Earlier this year, Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street left his position as the Executive Producer on Riot Games' upcoming MMO project. He is an important figure in the game development space because of his role in World of Warcraft, Age of Empires, and League of Legends. He was working on the upcoming Riot Games MMORPG set in the League of Legends universe.
Shortly after Ghostcrawler’s departure, Principal Game Designer Justin Hanson also announced that he would be leaving Riot Games due to personal reasons. Many are concerned about the future of Riot Games’ MMORPG and we don’t know who will be taking over Street and Hanson’s role in the project.
Street’s Impact on the Gaming Industry
Street is a Biology and Philosophy graduate with a Ph.D. in marine science. He eventually moved on to Ensemble Studios, the team that created the Age of Empires series to life in 1998. Despite having no experience in the video games industry, he made it into Ensemble. He was part of every Age of Empires project since the Rise of Rome until he announced his departure from the company.
He joined Blizzard Entertainment in 2008 as the lead systems designer for World of Warcraft where he was responsible for technical aspects of the game like mechanics, achievements, UI design, trade skills, and more. He became a popular figure in the WoW community during the Wrath of the Lich King days when he used to actively communicate with the beta testers on the message boards.
He was very active within the community and talked to players and discussed new features and changes coming to World of Warcraft. He eventually moved to Riot Games in 2014 where he became the Lead Game Designer for League of Legends. In 2018, he became the Head of Creative Development and announced that he would not be working on League of Legends anymore. It is possible that he has been involved with the MMORPG since then.
Street left Riot Games because of personal and professional reasons, citing specifically he is aiming to be closer to his remaining family. Since this announcement, Greg has shared he's started a new remote game company that is working on an MMO, or "something very MMO-like."
The Road Forward for Riot Games’ MMO
Hanson clarified that the choice to leave Riot Games was solely personal and is not related to internal problems at Riot. There was some speculation that he would be joining Street at his new upcoming game dev company which is working on an MMO, but we now know he's joined Theorycraft, which is working on a competitive, team-based title codenamed Loki.
Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill confirmed that the game is in the early stages of development and the team at Riot will continue to work on it. Merrill shared job listings for the MMORPG when Street announced his departure and the listing is no longer available on Riot Games’ website. It looks like Riot Games has found the successor to Street but we do not know who it is just yet.
If you want Street’s insights on the Riot MMORPG and MMOs in general, there is a great 1.5-hour interview by content creator Kanon where Street talks about monetization, raiding, player-driven content, and other aspects of MMOs.
Riot had credited a lot of world-building for its upcoming MMORPG to Legends of Runeterra, the digital collectible card game. LoR has introduced new champions, expanded on the lore between existing champions and NPCs, and even reimagined the visual design of some champions like Seraphine. If you are a League of Legends fan, I recommend checking out all of the lore implications and character interactions of LoR cards even if you do not play the card game.
The foundation of the world of Runeterra is set in stone and Riot Games has been building the game world since 2009. After being a one-trick pony with League of Legends, Riot Games is spreading its wings and expanding to plenty of other titles.
The multiplayer games aside, we have Ruined King, Mageseeker, Song of Nunu, and possibly more upcoming titles that will expand on the Runeterra universe. All of these smaller titles expand on the existing lore and I expect them to collectively play a part in helping shape the world of Runeterra we experience in the upcoming MMORPG.
Ghostcrawler’s Lasting Impact on the MMO
While Street is no longer part of the dev team, he has worked on the game for years and is likely to have left a lasting impression on it. His communication with the World of Warcraft community revealed that he is a big fan of raids and dungeons and it is the one aspect I hope Riot Games gets right.
I talked over the top five things we want to see in Riot Games’ MMORPG last year and monetization is one of the aspects our readers brought up heavily. While Riot Games’ live service titles are free-to-play, things get tricky when we talk about MMOs. When talking to YouTuber Kanon about monetization, he said that he would rather have 15 million players pay $15 a month than have five million players who have the potential to pay more but are erratic with their purchases. But he also pointed out that such a model is possible only if you can have a massive playerbase.
He clarified, “We are not going to pay-to-win or pay-to-power, we are confident in saying that. It is just not Riot’s (philosophy). Riot has traditionally liked free-to-play models with purely cosmetic purchases.” But he pointed out that MMOs are the most expensive forms of games to make so there might be more to the game than just cosmetics.
He revealed that Riot Games had done the math and it is possible for the game to monetize through cosmetics alone despite being an MMO that requires regular content, matchmaking, chat servers, and other expensive development costs.
There is a lot of anticipation and Riot Games commands an incredibly large fanbase through League of Legends, Valorant, Arcane, and other media products the publisher has been largely successful with all of its releases. The MMO is sure to garner millions of players but whether or not it will compete with the likes of Final Fantasy XIV and WoW is going to be dictated by how Riot sticks the landing.
