MMO

Riot Tryndamere, Chief Product Officer, :

Hey all - We know many of you are hungry for news about the @riotgames #MMO project, and we really appreciate your patience and the incredible support you've shown us so far. I’m writing to update you today on where we’re at. And before anyone panics: yes, we are still working on the game. #Leagueoflegends

After a lot of reflection and discussion, we've decided to reset the direction of the project some time ago. This decision wasn't easy, but it was necessary. The initial vision just wasn’t different enough from what you can play today.

We don’t believe you all want an MMO that you’ve played before with a Runeterra coat of paint; to truly do justice to the potential of Runeterra and to meet the incredibly high expectations of players around the world, we need to do something that truly feels like a significant evolution of the genre.

This is a huge challenge, but one that our team of deeply passionate MMO players and game development veterans is incredibly motivated to pursue

With this new direction, I'm excited to introduce @Faburisu as the new Executive Producer of the MMO. Fabrice's experience as a player and passion for creating immersive worlds is extraordinary. Having led big projects at Riot, BioWare, and EA, he brings a fresh perspective and a shared commitment to excellence that will guide our team as they continue on this difficult journey.

We started laying the groundwork for this pivot some time ago and over the last year under Vijay Thakkar’s management, we built key components of the technical foundation to create the kind of ambitious game we’re talking about. We’re grateful for Vijay’s leadership and that he’ll be part of the game leadership team going forward as our Technical Director.

Resetting our development path also means we will be "going dark" for a long time—likely several years. This silence will help provide space for the team to focus on the incredible amount of work ahead of them. We understand the excitement and anticipation that surrounds new information, but we ask for your trust during this silent phase.

Remember, 'no news is good news,' as it means we're hard at work, pouring our hearts and souls into making something that we hope you’ll love.

Thank you for believing in us and for your patience. We’re incredibly committed to this mission and we look forward to the adventure ahead and the stories we'll tell together.

To start, I love D2. It's one of my main games. And I'm just going to preempt the "you don't have to play it!!!!!!" mentality. Yes. I don't have to play it. And I have 0 intention of touching solstice on my hunter/titan. But the treadmill needs to be smoothed out just a touch with maybe some more emphasis on engaging activities instead of being held hostage to FOMO

But it's reached a point of the MMO design philosophy that ends up putting a lot of people off: The Treadmill.

MMOs originally had a lot of emphasis on exploration, social networking, and group play. Dailies/weeklies didn't exist, except for maybe loot lockout on a certain boss.

As MMO development went along, without these caps, players could grind to max and just be done with the MMO til the next big content drop, either unsubscribing or just never coming back. There wasn't a lot of incentive to continue playing when you couldn't increase your power anymore.

This became the standard MMO design and was further refined with daily quests with a currency / reputation grind gating a key piece of power progression that could take weeks to months. Loot lockouts became standard to gate power progression behind a once a week drop from a specific raid boss.

It's all about forcing a player to dedicate consistent weekly time if they want to be competitive for endgame, which I would argue isn't necessarily a bad thing if it's done conservatively.

The problem is that it isn't conservative in most cases, and especially not in D2. It's reached all time levels of investment.

Seasonal titles demanding considerable investment that's exactly the same as last season, but with a different weapon (looking at you dredgen), RNG on RNG grinds for deepsight weapons (Haunted weapons are the worst yet), limited time titles (flamekeeper being 3 weeks and now IB being 2 specific weeks a season), and the power grind treadmill...

Reasons to play the game is great, but it really is approaching kind of FOMO levels of "Play this activity or miss this stuff for the forseeable future". And god help you if you happen to be out of town during the 2 weeks that IB is around.

I love D2, and I am glad to see it thriving. But I don't want to feel held hostage by it either.

Anywho, I feel like I might get swarmed for this and am 300% expecting the "You don't have to play it!!!!!" when I've already said that I enjoy the game and just want to see it be the best it can be.

EDIT: So I apparently got a shoutout from Paul Tassi. Neat.

Tweet:
Personal News:

I'll be joining the MMO team as the Game Director!

Excited to go on this next epic adventure with you all.

Picture:
In June this year, I'll be joining Ghostcrawler and the MMO team as the project's Game Director! We're still working out all the transition details, but I'm very confident in the League team's direction and the future of the game. Expect the same transparency, quality, and openness to feedback as we've tried to live up to over the years.

Personally, working on League for the last 8 years has been the honor of my life. The talented dev team and the passionate players like you have been a critical part of building and improving my favorite game. I've enjoyed every day of it so far and I'm looking forward to our next big adventure together.

I have news!

My recent job at Riot has been to help develop the League universe, which we’re going to need!

Because it is time. My new job is to kick off a big (some might say massive) game that many of you, and many Rioters, have been asking us to create.

In case you think he's just misdirecting, .

It's been about time. World of Runeterra coming soon?

Wich game do you guys think i should buy if im looking for a game with endless replayability and one i can put a lot of hours into and not get bored of? I also like the graphic style of vallheim and deeprockgalactic, but i alr have those. I dont really care about the type of game, i just dont want to play an MMO. Im PC and any good suggestion is welcome.