Vantaggi
- Work with some of the best talent in the industry. I feel privileged to being able to work closely with the former WoW balance lead, the Exec Producer from Halo Reach, the Production Director from EVE, and many more talented individuals from inside and outside games. Riot is stacked with inspiring talent to learn from. - Leadership of Gamers: I've been around the industry and most senior executives don't even play the games they worked on and made major decisions for. At Riot, you're an outsider if you don't play a bunch of games (Marc & Brandon the founders, Nicolo, the CEO, Scott the CTO are all big gamers) - this means they actually get hands-on and deeply understand the games being made (and what player concerns might be). - New Leadership: I think Riot has been complacent in the last couple years, the luxury of success on League of Legends meant there was no urgency to innovate. The new leadership at the C-Level realizes that League and the R&D titles no longer have that luxury, and are making hard choices on prioritization. - Cares about Rioters: Riot has fantastic perks because they want to keep the talent (that's us) happy. They're one of a handful of companies in gaming that believes their best assets are the people that make the game - and it shows in how they empower teams, manage careers, and invest in Rioters. - Big Bets: Riot is betting big on its future titles, and it will be exciting to see them in front of players. Now is the time for Riot to choose which ones to accelerate and to make sure those bets land well for players. This year is going to be pivotal in making sure that happens.
Svantaggi
- 2018 is not Riot's year: This is going to be a year where Riot is building its innovative projects, not the year when tons of new games are launched and glory/bonuses/launch parties are being celebrated. Riot making some difficult choices to make sure the company is on a healthy trajectory. New commitments, long term plans and focus is being applied this year, which means you aren't going to be doing exactly what you did last year. I'm bullish on the future however. - Can't be complacent: The demand of Riot change, and you may find yourself called on to help the company win, rather than working on your dream project. At one point Riot let you do whatever you wanted with little demand for business results; that era is ending and a lot of Rioters aren't happy about it. - Complexity Drag: As Riot gets bigger, the number of teams, disciplines, and stakeholders that get attached to any project increases. The cost of "synching what you're doing with team X" doesn't seem great, but the combined need to sync with a dozen groups creates significant drag on teams. They could operate faster and with fewer people if we freed them from the need to be so interconnected.