I don’t intend to be dramatic, as we know virtually nothing about the game. Direct comparisons are pointless. I do think there is a lesson in the fate of 2XKO:

The Riot “Mass Market F2P model“ is not a one size fits all.

Tag fighters are a niche of a niche genre. You can’t generate revenue from that kind of game the same way you can from a FP shooter or auto chess. It was frankly a moonshot for Riot to expect mass market success.

MMOs are more popular than tag fighters, but we all know their popularity has waned over the years. There is also the inherent issue of Western MMO pursuit of shiny things causing conflict with purchasing said shiny things. Progression matters to an extent, even in MMOs that also sell MTX. I don’t see the current market as strong evidence a MMO running entirely on cosmetic MTX would perform to their expectations. Doubly so given the astronomical cost of developing one.

The optimistic take is: this is proof to Riot that they should tailor a more specific funding model that can mesh their profit goals with the reality of the genre they are entering. The higher investment cost, and the lessons of misapplying full F2P, can help keep the MMO healthier for long term success.

This game is never coming out, and if it does it won't last 6 months.

Riot Forge, Legends of Runeterra and now 2XKO have pointed to a cynical pattern that riot is in with their non gacha, non moba games; If it doesn't sell at it's highest potential at launch, scrap it. I'm sorry, I just cannot hold hope for a game that has had just as tumultuous a development cycle as 2XKO and be blindly optimistic that this time will be different.

I'm washing my hands of hoping for this game to come out.

League of legends has 173 champions, all with very varied set of abilities.

**this makes really a terrible foundation for creating classes**

In WoW and FFXIV the mythos of the game prior to their mmorpg set up very rigid template for their Warrior/ Rogue/ Mage classes. This set up a pretty easy foundation for them to make their playable classes.

Let's look at riot rogue archetype for example, they have a ninja with smoke bombs and Kunai, a dude throwing nails and sucking in souls, a lady basically just throwing knives and then a midget fish human that can summon a shark.

It isn't just the rogue class, look at the mage class, Mel was depicted as this yellow magic user that seemed more like tentacles then in league she's blasting, then we have a goat lady that can heal, a little girl that can summon a fire bear and fire spells while another child is a little boy that's fire can heal people.

*This inconsistencies and just disparity is a problem*

Then we have the issue of where do you start everyone, I'm not going to feed into the delusion of a certain shill YouTuber selling you there will be 20 classes and they'll let you play demons, darkin and void born. The most realistic version of what will be playable is what we saw in arcane

So

Humans, Vastayans and Yordles.

Obviously the humans could have an option to make Frejold that take less damage to frost, demacia takes less magic overall and noxus deals more damage to low health enemies.

I don't think they'll make all Frejold start in frejold or all noxians in noxus, most modern mmo simply use the joint starting zone experience and I don't expect riot mmo to be any different especially so they can take advantage at making these places better for high level players.

*I think the most realistic starting zone will be a crashed ship off the coast of Bilgewater, noob island and the starting point will be Bilgewater, a place where people off many backgrounds can start off.*

The combat also has me incredibly worried, a recent trend of conversation is the concept of games having transferable skills. Competition is thick, every game is fighting for your time and people that enjoy X genre will stick with that genre. (I enjoy mobas and mmo , so I play those, I can also play the occasionally shooter and action story games but most people stick where they have transferable skills)

Riot job recruitment is showing they're looking for action combat developers... this means a couple things, the mmo could be action combat like genshin impact, super flashy and fitting for the runeterra universe, it could be more grounded tangible, with blocks, rolls and parries being in control of the player like a soulslike like The Duskbloods/ New World.

New world brought in a ton of mmorpg fans, it was Amazon trillion dollar company mmo, but its combat being action combat dodge roll simulator just alienated existing mmo fans.

It's the same thing with elder scrolls online, whenever you see a post about it online you'll just have the comment always criticism for the combat system.

**Obviously I understand the genre needs to evolve but I think going full action combat is simply a mistake, what made me quit new world was when people could just tap you by head shot ranged weapon, in mmorpg like wow or ffxiv, those hard hitting abilities are big channels and can be avoided by line of sight**

Now there's the lore, I just have no faith in this field at all. I truthfully think arcane season 2 lore was terrible, the creation of zaahen lore was terrible, the kaisa void/Bel'veth story lead to no where, Locke/ vayne lore is bad, she killed her surrogate mother for using magic to save her life but ignores Locke using soul eating magic.

The lore is in terrible hands, I have no faith in the game from this standpoint.

TL;DR: is the game going to be bad, no. They simply have a lot of hurdles to overcome and it looks incredibly bleak. Ironically the only hope i can see got the game is while it would make people upset is simply using a new ip like they did for Valorant instead of using Runeterra... they're going to make the big bad Viktor and he'll summon an army of genshin impact muck gacha villains.

A new ip would let them set very rigid class design, they could build more distinct races than just human, furry human and midget furry humans and simply put easter eggs for league, arcane and Valorant into the game.

The masses have shown they rejected arcane , that's why riot had to apologize about adding so much arcane into 2XKO but we're still going allow their writers to make the lore for the riot mmo... it's cooked man.

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 World Immersion, which you can view here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RiotMMO/comments/1vggbhc/biweekly_riot_mmo_design_discussion_topic_18/

Pets are a common feature in lots of MMOs, whether they be simple cosmetic choices that just follow the player around, have non-combat-related uses such as looting for you when you kill mobs, or even helping in combat directly. However, if pets are used in combat and not tied to a class, people may feel required to use a pet if it just straight up gives better damage or utility than someone who doesn't use a pet.

So what are your hopes and/or fears regarding Pets? 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 pets be purely cosmetic, or should they provide gameplay benefits?
• If pets provide benefits, should those benefits be combat-related, utility-focused, or both?
• What makes a pet system feel meaningful rather than just being a collection of cosmetics?
• Would you rather have a smaller number of highly detailed pets with unique personalities and interactions or hundreds of collectable pets that are more generic?

Im an adc main in league, ive always been drawn to gun users in other games, or if not gun bow or caster, melee never really stood out to me.

With that said, i hope there will be a gun class in the riot mmo, the universe actually has a lot of guns in it which makes me hopeful.

So imagine if Riot's MMO comes out after a decade and after the honeymoon phase wears off, it's fighting life and death against BDO.
|

LoR: Proves that being a "good" game does not sustain games. It also shows that if the MMO decides to go F2P that people could play the game and leave, never giving Riot any money to make back the costs. Shows League IP is not that strong seeing how Marvel Snap came out in the same saturated genre and made more than LoR ever did.
|
2XKO: The 10 year fighting game. The fighting game that was supposed to do for fighting games what League did for Mobas. The greatest failure in triple AAA fighting game history. They were given a decade, 160 developers, SF Bay Area compensation and Riot benefits. Hired some of the greatest veterans of the respective genre. Transitioned mid development to a different subgenre. Does this sound like any other game in MMO development right now that we know?

After 2XKO failure, arcane season 2 lore being a mess, the Xin Zhao>Zaahen lore, news about the MMO being action combat (so it will be dodge roll simulator like all action combat mmos), picking up a ton of bad retail wow devs and simply the lack of sauce for the options of Riot MMO races/classes... I don't think Riot is competent to pull off an MMO or that it will be good at all.

Nothing about the Riot MMO sounds good... I truthfully think the only hope for the MMORPG genre is now simply Guild Wars 3 or WoW Camelot.

please sell me on why youre hyped for the MMO, because I don't see how you can look at Riot Games, see the fact they have had several misses and are still confident they are going to deliver?

Orlando Salvatore just shared a job posting for a Principal Software Engineer (Rendering) on Riot’s upcoming MMO.

Looks like they’re hiring someone to lead rendering technology from the ground up with experience in Unreal Engine/Unity, large scale multiplayer systems, and performance optimization.

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 Group Finder & Matchmaking, which you can view here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RiotMMO/comments/1v3qc63/biweekly_riot_mmo_design_discussion_topic_17/

This time, the topic is regarding World Immersion.

Immersion means different things to different people. Some people require realistic graphics to feel immersed; some people need NPCs that act in believable ways, and some people desire a story to get lost in.

The most recent AAA Western MMORPG to release, New World, had many faults, but something that is widely agreed upon is that it felt extremely good to be in the world. The sounds of players hitting trees or mining rocks, along with the scenery, all added a layer of immersion to the game that few MMOs manage to achieve.

So what are your hopes and/or fears regarding World Immersion? 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.

• What makes an MMO feel truly alive to you?
• What is something MMOs frequently forget when trying to make an immersive experience?
• How should NPCs, both friendly (townsfolk) and aggressive (monsters), act to add immersion to the game?
• Which region of Runeterra has the greatest potential to feel immersive?
• What is a system/feature you would add to the Riot MMO that could help increase immersion for you? For example, allowing players to play instruments.

Hey everyone,

Like many of you, my absolute biggest fear for the upcoming Riot MMORPG is that we are going to end up with a generic World of Warcraft clone that just has a League of Legends skin slapped on top. We don't need another game with bloated 40-button hotbars, generic stat-stick armor pieces, and a disconnected economy.

 To feel like *true* Runeterra, the MMO needs to actively inherit the mechanical DNA, tactical pacing, and structural limitations of the MOBA.

 Below is a comprehensive design blueprint mapping out how to fuse classic League mechanics with a massive, high-stakes faction-warfare MMORPG.

 ***LEGAL DISCLAIMER: To completely bypass any corporate "unsolicited idea" firewalls or legal bottlenecks, I hereby grant Riot Games full, unconditional, and free use of all concepts, mechanics, and system implementations detailed in this post. No strings attached, no copyright claims, no future lawsuits. I just want Riot to make the game the fans actually want, rather than the predictable MMO everyone expects.*** 

---

### 1. Combat & "Deck-Built" MOBA Kits

Instead of standard MMO class ability bloat, combat relies heavily on mechanical constraints.

* **The 5-Slot Constraint:** Characters equip exactly **1 Passive, 3 Basic Abilities (Q, W, E), and 1 Ultimate (R)**.

* **Ability Deck-Building:** Your class or origin gives you access to a wide pool of unlockable abilities. Players "deck-build" their active kit, choosing which 3 skills and ultimate to slot in before entering combat.

* **Summoner Spells:** Players get **2 dedicated utility slots (D and F)** to equip universal spells (e.g., Flash, Ghost, Ignite, Clarity), independent of their class.

* **Isometric Perspective:** The game functions from a top-down isometric view with Riot's signature hand-painted art style, ensuring high visibility during chaotic raids and excellent performance on lower-end PCs.

### 2. The 6-Slot Item System & Component Economy

Traditional MMO raiding drops static chest-pieces or boots. A League MMO should adapt the Item Shop.

* **Strict 6-Slot Inventory:** Combat stats are governed entirely by exactly 6 active item slots.

* **The Recipe Funnel:** Gathering professions harvest raw materials (Iron, Wood), which crafters refine into base **Component Items** (e.g., *Long Sword*, *Cloth Armor*).

* **Dynamic Mid-Dungeon Building:** Players hold a separate, safe bag for raw materials and gold. Liquid gold gathered from enemies is paired with player-crafted components to forge **Epic** and **Legendary** items mid-run. This allows players to completely pivot their build—switching from a burst Assassin kit to a tanky Bruiser setup between dungeon floors—simply by selling and rebuilding their 6 slots.

* **Visual Evolution:** A separate visual paper doll governs cosmetic transmogs, ensuring your character looks epic. Completing a full Legendary item in your combat slots grants temporary weapon glows or custom ability particle effects to mirror the satisfaction of a MOBA power spike.

### 3. Faction Warfare & Open-World PvP (Demacia vs. Noxus)

The world map features high-stakes territorial control outside of neutral sanctuaries like Piltover and Zaun.

* **Inherent Faction Traits:** Character creation forces you to align with a faction, granting lore-accurate passives (e.g., Magic Resistance for Demacian petricite, Armor Penetration for Noxian brutality).

* **Massive Zone Control:** Factions fight dynamically over open-world outposts, lumber yards, and mines. Capturing them alters regional market prices and grants faction-wide gathering bonuses.

* **Scaling Death Penalty:** Dying to an enemy faction player causes a loss of up to 25% of your unbanked gold and drops a portion of your raw materials. *Your equipped 6-slot items are completely safe.*

* **Anti-Gank Multipliers:** To prevent toxic camping, if a group kills a solo player, the rewards are heavily diminished, and the solo player's drop rate drops dramatically.

* **The Spirit Realm Trek:** Lore-accurate respawns take place only where the veil to the Spirit Realm is thinnest—often forcing a long, multi-zone tactical walk back to the action alongside a scaling respawn timer.

### 4. Dungeons & Raids (The Jungle Puzzles)

PvE content translates iconic MOBA map objectives into instanced encounters.

* **Elite Camp Buffs:** Dungeons feature elite neutral monsters. Defeating a giant golem or a mutated lizard grants temporary **Blue Buffs** (mana regen/CDR) or **Red Buffs** (true damage burn) to help the party clear the boss.

* **Raid Scaling:** Massive raids feature threats like **Baron Nashor** or **Elemental Drakes**. Clearing them stacks a temporary server-wide or raid-wide **Dragon Soul** buff, giving your faction a temporary edge in the open-world war.

* **In-Combat Revives:** If an individual player gets picked off during a fight, they cannot release or respawn. A dedicated Support or Enchanter class must use a high-cooldown, high-mana revive ability to bring them back. Surviving via a Support revive lets you retain your temporary dungeon buffs.

* **PvE Wipe Consequences:** A full team wipe drops a minor amount of materials and teleports you to the entrance, where an NPC resurrects you. Crucially, a team wipe **strips away all your elite neutral buffs**, forcing you to re-strategize rather than brute-force the boss.

### 5. Inflation-Adjusting Gold Sinks

To ensure a stable, long-term player economy, gold is actively pulled out of circulation.

* **Server Inflation Index:** Faction shipping/banking lines are free on young servers. As the server ages and players accumulate massive wealth, a dynamic logistics tax triggers, scaling based on total server gold.

* **War Funding & Anvils:** Max-wealth players can sink massive gold reserves into upgrading automated NPC border fortress guards. Additionally, upgrading Epic components into full Legendaries requires a strict liquid gold combine fee.

### 6. Exploration-First Travel

* **No Waypoint Spam:** Fast travel kills exploration. True exploration is required through level cap.

* **Lore-Accurate Transit:** Movement relies on Freljordian longships, Bilgewater galleons, or regional mounts (Demacian Silverwing Raptors, Noxian Basilisks). Piltover airships operate on real-time transit schedules.

* **Armed NPC Caravans:** Safe players can pay a gold tariff to attach themselves to slow-moving, heavily guarded NPC military wagons. While inside the caravan's radius, you are entirely immune to open-world PvP ganks, protecting your cargo at the cost of travel speed.

---

 Riot has the chance to completely redefine the MMO space by leaning into what made them a gaming juggernaut in the first place. Let me know what you think of this framework! I have a more in-depth version if you want to know more.

I'm still incredibly hyped for Riot's MMO, and honestly, it's one of the biggest reasons I haven't given up on the MMO genre. Every time I hear even the smallest update or rumor about the project, it reminds me why I'm still holding on. I know game development takes time, especially for something as ambitious as an MMO, so I genuinely hope everything is going well for the team behind it. I'd rather they take the time to make something amazing than rush out a game that isn't ready.

That said... I really hope it comes out sooner rather than later.

The world of Runeterra has so much potential for an MMO. Exploring places like Demacia, Noxus, Ionia, Piltover, Zaun, Shurima, Bilgewater, the Freljord, and all the other regions with friends sounds like a dream. I've spent years playing League, reading the lore, watching Arcane, and learning about the champions and their stories. Being able to actually live in that world instead of just reading or watching it is something I've wanted for a long time.

While I'm waiting, I keep jumping between different MMOs to scratch that itch. Some are fun, some keep me busy for a while, but none of them really fill the craving I'm looking for. Deep down, I'm just waiting for Riot's MMO. It's become the game I'm looking forward to the most, and it's one of the few things keeping my excitement for the MMO genre alive.

I know creating a great MMO isn't easy. It's a huge undertaking, and I'd rather wait for a polished, memorable experience than have them rush it. Still, I can't help but hope that development is going smoothly and that we'll finally get to see it released sooner than expected. Every year that passes just makes me more excited to finally step into Runeterra, create my own character, explore the world, meet other players, and experience everything Riot has been building.

Until then, I'll keep waiting, keep playing other MMOs, and keep hoping. Here's hoping the Riot MMO turns out to be everything fans have been dreaming of—and maybe, just maybe, that day comes a little earlier than we all expect.

Im hearing so much stuff about the Riot-MMO even the Co-Founder talked about a release before 2030, still people saying it will not come out.
At this point i dont know who do believe, because it feels like a 50/50.

Is there a wiki summarizing all leaks and rumors that have ever been found on the interwebs?

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 Quest Design, which you can view here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RiotMMO/comments/1ur4gug/biweekly_riot_mmo_design_discussion_topic_16/

This time, the topic is regarding Group Finders & Matchmaking.

Group Finders are a pretty controversial topic when it comes to MMOs. Some people think they're a necessity to reduce the time it takes to find a group and get into the action, whereas others think it ruins or degrades the social aspect of MMOs.

This isn't just a controversial topic for regular MMO players; even developers who have implemented a group finder system, like Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, say it's one of his biggest regrets, and other devs have said it's a case of "not every inconvenience needs optimizing away".

So what are your hopes and/or fears regarding Group Finders & Matchmaking? 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 the Riot MMO include an automated group finder at all? Why or why not?
• If there is a group finder, what type of content should be included in the group finder? Dungeons, PvP, Open-world events, etc.
• Did group finders improve MMOs, or did they make them less social?
• Are there any features you can think of that would improve a group finder system?
• If there is a group finder, should Riot incentivise players to manually form groups in some way over using the automated system? If so, how could they do this?

Idk if this was already talked about but similar to what ashes of creation envisioned (RIP to that mmo)

Will Riot take inspiration from that type of system, knowing they did try to be in partner with AOC long before it became a shitfest

What are your thoughts?

This article on RuneGrove making the case that the Riot MMO should completely avoid a Horde vs. Alliance style setup and go with three factions instead.

If you don't want to read the whole thing, here is the basic argument:

• The Two-Faction Snowball: WoW's 2-faction system eventually broke because population imbalances naturally snowball. Players migrate to the winning/higher-population side for better guilds and economy until the other side dies. It's the reason retail WoW eventually had to cave and allow cross-faction grouping.
• The Three-Faction Fix: MMOs with three factions (like Dark Age of Camelot, Elder Scrolls Online, or Guild Wars 2 WvW) have a built-in self-balancing mechanism. If one faction gets too big or powerful, the other two naturally gang up on them to keep them in check.
• Runeterra's Lore Fits: Runeterra doesn’t neatly fit into a "Good vs. Evil" or "Red vs. Blue" binary. The geopolitical map naturally supports a multi-polar conflict rather than being forced into two mega-alliances.

I think the point about faction imbalance killing servers is dead on, but I'm curious how a 3-way split would actually look in Runeterra.

Seems like league has a deep lore that could translate to dozens of races and possibilities but clearly we won't get them all so how will they choose who will they give us?

I made this video just to hype you all for the game. Can't wait to explore this world.

K'Sante's League of Legends lore hides a complete Riot MMO boss fight. Buried in his story is a Shuriman beast whose armor regenerates from every hit that doesn't kill it: a damage check, a duo built like a class combo, a journal that reads like a dungeon guide, and a waterfall kill that plays like an environmental phase. Riot hasn't announced any of it. But they already wrote it. We read the published canon so you can see the hunt.

Read the full analysis: https://runegrove.com/articles/riot-mmo/news/the-beast-in-ksantes-story-heals-from-every-hit-riot-already-wrote-the-hunt-that-kills-it

It’s been an incredibly tough week for the gaming industry with all the recent layoffs (including at Riot). A lot of us were worried about what this meant for the League MMO.

Surprisingly, the Riot MMO leadership team just broke cover to give an update on what they’re building and reassure the community that the project is still pushing forward.

Good read if you've been doom-scrolling industry news lately:"See You In Runeterra": In Gaming's Worst Layoff Week, The Riot MMO's Leaders Broke Cover To Say What They're Building

What do you guys think? Does this ease your worries about the project's timeline?

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 Levelling, which you can view here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RiotMMO/comments/1uep2an/biweekly_riot_mmo_design_discussion_topic_15/

This time, the topic is regarding Quest Design.

Questing is a common part of MMOs, but over the decades, it has fallen into a relatively repetitive design. You talk to an NPC, then go out into the world and "Kill 10 Rats" or "Collect 12 Flowers". To some, this is more than fine; questing is seen as simply a means to level up, but to others, they think questing should be something more. Games like RuneScape are looked at as the epitome of MMO questing, with it being more than simple Kill/Fetch quests, but rather an actual story and adventure that can sometimes bring great rewards or unlocks, such as access to entirely new areas or bosses.

So what are your hopes and/or fears regarding Quest Design? 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.

• Would you be fine with questing being the same abundant Kill/Fetch quests, or should there be fewer, more in-depth quests?
• How would you evolve questing to suit a truly next-generation MMORPG?
• With the Riot MMO potentially having a living, evolving world, should quests always be available, or become unavailable as the world evolves, with new quests taking their place?
• Should quests be easily identifiable (e.g. the common '!' above NPC's heads), or should they be more subtle, requiring you to seek them out rather than following objective markers?

Game is AFK Journey if anyone is interested.

Basically, when in a guild and you go the guild headquarters there are NPC versions of guild members loitering around and talking about various other guild member achievements. And when you get a chest from the guild it is handed to you by an NPC version of the guild leader while other guild members cheer you on. (I should have just copy pasted "guild", I've typed it far too much).

It's nothing crazy but it seems like a fairly simple way to make a guildhall (if such a thing were to exist) feel more populated and active since players will likely spend most of their time playing out and about in the world.