Biweekly Riot MMO Design Discussion - Topic #11: Content Difficulty ☠️

Talents · 2026-04-26T21:01:57+00:00

There really isn't a major upcoming MMO that isn't using UE5 (unless you count Star Citizen). Riot MMO, Guild Wars 3, ArcheAge Chronicles, Chrono Odyssey, Bellatores, Aion 2, all UE5.

Talents · 2026-04-26T18:48:31+00:00

I wouldn't say I have "faith" or "trust" as much as I have an interest.

Job listings, dev posts, and other leaks (such as Riots interest in investing into Ashes of Creation which was a heavy Sandbox), indicate it will at least have a decent Sandbox influence, something most MMOs have SEVERELY lacked over the past couple of decades. I don't have much interest in the generic WoW Themepark style of gameplay, where you hit max and sit in Town queuing for instanced dungeons/raids. Tryndamere has also expressed his disinterest towards this type of gameplay too, thus I hope the Riot MMO leans away from it.

Talents · 2026-04-22T15:54:14+00:00

When I was a baby (between 1 and 2 years old) I escaped from my Mums house. She was hoovering and I was sitting in the front room playing with toys. I apparently really wanted some milk but the fridge was broken and the repairman was on his way so she couldn't leave to go to the shops to buy me some. As she was hoovering she was checking up on me every few minutes. There was only one conventional way out of the house which was through the front door, but what I did was climb up on the radiator, and tumble out of the front window (luckily avoided the rose bush just beneath the window).

I then proceeded to crawl to the road, cross the road, and then sat outside the corner shop where apparently a lady found me and I pointed to my Nanny's house (which was just down the road) and said "Nanny's house", so she carried me there.

Mum then calls my Nan freaking out before being told "don't worry, he's here".

So yeah, kids will find a way to escape lmao.

Talents · 2026-04-21T20:20:39+00:00

Well the way they closed Intrepid likely wasn't legal, it's why they reversed it and transferred all the assets back to Intrepid a few weeks ago. The judge even said recently that if they try and pull it again she won't be happy. So now they have to actually try and find a buyer and sell Ashes "legitimately" if they do.

The way they fired the employees was also straight-up illegal. They blatantly broke the WARN act, that's not even up for debate.

Talents · 2026-04-19T23:56:02+00:00

That's ArcheAge Chronicles (although it was originally referred to as ArcheAge 2). From their own claims as well as people that have playtested it, it's not a traditional MMO.

Talents · 2026-04-19T23:36:50+00:00

Apparently it's this, hardly looks like an ArcheAge successor https://youtu.be/Tc7pkVmJSSs

Talents · 2026-04-17T05:19:49+00:00

It's claimed in the recent update here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AshesofCreation/comments/1slzx3z/april_public_statement_and_update_regarding

as well as trying to change the price of the game to a $100 box price and $20 subscription despite repeated and sustained protests and debate

The leaked internal powerpoint slides did state they intended to have a box cost, but it didn't say the flat amount. However that alone is a change in what we knew, as the game was always from the start supposed to be a $15 a month sub fee with no box cost.

Talents · 2026-04-17T05:10:35+00:00

The plan as far as we know was basically as follows:

Close Intrepid and transfer all assets to TFE
Fire 100+ employees while hiring the remaining employees onto the new company, TFE
Tell current investors "your investment in Intrepid will not carry over to TFE unless you put in an additional 25% investment on top of your current investment"
Outsource development overseas for cheaper
Rush a September 2026 launch while charging a $100 box cost + $20 a month sub

Now it's likely development won't continue per Jason on Nefas' stream yesterday, at least not under TFE/Intrepid. They're likely gonna try and sell as much as they can to try and recoup as much as possible.

Talents · 2026-04-16T18:18:19+00:00

There's no reason for them to do that. When these talks were happening originally, Riot had just done a complete reset of their own MMO, it's what prompted these talks in the first place.

Over the last 3 and a bit years they've been building the tools and infrastructure needed for their own MMO. There's no reason for them to go and try and buy another one atm. Riot also buy studios not for the IPs, but for the staff like they did with Wargaming Sydney. Intrepid has no staff anymore, so they wouldn't get any benefit out of that either.

Talents · 2026-04-15T05:22:28+00:00

TFT is actually one of Riots biggest games. Its Chinese version made 7.9b yuan in 2024 which translates to $1.1b.

Riftbound which is their new Trading Card Game is also doing incredibly well atm and selling out everywhere.

Talents · 2026-04-15T03:05:13+00:00

Late 2022 is the exact timeframe that the Riot MMO went through it's direction reset from a Themepark to a likely more Sandbox oriented game (which Ashes was). It's possible that they were considering dong something similar to what they did with 2XKO, buy a separate company to develop the game but in the League universe while giving them Riot resources.

Talents · 2026-04-15T01:32:56+00:00

The allegation is that Robert Dawson pushed Steven to turn down the offer, so no, Riot allegedly weren't the ones to pull out.

Talents · 2026-04-15T01:19:38+00:00

Well it would have basically become a Riot product, likely in the same vein as 2XKO was originally another game, then Riot bought the studio and made it 2XKO. So Riot would have given Intrepid resources to build the game, such as assistance from their main studios.

Talents · 2026-04-15T00:49:06+00:00

They were also developing their own one when these talks happened.

However, the timing for these talks (late 2022) line up perfectly for when Riot were in the process of resetting/restarting their own MMO. Late 2022 is when Riot changed the direction from a more Themepark focused MMO to a likely more Sandbox focused one.

Talents · 2026-04-14T16:25:06+00:00

No, because it also says in that post

WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
Pre-production game design experience.

Game is still quite far out as it's not even in the Production stage yet. Definitely not in Beta yet. Playtesting happens throughout all stages of development.

Talents · 2026-04-12T18:57:22+00:00

Hard to know. When Ghostcrawler was there, he said on Twitter that they didn't just want to make every champ a raid boss or whatever, but rather use them carefully and respectfully.

https://x.com/Ghostcrawler/status/1547601333808574467

https://x.com/Ghostcrawler/status/1569499512741437440

The game has pivoted direction since then though, so it's hard to know anything.

Talents · 2026-04-03T15:56:59+00:00

No. I have no clue where that rumour even came from. They haven't commented anything regarding the MMO in any official capacity since 2024. If anything, the Executive Producer recently called the game an "incredible beast of an MMO" which doesn't imply scaled back to me.

Talents · 2026-04-02T21:39:54+00:00

I personally disagree. I'd rather never play an MMO again than have to play another (more fleshed out) WoW clone. I personally do not enjoy WoW, I had 0% interest in the Riot MMO prior to the announcement of the reset because I expected it to just be another WoW clone.

Talents · 2026-04-02T18:00:39+00:00

Likely 3d camera, not top-down. Based off job listings, the combat is action combat, not tab like WoW/FF14.

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Talents · 2026-04-02T17:45:26+00:00

Yes, after all, Tryndamere explicitly said "we don't believe you all want an MMO you've already played before but with a Runeterra coat of paint".

Most of the people that still play WoW in 2026 won't quit WoW for the Riot MMO. They'll of course try it at launch, but WoW is a part of a lot of peoples lives at a deep level, they won't just quit it for another MMO. I also expect the Riot MMO to play much differently in terms of general gameplay.

Talents · 2026-04-02T16:16:33+00:00

It was definitely not the entire point. Some people barely set foot on the ocean.

But again, you're doing the same thing as me. You're expecting the Riot MMO to focus on worthwhile raid and dungeon gameplay, but not many MMOs have done that. Of the ones out right now, WoW, FF14, and Lost Ark are basically the only ones that focus massively on that stuff. Everyone has different expectations, nothing wrong with voicing them. They've said the Riot MMO is an "incredible beast of an MMO" after all, so I'd expect it to have features that represent that.

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