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Hey Blizzard, hey Valve, hey Capcom, in a couple years a local West Coast game publisher has risen to show the power, as well as financial income, of ACTUALLY making customer service #1. As such, since 2006 Riot's been on the up-and-up since they took $1 million of venture capital (almost nothing to VCs) to make their brainchild, League of Legends, and haven't looked back.
You can't make something out of nothing, I'm sure it wouldn't have had the appeal it does without them getting one of the developers for the original game of the genre (DotA, if you're not up to date on the video game market history) hired in from very early on. But before they had that they had an idea to make a game that they themselves would be interested in, just happens that millions would agree with them.
Let me back up and rhetorically ask you, the reader, how many times you've tried to get in contact with a customer service employee of a game to be disappointed with how your situation was handled? Nothing can be more of a kiss of death to retaining player base than a good game with a shoddy customer service reputation. With smaller games you can actually get through to someone who'll do something outside of a simple, menial task that takes less than 1 minute to perform (HALP I'M STUCK!), but as soon as that said player base peaks the million mark, good luck.
Riot has made life simple for the casual nobody who wants to play something new, something fun, and pay nothing to do so. As much as hardcore gamers hate to rely on them, the strength of a game is usually directly correlated to how many people are playing their game. "Oh that's cool, it's the next Zynga trying to fatten up a calf on casual gamer's daytime salary. There's always another one of those ready to come along." Nope, $2 million dollar prize pool championship event with a friggin LIVE ORCHESTRA all tuxedo'd up belting out League inspired melodies.
Big prize pool bragging rights aside, another with an ounce of common sense knows that you can't have an annual tournament foster an entire pro scene, as only those winning will be able to have the luxury of being able to actually live off their earnings. Riot announces it'll then subsidize top 8 teams for each of their heavily populated areas, to give teams the ability to have a bad year, and not disband/lose players to other, more successful teams. You have a problem, chances are they have a solution.
Don't disregard this as a Riot lovefest, perfection isn't an attainable goal, motto to live by, or standard to hold yourself to. I don't need to even say that everyone makes mistakes, but I'll not just cop out with that. It's a tragedy that they don't have an official replay system after 3 years, relying on 3rd party programs creates an awkwardness that Riot is known for being good without. Their system of matchmaking isn't optimal for a team game, by stressing the performance of just one individual. Solo/duo queue being the preferred choice of matchmaking detracts from team involvement, and leads to the rage mindset that has always plagued the DotA communities (ask anyone who played HoN) because one person can have a bad game and get flamed repeatedly until they wish they played some game that was more forgiving.
At the end of the day, instead of targeting casuals or hardcore gamers, it pays to hit both markets. They walk a very thin line of trying to balance a game at pro levels AND lower levels, and for that they deserve to be praised as doing something that many have tried and failed. In doing so they created an actually enjoyable game, one that is intellectually stimulating in a way similar to the more thought-provoking, highly-successful games, but also includes high paced action that can be captured well enough by an excited Deman or Joe Miller, and felt rising in the skin of all those who can proudly dub themselves nerd ballers.
It's amazing the things that can work out with a lot of hard work and a bit of intuition of being at the right place at the right time, but looking at the product Riot has created they should very much be able to sit back and enjoy their considerable income, but they don't. They don't just sit back, that's what makes them Riot.
  
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I'm pretty sure Riot's real secret to success is their business model
You know, making newer, stronger champions to force players into buying said new champions if they want to be competetive, and doing this every two weeks?
Its like 20$ a month, just as good as WoW subscribers
And just as effective at making people not want to leave, after all, they've already poured so much money in.
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It totally helps, don't get me wrong, that's a strong motivation to keep people playing. They still have the tools to get you into the game. It's free, If you play at different weeks it's very different (free champion rotations), and eventually they'll make a champion who'll intrigue you especially. They know they have to earn their player base before they'll pay even a dollar. Would you put down $20 for a new champion in a game that you have tried a few times but have no real scope of how the game works?
They get the consumer hooked long before they pay anything.
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On February 07 2013 14:47 Shaella wrote:
I'm pretty sure Riot's real secret to success is their business model
You know, making newer, stronger champions to force players into buying said new champions if they want to be competetive, and doing this every two weeks?
Its like 20$ a month, just as good as WoW subscribers
And just as effective at making people not want to leave, after all, they've already poured so much money in.
while I am no expert in LoL, I think the biggest reason why casual player would go and get a new champion is to just to have a new unit to use.
The most successful part is that Riot don't force you to buy them, you can just earn the points as you play.
It takes a long time sure, but that is why you have players playing heavily to get the points and players paying to try out the new champions.
Both encouraging the players to keep playing more.
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United States10569 Posts
Riot's secret is making the most expensive, free game in the world.
why is most expensive? they have such a great marketing technique in LoL which allows them to make a ton of money. this is different from the other games like maple, wow, diablo, etc. these said games FORCE people to buy items with money to get good at the game. this obviously detracts popularity, though they are all still very popular games.
LoL comes out stronger, however, because you dont need to buy anything in order to become a good player. everything you need can be obtained just from playing the game, thus adding to the addiction level of the game (play more = progress more and get more). and as you progress, you naturally want to progress faster (getting champions faster, skins to make you look cool, etc). This is a natural flow from beginning, middle, and end, where end is the beginning of the "expensive" part of LoL.
however, people like me who are smart will understand the true concepts of LoL and take it as it was meant to be, a free to play game. I have never spent a penny on LoL yet, and never will. why? its a free game for a reason, the extras are just bonus. but people fall into riot's trap of buying RP from the addiction that was mentioned from before.
if you read this, and are buying skins or rp from riot, stop. waste of money that could be spent on more useful things. think about it. do skins make you play better?
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Zero. Zero is the number of times I've been playing a game and wished I could talk to a customer service rep.
Riot does well because today's internet denizens apparently love the shit out free things with paid microtransactions.
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On February 07 2013 14:47 Shaella wrote:
I'm pretty sure Riot's real secret to success is their business model
You know, making newer, stronger champions to force players into buying said new champions if they want to be competetive, and doing this every two weeks?
Its like 20$ a month, just as good as WoW subscribers
And just as effective at making people not want to leave, after all, they've already poured so much money in.
This is totally false, aside from the fact that new champions are not released OP enough to make them must buys by any measure (if they are OP at all, there have been many weak release champs), you could, if you wanted , buy every new release playing around 20 hours a week. If you want to spend money thats purely up to you. Its certainly not a competitive advantage of any consequence.
I dont think customer service has anything to do with their success either. I doubt 95+% of the playerbase has ever interacted with it. Its just a fun take on a proven fun game design. They keep it well maintained and fresh and people like it.
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On February 07 2013 15:47 sob3k wrote:Show nested quote +On February 07 2013 14:47 Shaella wrote:
I'm pretty sure Riot's real secret to success is their business model
You know, making newer, stronger champions to force players into buying said new champions if they want to be competetive, and doing this every two weeks?
Its like 20$ a month, just as good as WoW subscribers
And just as effective at making people not want to leave, after all, they've already poured so much money in. This is totally false, aside from the fact that new champions are not released OP enough to make them must buys by any measure (if they are OP at all, there have been many weak release champs), you could, if you wanted , buy every new release playing around 20 hours a week. If you want to spend money thats purely up to you. Its certainly not a competitive advantage of any consequence. I dont think customer service has anything to do with their success either. I doubt 95+% of the playerbase has ever interacted with it. Its just a fun take on a proven fun game design. They keep it well maintained and fresh and people like it.
What they do is rehash an older character, with slightly more powerful stats at the expense of another stat. Gangplank was an old character, so what do they do? Create miss fortune who's ulti is similar to Gangplanks only it can hit anywhere on the map (don't cruicfy me if I'm wrong, I don't play LoL). This character then appeals more to people who play that character. The player can then either grind out Battle points to buy it, or go purchase RP to get it. that's just how they roll and it's a good system. I dislike it, I would rather pay money for a game, then pay no more than get sucked in to f2p with micro transactions.
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Now if only they'd get off their asses and fix the numerous bugs that have been present patch after patch after patch and get a real client instead of this adobe air piece of shit.
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I definitely think it's all about accessibility, but Valve doesn't seem interested in what Riot is interested in. At least that is what I think
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On February 07 2013 16:41 asaed wrote:
I definitely think it's all about accessibility, but Valve doesn't seem interested in what Riot is interested in. At least that is what I think
Ya, Valve only wants people to be able to play every hero(champion) to their full potential from the moment they launch the game for the first time, totally inaccessible.
*I am aware there are a ton of other differences, don't take the comment for more than it is.
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On February 07 2013 15:36 FlaShFTW wrote:
Riot's secret is making the most expensive, free game in the world.
why is most expensive? they have such a great marketing technique in LoL which allows them to make a ton of money. this is different from the other games like maple, wow, diablo, etc. these said games FORCE people to buy items with money to get good at the game. this obviously detracts popularity, though they are all still very popular games.
LoL comes out stronger, however, because you dont need to buy anything in order to become a good player. everything you need can be obtained just from playing the game, thus adding to the addiction level of the game (play more = progress more and get more). and as you progress, you naturally want to progress faster (getting champions faster, skins to make you look cool, etc). This is a natural flow from beginning, middle, and end, where end is the beginning of the "expensive" part of LoL.
however, people like me who are smart will understand the true concepts of LoL and take it as it was meant to be, a free to play game. I have never spent a penny on LoL yet, and never will. why? its a free game for a reason, the extras are just bonus. but people fall into riot's trap of buying RP from the addiction that was mentioned from before.
if you read this, and are buying skins or rp from riot, stop. waste of money that could be spent on more useful things. think about it. do skins make you play better?
I think you are using the 'hardcore' gamer mindset here. People (casuals) buy skins/champions for their enjoyment and entertainment. It is no different from eating at an expensive restaurant (does it make your body healthier?) or new clothes (does it make you perform your daily tasks better?).
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On February 07 2013 15:44 Iranon wrote:
Zero. Zero is the number of times I've been playing a game and wished I could talk to a customer service rep.
Riot does well because today's internet denizens apparently love the shit out free things with paid microtransactions.
Quoted for truth.
No one cares about customer service. Kinda, sorta, not really.
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Riot's secret to making money is to hire someone that back stabbed the entire Dota community and steal ideas from user generated content without giving any credit what so ever. You know who I'm talking about.
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On February 07 2013 14:47 Shaella wrote:
I'm pretty sure Riot's real secret to success is their business model
You know, making newer, stronger champions to force players into buying said new champions if they want to be competetive, and doing this every two weeks?
Its like 20$ a month, just as good as WoW subscribers
And just as effective at making people not want to leave, after all, they've already poured so much money in.
Really? This is still a thing? I've been playing League for more than 6 months now and I never felt compelled to buy a newly released champion to "stay competitive." I can see people at the very top of the ELO food chain being affected by this, but honestly that is such a disproportionately small part of the player base that I doubt you could base LoL's economic success on it. I have bought champions and skins with RP - but only because I thought they were awesome and I enjoy playing them.
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The support has nothing to do with their success. I don't even know anyone that's ever dealt with support outside of 1 moron I know who used to BM every game and got banned.
But people claiming how much money people have to spend for the game are completely ridiculous too. For example that one person saying "it's $20 a month"... if you play the game nightly you will have more than enough IP in game to buy the next character by the time he comes out. 90% of the people who I know that played the game didnt spend a cent on unlocking characters.
Even one of the most casual players I know - he only has maybe 2 hours a day to play - He never spent money and owns over 80% of the characters, and usually buys most new ones on release.
As a matter of fact, the only money they spend on the game at all was a couple skins for their main characters, which about half of the ppl I know didnt spend a cent on the game at all, and the ones who did jus got a couple skins. Probably spent $15 the entire lifetime of the game.
The real secret to their success?
A) Make a free game that doesn't force you to buy anything and is not B2P at all (unlike what some people here claim most ppl dont spend money),
B) Give people progression systems so that they feel like they are earning something while they learn the game until they addicted,
C) A portion of the player base will spend a little bit of money, if only 1/4 people spent money but you have 4 million players that's still a million dollars,
D) Keep pumping new stuff out for people so they play the game long term, the longer people play the more chances you have to catch people with a couple bucks burning a hole in their pocket.
E) The general F2P game payout for the top 2% - that 2% of players who have entirely too much money to spend will give you more cash than dozens and dozens of your average players.
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On February 07 2013 16:20 OptimusYale wrote:Show nested quote +On February 07 2013 15:47 sob3k wrote:On February 07 2013 14:47 Shaella wrote:
I'm pretty sure Riot's real secret to success is their business model
You know, making newer, stronger champions to force players into buying said new champions if they want to be competetive, and doing this every two weeks?
Its like 20$ a month, just as good as WoW subscribers
And just as effective at making people not want to leave, after all, they've already poured so much money in. This is totally false, aside from the fact that new champions are not released OP enough to make them must buys by any measure (if they are OP at all, there have been many weak release champs), you could, if you wanted , buy every new release playing around 20 hours a week. If you want to spend money thats purely up to you. Its certainly not a competitive advantage of any consequence. I dont think customer service has anything to do with their success either. I doubt 95+% of the playerbase has ever interacted with it. Its just a fun take on a proven fun game design. They keep it well maintained and fresh and people like it. What they do is rehash an older character, with slightly more powerful stats at the expense of another stat. Gangplank was an old character, so what do they do? Create miss fortune who's ulti is similar to Gangplanks only it can hit anywhere on the map (don't cruicfy me if I'm wrong, I don't play LoL). This character then appeals more to people who play that character. The player can then either grind out Battle points to buy it, or go purchase RP to get it. that's just how they roll and it's a good system. I dislike it, I would rather pay money for a game, then pay no more than get sucked in to f2p with micro transactions.
I wont crucify you but I will tell you you are hilariously wrong, not to mention the fact that Gangplank and MF are absurdly different in function and role.
Gangplank is an old sustained melee fighter who specializes in farming with a global ult which does little damage but more importantly is a good slow. Played top lane or jungle.
Miss Fortune is a slightly newer ranged attack damage carry with strong early laning and a heavy damage cone ultimate and poor escapes. Played bot lane with a support.
To say one is an update of the other because they have AOE ults is just as silly as saying Ancient Apparition is an uncreative update of Shadow Fiend or whatever.
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On February 07 2013 20:05 sob3k wrote:Show nested quote +On February 07 2013 16:20 OptimusYale wrote:On February 07 2013 15:47 sob3k wrote:On February 07 2013 14:47 Shaella wrote:
I'm pretty sure Riot's real secret to success is their business model
You know, making newer, stronger champions to force players into buying said new champions if they want to be competetive, and doing this every two weeks?
Its like 20$ a month, just as good as WoW subscribers
And just as effective at making people not want to leave, after all, they've already poured so much money in. This is totally false, aside from the fact that new champions are not released OP enough to make them must buys by any measure (if they are OP at all, there have been many weak release champs), you could, if you wanted , buy every new release playing around 20 hours a week. If you want to spend money thats purely up to you. Its certainly not a competitive advantage of any consequence. I dont think customer service has anything to do with their success either. I doubt 95+% of the playerbase has ever interacted with it. Its just a fun take on a proven fun game design. They keep it well maintained and fresh and people like it. What they do is rehash an older character, with slightly more powerful stats at the expense of another stat. Gangplank was an old character, so what do they do? Create miss fortune who's ulti is similar to Gangplanks only it can hit anywhere on the map (don't cruicfy me if I'm wrong, I don't play LoL). This character then appeals more to people who play that character. The player can then either grind out Battle points to buy it, or go purchase RP to get it. that's just how they roll and it's a good system. I dislike it, I would rather pay money for a game, then pay no more than get sucked in to f2p with micro transactions. I wont crucify you but I will tell you you are hilariously wrong, not to mention the fact that Gangplank and MF are absurdly different in function and role. Gangplank is an old sustained melee fighter who specializes in farming with a global ult which does little damage but more importantly is a good slow. Played top lane or jungle. Miss Fortune is a slightly newer ranged attack damage carry with strong early laning and a heavy damage cone ultimate and poor escapes. Played bot lane with a support. To say one is an update of the other because they have AOE ults is just as silly as saying Ancient Apparition is an uncreative update of Shadow Fiend or whatever.
This is all true.
The funny part is the reason he don't play is completely misinterpreted from how the game actually works. Also, that he was using a global ult as the reason MF is a better character, and GP was the one who had the global ult all along lol.
If anything, you would get sucked in to earning IP from playing games to buy new characters. Not "microtransactions". The only reason you would get sucked in to those would be if you want many skin options for every character.
Which, btw, even Dota 2 is going to have microtransactions for items for looks, same as TF2. It's the same thing.
The only time you will ever have to spend real money for anything combat-related is if you CHOOSE to spend your earned IP on a different champion rather than the new one coming out.
Meanwhile, what most players do is save up their IP they get from playing, wait a couple weeks until the new character is free, and try them out to make sure they like the character before spending their IP on it.
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On February 07 2013 20:05 sob3k wrote:Show nested quote +On February 07 2013 16:20 OptimusYale wrote:On February 07 2013 15:47 sob3k wrote:On February 07 2013 14:47 Shaella wrote:
I'm pretty sure Riot's real secret to success is their business model
You know, making newer, stronger champions to force players into buying said new champions if they want to be competetive, and doing this every two weeks?
Its like 20$ a month, just as good as WoW subscribers
And just as effective at making people not want to leave, after all, they've already poured so much money in. This is totally false, aside from the fact that new champions are not released OP enough to make them must buys by any measure (if they are OP at all, there have been many weak release champs), you could, if you wanted , buy every new release playing around 20 hours a week. If you want to spend money thats purely up to you. Its certainly not a competitive advantage of any consequence. I dont think customer service has anything to do with their success either. I doubt 95+% of the playerbase has ever interacted with it. Its just a fun take on a proven fun game design. They keep it well maintained and fresh and people like it. What they do is rehash an older character, with slightly more powerful stats at the expense of another stat. Gangplank was an old character, so what do they do? Create miss fortune who's ulti is similar to Gangplanks only it can hit anywhere on the map (don't cruicfy me if I'm wrong, I don't play LoL). This character then appeals more to people who play that character. The player can then either grind out Battle points to buy it, or go purchase RP to get it. that's just how they roll and it's a good system. I dislike it, I would rather pay money for a game, then pay no more than get sucked in to f2p with micro transactions. I wont crucify you but I will tell you you are hilariously wrong, not to mention the fact that Gangplank and MF are absurdly different in function and role. Gangplank is an old sustained melee fighter who specializes in farming with a global ult which does little damage but more importantly is a good slow. Played top lane or jungle. Miss Fortune is a slightly newer ranged attack damage carry with strong early laning and a heavy damage cone ultimate and poor escapes. Played bot lane with a support. To say one is an update of the other because they have AOE ults is just as silly as saying Ancient Apparition is an uncreative update of Shadow Fiend or whatever.
I'm guessing he meant GP's ult and MF's E, which do look similar as well as serve the same function, with the exception that GP's ult is global.
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Netherlands45349 Posts
Its their business model, not their customer support.
Nope, $2 million dollar prize pool championship event with a friggin LIVE ORCHESTRA all tuxedo'd up belting out League inspired melodies.
you mean the part where they were incompetent at actually organizing with their 2 million frigging prize pool, had delays all over including an 8 hour Bo3, had teams cheating by looking at a bloody screen behind them and having to stop playing for a a while because the sun was in the player their eyes?
S2 finals were nice I agree but don't try to make it like it went flawlessly, atleast tell the whole story. There are two sides to every coin and while you claim that this is not a Riot Lovefest you have only showed one side.
Riot has the smartest business model in the industry for f2p games and they did it well, that is why they are so sucesfull not of some dumb customer support. It is not really a secret.
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