Customer Engagement Models Riot Games

8/12/2019 Customer Engagement Models Riot Games

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2013 Predictive Consulting Group, Inc.All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.CHIEF CUSTOMER OFFICER COUNCIL www.ccocouncil.org | (978) 226-8675 Page 1

Customer EngagementModels Riot Games

by Curtis N. Bingham


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Customer Engagement Models Riot Games

Curtis N BinghamFounder and Executive Director

Chief Customer Officer Council

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Many companies today have developed paths to greater engagement and greater profitabilitythrough recruiting the involvement of their customers. To restate the definition of engagement:it is the extent of a customers willingness to invest his/her discretionary time for a mutualbenefit, and particularly for the benefit of a business.

Established in Southern California in 2006, Riot Games is a US-based publisher best known forits multiplayer online battle arena title, League of Legends . As a testament to the level ofengagement Riot Games has achieved with its player base, today the average percentage ofnew players that come through word of mouth is between 85 and 90%. A significantcontributor to this engagement is structural: Riot created a game thats simply more fun to playwith friends. Players recruit their friends to play with them because they enjoy a better gamingexperience.

Furthermore, Riots focus has never been: How can we influence people to talk about thegame, talk about the product, and bring in friends? Rather, the focus is: How can we makesomething thats worth talking about, worth bringing friends into, and worth sharing with aplayers social group? Theres always a focus on the social aspects that influence playerexperience, but the company believes its success specifically derives from its efforts towardsnot manipulating player actions, but manipulating its product with the net effect that playeractions change.

One of Riots most outstanding examples of player engagement can be found within theprocess by which it enables its player community to recognize and manage negative in-gamebehavior, called the Tribunal. The game is played in sessions that last anywhere from 20 to 50minutes at a time. At the end of each session, if a player behaved exhibited any


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unsportsmanlike behavior such as berating teammates or name calling, the other players canreport him. When enough reports are filed against an individual a number based upon theratio of reports filed to total games played a case file comprised of chat logs (in game instant-messaging), statistics, game data, activity, etc. is generated.

This case is displayed at random to members of the tribunal; other players in the communitywho have voluntarily chosen to participate in regulating and weighing in on communitybehavior. Based upon the data available within the case file, tribunal members vote whether ornot to punish the player involved. In the case of repeat Tribunal cases, if the threshold ofpunishment becomes high enough, Riot takes action against the account; action that canescalate based upon the players previous history and punishment. But punishment is viewedas a last resort. Through the constructive feedback of peers, Riot attempts to optimizeteamwork, cooperation and positive player experiences. The best outcome is for a player to

never show up at the tribunal again. Therefore, all systems are designed to adjust, not punish,behavior by allowing players equal ability to reward their peers for positive behavior byhonoring them after a game. When players do actually get punished, they are sent all thedetails in their case files: what they did, how others felt about it, why it had a negative impacton player experience, and why it was bad.

In Riots example, it is peers fellow players who are applying and enforcing standards ofappropriate gaming behavior; they are devoting their discretionary time to preserve the qualityof experience for everyone. This strengthens the community, gives it greater credibility andauthority, and at the same time frees company resources to be spent on more valuableopportunities. It also fosters greater engagement by players and a stronger commitment to thegames ecosystem. *

*Copyright Notice: All content contained in this article is copyright protected material. Reproduction, in whole or inpart, in any form or medium, without the express written permission of the Chief Customer Officer Council is strictlyprohibited.

This article is excerpted from The Bingham Advisory: The Customer Engagement Trajectory , available for freedownload from the CCO Council website at: http://www.ccocouncil.org/thebinghamadvisory/.


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About CURTIS N BINGHAM

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Customer Engagement Models Riot Games