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A Riot Games MMORPG based off of League of Legends - Yes or No?

Soft Dad·12/2/2016, 6:57:00 AM·44 votes·13,321 views

Why?

With the most recent reveal of what Valoran's map looks like ( http://oce.leagueoflegends.com/en/featured/piltover/medarda-heirloom ), there is strong grounding for possible development / planning for a story for a future MMORPG game from Riot. That is, if they chose to go about making one, which of course would be costly and take a lot of time. When a friend of mine initially sent me the link to the map, we immediately hit off a conversation revolving around "What if?"

We know Riot had previously come out with their board game 'Mechs vs. Minions', and I'm certain that they put a lot of time and effort into making it. But from my perspective, I don't think something like that is what their players want. However, I can only speak for myself and a few other close friends, and we all agree that what we want most from Riot Games right now is story. Many players have been apart of the League community for years, myself included. I won't deny we've been given some great content involving the story, with the recent update involving Bilgewater and the four primary champions, Gangplank, Miss Fortune, Graves, and Twisted Fate. ( http://euw.leagueoflegends.com/en/site/bilgewater/#story-1 )

However, I'm rather confident that many players and members of the community aren't just looking for a character vs. character slaughter fest to ultimately destroy the nexus for no apparent reason. We want to know why these characters have banded together to go against the enemy, and why are they looking to destroy the nexus anyway? There really isn't any story as to why these characters are doing what they're doing in the world of LoL after they removed the old lore, which is a little disappointing when so many of Riot's characters have amazing backgrounds to them. I know Riot has the talent to make some breathtaking stories beyond these characters, as evident in the Bilgewater lore update. It's all a matter of would they actually do it? Now, I understand that LoL is a MOBA style game, and that's exactly why I'm suggesting the idea of an actual RPG.

Enough of the initial discussion, I really want to broaden the spectrum and talk about the small ideas that my friend and I shared with each other involving the actual possibility of an MMORPG style game, if it were to exist.

A Riot MMORPG

To begin with this, I will mention that all of these ideas were made between my friend and I babbling on, and I will be using this as a way to flesh them out a little bit. What she and I mainly discussed were secluded plots / classes, specifically made for a particular race. Thus, what if we were able to play a multitude of races across Valoran? Not only that, but what if we could specify our nationality, beliefs, and origins? If you take a look at the new map, you can see numerous settlements all under previously unknown names, and a lot of them under either Noxian or Shuriman rule. Quite a few of them are Shuriman-turned-Noxian settlements, so we could even have an escapee backstory, of a Shuriman man/woman running away from a Noxian assault.

There is room for quite a lot of possibilities, but first I want to explain my perspective on character specifications.

  1. Race

Players would have the clear option between being Human or Yordle, and perhaps even obscure races like Malzahar, Elise, Nami, Volibear, Orianna, and Maokai. With the selection of certain races, you would obviously be limited on what country origin you would be able to have. To give an example, if you were to choose Ursine, you would naturally be from the Freljord.

  1. Origin

This one should be rather clear, as what race or origin you pick would eliminate anything that those specific paths cannot choose. I do have a small lineup of what nations would be race specific.

  • Piltover - Mechanical
  • Freljord - Ursine
  • Kumungu - Treefolk, creatures like Rengar and Nidalee.
  • Bilgewater - Marai, creatures like Fizz.
  • Shadow Isles - Undead
  • The Void - Void creatures, most likely limited to humanoid shapes.
  • Shuriman - Ascendant, people like Sivir.
  1. Classes and Backgrounds

While the usual classes like Warrior, Mage, Rogue, etc., would be common across the board, I feel that there would be origin specific classes as well. I do not have any specific list compiled together, but an example I'd like to give is something along the lines of Pirate for Bilgewater, or a Soul Mage, for the Shadow Isles. I believe something like this would be great to implement into a League based MMO. Another thing I find that would be interesting if added, would be the option to pick where your character lies on the Alignment Spectrum of Good, Neutral, and Evil. This would most likely play a huge role on what story arc your character would go on.

A Good Story

Since I don't exactly work as a Riot employee, or am anything close to a professional writer or game developer, I don't have too much to share involving this. I can only personally provide possibilities and what I feel would be a great addition to further expand on this idea. To start off, there would clearly be a main story arc that every player goes through, whether it would be minor or major in terms of the entire game. Each race, background, and origin, would have their own specific chunks that further guides the primary story along, to provide a truly customized and personal story for you and your character. Everyone strives to be unique, so a plot line of "You're the Chosen One!" is just plain tasteless and boring at this point.

Another big thing I'd like to share is the possibility of being able to meet the in-game champions, either through story or as NPC's you meet along the way. They could either be helping you along on your journey, or are wanting your assistance as hired help. I find the idea of having a few specific champions who are all associated with each other interacting with you and guiding you along the primary plot to be very appealing. A quick example would be a Demacian character working under Garen, through him you meet Lux, Jarvan the Fourth, and Xin Zhao. As for en route side quests, you could meet champions like Yasuo in Ionia, looking for some quick help, or Rengar wanting some help setting up traps.

To go along with interacting with champions throughout your story, perhaps every champion could have their own specific side story, where you as a player are able to choose which to help and further befriend. I believe that this could be a great way to further develop Riot's characters as a whole. It would also be a good idea to limit a character to perhaps 2 or 3 champions they are able to befriend and aid, as to mirror the Champion's wiki and their own list of friends. In turn, befriending a specific champion will immediately align your character as an enemy to another.

This would be my own opinion, but I find the idea of even being able to romance a specific champion to be very applicable, and it would definitely make headway in providing enjoyment in a plethora of players and their own game preferences. Though, I do not think anything above the rating of PG-13 would be appropriate in terms of what's available in the romance stories. And if Riot were to actually do this, another good idea would be to make all champions romanceable without restriction, other than race and origin, for both champion and player character. (Basically, putting a human champion or void champion with a yordle character wouldn't be the best course of action.)

Conclusion

I really feel as though a MMORPG style game is definitely something within Riot Games' reach, and I would like to get this suggestion out there for many people to see and consider. I know many players of League would seriously be interested in an online RPG game from Riot, myself included. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs] Thanks for reading! TL;DR: Thoughts on a MMORPG style game for the LoL Franchise?

30 Comments

Leo102412/2/2016, 9:26:13 PM22 votes

For any Rioter reading this, I would be ok if unlike League, this wasn't free to play, i'd buy the hell out of this

Sailor Miku12/2/2016, 11:14:17 PM7 votes

I actually had the same train of thought as well; Riot could potentially gather more people with an MMO styled game, where the focus is on community, lore, and overall story development.

For a cohesive MMO story, you need to essentially have the player character fulfill an important role in its development in-game, after an intro depicting something pre-game time-wise. My idea, personally, was called LMAO: Legends Manifest - Ascendant's Order, depicting Azir as the main catalyst for the events that follow.

(The following is my MMO idea)

Azir, after unifying Shurima after a few years, decides to expand his empire. However, a good ruler knows that one cannot just openly conquer another's land without information, so he hails himself as a delegate of Shurima, and travels all of Runeterra over the span of several years (leaving Nasus/Sivir in charge in the meantime).

He travels to the different lands, learning the ways and cultures of the various peoples - from the strict discipline native to Demacia, to the displays of strength shown in Noxus, from the political atmosphere and technological development of Piltover/Zaun to the immense depth of culture in Ionia, he experiences it all. Over time, his vision of conquest is gradually changed, and instead it becomes a vision of unification - a world where all the people are united together for the bettering of each other, where they may still retain their individuality and diversity of self-expression, but act as a single cohesive unit when the need arose.

Returning to Shurima, he devises a treaty - one for peace and unification. Demacia, Ionia, and Piltover accept. Noxus, Zaun, Bilgewater, and the Shadow Isles do not, while the Freljord and Targon remain neutral. Azir decides that a display of force is necessary, and does so by endeavoring to achieve the impossible - end the Harrowing.

Azir sets a course for the Shadow Isles, and the undead, forewarned, attempt to stop him. However, he musters his power, and raises the sands from the seabed to rise as colossi to attack the Isles. He eventually forces the undead to concede after a titanic battle in the heart of the Shadow Isles, where he raises an entire army of sand soldiers after Karthus uses his ultimate spell in an attempt to dispel them. Noxus, Zaun, Bilgewater, and the Freljord accept Azir's treaty (though with the Freljord, Azir promises equality of trade between the three tribes. Targon accepts soon after.

Azir establishes a base of operations in Shurima, which he calls the Manifest of Peace; it would be in this Manifest that representatives (the player) from each of Runeterra's nations are gathered and trained, before being deployed to other areas of the world to deal with the problems that no one else can handle (ranging anywhere from taking in a bounty on a highly dangerous criminal, to the hunting down of a Voidling).

The character creation process would entail first choosing a nation to represent. Upon choosing a nation, you are given a choice of race, though certain races are only available to certain nations (undead for Shadow Isles, Ursine for Freljord, etc.). After race, character class is chosen (assassin, mage, whatnot), and then character customization soon after.

Two different modes of PvP available. The MMO styled PvP involving one's character in a PvP queue, or activating a simulator involving iconic heroes and legends on an iconic map (aka jumping into the LoL client).

And, since people love customizing their character, I figured giving players the option of collecting armor styles under a styles tab would be pretty neat. And, for players with a LoL account, linking the LoL client with the LMAO client would allow players to migrate Champion skins over, allowing said Champion skins to become style assets for one's character, granting players the ability to mix and match armor pieces from various skins, and encourage creativity with their character's fashion sense.

Aaand that's pretty much it for my idea. Sorry if the summary was a tad long; got a little overly passionate.

YaSuwooEZ11/27/2017, 11:00:12 PM3 votes

I could totally imagine a questline where you have to track down and kill/capture Jhin due to mysterious deaths around Runeterra.

fioramaster500012/2/2016, 1:10:41 PM2 votes

YESSS, you make a character to become a "hero of runeterra" where the champions we know of are NPC's and class specialists for our hero

i've actually been thinking about an mmo in the world of runeterra for quite some time, it could be SO FUN

Darius Strada9/17/2017, 3:38:50 PM1 votes

WoW is very cool in terms of story. You're not the chosen one but you always help the main characters.

Incarnation699/25/2017, 4:21:57 PM1 votes

YESSSS PLEASE!!!!!! Ive been fantasizing about the same and at this point in time I think that Riot are the only ones capable of pulling of such a project and bring a "WoW 2.0" for us. It would be so amazing and has a lot of potential! Thing is they not only have the means to develop such a game but the audience aswell and more imporantaly the potential with the lore. I dont know to much about the lore as it is right now but with all the different fractions they could create an incredible world and game that a ton of people would be interested in. If u just think how Blizzard went from the strategy Warcraft series to an open world MMORPG I can just imagine how Riot can do the same thing, just 15 years later. They have so much room for a PvE and PvP MMORPG in a really amazing world. If they would do this for the love of the game Im 100% sure it would be a HUGGEEE success, since a lot of people are waiting for a game that can really soak them in. Just me imaginig all the different zones and races in a beautiful 3D world of a game that we all so love with to this point completely unknown lore and story makes me go wild :D The game industry needs a game like this since a lot of people are bored with most of the games and besides of all the competitive PvP games there is actualy not one single game where people come together in a completely new amazing world. PLEASE RIOT HEAR OUR CALLS!!!

Colgate Gator9/25/2017, 4:24:09 PM1 votes

I'd most likely play it, as long as it isn't a subscription-based game, because I hate these games.

Being realistic though, it's...an overwhelming task, one that would probably would need to be outsourced to a different, huge, and equally competent team, and that's only the tip of the iceberg.

ReaperOfTheLight10/11/2017, 6:10:58 AM1 votes

I had an idea that you could complete story quests to get existing abilities from league so you could like mix and match your own unique set of abilities and a passive. literally trillions of combinations available! [draven-pose]

Speculum Dianae11/20/2017, 11:24:13 AM1 votes

In my opinion an MMORPG in the world of League of Legends should be definitly a thing. The background lore ist quite fascinating, see Universe, and the possibilities would be nearly endless. For the skills: I'd like a system where you could create your own skills, maybe with a point system and "rarity" system of skills. An example. You reached lvl 5 and you are able to create your Q-Spell (just assuming a keysystem close to LOL). For a basic Q-Spell you have 5 points available. now you can choose the DMG-Type (AP or AD) and the amount of DMG it should doewith those points. e.g 1 point gives the spell 50 dmg 2 100, etc. Furthermore you can choose the range of the spell. (1 point low range 2 middle 3 high) --> resulting in either a low dmg spell with high range or a high dmg spell with low range. As you level you earn points (maybe every 3 levels 1 point) an now you could choose that you want to have more dmg on your q or more range or maybe you want an extra effect like a stun for 4 points. With this you could have nearly endless possibilities and all the "heroes" would really feel unique. Some passives or effects could be earned through quests. For example you end a quest for lux or morgana and it will grant you acces to give a spell the "snare"/"root", whatever effect. End a quest for garen and you are able to Silence".

That would be sth. I'd really like to see in an MMORPG. Have a lot more ideas, this is just one. whats your oponion to this system? Of course the balancing is another topic ;)

Dellley11/30/2017, 8:04:39 PM1 votes

And imagine if they had a pvp system that could work through the main league of legends client. Just playing summoners rift but as your personalized character with your own items in a specific queue for it.

OneBlueD3/3/2018, 5:51:59 AM1 votes

100% yes! I would pay a monthly subscription or a $60 tag price any day for it.

Armitige4/5/2018, 8:30:41 AM1 votes

I'd pay a monthly sub to play this MMO. Riot already has rich lore they could delve into, and plenty of key characters to flesh out cities. And imagine if you could take your character into a summoners rift style PvP battleground.

Wsapy Joestar7/24/2018, 5:09:28 PM1 votes

since i saw the first map i got so many ideas for an mmo league game cause they are already set lore wise and today they released an interactive map of Runeterra and its amazingly detailed only pushing the idea of an mmo for league even further like riot can ignore this anymore we need this in our lives and i know riot can pull this off quit nicely and hey they will earn the 's' in 'riot games'

Ezking157/25/2018, 9:37:05 AM1 votes

I reckon a single player RPG like Witcher 3 or Dragon Age Inquisition would be amazing.

LoliSloot7/25/2018, 2:53:12 PM1 votes

Just a warning though. This game has a massive diversity of ages and looks from as young as annie to as old as zilean from as normal as ashe to as strange as fizz. You would need to focus heavily on a character creator for a game like that, limited creation options i GARENTEE you will cost you a lot of players. Part of the appeal of league is playing a character that suits you. The creator also cannot take away from the game itself which would have to be action combat with real depth not some boring dodge this advertised spot and you take no damage type action but action where even lil things have some mechanical skill required to beat. The story cannot be affected by making the character creator but the battle system cannot be affected by the story and the character creator cannot be affected by either. All three of these things combined would be what would make a great game if you have to take up to an extra full year to make sure all three are working properly together to weave a good game do it. It is done when it is done. Do not make arbitrary pointless deadlines or else you will suffer for it. Also you cannot be as ban happy with your content as you are with league this will attract many roleplayers and that involved lots of role players who take it very seriously. If there is racism in lore then there will be role players who role play that. Banning that will cost you ALL role players and then there is no point in an mmo.

ChickenWaterfall7/25/2018, 10:07:51 PM1 votes

420'th vote. Feels good [slayer-jinx-catface]

Soft Dad12/2/2016, 7:11:37 AM1 votes

Please feel free to add your thoughts!

Glismod7/26/2018, 10:59:13 PM1 votes

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE something new and exiting from Riot Games. An MMORPG based on Leagues long and wast history of champs and story telling it would just be Freaking Amazing to play. I would love it either way, but also look to play alot more out of normal league jusst because then i can take what i know from the open world map's history into 5v5's and 3v3's to further enjoy the games characters and items as for what they are ment to represent.

If this is something Riot is planning on making it would also push that Freaking Fortnight shitty game down the drain and it would again stant as a symbol that league/Riot/All about it is still NR.1 Best games and creators in the world.
Much love to Riot and also to the players who are voting YES with me. LETS KEEP LEAGUE OF LEGENDS GREAT ALWAYS!

FiddlesOnTheRoof12/2/2016, 11:17:50 PM1 votes

An MMO would be very difficult to make not feel like a WoW knockoff, since both games have similar art styles and inspirations. However, if they could pull it off, it would be awesome!

Nekavrad8/11/2017, 4:18:13 AM1 votes

just had the same idea,with all the rich lore this game has,this would make for an incredible mmorpg,we already have the geography and the factions,put league champs as npc,or even use them for dungeons and raids and here you go,with the already huge LoL fanbase,it would have no problem becoming a huge mmo

Ojjepojken9/17/2017, 3:00:14 PM1 votes

This NEEDS to be a thing.