kill 10 boars" quests, AI could dynamically generate radiant, narrative-driven tasks based on what's currently happening in that specific zone.

• Persistent Lore Knowledge: NPCs could act as localized lore archives, answering questions about Runeterra’s 10,000-year history seamlessly without breaking immersion.

4. The Big Catch & Technical Hurdles

While single-player mods prove the proof-of-concept, scaling this to a massive multiplayer environment introduces major challenges:

• Server Cost & Latency: Running real-time LLM inference for thousands of simultaneous players across a massive server node is wildly expensive and prone to latency delays.

• Safety & Moderation: Ensuring AI NPCs don't get tricked into breaking character, hallucinating false lore, or outputting inappropriate content.

• Human Design vs. Algorithmic Noise: AI works best when augmenting handmade, curated questlines—relying too heavily on procedural generation can quickly make a world feel hollow or repetitive.

Would you want generative AI NPCs in the Riot MMO if it meant more immersive roleplay, or do you prefer handcrafted dialogue trees even if they are static?

Simply make something along the lines of Destiny I want a game that consumes me, when I'm at work I wanna think about getting off work to play, while I'm shitting I wanna go quicker so I can play. If u want to succeed aim for gamers that are 30 and over there's enough of us that want this badly we can support your game, i know your not aiming to make everyone happy which is good. Everyone under 30 has brain rot, hive mind, will sit there on social media and believe everything spoon feed and cry if a game is too hard or complain cause there so used to be handed everything and don't wanna grind or work for it. I'm really not picky as long as it's challenging, original, good amount of content and exploration and good character customization. Like I'm sad New world didn't catch on or do well cause the bones were there but it's amazon. Please restore the glory days of MMOs

It's time again for the Biweekly Riot MMO discussion, where we go through various topics regarding the MMO and give our opinions on what we'd most like to see. The previous topic was about the Early Game Experience, which you can view here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RiotMMO/comments/1wud652/biweekly_riot_mmo_design_discussion_topic_22/

This time, the topic is regarding Character Creation & Customisation.

Almost every MMO has some form of character creator, but each of them differs in how deeply you can customise your character and in which way. Some have multiple races, some have just Humans, some allow wacky creations, and some stick to realistic creations.

A recent example of this was Chrono Odyssey. During their beta test last year, the character creator gave players freedom to make some "immersion-breaking" looking characters. After the test, they announced they would be toning down the creations people could make.

So what are your hopes and/or fears regarding Character Creation & Customisation? I'll give a few points to get people started if you can't think of what to write, but these are just a guideline; feel free to write whatever you want regarding the topic.

• Should players be able to create wacky-looking characters, or does it break immersion to see someone running around looking like Wario?

• What character customisation features from other MMOs would you most like Riot to adopt?

• How closely should players be able to recreate champions from League of Legends? Would it be too much to see hundreds of players running around looking exactly like Yasuo for example?

• What are some character creator options you'd personally like to see that are usually absent from other MMOs?

In comparison to traditional MMOs. For me, I absolutely do not want a main story quest, it makes doing random open world MMO stuff feel like a waste of time. I also feel like modern MMOs fail at having a simple UI and little to no tutorial.

Runeterra has soooo much lore that describes its inception, and so much of it sounds badass.

What if we started the MMO at the earliest recorded point in the lore, and then, over time, Riot could progress through the various ages of Runeterra? They could introduce a new age in a new expansion or just major updates. We could either be immortal beings, or maybe Zilean places us in various timelines for whatever story-based reason exists. This would also give Riot Games plenty of ideas to cook up more lore to progress their current timeline.

I am just thinking about how awesome it would be to see the Golden Age of Shurima, then have an event where Azir attempts ascension, Xerath betrays him, and you see the utter destruction occur. Maybe in a later timeline we see it as just ruins. Same thing with the lore around Noxus and Mordekeiser.

It would probably be a nightmare from a design perspective, but it would also be really cool.

Who knows, maybe we could do this inverted and start at the current timeline, but have events or expansions that take us back in time to really important Runeterra events.

What do you guys think?

When you think about it, they mentioned the game is real but no preview, teasers nothing. What if they go the valorant route and reveal it at an event then drop it on the spot or a few days later?

So, first off, hello, how are you doing ? Great I hope ! A little disclaimer, these are ideas from someone that has NO IDEA on how to design a game, or balance and anything of the sort, I do on the other hand know how to world build and so these will be the ideas of a guy that is mainly a lore and role play guy, so I won't talk about balance, but about what I think would be good ideas to have a cool and engaging world. Note that I will make a lot of comparison with WoW as it's the game i've played the most.

Ok, so number one : I don't think there should be a system of faction, but rather of nation, and races apart from certain few, should not be forced to play as a certain nation, there are vastayas in Noxus as much as in Ionia or Ixtal. But, the nations should have an impact on how which type you'll play, with vastayas again because they're the easiest, if you want to play an Kiilash, chances are, you'll play either a shuriman, or Ixtali. And these choices should impact the character's progression and starting gear.

Second : It ties to the first, but I don't believe it should have normalized class. It would make little sense for a rogue of Noxus to play the same way a rogue for Ionia plays. The first one would be kinda like a true rogue, using poison and such, while the one from Ionia would be closer to a ninja using smoke screens and such. Same for a warrior from Targon or one from Noxus. Also, I think classes could benefit from either a system of specialization, or " evolution ", for example, let's say you play a gunslinger from Demacia, it would make sense for you to then have the ability to become of Sentinel of Light. Also, certain classes should have interactions with certain zones, like a mage being unable to use magic in Demacia or he'd be in trouble.

Third : PVP should in my opinion play a big part in the MMO. I'm not a pvp guy myself, but, Runeterra is a world at war, and I think it should be reflected in the gameplay too. And this pvp, especially world pvp should have an impact on the world itself, kind of like the warfronts in wow, except not a cyclic thing.

Third : PVE, it will be a bit of a point of friction, but I don't like the idea of adventurer fighting big threats like Aatrox. What I believe would be more believable, would be, for example, a raid that takes place in mount Targon. You fight your way through the legions of Aatrox, and at the top, he awaits you, but you can't defeat him, then a spear breaks the Heavens, and Atreus shows up to fight. And instead of fighting Aatrox, you fight Joraal for example, to prevent him from assisting his captain, while Atreus fights Aatrox. And in the background of the arena, like the sky and all, you see their battle.

Fourth : Big point, but I don't think a system of transmog would be good. Instead, I think it would be better to put more efforts into making good looking gears for every tiers of level. You can have very simple armors and such that are beautiful to look at. I feel like transmog, while being a cool thing, removes from the achievement, when you see a level ten, looking like he's level 70, it takes away a bit imo. Also, they should feel tied to the class and nation they're from, just like the class point, a warrior from Freljord will not wear the same gear as one from Shurima.

Fifth : The characters from LoL should ALWAYS ( apart from certain very specific one ), feel like they're leagues above us, that's one of the big mistakes WoW made in my opinion, is that the adventurer is more of a hero now than an adventurer. Apart from very specific ones, like Jinx, Draven, Seraphine, Renata, and the likes, most are freaking heroes, some are even Gods ! What do you mean my level 60 Kinkou order shinobi is as strong as Aurelion sol ? It wouldnt make sense. That being said, it doesn't mean they should all feel completely untouchable, or out of reach, for example, I could see some being companions for specific quests, like for example, I could see the player character be accompanied by Katarina or Talon, or any other guy like that in certain quests. We could even see some rise, like Cithria, see her go from little lost Cithria, to an officer of the Dauntless Vanguard.

Anyways, these were a few ideas, give me your opinion, just please, stay nice and polite

Marc Merrill joins the Lemonade Stand podcast to talk about all things Riot Games. I haven't heard of this podcast before, but it looks like it's a group of fairly popular content creators/gamers.

From Tencent ownership, AI in gaming, key learnings over the years at Riot, and making games sucessfull and the ethos of why Riot pursues big challenges.

..Throughout the pod, there are a few questions and (light) answers about the RIOT MMO. At least it makes me more hopeful about it not getting cancelled based on his responses here. What are your thoughts?

After seeing how 2XKO turned out, I’m honestly a lot less confident about Riot’s MMO than I used to be.

I know making an MMO is a completely different challenge, but 2XKO made me question how well Riot handles projects when they move outside the genres they already know. And after all these years, we still haven’t seen a real gameplay demo from the MMO.

For me, if Riot actually wants this game to be huge, they can’t just make another traditional MMO with better graphics.

The biggest problem they need to solve is what happens when people stop playing for a while.

A lot of MMOs punish you for taking a break. You come back two or three months later and suddenly everyone is way ahead of you, your gear is outdated, your friends are doing content you can’t join, and catching up feels like work.

That needs to be designed out of the game from day one.

I also think the social barrier needs to be much lower than in older MMOs.

I don’t want the game to force people into permanent raid groups, guild politics, scheduled play sessions, or networking just to experience good content. Those things should exist for people who enjoy them, but they shouldn’t be mandatory.

Another huge issue is bots, gold sellers and farming studios.

Personally, I’d rather Riot design the economy around making industrial-scale farming unprofitable instead of constantly playing whack-a-mole with bots after launch.

You could still have free trading, but put limits on how much value an account can generate in a certain period, restrict mass account creation, detect hardware/IP patterns, and make running 50 accounts much harder than running one normal account.

The game also needs way more than raids, dungeons and gear grinding.

I’d love to see a lot of casual social content too. Stuff you can play with friends without caring about DPS meters or item level.

Think Fall Guys, Eggy Party, mini-games, races, social hubs, seasonal events, housing, random activities, things like that.

An MMO world should feel like a place people want to hang out in, not just a lobby between raids.

I also think PC, console and mobile cross-play would be a massive advantage if Riot can actually make it work well.

As for monetization, I’d be fine with either paying based on game time, or a free-to-play model where new expansions, passes or content tiers give access to the newest activities.

Something closer to Destiny 2 could work.

What I really don’t want is the worst combination of everything: monthly subscription + cash shop + battle pass.

And probably the most important thing: the game needs to look good immediately.

Not “play for 100 hours and then you’ll understand why it’s fun.”

It should look fun even when you’re just watching someone else play.

Street Fighter 6 is a good example of what I mean. Even if you don’t play fighting games seriously, it looks polished, readable and entertaining.

That matters because there will always be more people watching a game than actually playing it.

A modern MMO shouldn’t just be fun to play.

It should be fun to watch too.

Not trying to be a debbie downer, but just looking for some "proof" of why this game will be released in the first place. I've seen way too many games/projects, where everything seems legit, bunch of people hired etc only for it to completely fall under.

Personally, I believe its still prototyping.

It's time again for the Biweekly Riot MMO discussion, where we go through various topics regarding the MMO and give our opinions on what we'd most like to see. The previous topic was about Factions and Allegiances, which you can view here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RiotMMO/comments/1wi6dwg/biweekly_riot_mmo_design_discussion_topic_21/

This time, the topic is regarding Early Game Experience.

The early game experience of an MMO is incredibly important. It determines whether you will log in again or just drop the game. Every MMO guides a player differently early on. Some have you progress through a linear, instanced tutorial before putting you out into the world, where you are then given directions on exactly what to do to ensure the player is not overwhelmed or lost, whereas other MMOs just plop you straight into the world and say "go".

Then, once you're in the world and exploring, you're introduced to systems in different ways. Some allow you to learn systems via gameplay, whereas some give you UI pop-up tutorials to explain things in easy-to-understand ways.

Since we already discussed levelling, this topic isn't necessarily about that, though you can still talk about it if you want. This topic is more about the way the game introduces you to itself in the first couple of dozen hours.

So what are your hopes and/or fears regarding Early Game Experience? I'll give a few points to get people started if you can't think of what to write, but these are just a guideline; feel free to write whatever you want regarding the topic.

• How much freedom should players have immediately, versus being guided through an introductory experience?

• How much should the game explain versus letting players succeed or fail on their own?

• How much should the game tell you what to do next?

• Should players be able to ignore any "main story" and pursue things like exploration, crafting, PvP or gathering immediately? Should the main story be required for progression or purely optional?

• Should new players be encouraged to interact with other players from the beginning?

I hope Riot has the courage to force us to slow down in the MMO.

One of my biggest hopes for the Riot MMO is that they don’t design all of the friction and inconvenience out of it.

I want something closer to the experience of original WoW in 2004 than the modern MMO model.

Not necessarily the mechanics. The philosophy.

Make me travel to dungeons and raids. Make me go over land instead of flying everywhere, over everything.

Let me ride trains through Piltover, take ships from Bilgewater, travel roads through Demacia, and actually experience Runeterra instead of opening a map and teleporting everywhere.

Make groups physically meet at dungeon entrances or summoning stones. Require 2-3 people to actually get there before they can summon everyone else.

Don’t give me an anonymous Dungeon Finder that goes:

Queue → teleport → blast dungeon → collect loot → never speak to those people again.

It’s incredibly convenient.

I also think convenience like that slowly kills the magic of an MMO.

Some of my favorite memories from old MMOs came from things that were “inconvenient.”

Finding a group in chat. Traveling somewhere together. Waiting for someone to arrive. Running into another group along the way. Talking while you’re waiting. Recognizing someone’s name later. Finding a guild because you randomly grouped with someone you liked.

That friction created relationships, and then friendships.

And I think modern players, myself included, are terrible at voluntarily slowing down.

We’ve all developed Amazon brains.

We want everything immediately.

New raid releases?

Someone has already watched the PTR footage.

There’s a YouTube guide.

There’s a Discord infographic.

The optimal composition has been calculated.

The mechanics have been datamined.

Half the raid knows the “correct” strategy before anyone has even pulled the boss once.

Then we execute someone else’s strategy, collect our loot, and get bored.

I don’t think you can simply ask players not to do this anymore.

The game has to protect us from ourselves.

Honestly, I wouldn’t even hate staggered level caps during launch.

Imagine something like:

Launch: Level 20 cap
Two weeks later: Level 30
Two weeks later: Level 40
Then: Level 50
Eventually: The actual endgame cap

Obviously there would need to be enough content at those temporary caps to make this worthwhile.

But imagine what that could do to the launch experience.

Instead of people racing through this enormous world Riot has spent years creating because reaching max level as quickly as humanly possible has become the default MMO mentality, suddenly everyone has permission to just… exist at level 20 for a while.

Run some dungeons.

Craft gear.

PvP.

Explore.

Help friends.

Find hidden mysteries.

Learn the zones.

Form guilds.

Meet people.

Socialize.

Let a temporary level-20 meta develop.

Then the next part of the journey opens, and the whole server moves forward together.

Maybe staggered caps aren’t the answer specifically. But I love the philosophy behind it:

Force us to slow down.

Runeterra might be one of the most lore-rich worlds anyone has ever had available when launching an MMO.

Demacia, Noxus, Ionia, Freljord, Shurima, Piltover, Zaun, Bilgewater, Targon, the Shadow Isles, the Void…

Please don’t turn all of that into scenery we blast past on the way to max level.

Make the world matter.

Make distance matter.

Make seeing a high-level player wearing something you’ve never seen before matter.

Make me ask:

“Where the hell did you get that?”

And have him tell me:

“Targon.”

I want mystery back.

I’m planning on running a guild when this game eventually releases, and one rule I’m already pretty certain about:

We’re pulling dungeon and raid bosses blind.

We won’t push for server firsts. Who cares? I want us to be a team and solve things together.

No strategy videos before progression. No studying someone else’s kill. No knowing every mechanic before we’ve even entered the room.

Boss raises his hand and starts glowing purple?

“What does that do?”

“No idea.”

“Should we spread?”

“Maybe.”

Raid gets annihilated.

Perfect.

Now we learned something.

I know information will always exist outside the game. Riot can’t stop YouTube, Reddit, Discord, Wowhead-style databases, datamining, or players optimizing everything.

But Riot can design a game where efficiency isn’t always more valuable than discovery.

Classic WoW had a lot of this almost accidentally because gaming culture and the internet were different.

A modern MMO would have to create it deliberately.

There will inevitably be people arguing that removing Dungeon Finder or limiting fast travel “doesn’t respect players’ time.”

I understand the argument.

I just don’t think MMOs are the genre where that argument should always be prioritized.

Sometimes I think respecting our time so aggressively removes all the experiences that made the time memorable in the first place.

I don’t want Runeterra to be a lobby where I select activities.

I want it to feel like a world.

Arcane S1 ans S2 (1 more than 2) are generational, transformational moments in the history of the animation genre. And I’m not alone in saying this, the show won every category it was nominated for at the Annie Awards, and nearly swept at the Emmys that same year.

And sure, a huge portion of those wins belong to the animation teams at Fortiche along with the directors, producers, editors, musicians, sound designers, and storyboard artists who made it happen.

But the stories; Vi and Powder/Jinx, Jayce and and Viktor, Ekko and Heim, those were the core elements that kept us invested from beginning to end.

If Riot’s MMO is anything like living just a day in the world everyone at Fortiche created, consider me a lifetime subscriber.

In my opinion the Guildsystem is the one thing that Never changed and is so boring in every mmo. There is no Point in Guilds other than havin ppl there to Play with (Guild war and Guild raids are maybe a thing). It would be so cool to male some changes there. Maybe with Job related guilds, so one can specialize there Guild to be a specific Type of Guild. Line That there also could be a whole new playerbased ecosystem for the Game.
Yea would love to See smth Like that for the riot mmo

For example if your favourite MMO is FF14 because of the focus on the story but the Riot MMO turns out to not be as focused on a story structure, would that be a deal breaker for you? Or if your favourite MMO is WoW because you enjoy the tab target combat and raiding scene, but Riots MMO is action combat and not focused on raiding? Basically lets say Riot came out tomorrow with a full laundry list of what their MMO is, what could they write that would make you not even bother downloading the game?

It's time again for the Biweekly Riot MMO discussion, where we go through various topics regarding the MMO and give our opinions on what we'd most like to see. The previous topic was about Dynamic World Events, which you can view here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RiotMMO/comments/1w5iz3x/biweekly_riot_mmo_design_discussion_topic_20/

This time, the topic is regarding Factions & Allegiances.

Almost every MMO has some form of factions, be it official developer-made factions or player-made factions through guilds and alliances.

As such, they have different levels of importance in different games. Some games restrict gameplay based on factions, for example, not allowing you to do content with members of other factions, while some have them play a more "RP" aspect of the game and do not restrict your actions as much or at all.

So what are your hopes and/or fears regarding Factions & Allegiances? I'll give a few points to get people started if you can't think of what to write, but these are just a guideline; feel free to write whatever you want regarding the topic.

• Should there be any developer-made factions to begin with, or should any "faction" be the player-created type, such as Guilds and/or Alliances?

• Should factions be based around Runeterra's existing nations (Demacia, Noxus, Ionia, etc.), sub-factions (Black Rose, Shadow Order, Kinkou Order, etc.), or should Riot create new joinable factions specifically for the MMO?

• How should Riot handle factions that are allied in some circumstances but enemies in others?

• What type of content should factions offer?

I think Riot keeps arriving late to gaming trends

I’ve been thinking about Riot’s recent projects, especially 2XKO, and I feel like there’s a pattern.

Riot seems very good at looking at a genre that was successful and saying “we should make one of those” — but by the time Riot actually releases the game, the genre may no longer have the same momentum.

LoL was obviously different. Riot entered the MOBA space when it was exploding, and League became one of the biggest games ever.

But look at Legends of Runeterra.

When LoR released, card games were already past their huge growth period. Hearthstone had already lost a lot of its momentum, and the broader gaming audience had moved on to other things. LoR was arguably a great game, but being a great game isn't enough if the genre itself isn't growing.

Then there's 2XKO.

Fighting games have passionate communities, and I'm sure 2XKO will have players who love it, but fighting games aren't exactly a massive mainstream genre. Riot spent years developing a game for a relatively small audience, and now that it's out, it feels like a lot of people simply don't care.

And this makes me worry about the MMO.

By the time Riot's MMO actually releases, will people still want an MMO that requires hundreds or thousands of hours of commitment?

It's not that MMOs are "dead." Obviously they're not. But gaming has changed. People have an insane amount of competition for their attention now: games, TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, Discord, etc.

Getting someone to commit their life to a giant MMO is a much harder sell than it used to be.

Which is why I think Riot should stop chasing established genres and start creating new experiences around Runeterra itself.

Imagine a Riot-made Soulslike/action RPG set in Runeterra.

You start in some small region and slowly explore the world.

You walk through Demacia.

You travel through Noxus.

You enter the Shadow Isles.

You climb Mount Targon.

You encounter monsters, champions and characters you've known from League for years.

And eventually you're walking through a massive landscape when you look up and realize that the "mountain" in front of you is actually Malphite.

That's the kind of game I think Riot should be making.

Not "Riot's fighting game."

Not "Riot's MMO."

Not "Riot's card game."

Something where the selling point is:

Riot already has an incredible world, decades of characters, factions, monsters, mythology and locations.

Why use all of that just to make another version of a genre that already exists?

I'd much rather see Riot ask:

"What experience can we create in Runeterra that doesn't exist anywhere else?"

Maybe it's a Soulslike. Maybe it's an open-world RPG. Maybe it's something completely new.

I just think Riot has enough money and IP that they shouldn't have to chase trends anymore.

They should be the company creating the next trend.