@@doposud Riot has not announced the name yet. All we know is that it will be an MMO set in the world of Runeterra, which is the world League of Legends is based on. This video was based on an interview response from one of the team members currently working on the game!
I bet that they will follow the logic of the “World of Warcraft” and go for “Realms of Runeterra” Runes echoes for craft as it stems for the magical part of the name, and they could go for realms instead of world to keep the RoR logic as in WoW and LoL
This is going to be a big comment... Is my opinion that is impossible to include every zone at launch however they 100% need to be included lore wise, what do I mean by this? Well, Shadow Isles are not going to be a thing at launch but there are to be a couple of quests in each zone regarding the Ruination, nothing extensive but they should exist.(Example: Some one is very sick, they have no cure for disease but they remember the legends, the legends of the Waters of Life that used to exist in the Blessed Isles however that is no longer a possibility due to The Ruination) Regarding which regions should be at launch I think they have 2 options either they launch with few "complete" regions or scope it up but only with, for example, 20~30% of the region explorable.(Which in my opinion is the better alternative, for example Zaun has 3 levels, it would be released with only the 1st level.) DEMACIA: Will be at launch in a pretty complete state. NOXUS: Will be at launch in a pretty complete state. Specially due to it's variety and diversity of cultures would allow for a lot of world building in a single region. FRELJORD: It should be at launch but only the most southern part. Not only it borders with Noxus and Demacia which would be great for questing but it would allow for more initial classes. PILTOVER and ZAUN: Will be at launch 100% due to the great publicity of Arcane, both cities should be released with only the first level. BANDLE CITY: It should be at launch, it's the best explanation lore wise to be able to go to every region and every mmo has a cute/rat race it would be a gigantic waste not to. SHURIMA: It should be at launch but only the most northern part it has a lots of history as a fallen empire, could easily release only with the surface desert > release the tombs > Restore the city of Shurima (depends a LOT on the Age?/Year? that the game starts lore wise.) BILGEWATER: Shouldn't be in at launch however should be mentioned a LOT in every "Port" location, they can easily release release classes of this region even without the Region itself being in the game.(Example: You can start in any port city and have some kind of old sailor give you the class skills and then when they release Bilgewater (which should be the 1st region) then you can meet the real "Masters".) IONIA: This one is a tricky one, in my opinion shouldn't be at launch. The classes that you would want from Ionia should be obtainable in Freljord. IXTAL: Definitely not at launch. TARGON: Definitely not at launch, should be one of the last expansions. SHADOW ISLES: Definetily not at launch, should be one of the last expansions. ICATHIA: Definitely not at launch, should be one of the last expansions. This is my opinion on how the game should be released, feel free to comment on what you agree/disagree with. I will reply as I think this is a fascinating subject! Btw if you go to Zaun and a Warwick jumps on you and kills you is absolutely brilliant! :D
I like the idea of southern part of freljord. Want a freljord expansion all to itself where we explore the watchers in the future! So much there it has to be a stand alone in my opinion. Thanks for the awesome comment Marco! and the appreciation for my Warwick option hah :D
To me Bandle City should be at launch except you cant explore lore wise until expansion pack. I mean this as you use the spirit realm as some sort of fast travel ( like in God of War)
@@meyamolama7686 They can do a lot of different things with Bandle City but I think the better one would be a teleport hub in which you can teleport to whatever regions are available. Which is actually a great idea, this way they can limit the parts of the map available.
Bandle city is the trickiest one for the release tbh. Maybe add 1 main map through the portal to Bandle City to know it's existence and the yordle teach us the yordle magic for the teleportation (so lorewise fast travel will be explained) and then expand all other stuff with Ionia in the xpac. Or we can't get to bandle city at all on release but still get a skill to tp somehow. Maybe first fast travels will be through the Hexgates for the 1.0 version so we can have the fast travel and the yordles but Bandle city will be developed fully only in 2.0-3.0 with Ionia for example after some years. And then we get a better version of the fast travel. I dunno, a lot of possibilities. Everything is fine except I think Freljord should be full on launch or at least become full before 2.0. So we get complete Valoran and first introduction to the void and the first/second major raid. So then riot can easily for Ixtal/Bandle city (both have the spirit realm connection) for the first xpac and THEN for the second expand fully Piltover/Zaun and go for Shurima because of the connection to the hex magic. So, yeah, I don't agree on Shurima even partially on release. Man, I dunno. This is so fucking hard LOL. How are they going to make it work lorewise AND storywise I have 0 fucking idea. And make it quality and great in gamedesign too. I'm an atheist but I'll pray for them. I have a comment in the comment section already about how I would like for Piltover/Zaun to be their own full xpac btw.
I think u can easily make classes playable without having the region for it ready yet, so that shouldn't be a problem. Shadow isles, Zaun, Icathia (the Void), Targon are all a big yes for expansion... but I would also put Ionia and probably Freljord, Shurima to the list. I don't think you need that much of the map to make the release amazing.
If they dont include Shurima at launch, it will definitely be an early if not first expansion. Will definitely come before Icathia and Targon. one thing I really dont want to see if everything get burned through to fast. Like Shurima expansion with Targon and Icathia patches
This is the first MMO I have been this hyped for besides WoW. The fact that there is this much lore already that expansions can be laid out so far ahead of time is amazing!!! My one downer is I love Northrend and Death Knights so I really want to see the Freljord but it makes sense that just like Northrend was held out it could be held out for its own expansion. Great video can't wait to see more!
I don't see why the Freljord wouldn't be available at launch. I feel Demacia, Noxus and Freljord are guaranteed to be released on launch alongside maybe Piltover & Zaun, due to the success of Arcane
This will not be an issue to Guild Wars players because we are used to play a closed-open world. We have a TON of inaccessible zones we are still waiting to be included in some future update
I strongly believe that some of these regions can be introduced in parts, my list would be like this: Demacia - Noxus - 'Avarosan' Freljord Piltover - Zaun - Shurima Ionia - Bilgewater - Rest of the Freljord Ixtal - Shadow Isle - Targon - Icathia - Bandle City And in far far always future: The eastern most part of the world with the ruins of Camavor, Kathkan and whatever the rest of the continent is
I imagine this at launch: Demacia, Noxus, Piltover and Freljord. For the base game, this would be more than enough. Now they could still easily make and expansion about Freljord, discovering secrets that was not revealed, or diggin deeper, theres is absolutely nothing wrong in going back for an expansion, as long as it still progresses lorewise. This could be a war broke ot between the 3 sisters, or Volibear finally descended to wage havoc - You get the idea. Personally for me, due to my scandiavian roots, the world would feel so incomplete without Freljord, but that is a personal opinion
Just getting all of Valoran in there at launch is an option I still think is pretty likely. Freljord is were a lot of the story is so I hear what your saying on that 😅 Maybe they could at least include part of it if they don’t do the whole thing 🤔
Great video! I love seeing someone else who has also thought about this specific subject and seeing how our thoughts compare, and naturally we do see things a little differently, so here is my take. Demacia and Noxus being 'in' are fairly obvious, they are foundational, no disagreement. But I wouldn't be so sure about Piltover, it definitely jumped up in popularity from Arcane but its still in many ways detached from the primary struggles of the world and has a major thematic disconnect from the high fantasy base game that I could see being more fitting for an expansion. The idea that it's important to include because it's centrally located to me falls a little flat because it's just one city, and you wouldn't use it to cross down into the southern continent, south of piltover is just uninhabited jungle. Rather you get to Shurima by sea, most of valoran not even needing to pass through Piltover to do that. I also think it's relationship with Zaun is too deep to have one fully integrated and not the other (especially if there is a proper faction system) and on it's own I can't help but feel it would get overshadowed a bit by other larger starting regions. I think a Piltover and Zaun expansion together would be needed to have a region on the same level as Freljord/Ionia/Noxus etc, and it would make sure they are both in together, it would be a hype choice, plus it would allow them to fit that higher tech slice of the world into one content package. Then there is the fact that you think Bilge and Shurima are more likely for the start, while Ionia and Freljord are more likely to be down the line, flipped from me. Now with both Shurima and Bilge you somewhat discounted people's interest in them and their capacity to serve as interesting expansion regions, but I would say they both have plenty, Shurima has the ascended to meet and ongoing civil war between Azir and Xerath, lost cities and tombs, some struggle to explore with Noxus, a unique biome (which from the sounds of it you arent a desert fan, which is fine, but there are people like me who absolutely adore desert levels in any game), its the best opportunity to tackle the Darkin which are pretty major well liked villains, plus it would be when they start drip feeding some void action and tease of more to come later. As for Bilge, I find it odd that you would talk about under water levels with Targon but not for Bilgewater, that would absolutely play a big part, plus we would see some development in the struggle between MF and GP. People do absolutely adore pirates and there is an ocean of tropes to play around with, the Buhru give an entirely different other culture to tap into, the black mist of course. That said would I agree that Ionia and Freljord would be more anticipated? Sure, when going over other metrics, I absolutely feel both are more crucial to the League world and it feeling complete than Shurima and Bilgewater, they are on another continent and some islands respectively while Freljord is a huge part of Valoran, Ionia is across a sea but is hugely important in it's interactions with Noxus, infact really we have gotten in the past and present more between them then Noxus and Demacia. Ionia is also certainly the most popular region in the game (and thats not even considering eastern audiences) I simply don't think they would cut the most anticipated region in the game from launch (and in the same vein as you, this isnt bias because I actually dislike Ionia), Freljord meanwhile is also directly tied to Demacia's lore advancement because of Sylas making alliance with some Freljordian clans and starting skirmishes between them, I doubt they would end the current Demacia storyline before the mmo, and finishing it would be made a lot easier with Freljord. The concern I saw you give for both of them was that they are so large and have so much depth that it would be hard to do them justice without a dedicated expansion. But the on release world is going to have to impress to really have a success and I think if Freljord and Ionia are part of just four starting regions its not unreasonable, with that many regions, each one would HAVE to have a lot of depth to them, its true that there is a lot of Noxus we know less about, but I would expect the mmo to be the thing to truly bring it up to par, its certainly physically large enough to also match Ionia and Freljord. Notably when comparing our lists I cant help but take notice of the fact that Riot themselves had to ask this question for Legends of Runeterra and when they did, they deemed Ionia and Freljord as starting regions, and Shurima and Bilgewater as expansion regions. Secondary note, on your point about classes, I think its a whole other beast to wonder about how classes will be handled, because region specific whole classes could become problematic, although I have no doubt that this will exist to some degree. There is certainly room to be disappointed about not being able to play a certain style. But launching new classes with regions is certainly something to make new expansions that much more exciting!
I may have thought of piltover and Zaun to separate. I didn’t feel piltover could handle an expansion on its own but I agree with you that a piltover/Zaun expansion would 🤔
Love the way yougraphically showed the regions on the left! I only disagree on one point, I think Shurima has great potential wit for internal conflict with the rise of Azir. He could clash with the surrounding tribes, with Noxus which is already claiming parts of Shurima or with void forces in the south .Xerath is gathering his followers as well and it would be easy to have some of the darkin rise up to add even more chaos. I could definitely see a Shurima expansion creating tons of hype.
Thanks Fresch! There is a lot of lore in Shurima but everything with the Ascended such as Xerath and Azir stems from Targon. I felt it would need to be included before Targon which I think will be an expansion which is why I said Shutina just to include it at launch. I do think Shitima could be a great expansion though!
I think Demacia, Noxus, Freljord, Shurima, Piltover and Bilgewater will be available at launch. The Northeast of Freljord could be excluded for "The Frostguard Citadel" dungeon/raid patch. Naljaag could be the furthest you could travel until the patch hits. Ionia might be there at launch too and if not than i expect it to be 1st expansion. Zaun could be the 1st or 2nd expansion. Shadow Isles as an expansion could be introduced together with The Harrowing event like in the video said. Ixtal and The Void i somehow can see as a combo expansion. Targon could come in form of a "tower challange" where players need to climb and fight their way up, i hope it will be extremely difficult and high so that only the best players can reach the very top. Bandle City will most likely be an expansion too. Also other zones that are not yet in the lore could be introduced.
@@entgrove I hope every zone will have something special about it. Like Targon being a tower challenge. Bilgewater could have a tavern that is an underwater aquarium where sea life that got caught/fished by players would swim all around. Riot can make it so that every sea species has random colors and body parts. So every time you catch a fish or other sea creatures they would look different from eachother. Riot can than pick which sea creatures to put in the underwater aquarium tank. Piltover could be a nice place where you and your guild can build your ship and start traveling the seas. Maybe you could do a video on that if you havnt already.
My non-biased opinion says Freljord is in the launch of the game with Demacia and Noxus. Unsure about the others but I feel like these 3 are very important. We probably wont be able to fight Lissandra until a big patch.
Your not the only one saying freljord at launch 😅 I just really see it as a great expansion and being saved. So much there to put it in the base game would feel like a monumental task and would overshadow the other zones.
@@entgrove I feel like even Piltover and Zaun could be an expansion with all the political intrigue and corruption. I’m with you on wanted to make a Spiritwalker like Udyr or Berserker like Olaf!
Demacia and Noxus are the best for a beta/ demo and Noxus can have some ships to get u to Shurima continent part of Noxus. So for the first expand after Valoran we have Shurima and maybe Piltover.
Great video! my opinion isn't nearly as well thought out as yours, but I believe Demacia, Noxus, Piltover, Freljord, and Bilgewater will all be the zones at release :)
The freljord is one of the zones I had the most trouble not including. In the end it came down to expansion potential for me but this is definitely a possibility 🤔 Thanks Elliott!
Ishtal in the void region south of Shurima could definitely lead into something like that!! Zilean is a character I can’t wait to meet in the Riot MMO.
My take is that the Riot MMO starting zones is that it's not that deep. Valoran plus Piltover/Zaun, done and done. You get an entire continent, where the first DLCs are going to add Ionia and Shurima/Icathia/The Void. Alternately, they swap out The Freljord (I mean The Watchers are pretty much end-game content) for Shurima, which leaves Piltover and Zaun as the center of the available map at launch. There's not a whole lot you can do in Piltover IMO, and Zaun is too small compared to The Void or all of Ionia for Zaun to be a major DLC, so I think Piltover/Zaun will be grouped together in the game as the tutorial levels. You can never have one without the other, much more so than having Demacia/Noxus without the other. Piltover and Zaun are literally built on top of one another. You can't have Piltover without Zaun propping it up. In my vision, Piltover is the hub of the game like it is in Runeterra lore. It is where the Hex Gates are located (fast travel hub locations, anyone? Once you complete the tutorial, they are activated and you can leave from there), and it has that familiarity you would want out of a starting city. The tutorial plots in my head would be tasking you to meet with certain important characters, and head into Zaun to fight the enemies (Zaun would be the part of Piltover/Zaun region with hostiles in it, save for specific instances or dungeons that I could see maybe spilling over into Piltover). I could also see a way to join Zaun and go against Piltover, but that would create a lot of problems in and of itself (enemies of Piltover probably don't get to use the Hex Gates freely). Not to immediately contradict myself here, but Piltover/Zaun could still be the hub city and the tutorial zones could be elsewhere, but P/Z would need to be the first spot you go to once you get access to the Hex Gates. As for the others: Noxus is a yes, it ties all of the continents together. It will be the springboard for the first waves of DLC. Demacia is a yes, it makes too much sense to have it there. It ties the whole of Valoran together as the defenders or whatever. Freljord is a maybe to start with, as much as that pains me to say. 3 very different major tribes (4 if you include The Ursine) all fighting for survival against each other and the nations of Demacia and Noxus. Raiding parties on the borders are common, and there are plot points with Sylas that could be the start of the DLC content. Side note: I love that the "exciting" regions of the Freljord are only one place. The Howling Abyss is crossed by a bridge that leads to: The Frostguard Citadel which was built on top of: The Frozen Watchers. The other 95% of The Freljord is secondary Ionia is an absolute no to start with. Across the ocean, incredibly popular (just look at how many champions are from there), has amazing lore with demons and shadow magic, very stylized and very different thematically from what we assume will be the base world. It says DLC through and through. Bilgewater is a no, unless they replace Piltover/Zaun's inclusion for it, as Bilgewater is the only other neutral territory, and is small compared to rest of the land. Halloween content is when The Harrowing events will start on Bilgewater. Anything that would be tied to a holiday is hard for me to take seriously as a launch zone, so this is why I think no for Bilgewater. Shadow Isles is a no, even if Bilgewater is where the tutorial happens. It's just not big enough or in the way enough to warrant going there versus just having the Black Mist show up in certain locations. Imagine a Sentinels-level event that leads us to the Shadow Isles DLC, where everyone can play through and get relic-stone or mist-powered weaponry. Ixtal is a no, period. Not exciting but that's because there is no lore for it. Ixtal is so boring it would hurt to even include it. Ixtal would be the last DLC imo, even after Camavor. Alternatively, if they decide to add Elemental Mage as a DLC class, they could add Ixtal then so there's at least a bit of hype around it because of a new class. Shurima is a maybe, depends if they go with hub in center of map, or blocking off one side untile DLC arrive. Shurima is very much tied to Icathia (which is gone so it should instead be referred to as where the Void portal is) Targon is probably a no, but I can see needing access to Targon if they intend to do Prestige leveling, where the celestials or aspects give you boons you can spend on extra stats for PVP/Raids. Finally, Bandle City is the only other possible hub city, and maybe that is what Yordles will use to fast travel, but I don't think non-Yordles are really able to enter, so I doubt it's base
This was a great read. Although I do like Ixtal 😅 I always took the lack of lore as mystery but you are right that’s it’s not as fleshed out as many of the other zones
I thought a little bit different about the regions on release (and I totally forgot about bandle city, though I want to play as a yordle lol). I think that Demacia/Noxus/Freljord will be on release. 1 xpac Ionia + bandle city (both have spirit realm connections), 2 xpac Piltover/Zaun. And the thing with Piltover/Zaun I think could be the biggest unique selling point of the xpac is that the both whole cities will be the capitals AND the new zones of the xpac themselves. Like you can see that they can make several zones/maps out of Ionia/Noxus/Demacia/any other region but Piltover/Zaun xpac's could be absolutely different. Imagine the complexity of the vertical level design and the possibilities of exploring ideas for the gamedesign and mechanics. Like gettin a HOVERBOARD like in Arcane to traverse from the top (Piltover) to the bottom (Zaun) freely in the air. Kinda like a flying mount. It's kinda just a dream of mine because I saw the concept arts of Zaun and MY GOD it would be so fucking cool if the whole xpac was the cities themselves. There is only one big problem. The only problem to not go for it could be because of the casual audience because navigating will be extremely hard (unless they have gods in leveldesign and map UI) so, as sad as it is, they'll probably drop it. We already have an example of an attempt in the great vertical level design not being liked by the game community in gw2's 1st xpac Heart of thorns. HoT has insanely vertical cool looking maps (and the selling point of the dlc is that you get a glider to traverse in this "stuff") and they're my favourite zones in the whole game tbh but I can see that for the 90% of the community it's just a pain in the ass. And literally in the second xpac they went for the flat surfaces again and this is so LAME I can't. But oh boi I would be happy if they don't make Piltover/Zaun just 2 little cities and a central hub for the players. So much potential. Especially after Arcane. ESPECIALLY if Arcane2/3 will be bangers too. And, sure, it either would be Piltover/Zaun 1st and Ionia/Bandle city second or just vice versa. But after these I have no idea what the order could be. Targon? Shurima? Or straight to the pirates with their bs? Or maybe Ixtal/Void? Hm... maybe Ixtal/Void -> Shurima/Targon (or vice versa) and then Bilgewater/Shadow Isles and from there start going to Camavor...? I dunno.
I like the Ionia bandle city combo with the spirit realm connection! And Zaun/Piltover definitely deserve the attention. Zaun could be a whole expansion all its own imo
@@entgrove Yeee, if they'll be able to develop the story of zaun with hextech, chemtech, chem barons, Shurima stuff, Ixtal (new Skarner lore) and + there are shurima ruins (if I remember correctly) deep beneath Zaun. That's already a lot to expand and tease other regions while having a lot of stuff to do in these 2 cities. And it could be the ideal, kinda, chill xpac where we're not dealin with insane threats like Void, Morde, Viego or whatever, but still may have an epic story and an ideal settin point to any region in the future. Really interested in how Riot will bend the story. Insanely unpredictable. I think we may witness the second biggest lore overhaul, like in 2016 when the map came out, before the mmo release to set everything in stone properly. If Arcane 2 will be a banger, they'll go with it's storyline as canon 100%. Their biggest second pain right now (apart from making the gameplay/gamedesign great, which is the first biggest problem lol) is to make everything in the story of the mmo feel ogranic and believable. MMOs are not popular for their stories in general. And pretty much cliche all the time. Even ff14. But riot have the potential to crank up the story to the level of a single player game. Like, Arcane is the ideal example. I'm so tired of the straight good/bad, white/black analogies but Arcane made the gray morale so good that it felt so grown up/adult? I dunno the proper word. Of course I wouldn't hope for the mmo to keep up with THAT level of the storytelling, but even going for the overall theme of Arcane's gray morale would be already such a breath of fresh air. Games are too sterile nowadays. And we can actually already see that Riot are aiming for that in the lore. Demacia is kinda about magic and good people, being isolate. But they have insane racism too. Noxus looks like an invading 24/7 agressive bitch. And they're. But they're very loyal and fair too. Not just evil Nazis or something. And that's what I already like that the lore is not 100% good/bad. And about the game's direction. I REALLY REALLY REAAAAAAAAAALLY HOPE they'll just focus on the PvE aspect and the world immersion (like 90-95%). And not try to make an esport pvp out of this. They already have the biggest popular and stressful competitive games on the market (I have 7 years in league). And there are more coming (like the fighting game). So I hope that they'll make mmorpg casual/midcore with the difficulty options in the dungeons/raids or whatever pve activities they'll have. Thanks for coming to my desperate mmo addict TED talk.
@@Omnionim Amazing TED talk imo hah! I'm with you hoping for deep, nuanced storytelling in the MMO. Especially considering what Riot has achieved with Arcane.
@@entgrove Yo. Imagine if Seraphine gets a redemption arc to the scale of a Tyler1 gettin reformed ahahahah. That could be such a fuckin meme. The most disastrous champion lorewise in LoL. And the biggest protag in mmorpg in the pilt/zaun xpac or whatever because of the redemption arc with scarner and his new lore ahaahahhaha. Won't happen, but it's just a funny thought which I've got before bed.
This MMO is going to be HUGE, so thinking 10 years right there, maybe more, as much as it sucks, but with those expacs will come new races & new classes, this will keep the game fresh & player base high & hype. I am with you tho, I love both Ionia & Freljord too. #2026 Release
Valoran is the only region that should start. This is no probpem, this is a blessi g of things to come. This region, as well as being the origonal focus, is also one without need of guns, black powder, and advanced tech, whoch will be great for expansions.
I would think for launch they would at least need to have the continents of Valoran and Ionia because those are the two most central regions with conflict and lore to begin with. Shurima could be the first expansion. Then Bilge Water + Shadow Isles for the 2nd expansion, and the 3rd could be Camavoran for the 3rd.
@@redeye8899 Yordle's having a race exclusive skill that lets you make town portals is a pretty fun idea. Might make them a bit too OP, though, causing people to meta game it.
U kinda think wrong way about your 3rd point. Since lore rich locarions are as good expansions as in launch since u wanna drag ppl into that world to even think of expansoins
for me what i think demacia noxus shurima and piltover are the main place because of the classes demacia paladin and noxsus warrior piltover archer or ranger and shurima mage i pick those place as a main place cuz i see on them the main classes
Classes is something I thought about as well when selecting the zones! That’s the big problem they face with this direction, but I think I came up with a decent solution to this at the end.
Bilgewater and Freljord should switch places. There's a significant factor you're missing in regards to all of this in that game design and world flow. Not just whether it's blocked off or out of the way but rather it makes sense to divide everything into sub-continents. Demacia, Noxus and Freljord (maybe piltover and some percentage of zaun) makes way too much sense as the base game considering it's the bulk of the subcontinent. I only include piltover/zaun in this base game because it has the star-power of arcane behind it for sales.
I just feel freljord would dominate the world. It would no longer be a welcome to Runterra first launch. It would be a freljord sentric world just because it would over shadow all the other zones. But they could include freljord and we just explore it more later. I can definitely see your suggestion as a possibility! My focus was on making the world feel complete while saving as much as possible for expansions.
@@NanomachineExE I see Valoran as a separate continent which includes Freljord, Noxus, Demacia, and Piltover. Then southern Runterra Shurima, Targon, Ixtal, Icathia, and Bilgewater. Ionia is just its own continent all its own. But I see what you are saying! You could definitely section off Freljord with that giant mountain range! Its almost like its own continent with how different it is
I feel as though you're disregarding all of the stuff shurima brings with its history and content outside of targon and icathia. sure a large part of it's identity comes WITH those two regions but it has its own culture, desert raiders, void problem, darkin, and tombs just to name a few things which we can all explore when it does become an expansion. Also with the release of ksante we learned that shurima is also turning into sort of a monster hunter esq region due to the giant beasts that xerath is making. So it'd be pretty cool to have an mmo with a bit of monster hunter blended into the gameplay.
I actually do agree with you, and that’s why I couldn’t say confidently it wouldn’t be included. But the ascended/sun disc stem from Targon, the void/darken stem from Icathia, and there are monsters all over the world of Runterra. I am a fan of Shurima, it’s one of my favorite zones in the game. But some zones need to be included and if Shurima isn’t it would have to be an expansion before Targon Icathia and you could even make and argument for before Ishtal given that Ishtal mages where the main reason the sun disc was successfully created the first time. I just felt those zones would be better expansions and Shurima could be included early so you can still feel those zones presence. Easy route would be to just cut the world in half and do all of valoran. But I thought the world would feel incomplete. I included Shurima for the same reason I included Bilgewater. You will feel zones presence without theme bing included and they could be saved for a future expansion!
@@Shurikinnn i personally don't think it'll come on release, I believe that just valoran would be open on launch with maybe bilgewater being accessible, all of the other continents will just be expansions
@@rowmein Unfortunately I have the same thoughts. It's absolutely expansion material. I disagree with Bilgewater as it also has a lot of expansion material.
Thanks Elgato!! That would be really innovative I wonder what other ways that could do an expansion that doesn’t involve adding a new zone 🤔. I think traveling somewhere new would be cool for an expansion but I do feel Riot is trying to do something different.
@@entgrove I always hoped for world progression. Eg; a big war between two factions or a cult wit nefarious intent spreading across the land. Mainly just keeping content evergreen. I just kinda hate that once a new x-pac drops it just invalidates all the old stuff. But I’m no game dev, I’m just some dude on the internet 😂😅
I'd rather wait another few years rather than be blocked from such places like Ionia or Freljord at launch. Those are too iconic and this video fails to include this trait into the consideration. Especially Freljord since it's on the same continent as the other two unquestionable regions.
The iconic factors of those zones is why they would make great expansions. Your foaming at the mouth for them already 😅 They are also so iconic they would overshadow the other zones. Another option could be to include a small portion of the zones. And save the rest for an expansion. But who knows at the end of the day. This are just my thoughts
@@tellywilly50 o man, no way! My brother watched this video and said he couldn't see it going any other way after watching it. But it might just be groupthink 😂 I am not a game developer, but I am a software developer. Just tried to take a logical approach and this is what I came up with. 😅
What are your thoughts? Anything on my list you would change? Let me know!
What is the name of the game ?
@@doposud Riot has not announced the name yet. All we know is that it will be an MMO set in the world of Runeterra, which is the world League of Legends is based on.
This video was based on an interview response from one of the team members currently working on the game!
I bet that they will follow the logic of the “World of Warcraft” and go for “Realms of Runeterra”
Runes echoes for craft as it stems for the magical part of the name, and they could go for realms instead of world to keep the RoR logic as in WoW and LoL
@@amesensible8418 everyone is always saying Worlds of Runterra but it was confirmed that is not it.
Honestly, Realms of Runeterra sounds really good 😂
They should either focus on the northern half or do something like eso with access to only parts of the countries and expand the area with dlc
This is going to be a big comment...
Is my opinion that is impossible to include every zone at launch however they 100% need to be included lore wise, what do I mean by this? Well, Shadow Isles are not going to be a thing at launch but there are to be a couple of quests in each zone regarding the Ruination, nothing extensive but they should exist.(Example: Some one is very sick, they have no cure for disease but they remember the legends, the legends of the Waters of Life that used to exist in the Blessed Isles however that is no longer a possibility due to The Ruination)
Regarding which regions should be at launch I think they have 2 options either they launch with few "complete" regions or scope it up but only with, for example, 20~30% of the region explorable.(Which in my opinion is the better alternative, for example Zaun has 3 levels, it would be released with only the 1st level.)
DEMACIA: Will be at launch in a pretty complete state.
NOXUS: Will be at launch in a pretty complete state. Specially due to it's variety and diversity of cultures would allow for a lot of world building in a single region.
FRELJORD: It should be at launch but only the most southern part. Not only it borders with Noxus and Demacia which would be great for questing but it would allow for more initial classes.
PILTOVER and ZAUN: Will be at launch 100% due to the great publicity of Arcane, both cities should be released with only the first level.
BANDLE CITY: It should be at launch, it's the best explanation lore wise to be able to go to every region and every mmo has a cute/rat race it would be a gigantic waste not to.
SHURIMA: It should be at launch but only the most northern part it has a lots of history as a fallen empire, could easily release only with the surface desert > release the tombs > Restore the city of Shurima (depends a LOT on the Age?/Year? that the game starts lore wise.)
BILGEWATER: Shouldn't be in at launch however should be mentioned a LOT in every "Port" location, they can easily release release classes of this region even without the Region itself being in the game.(Example: You can start in any port city and have some kind of old sailor give you the class skills and then when they release Bilgewater (which should be the 1st region) then you can meet the real "Masters".)
IONIA: This one is a tricky one, in my opinion shouldn't be at launch. The classes that you would want from Ionia should be obtainable in Freljord.
IXTAL: Definitely not at launch.
TARGON: Definitely not at launch, should be one of the last expansions.
SHADOW ISLES: Definetily not at launch, should be one of the last expansions.
ICATHIA: Definitely not at launch, should be one of the last expansions.
This is my opinion on how the game should be released, feel free to comment on what you agree/disagree with. I will reply as I think this is a fascinating subject!
Btw if you go to Zaun and a Warwick jumps on you and kills you is absolutely brilliant! :D
I like the idea of southern part of freljord. Want a freljord expansion all to itself where we explore the watchers in the future! So much there it has to be a stand alone in my opinion.
Thanks for the awesome comment Marco! and the appreciation for my Warwick option hah :D
LMAO I also liked the insta death by entering a zone comment haha
To me Bandle City should be at launch except you cant explore lore wise until expansion pack. I mean this as you use the spirit realm as some sort of fast travel ( like in God of War)
@@meyamolama7686 They can do a lot of different things with Bandle City but I think the better one would be a teleport hub in which you can teleport to whatever regions are available. Which is actually a great idea, this way they can limit the parts of the map available.
Bandle city is the trickiest one for the release tbh. Maybe add 1 main map through the portal to Bandle City to know it's existence and the yordle teach us the yordle magic for the teleportation (so lorewise fast travel will be explained) and then expand all other stuff with Ionia in the xpac. Or we can't get to bandle city at all on release but still get a skill to tp somehow. Maybe first fast travels will be through the Hexgates for the 1.0 version so we can have the fast travel and the yordles but Bandle city will be developed fully only in 2.0-3.0 with Ionia for example after some years. And then we get a better version of the fast travel. I dunno, a lot of possibilities.
Everything is fine except I think Freljord should be full on launch or at least become full before 2.0. So we get complete Valoran and first introduction to the void and the first/second major raid. So then riot can easily for Ixtal/Bandle city (both have the spirit realm connection) for the first xpac and THEN for the second expand fully Piltover/Zaun and go for Shurima because of the connection to the hex magic.
So, yeah, I don't agree on Shurima even partially on release.
Man, I dunno. This is so fucking hard LOL. How are they going to make it work lorewise AND storywise I have 0 fucking idea. And make it quality and great in gamedesign too.
I'm an atheist but I'll pray for them.
I have a comment in the comment section already about how I would like for Piltover/Zaun to be their own full xpac btw.
I think u can easily make classes playable without having the region for it ready yet, so that shouldn't be a problem. Shadow isles, Zaun, Icathia (the Void), Targon are all a big yes for expansion... but I would also put Ionia and probably Freljord, Shurima to the list. I don't think you need that much of the map to make the release amazing.
If they dont include Shurima at launch, it will definitely be an early if not first expansion. Will definitely come before Icathia and Targon.
one thing I really dont want to see if everything get burned through to fast. Like Shurima expansion with Targon and Icathia patches
Yes there is an event called great migration.
This is the first MMO I have been this hyped for besides WoW. The fact that there is this much lore already that expansions can be laid out so far ahead of time is amazing!!! My one downer is I love Northrend and Death Knights so I really want to see the Freljord but it makes sense that just like Northrend was held out it could be held out for its own expansion. Great video can't wait to see more!
same!
Know that the undead are not from the north in this world. Death knight like character might be from the shadow Isle tho
@@VSasseville9 o damn I didn’t know that! Then bring on the shadow isle!
I don't see why the Freljord wouldn't be available at launch. I feel Demacia, Noxus and Freljord are guaranteed to be released on launch alongside maybe Piltover & Zaun, due to the success of Arcane
This will not be an issue to Guild Wars players because we are used to play a closed-open world. We have a TON of inaccessible zones we are still waiting to be included in some future update
I strongly believe that some of these regions can be introduced in parts, my list would be like this:
Demacia - Noxus - 'Avarosan' Freljord
Piltover - Zaun - Shurima
Ionia - Bilgewater - Rest of the Freljord
Ixtal - Shadow Isle - Targon - Icathia - Bandle City
And in far far always future:
The eastern most part of the world with the ruins of Camavor, Kathkan and whatever the rest of the continent is
Camavor would be awesome to explore! I wonder what’s left
@@entgrove it's going to be freaking amazing
I imagine this at launch: Demacia, Noxus, Piltover and Freljord. For the base game, this would be more than enough.
Now they could still easily make and expansion about Freljord, discovering secrets that was not revealed, or diggin deeper, theres is absolutely nothing wrong in going back for an expansion, as long as it still progresses lorewise. This could be a war broke ot between the 3 sisters, or Volibear finally descended to wage havoc - You get the idea.
Personally for me, due to my scandiavian roots, the world would feel so incomplete without Freljord, but that is a personal opinion
Just getting all of Valoran in there at launch is an option I still think is pretty likely.
Freljord is were a lot of the story is so I hear what your saying on that 😅
Maybe they could at least include part of it if they don’t do the whole thing 🤔
Great video! I love seeing someone else who has also thought about this specific subject and seeing how our thoughts compare, and naturally we do see things a little differently, so here is my take.
Demacia and Noxus being 'in' are fairly obvious, they are foundational, no disagreement. But I wouldn't be so sure about Piltover, it definitely jumped up in popularity from Arcane but its still in many ways detached from the primary struggles of the world and has a major thematic disconnect from the high fantasy base game that I could see being more fitting for an expansion. The idea that it's important to include because it's centrally located to me falls a little flat because it's just one city, and you wouldn't use it to cross down into the southern continent, south of piltover is just uninhabited jungle. Rather you get to Shurima by sea, most of valoran not even needing to pass through Piltover to do that. I also think it's relationship with Zaun is too deep to have one fully integrated and not the other (especially if there is a proper faction system) and on it's own I can't help but feel it would get overshadowed a bit by other larger starting regions. I think a Piltover and Zaun expansion together would be needed to have a region on the same level as Freljord/Ionia/Noxus etc, and it would make sure they are both in together, it would be a hype choice, plus it would allow them to fit that higher tech slice of the world into one content package.
Then there is the fact that you think Bilge and Shurima are more likely for the start, while Ionia and Freljord are more likely to be down the line, flipped from me. Now with both Shurima and Bilge you somewhat discounted people's interest in them and their capacity to serve as interesting expansion regions, but I would say they both have plenty, Shurima has the ascended to meet and ongoing civil war between Azir and Xerath, lost cities and tombs, some struggle to explore with Noxus, a unique biome (which from the sounds of it you arent a desert fan, which is fine, but there are people like me who absolutely adore desert levels in any game), its the best opportunity to tackle the Darkin which are pretty major well liked villains, plus it would be when they start drip feeding some void action and tease of more to come later. As for Bilge, I find it odd that you would talk about under water levels with Targon but not for Bilgewater, that would absolutely play a big part, plus we would see some development in the struggle between MF and GP. People do absolutely adore pirates and there is an ocean of tropes to play around with, the Buhru give an entirely different other culture to tap into, the black mist of course.
That said would I agree that Ionia and Freljord would be more anticipated? Sure, when going over other metrics, I absolutely feel both are more crucial to the League world and it feeling complete than Shurima and Bilgewater, they are on another continent and some islands respectively while Freljord is a huge part of Valoran, Ionia is across a sea but is hugely important in it's interactions with Noxus, infact really we have gotten in the past and present more between them then Noxus and Demacia. Ionia is also certainly the most popular region in the game (and thats not even considering eastern audiences) I simply don't think they would cut the most anticipated region in the game from launch (and in the same vein as you, this isnt bias because I actually dislike Ionia), Freljord meanwhile is also directly tied to Demacia's lore advancement because of Sylas making alliance with some Freljordian clans and starting skirmishes between them, I doubt they would end the current Demacia storyline before the mmo, and finishing it would be made a lot easier with Freljord.
The concern I saw you give for both of them was that they are so large and have so much depth that it would be hard to do them justice without a dedicated expansion. But the on release world is going to have to impress to really have a success and I think if Freljord and Ionia are part of just four starting regions its not unreasonable, with that many regions, each one would HAVE to have a lot of depth to them, its true that there is a lot of Noxus we know less about, but I would expect the mmo to be the thing to truly bring it up to par, its certainly physically large enough to also match Ionia and Freljord. Notably when comparing our lists I cant help but take notice of the fact that Riot themselves had to ask this question for Legends of Runeterra and when they did, they deemed Ionia and Freljord as starting regions, and Shurima and Bilgewater as expansion regions.
Secondary note, on your point about classes, I think its a whole other beast to wonder about how classes will be handled, because region specific whole classes could become problematic, although I have no doubt that this will exist to some degree. There is certainly room to be disappointed about not being able to play a certain style. But launching new classes with regions is certainly something to make new expansions that much more exciting!
I may have thought of piltover and Zaun to separate. I didn’t feel piltover could handle an expansion on its own but I agree with you that a piltover/Zaun expansion would 🤔
Love the way yougraphically showed the regions on the left!
I only disagree on one point, I think Shurima has great potential wit for internal conflict with the rise of Azir. He could clash with the surrounding tribes, with Noxus which is already claiming parts of Shurima or with void forces in the south .Xerath is gathering his followers as well and it would be easy to have some of the darkin rise up to add even more chaos. I could definitely see a Shurima expansion creating tons of hype.
Thanks Fresch! There is a lot of lore in Shurima but everything with the Ascended such as Xerath and Azir stems from Targon. I felt it would need to be included before Targon which I think will be an expansion which is why I said Shutina just to include it at launch.
I do think Shitima could be a great expansion though!
I think Demacia, Noxus, Freljord, Shurima, Piltover and Bilgewater will be available at launch.
The Northeast of Freljord could be excluded for "The Frostguard Citadel" dungeon/raid patch. Naljaag could be the furthest you could travel until the patch hits.
Ionia might be there at launch too and if not than i expect it to be 1st expansion.
Zaun could be the 1st or 2nd expansion.
Shadow Isles as an expansion could be introduced together with The Harrowing event like in the video said.
Ixtal and The Void i somehow can see as a combo expansion.
Targon could come in form of a "tower challange" where players need to climb and fight their way up, i hope it will be extremely difficult and high so that only the best players can reach the very top.
Bandle City will most likely be an expansion too.
Also other zones that are not yet in the lore could be introduced.
I like the idea of including freljord but keep frostguard citadel out!
If they do include freljord I do feel that will inherently be end game.
I also like the tower challenge idea for Targon, that could be a cool piece
@@entgrove I hope every zone will have something special about it. Like Targon being a tower challenge.
Bilgewater could have a tavern that is an underwater aquarium where sea life that got caught/fished by players would swim all around. Riot can make it so that every sea species has random colors and body parts. So every time you catch a fish or other sea creatures they would look different from eachother. Riot can than pick which sea creatures to put in the underwater aquarium tank.
Piltover could be a nice place where you and your guild can build your ship and start traveling the seas.
Maybe you could do a video on that if you havnt already.
My non-biased opinion says Freljord is in the launch of the game with Demacia and Noxus. Unsure about the others but I feel like these 3 are very important. We probably wont be able to fight Lissandra until a big patch.
Your not the only one saying freljord at launch 😅
I just really see it as a great expansion and being saved. So much there to put it in the base game would feel like a monumental task and would overshadow the other zones.
@@entgrove I feel like even Piltover and Zaun could be an expansion with all the political intrigue and corruption.
I’m with you on wanted to make a Spiritwalker like Udyr or Berserker like Olaf!
Really great insight for your channel size, keep it up man!
Thanks Bubba!!!
Demacia and Noxus are the best for a beta/ demo and Noxus can have some ships to get u to Shurima continent part of Noxus.
So for the first expand after Valoran we have Shurima and maybe Piltover.
If those aren’t included at launch I completely agree, those would be next
Great video! my opinion isn't nearly as well thought out as yours, but I believe Demacia, Noxus, Piltover, Freljord, and Bilgewater will all be the zones at release :)
The freljord is one of the zones I had the most trouble not including. In the end it came down to expansion potential for me but this is definitely a possibility 🤔
Thanks Elliott!
@Shurima Zilean seeks for your help, the one Darken that cant be defeaten now has to be defeaten in the past -> timetravel -> Expansion
Ishtal in the void region south of Shurima could definitely lead into something like that!! Zilean is a character I can’t wait to meet in the Riot MMO.
My take is that the Riot MMO starting zones is that it's not that deep. Valoran plus Piltover/Zaun, done and done. You get an entire continent, where the first DLCs are going to add Ionia and Shurima/Icathia/The Void. Alternately, they swap out The Freljord (I mean The Watchers are pretty much end-game content) for Shurima, which leaves Piltover and Zaun as the center of the available map at launch.
There's not a whole lot you can do in Piltover IMO, and Zaun is too small compared to The Void or all of Ionia for Zaun to be a major DLC, so I think Piltover/Zaun will be grouped together in the game as the tutorial levels. You can never have one without the other, much more so than having Demacia/Noxus without the other. Piltover and Zaun are literally built on top of one another. You can't have Piltover without Zaun propping it up.
In my vision, Piltover is the hub of the game like it is in Runeterra lore. It is where the Hex Gates are located (fast travel hub locations, anyone? Once you complete the tutorial, they are activated and you can leave from there), and it has that familiarity you would want out of a starting city. The tutorial plots in my head would be tasking you to meet with certain important characters, and head into Zaun to fight the enemies (Zaun would be the part of Piltover/Zaun region with hostiles in it, save for specific instances or dungeons that I could see maybe spilling over into Piltover). I could also see a way to join Zaun and go against Piltover, but that would create a lot of problems in and of itself (enemies of Piltover probably don't get to use the Hex Gates freely). Not to immediately contradict myself here, but Piltover/Zaun could still be the hub city and the tutorial zones could be elsewhere, but P/Z would need to be the first spot you go to once you get access to the Hex Gates.
As for the others:
Noxus is a yes, it ties all of the continents together. It will be the springboard for the first waves of DLC.
Demacia is a yes, it makes too much sense to have it there. It ties the whole of Valoran together as the defenders or whatever.
Freljord is a maybe to start with, as much as that pains me to say. 3 very different major tribes (4 if you include The Ursine) all fighting for survival against each other and the nations of Demacia and Noxus. Raiding parties on the borders are common, and there are plot points with Sylas that could be the start of the DLC content. Side note: I love that the "exciting" regions of the Freljord are only one place. The Howling Abyss is crossed by a bridge that leads to: The Frostguard Citadel which was built on top of: The Frozen Watchers. The other 95% of The Freljord is secondary
Ionia is an absolute no to start with. Across the ocean, incredibly popular (just look at how many champions are from there), has amazing lore with demons and shadow magic, very stylized and very different thematically from what we assume will be the base world. It says DLC through and through.
Bilgewater is a no, unless they replace Piltover/Zaun's inclusion for it, as Bilgewater is the only other neutral territory, and is small compared to rest of the land. Halloween content is when The Harrowing events will start on Bilgewater. Anything that would be tied to a holiday is hard for me to take seriously as a launch zone, so this is why I think no for Bilgewater.
Shadow Isles is a no, even if Bilgewater is where the tutorial happens. It's just not big enough or in the way enough to warrant going there versus just having the Black Mist show up in certain locations. Imagine a Sentinels-level event that leads us to the Shadow Isles DLC, where everyone can play through and get relic-stone or mist-powered weaponry.
Ixtal is a no, period. Not exciting but that's because there is no lore for it. Ixtal is so boring it would hurt to even include it. Ixtal would be the last DLC imo, even after Camavor. Alternatively, if they decide to add Elemental Mage as a DLC class, they could add Ixtal then so there's at least a bit of hype around it because of a new class.
Shurima is a maybe, depends if they go with hub in center of map, or blocking off one side untile DLC arrive. Shurima is very much tied to Icathia (which is gone so it should instead be referred to as where the Void portal is)
Targon is probably a no, but I can see needing access to Targon if they intend to do Prestige leveling, where the celestials or aspects give you boons you can spend on extra stats for PVP/Raids.
Finally, Bandle City is the only other possible hub city, and maybe that is what Yordles will use to fast travel, but I don't think non-Yordles are really able to enter, so I doubt it's base
This was a great read. Although I do like Ixtal 😅 I always took the lack of lore as mystery but you are right that’s it’s not as fleshed out as many of the other zones
Honestly bandleader city could be the mean to fast travel
Using the bandle city gates would be an awesome lore accurate means of fast travel!
I thought a little bit different about the regions on release (and I totally forgot about bandle city, though I want to play as a yordle lol). I think that Demacia/Noxus/Freljord will be on release. 1 xpac Ionia + bandle city (both have spirit realm connections), 2 xpac Piltover/Zaun. And the thing with Piltover/Zaun I think could be the biggest unique selling point of the xpac is that the both whole cities will be the capitals AND the new zones of the xpac themselves. Like you can see that they can make several zones/maps out of Ionia/Noxus/Demacia/any other region but Piltover/Zaun xpac's could be absolutely different. Imagine the complexity of the vertical level design and the possibilities of exploring ideas for the gamedesign and mechanics. Like gettin a HOVERBOARD like in Arcane to traverse from the top (Piltover) to the bottom (Zaun) freely in the air. Kinda like a flying mount. It's kinda just a dream of mine because I saw the concept arts of Zaun and MY GOD it would be so fucking cool if the whole xpac was the cities themselves.
There is only one big problem. The only problem to not go for it could be because of the casual audience because navigating will be extremely hard (unless they have gods in leveldesign and map UI) so, as sad as it is, they'll probably drop it. We already have an example of an attempt in the great vertical level design not being liked by the game community in gw2's 1st xpac Heart of thorns. HoT has insanely vertical cool looking maps (and the selling point of the dlc is that you get a glider to traverse in this "stuff") and they're my favourite zones in the whole game tbh but I can see that for the 90% of the community it's just a pain in the ass. And literally in the second xpac they went for the flat surfaces again and this is so LAME I can't. But oh boi I would be happy if they don't make Piltover/Zaun just 2 little cities and a central hub for the players. So much potential. Especially after Arcane. ESPECIALLY if Arcane2/3 will be bangers too.
And, sure, it either would be Piltover/Zaun 1st and Ionia/Bandle city second or just vice versa.
But after these I have no idea what the order could be. Targon? Shurima? Or straight to the pirates with their bs? Or maybe Ixtal/Void?
Hm... maybe Ixtal/Void -> Shurima/Targon (or vice versa) and then Bilgewater/Shadow Isles and from there start going to Camavor...? I dunno.
I like the Ionia bandle city combo with the spirit realm connection! And Zaun/Piltover definitely deserve the attention. Zaun could be a whole expansion all its own imo
@@entgrove Yeee, if they'll be able to develop the story of zaun with hextech, chemtech, chem barons, Shurima stuff, Ixtal (new Skarner lore) and + there are shurima ruins (if I remember correctly) deep beneath Zaun. That's already a lot to expand and tease other regions while having a lot of stuff to do in these 2 cities. And it could be the ideal, kinda, chill xpac where we're not dealin with insane threats like Void, Morde, Viego or whatever, but still may have an epic story and an ideal settin point to any region in the future.
Really interested in how Riot will bend the story. Insanely unpredictable. I think we may witness the second biggest lore overhaul, like in 2016 when the map came out, before the mmo release to set everything in stone properly. If Arcane 2 will be a banger, they'll go with it's storyline as canon 100%.
Their biggest second pain right now (apart from making the gameplay/gamedesign great, which is the first biggest problem lol) is to make everything in the story of the mmo feel ogranic and believable. MMOs are not popular for their stories in general. And pretty much cliche all the time. Even ff14. But riot have the potential to crank up the story to the level of a single player game. Like, Arcane is the ideal example. I'm so tired of the straight good/bad, white/black analogies but Arcane made the gray morale so good that it felt so grown up/adult? I dunno the proper word. Of course I wouldn't hope for the mmo to keep up with THAT level of the storytelling, but even going for the overall theme of Arcane's gray morale would be already such a breath of fresh air. Games are too sterile nowadays. And we can actually already see that Riot are aiming for that in the lore. Demacia is kinda about magic and good people, being isolate. But they have insane racism too. Noxus looks like an invading 24/7 agressive bitch. And they're. But they're very loyal and fair too. Not just evil Nazis or something. And that's what I already like that the lore is not 100% good/bad.
And about the game's direction. I REALLY REALLY REAAAAAAAAAALLY HOPE they'll just focus on the PvE aspect and the world immersion (like 90-95%). And not try to make an esport pvp out of this. They already have the biggest popular and stressful competitive games on the market (I have 7 years in league). And there are more coming (like the fighting game). So I hope that they'll make mmorpg casual/midcore with the difficulty options in the dungeons/raids or whatever pve activities they'll have.
Thanks for coming to my desperate mmo addict TED talk.
@@Omnionim Amazing TED talk imo hah! I'm with you hoping for deep, nuanced storytelling in the MMO. Especially considering what Riot has achieved with Arcane.
@@entgrove Yo. Imagine if Seraphine gets a redemption arc to the scale of a Tyler1 gettin reformed ahahahah. That could be such a fuckin meme. The most disastrous champion lorewise in LoL. And the biggest protag in mmorpg in the pilt/zaun xpac or whatever because of the redemption arc with scarner and his new lore ahaahahhaha.
Won't happen, but it's just a funny thought which I've got before bed.
This MMO is going to be HUGE, so thinking 10 years right there, maybe more, as much as it sucks, but with those expacs will come new races & new classes, this will keep the game fresh & player base high & hype. I am with you tho, I love both Ionia & Freljord too. #2026 Release
End of 2025 or sometime 2026 does feel the most likely release date!
Hopefully I can get through all the current lore before than 😅
@@entgrove im expectng like 2028-2030...so i hope your right rather then me
Valoran is the only region that should start. This is no probpem, this is a blessi g of things to come. This region, as well as being the origonal focus, is also one without need of guns, black powder, and advanced tech, whoch will be great for expansions.
So you would say Demacia, noxus, and freljord only?
Or would you include piltover which is also conisdered a part of valoran but has a lot of tech 🤔
I would think for launch they would at least need to have the continents of Valoran and Ionia because those are the two most central regions with conflict and lore to begin with. Shurima could be the first expansion. Then Bilge Water + Shadow Isles for the 2nd expansion, and the 3rd could be Camavoran for the 3rd.
Camavor would be an awesome expansion! Great leaping off point into the Shadow Isles as well 👀
I think that bandle city would probably help us get to places, like maybe travel from point to point. Not explorable at the start but would be in it
This is a great idea for world travel at end game
I think we will be using Hexgates unless you roll Yordel, then you can use a portal like a mage
@@redeye8899 utilizing Hexgates is a great idea for travel!
@@redeye8899 Yordle's having a race exclusive skill that lets you make town portals is a pretty fun idea. Might make them a bit too OP, though, causing people to meta game it.
IMO i think Targon would be perfect for launch, the perfect late game zone. things like trials of the astral beings or something would be so sick
I would not be disappointed if this happened, Targon is one of my favorites. Maybe include it and save the Marai territory
U kinda think wrong way about your 3rd point. Since lore rich locarions are as good expansions as in launch since u wanna drag ppl into that world to even think of expansoins
i think bildge would be the best expansion. lot of mmos have pirate expansions so they could def do the same.
That’s true, I heard world of Warcraft fans were really hoping for a pirate expansion after this one
@@entgrove well bfa was our pirate expansion. We got a ton of pirate themed armor and mounts and the islands.
for me what i think demacia noxus shurima and piltover are the main place because of the classes demacia paladin and noxsus warrior piltover archer or ranger and shurima mage i pick those place as a main place cuz i see on them the main classes
Classes is something I thought about as well when selecting the zones! That’s the big problem they face with this direction, but I think I came up with a decent solution to this at the end.
make a video about so and thank you@@entgrove
Bilgewater and Freljord should switch places. There's a significant factor you're missing in regards to all of this in that game design and world flow. Not just whether it's blocked off or out of the way but rather it makes sense to divide everything into sub-continents. Demacia, Noxus and Freljord (maybe piltover and some percentage of zaun) makes way too much sense as the base game considering it's the bulk of the subcontinent. I only include piltover/zaun in this base game because it has the star-power of arcane behind it for sales.
I just feel freljord would dominate the world. It would no longer be a welcome to Runterra first launch. It would be a freljord sentric world just because it would over shadow all the other zones. But they could include freljord and we just explore it more later. I can definitely see your suggestion as a possibility!
My focus was on making the world feel complete while saving as much as possible for expansions.
@@entgrove I hate to compare to WoW here, but I view freljord as kalimdor and demacia/noxus as eastern kingdoms in this situation.
@@NanomachineExE I see Valoran as a separate continent which includes Freljord, Noxus, Demacia, and Piltover.
Then southern Runterra Shurima, Targon, Ixtal, Icathia, and Bilgewater.
Ionia is just its own continent all its own.
But I see what you are saying! You could definitely section off Freljord with that giant mountain range! Its almost like its own continent with how different it is
Loading screens for coninants is fine
Ya I could see continents but hopefully not zones
Another 11/10 vid. Thanks for all these awesome vids, keep it up!
Yoo!! Thanks spun! 😁 been keeping up to date on your vids as well
I feel as though you're disregarding all of the stuff shurima brings with its history and content outside of targon and icathia. sure a large part of it's identity comes WITH those two regions but it has its own culture, desert raiders, void problem, darkin, and tombs just to name a few things which we can all explore when it does become an expansion. Also with the release of ksante we learned that shurima is also turning into sort of a monster hunter esq region due to the giant beasts that xerath is making. So it'd be pretty cool to have an mmo with a bit of monster hunter blended into the gameplay.
I actually do agree with you, and that’s why I couldn’t say confidently it wouldn’t be included.
But the ascended/sun disc stem from Targon, the void/darken stem from Icathia, and there are monsters all over the world of Runterra.
I am a fan of Shurima, it’s one of my favorite zones in the game. But some zones need to be included and if Shurima isn’t it would have to be an expansion before Targon Icathia and you could even make and argument for before Ishtal given that Ishtal mages where the main reason the sun disc was successfully created the first time.
I just felt those zones would be better expansions and Shurima could be included early so you can still feel those zones presence.
Easy route would be to just cut the world in half and do all of valoran. But I thought the world would feel incomplete.
I included Shurima for the same reason I included Bilgewater. You will feel zones presence without theme bing included and they could be saved for a future expansion!
Shurima might be on release but hopefully nothing related to Ascention/Darkins/Void, those are themes for later expansions.
@@Shurikinnn i personally don't think it'll come on release, I believe that just valoran would be open on launch with maybe bilgewater being accessible, all of the other continents will just be expansions
@@rowmein Unfortunately I have the same thoughts. It's absolutely expansion material. I disagree with Bilgewater as it also has a lot of expansion material.
Like the video man but it feels like old thinking. I hope that riot go a different rout then the old “new expansion=new zone”
Thanks Elgato!!
That would be really innovative I wonder what other ways that could do an expansion that doesn’t involve adding a new zone 🤔. I think traveling somewhere new would be cool for an expansion but I do feel Riot is trying to do something different.
@@entgrove I always hoped for world progression. Eg; a big war between two factions or a cult wit nefarious intent spreading across the land. Mainly just keeping content evergreen. I just kinda hate that once a new x-pac drops it just invalidates all the old stuff. But I’m no game dev, I’m just some dude on the internet 😂😅
I'd rather wait another few years rather than be blocked from such places like Ionia or Freljord at launch. Those are too iconic and this video fails to include this trait into the consideration. Especially Freljord since it's on the same continent as the other two unquestionable regions.
The iconic factors of those zones is why they would make great expansions. Your foaming at the mouth for them already 😅
They are also so iconic they would overshadow the other zones.
Another option could be to include a small portion of the zones. And save the rest for an expansion. But who knows at the end of the day. This are just my thoughts
@@entgrove I am foaming since day 1 at everything related to Riot MMO bro xD
Same same 🤣🤣
What is with your pronunciation of Shurima. We have characters from there pronouncing it the games.
Ya it’s a habit 🤣 if you notice at the end I am pronouncing it correctly Shu-ri-ma
@@entgrove I feel that.
Great job with that video buddy!
Thanks tellly!! Put a ton of work into it 🥹
@@entgrove It paid back ;). Good enough to fit into RUclips's algorithm and be displayed to guy from Poland
@@tellywilly50 lets gooo!!! 😅 awesome to meet you all the way from Poland!
@@entgrove Are you a game developer? Cuz your takes on that one are pretty accurate what we used to include in GDDs etc.
@@tellywilly50 o man, no way! My brother watched this video and said he couldn't see it going any other way after watching it. But it might just be groupthink 😂
I am not a game developer, but I am a software developer. Just tried to take a logical approach and this is what I came up with. 😅
please don’t tell me that the game will be like lol perspective💔
Definitely will not be a top down judging by the positions they are hiring for!
Bandle City got robbed. It should be the only zone at launch if you ask me!
haha Bandle City not being included hurt me too. Maybe we will get a small Yordle starting zone at least!
@@entgrovei mean it could be included...
@@Skindred727 definitely a possibility! I just think its unlikely
Bandle City kinda underrated imo having yordles as a playable race would be soioo coool
@@dragoaazzurro DRAGO!!! waddup! Im with you, Yordles gotta be playable at the least
Im hoping for a volibear-inspired class/build as a tank. :)
Playable Ursine would be pretty cool and a nice surprise if include!
@@entgrove nah like a feral bear druid from WoW but with thunder and lightning
@@Egghead012 dam im into that. Druid was my favorite class form wow