After the end of Project Ghost, many experienced developers were looking for a new job in the games industry. A former WoW lead has now found a particularly exciting role in the team from LoL-MMORPG.
Which developer is it about? You might know Brian Holinka mainly from his time at Blizzard. There, starting in 2012, he was first the Lead PvP and later the Lead Combat Designer for World of Warcraft (thanks to him, for example, the expanded talent trees returned with Dragonflight). Previously, due to his military background, he mainly worked on first-person and third-person shooters, such as for DICE and the Battlefield series.
In 2023, Brian Holinka finally left Blizzard to join the new team at Fantastic Pixel Castle led by Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street and to primarily advance the class design for Project Ghost. However, when the Chinese company NetEase halted funding last year, the veterans had to bury their MMO and look for new jobs.
Brian Holinka was responsible for designing the Dreamblade class at Ghost:
A few hours ago, Brian Holinka explained on X that he has his first official workday at Riot Games. There, he is now working as Principal Game Designer on the new MMORPG for League of Legends.
This new job for the developer beautifully illustrates how small the games industry is. Because who else has worked at Blizzard on WoW and at Riot Games on the LoL-MMORPG? Of course, Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street.
If you’re wondering what Ghostcrawler is doing after the closure of his studio Fantastic Pixel Castle: Street announced a few weeks ago on linkedin.com that he has found a new job within the games industry. At which studio and on which game he will work in the future, he plans to reveal only after he has signed the contract.
You can also find more about the best genre in the world on the YouTube channel of MeinMMO. There is a new video about the previous balance sheet of Kickstarter MMOs:
“Call me in 10 years when it becomes relevant”
How does the community react to the change? In the current discussion on Reddit, many MMO fans are concerned about whether the LoL-MMORPG will ever be released. Due to the bitter experiences of recent years, many comments are pessimistic.
- kajidourden comments on the personnel as follows: “Call me in 10 years when it becomes relevant.”
- Seraphayel sees the future even darker: “Let’s be honest: This project will never be released. How long has it been since the announcement – a decade? And we know nothing about it and haven’t seen anything.”
Some players are also commenting on the personnel itself:
- MonsutaReipu rates: “The role as lead PvP designer at WoW is not an accolade that inspires trust.”
- Icy-Direction528 goes into a bit more detail: “No idea, I can’t claim that he really accomplished anything good at Blizzard – he designed Ashran and abandoned the ranked battleground system – so I am skeptical. He is definitely not someone I would particularly look forward to.”
How does MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz rate the change? One should not draw conclusions about design decisions made by a developer in Team A for Game A on design decisions in Team B for Game B. The teams and projects simply differ too much from each other.
Therefore, I find two things especially important here: 1) Riot Games demonstrates with this rather prominent hiring that they continue to place a strong focus on the LoL-MMORPG. 2) They are bringing a lot of experience to the team, which is enormously important to successfully bring a complex project like an MMORPG over the finish line. For all who are looking forward to the LoL-MMORPG, this should therefore be good news for now. You can learn more about Riot Games’ project here: Everything we know about the new MMORPG for LoL in 2026
Your opinion is important to us!
Do you like the article? Then let us know!