The Cave of 10,000 Crabs — “The gaming industry in general is far, far more...

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“The gaming industry in general is far, far more Liberal than the average gamer. It worries me a bit that Liberal politics is forcing it’s way into games; I just want to enjoy a fun experience, or take part of someone’s artistic vision. Do you think that’s a legitimate worry for me to have?”

Hoo boy.

This is the kind of answer that is bound to cause some amount of controversy, but I also try and pride myself on not avoiding the tough questions, so I’ll give it a shot. 

[Deep breath.]

First, I’m going to assume that you aren’t really talking about politics per se. If League tried to sneak in lessons on how taxes should be structured, or opinions on health care, or state versus federal power, then I’d get that we were being too political for a “mere game.” I’m going to take the leap and guess that what you’re really getting at is how League (or any game) depicts diversity. That’s usually the controversial social issue surrounding games. Please correct me if I have assumed incorrectly.

And on the topic of diversity, I’ll try and answer from the point of view of player value, since that is what Riot tries to use to guide our decisions. 

From the point of view of someone like yourself, it’s likely you came to League (or WoW or Destiny or Zelda) because your friends or the internet told you it was a good game. You probably stuck with it because you could get wrapped up in the gameplay, or found it satisfying to get better over time, or just found it to be a good diversion from work, school, or family. Based on your own description, I’m thinking it’s pretty unlikely that you came to League because you wanted your own political or social beliefs challenged. And I get that, I really do. At the end of the day, this is an entertainment product. It’s something a lot of us use as an escape from the real world. Maybe not everything we engage with needs to challenge our values or make us uncomfortable.

But let’s switch that around and examine the game from the point of view of a player with a different set of values. Just as you may not have the same values as a bunch of game developers living and working in California USA (and again I’m just going by what you’re saying in your question), a lot of gamers out there may not have the same values as you do (or that we do for that matter). For some players (like me), it seems really weird when a game doesn’t acknowledge that the real world of other gamers or the fictional world of game characters are diverse places with different religions, genders, skin colors, and economic statuses. Having an openly gay character or punishing a player for calling another player a racial slur doesn’t feel political to me. It’s just a reflection of Earth circa 2017.

Let’s also keep in mind that gamers live in a lot of different places around the world, and that France, Russia, Taiwan, Brazil, and the Philippines have really different expectations about what is comfortable, appropriate or mainstream than you or I might.

So getting back to your original question….

In my opinion, your worry is legit if a game you love (League or anything) loses its way and starts focusing too much on social messages at the expense of gameplay. There are games that make a great social commentary while also being fun, but I’m not super interested in games that make a great social commentary at the expense of being fun. Maybe those works of media are something else and not games. Movies and art don’t have to be “fun” for me to enjoy them. I dunno. I hate trying to categorize things with certain labels. I just want games to be fun.

On the other hand, I don’t think your worry is legit, meaning I don’t think it’s fair or probably healthy, if you want to somehow wall yourself off (in a game or anywhere) from the diversity that the world offers.

I’m going to close my quoting my friend, Jeff Kaplan:  

There was this shift on the team, where we realized we had to stop thinking of Earth as this boring place. It’s an amazingly cool place and what makes it cool is all its differences. We no longer look at the cultural sensitivity as a land mine or as an obligation. We look at it as an opportunity.

3/27/2017

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Do you still consider world PvP to be bad or unnecessary for MMOs because it’s mostly ganking?

I actually don’t mind ganking. It can be a lot of fun for the person doing the ganking, and the risk of it for the victim can make the world feel dynamic and unpredictable. 

I have fond memories from WoW of when I got my guildies to help me hunt down someone ganking. I also have bad memories when someone kept camping the region in which I was trying to quest.

So the issue is how common it is and how dominant it is, which come down to the specific combat systems in the game and how those numbers are tuned.

11/15/2019

“What’s do you think is your/Riots goal with these new games?”

We want to meet the needs of an under-served audience. When we first made LoL (though it was before my own time), we loved the moba genre, but thought there were things we could improve to make a better overall experience. It’s the same with the new games or any game we make. While we may love a particular game, we see potential improvements in technical aspects, game design, or even business model that we think could make a great game into a game that has the potential to be a true breakout. We used to call this “genre-defining.” While that term has become a little tired within Riot walls, it still illustrates the point. Make a game that becomes the name someone thinks of when they consider a particular genre… even a genre that doesn’t yet exist.

Overall, our goal is to delight players by giving you stuff you want and stuff you didn’t know you wanted. :)

10/23/2019

“Why is the water so much more blue around the pacific islands?”

Think of tropical water (whether Pacific, Indian, Caribbean etc.) as a desert. The water is blue because there isn’t anything in it. Near the shore in a place like the East Coast of the US, you have millions of liters of water pouring in from rivers, and that brings particulate matter and also nutrients. The nutrients let plankton bloom, which turns the water green. Similarly, if you are in colder water, the lack of a temperature barrier allows upwelling of nutrients and again lets plankton bloom. 

In the open Pacific, the amount of nutrients, and therefore plankton, are very low so you just see the water. The sunlight reflects on the water, especially if there is a white sandy bottom, blue is reflected instead of absorbed, and you see blue water instead of green or brown.

10/23/2019

“What do you think are the biggest differences (i.e. pros and cons) of working with Riot Games vs Blizzard?”

Ooh, a spicy one. Look, at the end of the day, they are both great places to work. They are triple A studios that make games beloved by players, are financially secure, and have many good years ahead of them. While both occasionally make missteps, overall they are professional organizations. You are never not going to get paid, which is something that happens with less established companies.

Blizzard cares a lot about polish, and it’s hard to argue with that strategy, given how well it has worked for them. If you’re the kind of person that likes to ship something at an 80% quality bar and then iterate on it later based on player reaction, then the Blizzard polish bar may rankle you. While their communication style has evolved a lot since I left, at the time, my desire to just talk to players directly sometimes thwarted communications campaigns (while at Riot, it just feels natural). Blizzard also has a really deep leadership bench, so if you’re a hotshot associate, it could potentially be awhile before you achieve a leadership position. (There are always exceptions, and superstars tend to climb the ranks of any company quickly.)

Riot cares a lot about player authenticity. (That’s not to say Blizzard does not - it’s just about what they emphasize. Blizzard focuses on epic experiences.) At Riot, every question gets answered with what is in the player’s best interest. This can make it hard for someone who just wants to focus on making the best art they can make or tell the best story they can tell. Riot is a younger company and has a bit more of a start-up feel than Blizzard (even though Riot with thousands of employees is hardly a start-up any longer). The ambiguity and occasional chaos here isn’t for everyone. But I thrive in it. :) 

I’m realizing now what a long topic this could potentially be, so I’ll probably have to revisit it from time to time. But overall, there isn’t a good guy or a bad guy here. Both companies make awesome things. Blizzard has a great track record of games that we can only aspire to.

10/23/2019

“How do those of us satisfied with developer choices combat what feels like a vocal minority that complains? It feels like complaints about X have more power and may change X, even if most people like X bc developers are only seeing complaints and not satisfaction on forums.”

Any communication with a developer will *always* be in the minority. Not that many players, as a percentage of a game’s total audience, will ever reply about anything. And that’s fine. Majority rule is not a great way to make decisions anyway. Maybe you care more about an issue than most players. Maybe you have more insight about an issue more than most players. Those should weigh in too.

I have made changes to a game because of a single well-articulated post. To set expectations, there isn’t a particular trick you can employ to make sure this happens. But if you are reasonable, make a logical argument, and get the developer to understand why your suggestion might be better or your problem is worth fixing, then that’s the best you can do. Getting a ton of upvotes or whatever doesn’t really significantly improve the odds.

10/23/2019

“When looking to hire a software engineer what types of projects do you like to see? Games/desktop apps/mobile apps/other? “

I’m not a software engineer, so I’m not the kind of person who would ever be reviewing your code. As a game designer / whatever I am now, I would first like to see that you had been able to finish something, through all the tribulations of design changes, feedback, bugs, general malaise etc. So making any software that you can finish is more important that what kind of software. 

Beyond that, I would consider the role you applied for. If you are applying to work on a mobile app, then seeing that experience would be more relevant than seeing you make a game. There are other ways to demonstrate that you love games.

10/23/2019

“Are there going to be multiple versions of TFT that people can play so that if they wish to play with an older roster of champs, they can?”

This is my understanding from talking to the team: we really want players to adapt to the updates. We know that requires relearning some stuff and possibly seeing your rank etc. falter while that happens. But we also believe it’s necessary for TFT to evolve like this to avoid eventual stagnation. If after a few waves, we realize that design is just not working then we could probably try different solutions, such as less drastic changes, or possibly even let players choose which version they want to play. But let’s at least give the current design a fair shake first.

10/23/2019   

“When you were a developer on World of Warcraft, did you ever have anything to do with story/lore? Not necessarily meta-themes, but did you ever design a series of quests or have input on a storyline that was personally meaningful to you? Did you have anything to do with how characters like Jaina, Sylvanas, Tirion, etc, were represented?”

Not directly. I was involved with classes, items, PvP, encounters, and systems like achievements, transmog, the UI and so on. Really it was everything but levels and quests.

As a lead, I was in a lot of discussions about our big story beats, and I did playtest a lot and give the quest and story folks feedback.

The closest I got was the lore added to the Archaeology artifacts (not 100% certain, but I probably came up with the word Ny’alotha) and I also named a bunch of quest, dungeon and raid items, and some of those hint at lore beats.

To be honest, I really missed being more involved with story / lore when I was on WoW. My first job in the industry was writing the scripts for the Age of Empires campaigns. Part of the reason I took this new Creative Dev job at Riot is because I wanted to be closer to story and lore.

And it wasn’t like anyone on WoW was trying to keep me away from the story. It was just with dudes like Metzen, Afrasiabi and Kosak, there wasn’t much need for me.

1/17/2019 

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