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.