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I have 0 FGC knowledge, can you explain what assist-based fighting is and how it's different?
I have 0 FGC knowledge, can you explain what assist-based fighting is and how it's different?
Not an expert on the space nor an expert on this game in particular, but to try to put it in newbie-friendly terms as best I understand it:
Many (most?) fighting games are 1v1. I pick a character. You pick a character. We fight until one of us dies. Sometimes it's best of 3 so we go again with health bars refilled. But regardless, we just fight until one of us dies.
An assist-based fighter is a 2v2, 3v3, or more. However, we're still sort of playing a 1v1. I may have 2 or 3 characters on my team, but the baseline is still that same 1v1 from before and we're mostly 1v1 at any given time. The reason it's a 2v2 or a 3v3 is that I can do two special things:
I can swap my fighter mid-round. I can also have both my characters on screen for a short time, making a brief 2v1 (hence the "assist" moniker). The how (other than "hit assist button") and why are beyond my knowledge of fighting games.
And because teams are 2+ characters deep, the round only ends when both (all) of my characters die.
For the record, Tencent has never told us to make any product ever. Additionally, Tencent has never funded the business (their capital bought out shareholders) - all of Riot’s growth has been driven organically.
For the record, Tencent has never told us to make any product ever. Additionally, Tencent has never funded the business (their capital bought out shareholders) - all of Riot’s growth has been driven organically.
For the record, Tencent has never told us to make any product ever. Additionally, Tencent has never funded the business (their capital bought out shareholders) - all of Riot’s growth has been driven organically (since we launched League).
For the record, Tencent has never told us to make any product ever.
It was widely reported that Tencent wanted Riot to build a mobile game, which you refused back then. Are you saying these reports are false?
Differences also cropped up over how to handle the fast-growing mobile market. Tencent wanted a mobile version of League for China, according to people close to both companies. Chinese internet users were spending more time on mobile phones than PCs, and Tencent advocated for a more casual smartphone game with shorter play periods that gamers could play during morning commutes.
But Riot’s leadership wasn’t interested in making a smartphone version. They believed League’s experience couldn’t be replicated on smartphones. Top executives believed Riot should only make games for hardcore gamers who played on PCs and consoles. They also believed Riot couldn’t afford to divert resources to making a mobile game while the PC version still was growing rapidly, according to people close to Riot.
They asked us to make a game back then, we said no - because we were busy building lots of other stuff. Once we bought Jolly and brought Michael Chow onto the team, we finally had a leader to build a mobile team around - and so we started Wild Rift. He had the right vision and capabilities to build a team that could build a genuine League experience onto mobile.
The dependency people seem to often not to fully appreciate it is that money does not equal the ability to make great things - it’s all about people. Money can help you get great people, but they are in limited supply - and building team chemistry takes time. Despite conventional wisdom, great game devs are often not fungible.
We don’t build things until we have the right people to be able to build products that have a chance to be the best in the world for their area - and this requires time and patience. That’s why we went from just being the League of Legends company to suddenly having lots of products - we were building the teams capable of creating great things in parallel - it just took years to have the capabilities fully come online.
Also, the media “reports” what other people report - it essentially amounts to gossip, in that they are saying “as reported by this other publication, that publication said a handful of people said X about Y” - and then everyone runs around thinking that these gossip rumor mill reports are “fact”. It’s why Mark Twain said “If you don’t read the news, you are uninformed. If you read the news, you are misinformed”.
Go download Ground News (an app) to see the media confirmation bias in action (it’s a wonderful app to help people learn to think more critically about what they read).
You will only realise how misinformed the news is when the news reports on something you were directly involved in. I learnt this many years ago.
Yup. I’ve been shocked at how bad it is having gone through the journey of building Riot. It’s a huge part of the reason America is falling apart.
Thank you for the answer, I honestly didn't expect one.
I don't really have a problem with Riot not making a mobile game back then. I think most players can clearly feel that all the games Riot has released recently were labors of love and not something quickly put together and rushed to release. I give you huge props for that, so I wouldn't have wanted you to make a game you don't believe in just to meet market demands. I'm glad you work the way you do.
My question was really just that it seemed weird to claim that "Tencent has never told us to make any product ever" when it was well known that they asked you to make a mobile game... which you now confirmed. Maybe you meant that you never made a product just because Tencent asked you to do so... which in that case, I believe you.
Either way, congratulations on all the great things you've been putting out recently. You seem to be really hitting your stride.
That distinction matters. They don’t “order us” - we choose what we make - and that makes all the difference in the world.
And ty for the kind note.
what does "their capital bought out shareholders" mean? do they not own 100% of riot? all (full) acquisitions involve "buying out shareholders" by definition, so it makes it seem like riot isn't wholly owned, or something. which if it is that is definitely news to me and super interesting (and, also, BIG congrats, because them buying 100% of riot at the price they paid was an *enormous* steal for *them* otherwise, ultimately, given how well you guys have done since (but hindsight is 20/20, obviously) =).
also, being able to take in money to grow the business more quickly is a good thing, not a bad thing, so I don't know whether taking in external money is really worth the (non-)"organic" perjorative-- money is literally free these days if you have a credible way of spending it, so using it as much of it as possible (efficiently) is as good a lever as it's ever been in modern history-- but by no means are all or even most businesses able to write infinite checks that actually have positive ROI (and I would never expect a game company to be the kind of infinite investment machine-- creativity and quality take time).
also, I think the strategy that riot has been pursuing of leveraging its universe to create a bunch of titles in different genres is super brilliant btw. and I think the quality has been really good so far!
We don’t have an infinite supply of great people to pour money into. It takes time to find / train great people and teams.
Great conversation up until “American is falling apart”. That’s a constant declinist attitude that the US has had more or less since it’s inception. Today, that sentiment is propaganda pushed by Russian, Chinese and unfortunately some news networks within the States. Their is strong evidence that the US is improving steadily in most quantifiable sectors when looking at countries at a macro scale. I’m not sure what metric you are using to gauge falling apart. Socially and politically(?), I could see that a little bit.
From a GDP and socially influential standpoint, I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the US to let a Chinese company own majority stake in one the world’s most successful companies for video game development, publishing and organizing for esport tournaments. I wouldn’t usually respond to a seemingly offhand comment but 1.) passionate about the subject matter 2.) you’re an influential person. I’ll be checking out Ground News, thanks for the tip.
A better way to frame it is “divided”. I wrote a blog entry exploring it a while ago with deeper thoughts: https://www.nahco3.com/blog/2019/1/31/why-is-america-so-divided
The polarization in our society and dysfunction in our political system is the number one threat to US competitiveness.