Content creator Necrit interviewed the Riot MMO team in Los Angeles on approximately June 13th, 2023. He asked several questions wherein we discuss each in detail below.
Table of Contents
- Who is Necrit?
- How did Necrit Land this Riot Interview?
- Who did Necrit Interview?
- What did Necrit Ask?
- How Much Disruption did Necrit’s MMO Hype Videos Cause?
- Has The Team Taken Feedback from the Community this Early?
- Are Game Philosophies that Oppose their Direction Considered?
- What’s Your Take on Splitting Playerbase in Favor of Lore & Realism?
- Your Take on Honoring MMORPG Genre While Evolving the Riot MMO
- Comments on Personal Accountability and Influence in Servers
- At Launch will Runeterra be a Dense Section or a Spacious Expanse
- Will Riot’s Traditional Artistic Style be Present in the MMO?
- How Did the Riot MMO Project Start?
- Takeaway From the Interview
Who is Necrit?
Necrit is a content creator who is well known for his in-depth Runeterra lore videos on YouTube. Moreover, Necrit is active on several other social media platforms such as, Twitch, Twitter, and Reddit.
How did Necrit Land this Riot Interview?
Throughout the years, Riot Games has acknowledged and supported Necrit’s content creation. For example, some of Riot Games’ associated Twitter accounts have retweeted Necrit numerous times. Additionally, prominent Riot Games employees follow and interact with Necrit relatively frequently. In fact, Riot Games has directly delivered Necrit promotional material.
Therefore, it is no surprise Necrit landed this exclusive Riot MMO interview for their highly anticipated upcoming MMORPG.
Who did Necrit Interview?
During his trip to Los Angeles, Necrit had the chance to ask non Riot MMO developers some fun questions but the video has not been released yet. For the purposes of this post, we cover the four Riot MMO developers below.
Vijay Thakkar
Vijay Thakkar is the executive producer of the Riot MMO. He has held this position since roughly January 2023 according to his LinkedIn profile.
During the interview, Vijay listed his past work history which includes:
- Star Wars Galaxies – Sony Entertainment
- Unannounced MMO – Ensemble Studios
- Age of Empire III
- Halo Wars
- Orcs Must Die
- Hero Academy
- Words with Friends
- Unannounced MMO Prototype (2016 – 2018) Riot Games
- League of Legends: Wild Rift
Mark Yetter
During the interview Mark Yetter said he worked on the following game titles:
- League of Legends (for nearly a decade)
- Call of Duty
- Several AA game titles
Also, Mark touched on a few topics during the interview. He discussed the impossibility to support the needs of every single player. Instead, their philosophy is to extract the common themes from the community and delivery the best version.
Anthony Reynolds
Anthony Reynolds chimed in a few times during the interview. Regarding his professional history he says:
- Riot Games (9 years)
- Freelance – Writing & World building
- Game Design & Writer – Games Workshop
The Narrative Lead chipped in on a few points regarding players pleading for a League of Legends MMO for years.
Not only that, he highlighted that the stories and conflicts established in the lore should be experienced by players. This comment was in reference to the inevitable repression of player agency in order to direct the storyline.
Greg Faillace
Although Greg didn’t get to add as much as Thakkar and Yetter, Greg gave us a brief list of his professional history.
- Legends of Runeterra
- Sims 4
- Gods & Heroes
- Several smaller projects
See the image below where Greg incited an interesting reaction. After Vijay Thakkar says “The one thing we definitely can’t do is dunk our heads in the sand until we ship”, Greg Faillace says,
And hopefully you get a little taste of that when we ship.
Greg Faillace
Not only that, moments after Necrit published his interview video he went live on Stream. Necrit responded to the following subscriber custom message during stream:
I honestly [wish] we got some more info on the MMO, but I guess it’s a bit early.
iamclgt
Then, Necrit counters the comment by hinting at the hidden object during the interview. Whatever this hidden object was, there have been a few suggestions indicating the Riot MMO has some promising content.
What did Necrit Ask?
How Much Disruption did Necrit’s MMO Hype Videos Cause?
Prior to this interview, Necrit published 7 Riot MMO YouTube videos that have amassed several million views. Consequently, his videos has sparked considerable discussion and prompted established YouTubers (such as Asmongold) to expand on with reaction videos.
Given Riot hasn’t shared anything substantial about the Riot MMO, it is reasonable to wonder if Necrit stirred the pot. Is it possible Necrit’s videos incited undesired expectations from the video game studio? Perhaps Riot wanted to keep the project more concealed.
I released a video. Kind of an avalanche of hype out of nowhere. How much damage have I caused accidently?
Necrit
In reality, the team at Riot was thrilled to listen to Necrit’s Riot MMO YouTube Videos. Vijay Thakkar mentioned the employees shared Necrit’s videos among each other.
Along with that, team members thrive off of content like Necrit’s because it reminds them there is hype within the community.
Has The Team Taken Feedback from the Community this Early?
Jumping off of Necrit question about the bustling community, he asks if the team has taken any of the feedback.
At the timing of writing, there is no official platform to submit feedback for the upcoming Riot MMORPG. Regardless, the community has been providing feedback through Greg Street’s prior Twitter dialogue, YouTube comments, and discussions on other social media platforms.
Vijay Thakkar stated the team is always taking feedback from the community. Of course, they work together to determine when they should and should not integrate any given feedback into the game. Needless to say, Vijay feels if their developers were to ignore player feedback it would be synonymous with failing.
Are Game Philosophies that Oppose their Direction Considered?
Necrit wants to know how receptive the Riot MMO team is to new ideas that go against their game vision.
Mark Yetter explains while the developers cannot cater to all players, many players want similar features. The Riot MMO team is looking to take the root of what the community wants as opposed to implementing every individuals’ needs.
From there, Mark continues, the team can focus on the essence of what the players want. With that, the developers can deliver their best work. On top of that, their goal is to exceed players’ expectations while delivering on the community’s needs.
Thakkar expands by adding part of their job is to extract what the players are looking for. In other words, the players may want a particular experience but their feedback might not always lead to that intended outcome. Therefore, the developers are looking to interpret and actualize the essence of what the players are asking of them.
What’s Your Take on Splitting Playerbase in Favor of Lore & Realism?
Necrit asked the developers what their general philosophy is on organizing the players within the confines of world building.
He contrasts MMORPGs where players are given the freedom to interact and explore as they desire against games such as World of Warcraft that segregates players for the purpose storytelling through gameplay.
Interestingly, Mark Yetter echoes sentiments regarding storytelling in gaming similar to the previous Executive Producer Greg Street. Mark says, it is not possible to deliver perfect realism while honoring the project vision.
On one hand, preventing players from playing together is objectively bad. At the same time, there are core aspects of Runeterra such as region conflicts or unique character interactions that would be appropriate to implement. Although those central Runeterra themes may inhibit player agency at times, they are necessary for world building.
In summary, Yetter explains the team is trying to combine all of the best element of each side (Game elements vs Player experience) into one package.
Your Take on Honoring MMORPG Genre While Evolving the Riot MMO
Then, Necrit follows up to confirm what he understood. That is, the team appears to be trying to retain core aspects of the MMORPG genre while trying to add their own creative ideas to the title.
The Executive Producer responds by saying he belives it’s important the team analyzes what parts of current games are proving successful. Simultaneously, the team wants to evolve the expectations of the genre and their game.
Additionally, Thakkar makes a point that the MMORPG industry has been chasing how to improve upon World of Warcraft for many years. He explains their team is taking a step back from the repetitive development of others. ‘Our developers here are now analyzing what was successful post World of Warcraft era. That, combined with how the needs of the MMORPG players have changed over the years. Between understanding successes of the past and the current expectations, the team has a better chance of producing something fun and long-lasting.’
Comments on Personal Accountability and Influence in Servers
Question In Reference to Classic World of Warcraft
For context: Necrit brings up how in Classic World of Warcraft, when a player chooses to behave poorly, their reputation on their server is negatively impacted. Necrit is a fan of those social repercussions and believes it forms a really good community. Meanwhile, on retail (current) World of Warcraft, the cross server features (such as layering and dungeon finder) have eliminated the sense of social responsibility. As a result, players can act unpleasantly with little to no backlash.
Necrit rounds off by pointing out there aren’t any current MMOs with the old structure, where player interactions matter.
In response, Vijay Thakkar mentions how there are many ways to create a game, each with their own tradeoffs. Overall, the Riot MMO team wants to avoid trying to solve problems for each single player. Of course, opinionated suggestions are welcomed even if they have tradeoffs.
The team understands there will be tradeoffs. To state confidently there will be tradeoffs suggests they have clear directions on particular areas of development. Reading between the lines, it’s possible Vijay wants to communicate that the MMO team doesn’t want to unravel necessary technology or features to serve the vocal minority. And thus, they accept these tradeoffs, which is in tandem with the former executive producer, Greg Street’s words, the game will not be for everyone.
To add confusion, Vijay does exclaim the importance of community and personal influence will be pursued during their continued development.
At Launch will Runeterra be a Dense Section or a Spacious Expanse
Among the Riot MMO community there have been two opposing takes on the world of Runeterra at launch. Some believe the world will encompass many or perhaps all of the continents so as not to exclude races. Furthermore, they suggest the team has the resources to pull off numerous regions at launch.
Conversely, a large camp of Riot MMO fans believe only Valoran will be released at launch. They often explain there is enough lore, towns, and landmarks to fill these regions up to the brim with content.
So, Necrit is pulling from this dichotomy among the fans and asking the team this very curious question.
What’s your Approach to the World at Launch?
Necrit
Thakkar underscores the most important goal regarding the world is to realize the World of Runeterra that fans know and love. Indeed, the developers are those fans too.
Next, he ensures us the end goal is to have that fullness in the world of Runeterra that we’re all imagining. To put it differently, at some point down the line, the world will be dense and feel complete.
In the meantime, the Riot MMORPG developers are deciding on which route to take. Vijay does say the team has a direction on whether they’ll fill out a small piece of Runeterra or start broad and fill that in over time. But again, what’s important is their goal of eventually having Runeterra be an authentic and playable experience.
Will Riot’s Traditional Artistic Style be Present in the MMO?
The Riot MMO team was asked if the upcoming League of Legends MMO will have Riot’s usual stylized art aesthetic, or something realistic or different.
[Riot MMO Art Style] We will be familiar but something unique.
Greg Faillace
How Did the Riot MMO Project Start?
Necrit notes several of Riot Games’ games began as passion projects. Although an MMO takes considerable planning and resources. And so it begs the question, how did the Riot MMORPG game begin?
Massive parts of this company have been dreaming of making this game for our players for a long time.
Vijay Thakkar
He jokes at Co-Founder Marc Merrill’s tweet asking the community if they should make an MMO.
He testifies to the fact that he himself (Vijay) came to Riot Games in 2016 to make an MMO. In summary, numerous parts of the community were interested in making an MMO for some time.
The developer adds, Riot Games, Inc. was looking to position itself correctly before it could develop the game to the company’s standards. Vijay discloses, Riot felt it was missing several conditions before it could begin developing an MMO.
But it was waiting on, now we have enough with the work on lore, we have enough in terms of the right people.
Vijay Thakkar
Company wasn’t at the right place, the people weren’t at the right place, the MP (market power) wasn’t at the right place. Once we hit all of those, Merrill‘s like ‘we need to do this thing’.
Company Risk on Early Riot MMO Announcement
He continues to say, they are aiming for something spectacular that the players would love to play. Then, with that in mind they feel it’s acceptable to take their time to create that project. Admittedly, that approach comes with risk. Announcing the project early sets a situation for for some players question the development process. Nonetheless, Riot Games is okay with that risk because they believe it serves the players best overall.
Takeaway From the Interview
At the four-and-a-half minute mark there was an interesting reaction. Greg Faillace pointed to an object in the room that was out of our field of view. Again he said, “And hopefully you get a little taste of that when we ship”. From that, it appears something publicly unavailable was shown to Necrit. Quite possibly something that will be a part of the final product since Greg said, when we ship.
Right after, Necrit says if he were to turn the camera just a bit more, the video would not pass public relations screening.
It’s possible the team presented Necrit with a class or race promotional life-size standee for a couple of reasons.
- Greg Faillace points and referrers to getting a taste of that while on Necrit’s topic of classes and races.
- Every time someone points at the object it was at height level or slightly below.
If not, it could have been a something mounted at height level such as, concept art, or maybe even a screenshot or clip of gameplay.
Necrit Interviewed Other Riot Staff
On Twitter, Necrit shared a video of him interviewing Riot Mort, Riot Brightmoon, Meddler, Marc Merrill and others. At the time of writing, the full video has not been shared on any of Necrit’s social media platforms. Although the end of the video says, “Coming Soon”.
This is not Riot’s First MMO Attempt
During this Necrit Riot MMO interview, Vijay Thakkar let it be known, 7 years ago (in 2016 from this point) he worked on an MMO Prototype. This lines up with Vijay Thakkar’s LinkedIn profile where he writes that he was the Technical Director for an Unannounced R&D Title from September 2016 to November 2018. Hopefully this information inspires fan that Riot Games has previously made headways on this genre and has possibly drawn from learned lessons of the past.
The Riot MMO Might have a Megaserver
Necrit emphasized many of the cons to megaservers such as lost sense of community, and pointing out an increased sense of community in traditional games.
Vijay briefs us about the tradeoffs between servers, and decisions in game development general. Right after, Vijay Thakkar mentioned they have a member on the team who worked on the megaservers for Guild War 2. As a result, they are knowledgeable of the pros and cons of megaservers. Then, he backtracks slightly to say the team doesn’t want to make indefinite compromises to please each and every player, which isn’t possible. Of course he advocated for their desire to strive to the best community possible but…to add in a comment about bending the knee to millions of players individually in response to advocating for traditional servers does almost suggest a defense in favor of megaservers. In a nutshell, the Riot MMO seems to be in favor of megaservers while acknowledging their imperfection.
Game Vision is Consistent Among Leaders
One of the biggest green flags here is the coherence among the leadership. They all broadcast the same core values. What’s nice is it almost feels as if person is reiterating the same core values.
Related Pages
New Riot MMO Interview with CEO
What is the Riot MMO Release Date
Will the Riot MMO be Free
