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Rioters are people too; Why Riot employees don't interact with us here as much as we'd like

Dominick Destine·3/10/2016, 5:13:58 AM·307 votes·17,878 views

A long time ago, the "Boards" were known as "The Forums" and had a very different community dynamic than we have now.

On these forums, I talked to a Rioter named "Riot Jozreal", because of this I got to know him somewhat and played a few matches with him... one of the things that I learned was that Rioter's actually agree with the community on a lot of things but they have no power to change anything and CANNOT publicly agree with many things because, as Riot employees, anything they say can and will be used against them and against Riot. Every single one of their responses will be scrutinized to a spectacular degree.... search your feelings, you know this to be true.

Above all else; Even if they were to publicly agree to many of the concerns that the community has, nothing they say or do will ever satisfy the community because, AND I INCLUDE MYSELF IN THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT; The community are a bunch of ungrateful jerks that will bite the hand that feeds them 9 times out of 10... and the 10th time they will do it too it will just take longer.

So don't blame Rioters for not hanging out with us more often, I guarantee you they wish they could but unfortunately, reality is not as we wish it to be. Anyway I would like to formally thank Rioters for their efforts, you guys are great and I know you try your hardest, gg.

161 Comments

RiotRiot Calad3/11/2016, 7:30:24 PM44 votes

It definitely feels harder to interact now compared to when Riot and the community were both a lot smaller. There's a lot of people at Riot, working on cool things of various shapes and sizes. One of the downsides to that is that it's less likely that one of us knows exactly what's going on somewhere else across the company, and often we don't feel comfortable answering questions and potentially saying something inaccurate or outdated. I think that's one of the things that makes talking here difficult - not that we don't have the power to speak out, but that we don't want to speak for teams or projects we're not working on.

That's just an excuse at it's core, though, and not a particularly great one either. Of course we could reach out to those teams when we see something relevant here, and I think we should do so more frequently - chase down the people who can respond to a hot topic.

As for the community being a bunch of ungrateful jerks, I think you're a bit hard on yourself ;) We're incredibly lucky to have players as passionate as you are, and I think Rioters understand that people complaining are people who care. We also have pretty thick skin.

Thanks for posting this, Dominick. At the very least, it convinced one Rioter (me!) that they really should hang around here more.

MasterSomething3/10/2016, 5:26:01 AM39 votes

About time someone gives credit where it's due.

Sarutobi3/10/2016, 6:29:23 AM23 votes

You do have to remember too, a lot of the people on here are possibly kids, so they dont really understand some of the stuff. But to be fair in that case its the parents fault for not monitoring their child's internet access!

All in all im glad they arent here as often. their main priority should be the game especially for people like Lyte. Granted there are some cases which should be getting a rioters attentions. But a lot of the content here, especially from people who want to know why they are ban despite having loads of evidence against them should just be left to rot.

Very Epic Guy3/10/2016, 12:32:29 PM20 votes

It probably also doesn't help that most threads are overtly hostile.

"Fucking Stupid Rito omg," "Riot wtf is wrong with u," etc

1Maza3/10/2016, 10:53:45 AM17 votes

I think they should just make a PR position for each department (S&A, Balance, etc.) and make it their JOB to sit here and on Reddit 8 hours a day and, well, be PR. They'd be giving a few lucky people a job, and we get people we can actually refer to when we have questions or grievances. Instead of "Hey Riot" as if they're all the same (as the Rioters have said multiple times, they work in different departments and thus can't answer questions about things outside their department of knowledge) we can say "Hey insert PR Rioter of specific department" and actually expect an answer, assuming it's a legitimate, well-thought-out post.

Also honestly, people act like the boards are a LOT worse than they are. Sure you can't swing a cat without hitting a QQ thread and that's annoying, but most discussions I see with Rioters are fairly civil. Rioter makes a point, 3 or 4 people give counterarguments, Rioter explains why they're wrong and that's usually the end of it. There doesn't have to be "blood", most of us just want to know somebody's listening.

Solaxo3/10/2016, 7:50:13 AM12 votes

BS. If a Rioter uses logical reasoning and valid points people are satisfied. I've seen many topics like that

Supreme Senpai693/10/2016, 6:55:53 AM11 votes

They don't come on the boards because every post they make is ambushed by angry circlejerkers who spam 'plsnerfchampionx.'

lolptwo3/10/2016, 11:23:44 AM11 votes

Reality is most kids on here ( and I say kids because majority of the community is 15-20) don't understand what it's like in a professional workplace.

It's not like a high school classroom where you raise your hand and say whatever the hell you want.

They're positions where people make decisions and others don't but still know what's going on and have input. A lot of Rioters can give imput but can't give executive orders.

Meanwhile the boards are full or personal attack on Rioters and extremely hostile behavior to a group of people who literally work full time to create what has become the Worlds largest online game. It's just sad, clearly they are doing something right.

Pentarina Only3/10/2016, 5:31:45 AM10 votes

THAT UPVOTE BOT.

Trylobyte3/10/2016, 12:41:18 PM5 votes

I think the important part is that, as a Rioter, anything they say can and will be used against them. The forums have a long memory when it comes to finding something to whine about and I've often seen people dig up posts made years ago, scrub them of all meaningful context, and try to use them to say 'OMG RITO LIES' despite the fact the Rioter who posted it initially may not even work there anymore or they explained their decision not to do the thing they 'promised' in another years-old post that's conveniently not provided. I also see a general failure to understand how a company works, resulting in the wrong people (Usually Morello) consistently getting blamed for something they (or their department) don't even work on or for something that's pretty much out of their hands.

This results in Rioters having to play super-safe on the forums, avoid some topics altogether, and avoid anything that sounds like a 'promise' since even if it doesn't come back to get them now it might come back in two or three years as a necropost. This goes doubly so for both long-time employees (Morello, Meddler) and for people who are in important, well-known roles (Jaredan, Hippalus, Lyte).

TeCoolMage3/10/2016, 1:43:03 PM5 votes

Add yellow rioters: riot accounts that let you say whatever the hell you want that an average poster can say. Add a disclaimer to the end of each post automatically saying that while the rioter has information on the subject, the yellow name means anything said does not represent the company as a whole in any shape or form.

General Esdeath 3/10/2016, 8:06:16 AM5 votes

Even if they could, there's less than 100 of them and millions of us. They obviously can't be super close to us like they could have back in the days of season 1.

I WILL TROLL YOU3/10/2016, 11:05:02 PM4 votes

False , Riot employees are cold soulless corporate drones. With out thought they will destroy your being with blast of dark matter , sell your children as slaves on Yi's potato farm and force you to watch 24 hour Mr. Rogers marathons on classic cable. Don't say you weren't warned.

Zurctc3/11/2016, 2:42:36 AM3 votes

I am politely asking for a new Diana skin, please lmao

slippykitten3/10/2016, 5:54:26 PM1 votes

They don't communicate because they operate under the same principles that they monitor their community - "Everything that doesn't make me feel amazing and special and appreciated is toxic"

So if you criticize them, they essentially mute and ignore, because that's the way they look at the world. The only thing they actually discuss is positive posts and peoples finger paintings of champions.

As for your subtle communist/fascist comments that we are "biting that hand that feeds us", you couldn't be more wrong/absurd/delusional/etc. We are the hand that feeds them, they operate on the profits they receive from the consumers (that's us folks) and if they ignore their players, they are the ones biting the hand that feeds them. That's how capitalism works; they offer a product or service, we give them money. They keep providing quality products and services and keep their customers happy, they keep making money. They get big heads and think they can screw their customers, they lose money.

Before you give me the ignorant "but da game is FREE brah!" understand that the f2p model is an intelligently designed business model for making money, it isn't charity. They have made more money creating a wider customer base to buy skins/champs because they offer the initial product for free than they would have if they sold the game.

It is a business, you are the customer. If you want to humiliate yourself and place yourself in voluntary obligation to a business that is making profit off you, go right ahead, but don't act like anyone treating a business as a business is out of line.