I'd be so down for a League MMO.

Better Jungler·Nov 12, 2018·137 votes·23,718 views

You pick your region to represent. (Ionia, Zaun, piltover etc).

You pick your class. (Assassin, fighter, tank, mage)

Has a similar combat system to the moba. So it's diablo-esque.

Your questing areas would introduce you to the nations Champions and villains, (Freijlord you do some quests for braum, ultimately picking between ashe and Lissandra. )

Reskinned barons, and vilemaws are world bosses.

Elemental drakes, and red buffs/blue buffs are encounters you run into in the world, may require teams to defeat.

small jungle creatures are just wildlife that appear around the worlds.

You run into small battles occurring between nations, with hundreds of minions clashing into eachother at the nations borders. You and your premade, or others that happen to be nearby join your nations side, while enemy nation players are showing up to push the wave. Ultimately one nation will lose or win the battles.

Skills and abilities could be reminiscent of all the abilities we have in league, so you can mix and match your kit to fit your playstyle. (Would require new balance team :P ) I want Leblanc W with Kha zix Q, Taric Stun, and Evelynn ult.

They're building a world of interesting characters and cultures, they have the artists to pull it off.

but MMOS are INSANELY expensive to make, especially if you don't go the cheap route (looking at you Blade and Soul) and the payoff is really reliant on the community support. The genre itself also seems to be struggling...

Its just a really interesting idea of all the things they could import to make a league based mmo. And regardless of what you think of the balance team, we play this game because we enjoy the art, characters, abilities, and world they've created.

No real reason for me to post this. but if you have interesting ideas of what they could include in a League MMO, post below. I'd love to theorycraft with some of you :)

EDIT: Alot of people are asking about what separates a cheap mmo from a quality one.

TLDR MONEY.

for a full extensive list...

Mmo's require an IMMENSE amount of money to make.

All the stuff that makes a single player rpg, you need to make a minimum of 5 (imo) of.

You need an interesting world to explore, which means -Sound -Story -Art -Combat -Creatures -Cities -Npc's -Merchants -items -Bosses -Hidden Areas -Nature Assets (trees, rocks, bushes) -Terrain (mountains waterfalls snow)

And all this stuff has to be in multiple zones, or the world would be stale. So if you have 5 zones, you have to do all that stuff 5 times. and it all has to be different from eachother.

THATS JUST THE ZONES.

You still need Player requirements.

-Clothes custimization -Armor custimization -Stats -talent tree -interesting abilities -races -Gender -Character creation (height weight nose length) -Starting zone selection

After all that then you need multiplayer requirements -Reliable servers -Consistent content updates -A balance team -Player vs player battles -Player vs Player trading -Player vs Player items

All of these are just the BASIC REQUIREMENTS for an mmo to even be considered. A cheap route would be cutting any of these features. Can't custimize your character? lost a thousand people immediately. All zones look the same? Lost more players. 1 race to be? Human only? Boring, next game. Servers are garbage? Next game. No interesting abilities? Is this Dota? Next game.

The expensive route is what companies need to do in order to be successful in mmos today. It involves micro-systems that give MORE than the required items I listed before. It includes things like:

-Morality compass (good choices make character good, bad choices make character evil) -Mounts -Pets -Ranking system for PVP -GOOD AI bots, -Voice Actors -Dialogue options with non-key characters/npcs -professions/crafting -MORE RACES, CLASSES, ZONES than the required minima.

The expensive route immerses you into the game beyond the simple MMO formula, but it takes time, and money, and effort. The payoff isn't always there, but when it works, it's absolutely incredible, and we need a company to take that dive, spend the money, and the playerbase will pay them back ten fold for replacing the dated mmo's we have today.

/rant

94 Comments

Electro522Nov 12, 201857 votes

I will always upvote a post about Riot making an MMO. To me, everything they've been releasing that expands on Runeterra is strong evidence for an MMO.

Better JunglerNov 12, 20188 votes

Thats where this idea came from for me.

All the retcons.. all the maps released, and world building they've done with ASk RIot and boards replies.

It all screams some form of game other than a moba.

and with the state of league, I think it'd be a smart move to expand the brand.

Electro522Nov 12, 20182 votes

Oh, we know for a fact that Riot is working on a new game.

But that's all we know.....that it's a new game. At this point, you'd pretty hard pressed to say that it isn't something based in the Runeterra universe, but, it is still an assumption.

We've had little comments here and there about how Riot has tried looking into every genre imaginable, and the only reason its taking so long for this new game to come out is that they're own worst enemy is themselves. Apparently, they want to make a game that is as genre defining as League.

But besides that.....that's all we got. Riot has done a fantastic job on not letting even a whisper of whatever this game is get out to the public.

EDIT: That said, hype around Riot's next game is gaining some steam. Marc and Brandon moved to working on the new game, Ghostcrawler moved to it......so, it's apparent that Riot is shifting ever more resources into whatever this game is. Because of this, I kind of expect that we could hear something about this new game sometime next year.

Romans VI XXIIINov 12, 20189 votes

1,000 bucks it's a mobile. Lol

Necro Warrior87Nov 13, 20183 votes

faintly heres Diablo fans crying in the distance

PiestaNov 12, 20184 votes

YOu wanna know the truth tho? They would fail misserably, the game would be incredibly bad, making an MMO, even with all the money in the world, IS REALLY HARD, trust me.... we think that all those companies like NCsoft make mistackes and pay2win games, but its actually really hard

Electro522Nov 13, 20181 votes

Yes, it is really hard to make a good MMO. But look at Ashes of Creation. As of right now, it seems to be hitting all of the right marks, and Intrepid Studios is only about 200 people strong.

Granted, Intrepid is their own company, and Riot is owned by Tencent. However, with the fact that Riot pushed against Tencent when they wanted to port League to mobile gives me some high hopes.

Riot may not be the company it was 10 years ago, but they still know their audience.

So, I understand why you may not have any faith in them when it comes to an MMO, but I do. If they are making one, I hope they do take a page out of Intrepid's book, and look at what all of the other MMOs have done wrong.

ImparfectoNov 13, 20181 votes

I've been following ashes of creation for a long time now. The hype for it became quite big, but if you dig a little deeper you will notice that there are a lot of people who are now struggling to see the bar being as high as they initially thought regarding the game.

Most of that comes from the released alpha gameplay footage - and I use the word "gameplay" loosely. The way the game was portrayed and discussed, the impression is that the graphics would be at least on par with the likes of BDO - sadly it's looking no different from any other generic MMO. In fact, the graphics remind me a lot of LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online) and that has been going for over a decade now.

One of the most fundamental features to an MMO success is how active the playerbase is. If it's an empty world, people are not going to stick around for long. I suppose League has a very strong advantage in that regard as it already has quite a large community.

CetriNov 12, 201818 votes

Honestly, when it comes to making other games based on the League universe, I'd support a singleplayer rpg over a MMO. Between my garbage internet connection and general things about MMO gameplay, I've never been able to hold interest in them the way I have with singleplayer RPGs.

BraveCapuccinoNov 12, 20181 votes

{quoted}

Honestly, when it comes to making other games based on the League universe, I'd support a singleplayer rpg over a MMO. Between my garbage internet connection and general things about MMO gameplay, I've never been able to hold interest in them the way I have with singleplayer RPGs.

TzQGRUST39Nov 12, 201812 votes

While I would greatly enjoy an MMO from Riot, I saw someone make an argument that convinced me that Riot likely would never do one. MOBA's and MMO's are both games that dominate someone's "gaming time". MOBA and MMO developers don't want it to just be a game, they want it to be a life style, as in the amount of hours you put in to these games are usually pretty absurd and this doesn't leave much time for other games. So if Riot were to release an MMO, it'd be directly competing for the time of League of Legends players. If/When they make another game, I think it would be more of a casual game, something that you could conveniently play in between games of League of Legends if you wanted to, like a mobile game or a card game.

Helgak BoneNov 12, 20182 votes

Its not competition if they are both your games. So no matter what game of the two is played you have customers. And if you do your job good they even buy some cosmetics since its f2p. SO it wont matter where they spend riot points as long as they pay riot for it. I would also not be too sure if mmo's and moba's have 100% the same audience. Personally i do enjoy both, but im absolutly sure there are alot of hardcore mmo players that riot could gain as customers. And I would also argue that league is more like the convinient casual game, throw in a round or two inbetween some grinding/questing/Dungeon/raid. Atm I dont have an mmo but when i had something else to play with a group we used to do our mmo stuff and if we didnt have anything cool going on we sometimes ended the evening with a few games of lol. Thats probaly one of lols strenghts, you can play it hardocre or casual.

TheMoralSupportNov 12, 20182 votes

[deleted]

Electro522Nov 13, 20181 votes

Blizzard does have a MOBA though, that being HOTS.

Granted, Blizzard tends to take a bit more risks than other companies, and hard commits to them.......ala Diablo Immortal.

ZT XperimentorNov 12, 20189 votes

Expensive to make, sure, but it's not like riot has been swimming in money for the past several years lol.

Ebonmaw DragonNov 12, 20185 votes

I would preffer an RTS

Hexs FortuneNov 12, 20184 votes

I'd like a game that expreses Runeterra narratively without the constraints of going full mmo.

The constraints being things like raiding, and pvp.

Simply being a shared open realm for players , having a good story with choices, and a great theme of exploration should be the focus

FakeGravityNov 12, 20184 votes

im sorry to say but i doubt they do it, and if they do we will be dissapointed. it is like when you read a book then watch a movie; our imagination does so much more than what any game developer can accomplish, that we are going to find out that it wont be what we expected. the question is do we want them to try and live with what they do get to do or let the dream be perfect until technology be there?

Mandalorian 117Nov 13, 20184 votes

I would actually play the MMO instead of league. Don’t get me wrong, I love the main game, but the main reason why I love it so much is the awesome characters, lore, art, and personalities. Say what you want about balance, but they nailed it in design for just about everyone.

ZackTheWaffleManNov 13, 20184 votes

I'd prefer Elder Scrolls XIX: Runeterra

King BraumNov 12, 20183 votes

Anything to let the music and lore team shine sounds good to me. And then Riot can finally make use of that plural in Riot Games with actual video games instead of a board game.

4 Step CadenceNov 12, 20183 votes

What about races? Are Darkin, Yordle, Vastaya, ect an option in character creation? Or do we just have to be basic bitch humans?

Warlord RhinarkNov 12, 20185 votes

[{quoted}](name=4 Step Cadence,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=bLHavk3O,comment-id=0005,timestamp=2018-11-12T06:54:22.169+0000)

What about races? Are Darkin, Yordle, Vastaya, ect an option in character creation? Or do we just have to be basic bitch humans?

It will depend on your faction I guess.

#Demacia:

Humans.

#Freljord:

Humans (Freljordians might be able to become an Iceborn at higher levels. Can choose between either joining the Avarosans, Winter's Claw, or the Frostguard).
Frost Trolls? (Exclusive to the Frostguard tribe. Their size might be a problem).
Ursine? (Exclusive to the Winter's Claw tribe).

#Noxus:

Humans.
Enslaved Minotaurs?

#Piltover:

Humans (Piltovans might be able to arm themselves with several Hextech gadgets at higher levels).
Robots?
Yordles? (part of Heimerdinger's, Ziggs' and Corki's migration to Piltover).

#Zaun:

Humans (Zaunites might be able to upgrade themselves with chemtech augmentations at higher levels).
Robots? (possibly Cyborgs that are part of Viktor's Glorious Revolution).

#Mount Targon:

Humans (Targonian humans might be able to become an Aspect at higher levels).

#Shurima:

Humans (Shurimans might be able to become an Ascended at higher levels).
Icathian survivors? (possibly with some Void mutations or long pointy ears like Zilean has).
Sand Trolls? (same issue with Frost Trolls).

#Bilgewater and other nearby islands:

Humans.

#Ionia:

Humans.

#Shadow Isles:

Ghoul (your basic zombie).
Skeleton.
Wraith (your basic ghosts).

#Bandle City:

Yordles.

#Void:

Voidborn (assortment of different species).
Corrupted Humans.

#Vastaya:

Marai (Starting zone is near Targon).
Kiilash (Starting zone is in Kumungu, a jungle east of Shurima).
Lhotlan (Starting zone is in Ionia).
Shimon (Starting zone is in Ionia).

Honourable mentions:

Spirits/Demons.
Treants (think Ivern and Maokai).
Darkin.

I don't see any of these as playable races for the reasons below:

They aren't allied with any faction.
They aren't very numerous (we've only encountered 9 Spirits, 2 Treants and there's said to only be 5 Darkin left in existence).
They are incredibly powerful by default.

Edit: Added Vastaya as their own faction.

GneshNov 13, 20183 votes

funny if riot comes out with a micro transaction riddled mobile mmo

Warlord RhinarkNov 12, 20182 votes

Your questing areas would introduce you to the nations Champions and villains, (Freijlord you do some quests for braum, ultimately picking between ashe and Lissandra. )

Hey, what if I want to pick Sejuani?

>:/

NylisaNov 12, 20181 votes

You could be a trainee that she doesn't trust. help her and her gang build up and return to fighting condition. one of the Freljord story arcs can be about Winterclaw's rise.

i think an mmo that includes all regions of Runettera with all its story arcs would be too big for any company to take on. unless they do it in expansions. like Freljord be one expansion. Ionia in another and so on. thats how most of other MMOs with massive universe are doing it.

Warlord RhinarkNov 13, 20181 votes

{quoted}

You could be a trainee that she doesn't trust. help her and her gang build up and return to fighting condition. one of the Freljord story arcs can be about Winterclaw's rise.

i think an mmo that includes all regions of Runettera with all its story arcs would be too big for any company to take on. unless they do it in expansions. like Freljord be one expansion. Ionia in another and so on. thats how most of other MMOs with massive universe are doing it.

Idk, it feels kinda biased that both Avarosans and Frostguard would be available from the start, but the Winter's Claw is the only one you have to work for.

If Freljord is an expansion, it should include all the tribes at once.

That, or Avarosan being the only one unlocked from the start and both Winter's Claw and Frostguard must be unlocked.

Pandemic PunchNov 12, 20182 votes

There could also be augments for the abilities :)

rmreagleNov 12, 20182 votes

Playing Odyssey recently made me think about the league style Diablo game with those powers and augments. Imagine a co-op pve Diablo dungeon crawler mmo played with the league roster and augments.

Would it be a cheat for riot to build a parallel new game but use many existing league assets?

Pandemic PunchNov 12, 20182 votes

I would be on board if implemented properly :)

ZodiacNov 12, 20182 votes

Don't think we would see one for a long time if they were to make one. I believe they've talked about it in an ask riot or two and confirmed that if they were to make one it wouldn't be anytime soon. The cost associated with it would be massive and splitting your playerbase isn't the best idea in the world. I would love one though.

weasley009Nov 12, 20182 votes

So I wrote a really long reply on what my take on a League MMO experience should be, but due to the size I decided to give it own thread. If you want, you can take a look at it over at https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/AAnl8wrM-my-thoughts-an-a-league-mmo

I'd love to hear your thoughts mate.

Better JunglerNov 12, 20182 votes

I'll stop by!

Mael JadeNov 12, 20182 votes

Not sure about abilities from champs, maybe as ultimate abilities/rewards from skill trees you unlock at certain levels based on your faction, alliances and stuff. For Species: Humans for every region, Cyborg (Chemtech, Hextech) for Zaun and Piltover and then the "evolution" Iceborn, Ascended and so on maybe as a sort of advanced class (Imagine: start as human in freljord and you can choose to ally with the iceborn, becoming one yourself, altering your appearance and species skills)

Camille FerrøsNov 12, 20182 votes

I would love a fresh new look into the world of Runeterra. The potencial is limitless for that game.

hält die fresseNov 12, 20182 votes

with their balance team?

lol, ya right.

if riot made an mmo it would be a huge fucking failure

oortoomeebreesuuNov 12, 20182 votes

i want a pokemon mmo before a league mmo but thats just me.

Better JunglerNov 12, 20183 votes

With how Nintendo has been running Pokemon into the ground for the last few years, I wouldn't trust them to make a decent mmo.

They've completely lost touch with their original fanbase, and have opted for cheap reskins and boring mechanics over a story and battling.

New pokemon game coming out is literally just pokemon go for the Switch. To catch wilds, you just throw your controller at the screen. You don't have to weaken it.

Nintendo really irks me with their marketing choices.

oortoomeebreesuuNov 12, 20182 votes

yeah you don't have to remind me how much of a joke pokemon go is. it could have literally just been pokemon for phones, but they made it some hot garbage. i've liked some of the moves they've made, im a huge fan of splatoon and its successor, and botw in my book is skyrim-tier goodness. they do weird things, but they do good things too.

a league of legends mmo i just don't know what that looks like, the lore of this game isn't even that well fleshed out.

Düff McWhalenNov 12, 20182 votes

If they make a LoL MMO based on Runeterra, then it needs to all take place before the League is established. If everyone remembers, it was formed as a result of the damaging warfare, a way for nations to settle disputes civilly, and also sell merchandise...

Otherwise, it's post LoL, and the League is dead and nations are back to open war.

CorriandrNov 12, 20183 votes

The League was retconned out a few years ago as it was restricting the writers from being able to create any sort of story. It no longer exists, summoner's no longer exist, and they haven't for a while now.

Flawless FetusNov 12, 20182 votes

Mmos have been struggling for awhiiiiile. There are two ways to have a profitable mmo. Subscriptions, which nobody likes, or p2w, which people like even less. Lol.

Better JunglerNov 12, 20182 votes

Budget MMO's struggle. The genre itself is a major gamble.

Companies try to circumvent putting a ton of money into their game because they're afraid it wont pay off. But doing that makes the game feel cheap, so no one plays it.

It's a vicious circle.

Invest little money into an MMO---> No one plays it---->MMO'S Must not be popular ---Another company makes a budget mmo

We need a high budget mmo that doesn't pull any punches. Make incredible artwork, have a new combat system. Make thousands of items, abilities, and areas. Make bosses that are interesting, make progress that is fulfilling. It's going to cost, but if a company makes it, the players WILL COME.

Flawless FetusNov 13, 20181 votes

High budget mmo's have the same struggles. No one wants a subscription based game, and no one wants a p2w game. Wildstar had an original budget of ~60 million, and they ended up having to make it f2p because no one wanted to pay for the subscription. Lol. It's supposedly shutting down in 2018. As much as I love mmo's, it seems that the masses aren't into "grindy" games anymore.

Chromatic EagleNov 12, 20182 votes

I wouldn’t mind a rpg like Skyrim or Dragon Age, but I think people underestimate how difficult it is to create and maintain a mmo. There’s maybe less than ten that you can argue are good and have survived the declining interest.

imortaloneNov 13, 20182 votes

That's a hard pass on the MMO/RPG.

Like if you want to play an RPG go play the elder-scrolls or basically every other game that isn't as good as elder scrolls....

ps not a fan of games like world of warcraft...

GilgayuNov 12, 20181 votes

[{quoted}](name=Better Jungler,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=bLHavk3O,comment-id=,timestamp=2018-11-12T02:22:35.702+0000) Skills and abilities could be reminiscent of all the abilities we have in league, so you can mix and match your kit to fit your playstyle. (Would require new balance team :P ) I want Leblanc W with Kha zix Q, Taric Stun, and Evelynn ult.

Now, now, the new Taric stun or the old one [sg-lulu]

I would love an MMO, and with an already well-developed lore and map (still has lots of room for improvement), it is certainly possible.

I'm a bit worried for Riot's bugget though, I mean after all, League is a free game that doesn't require you to spend any money on.

Btw I think the new game will be called Legends of Runeterra or something, so it might have to do with the current lore

Better JunglerNov 12, 20182 votes

lol I wouldn't worry about Riot's Budget.

top 10 highest grossing video games of all time, estimated 6 billion dollars towards the end of 2017.

and the new taric stun. Old one was boring. New one WITH leblanc W would be a really fun "Jump in, and stun" mechanic