Riot Games and the Groundswell

In continuation of my previous blog, one company stands out amongst the others in my mind.  They do an exceptional job at managing and participating with their online community.  Riot Games as a company has a game under the name of League of Legends.  Not only does this company interact with the participants on their forums, but they also release a 'Summoner Spotlight' video to showcase the creative work that the players produce.  Players create songs, sculptures, drawings, and many other creative pieces and submit it to Riot Games, where they then have a community representative displaying the pieces.  This representative plays a vital role in energizing their fan base.  Looking over Riot Games marketing, they do an amazing job at following the five objectives displayed in The Groundswell.

Listening
A very active community forum is provided for participants to view any opinions, concerns, or to just talk with fellow players.

Speaking
Surprisingly over my time of playing and viewing these forums, I have found that Riot Games does an excellent job at replying to posts on forums.  They have employees frequent and participate on them often.  Riot doesn't just speak via forums though, they also have the Summoner Spotlight, as well as Champion Spotlights.

Energizing
Riot Games has a large community base, and that community is energized by the public face of the community "Nikasaur".  It is surprising the amount of interaction and energy put into the responses from the player base.

Supporting
Riot Games is always available and striving to help and support players with issues.  I've seen Riot go out of their way multiple times to help players with technical issues that would not normally fall on the companies shoulders to help fix.  Not only this but the community that Riot Games has created help each other out frequently.

Embracing
This section is one that makes me very pleased with the way Riot Games runs their business, and is a pushing factor in why many people play.  Riot embraces what community members say and produce, integrating creations and suggestions into their game.

This being said, my Dilly thought for today is, why don't more companies or agencies promote and interact with their consumers the way Riot Games does?  Like I said in my previous entry, in order to be successful in today's gaming industry you need to create a location for your market to gather, and you must participate and generate content for them and with them.  By following the five objectives listed in the Groundswell, Riot Games has done just that, and have been doing an excellent job at it.

Advertising Games, the Evolution

Advertising and promotional materials have changed a lot of the past few years.  This can't be more true when it comes to the way the gaming industry participates in the market.  Things have moved from being a one way communication into a vast community of participation.  It used to be the company pushing a message or view of the game and leaving it at that.  It has now moved to the company vamping the game up on various mediums, but always going back to the community.  This communication and community can only easily and effectively be found in one place, which is online.  Taking a look at any popular and successful gaming hit of this past year, every single participant had an online influence.  This influence isn't only contained in one spot either, the web of communication is vast.  You can find a presence on any popular social media platform such as Facebook Twitter, and YouTube, as well as 'Custom Communities' like the forums on the company websites themselves.

While visiting all these communities I came across this sentence here.  "The fact that Morrowind’s modding community is still going strong 10 years after its release is a testament to how essential our community is to the success of our games.".  This statement pretty much sums up the fact that in order to succeed in today's gaming industry, you do in fact need to supply and interact with communities across multiple fronts.

Best game ever?

While strolling along through the internet this morning, I happened to fall upon a unique symbol, one that brought memories and joy flooding back to me.  This was no ordinary symbol, but was nothing less than a tri-force.  Immediately images of a green tunic donning elf like warrior came to mind, smashing pots, slicing grass and finding money.  Throwing bombs, using your hookshot, catching fish and becoming friends with the Gorons.  Memories of learning new tunes on a bad ass ocarina, and those ghastly mummies that always secretly terrified me.

It eventually came to me that the memories were almost endless, and when I think of games we play today, it's most often filled with rage and anger over getting a tomahawk from across the map or some kid quick scoping you when your one kill from Juggernaut.

My Dilly thought for today is why can't they make more games like they used to.  It's either that, or my mind was much simpler.  I remember Pod Racing, Star Wars Rogue Squadron, Mario Party, Mario Kart, so many amazing quality games that you just can't find anymore aside from a few rare gems. 


In short, make more games like they used to be, it was awesome.