Riot, the creators behind League of Legends (LoL), are looking for gamers as employees.
On the business site LinkedIn, Benjamin Pommeraud has outlined Riot’s unique recruitment policy. Pommeraud is the General Manager for Riot Games in Singapore and Malaysia.
The most important thing to work for Riot is to be a “gamer.” Only if you are a gamer can you build games for other gamers.
At Riot, they make games for “core gamers.” They believe that while every player who plays a game is somewhat a gamer, they do not build games for those at Riot.
LoL is a multiplayer game – easy to learn, hard to master. It is competitive. Who wants to play Candy Crush is also a gamer. And that is a good game. However, it is not the game they make at Riot.
Players who enjoy Riot games play a lot. They have high expectations, as gaming is their passion, an important part of their lives. To develop games for this type of player, one must think, feel, and act like them, Pommeraud believes.
Even an accountant at Riot benefits from being a gamer, as it allows him to understand the company much better. However, he does not need to have any idea about game design.
Casual vs. Core Gamers: There are such gamers and those gamers
Mein MMO believes: One has to smile at the text because it is apparent that Pommeraud does not want to step on anyone’s toes, but the message is clear.
This is the “politically correct” attempt to say: There are gamers and gamers, and the other gamers might play, but … we play for real. Candy Crush serves as a symbol for the “casuals”, the casual gamers – even though Pommeraud never utters the nasty “C” word.
The best part is here:
At Riot, we make games for what we call “core gamers.” Not that we don’t think that anybody who plays games is a gamer, but we build a specific type of games.
You can already hear: Not that we have anything against casual players, but …
Being a “gamer” is part of a culture and a feeling of life, embracing it as a part of one’s identity, related to the value of the hobby. Core gamers do not just play, they live gaming and this lifestyle. It’s identity-forming.
This is naturally elitist, arrogant, and somewhat odd – but my goodness, many passions are like that. A fanatic follower of a football club, an ultra, sees himself differently than the family father who watches a game from home. And so passionate LoL players see themselves differently than those who pick up Candy Crush from time to time.
This “being a gamer” is a trend that has already expressed itself unpleasantly: “Games belong to us, you can stay out.” However, at Riot, it seems they have directed this into positive channels. Success proves them right. Riot is regarded as a close-knit community, a kind of family. And only allowing people who fit into the family is a legitimate recruitment philosophy.
By the way, Riot has already made it multiple times onto the list of the best workplaces in the USA:
LoL: Dream job wanted? Riot outranks Blizzard on the list of “Best Workplaces”
