The air at the top can get thin sometimes, that's how it works League of Legends Developer Riot at the moment. Just last week there was an article about the employment situation and possible sexual harassment at Riot. Today there was news about problems in the relationship with publisher giant Tencent, a co-owner of Riot.
Is discrimination the order of the day at Riot?
The Kotaku article "Inside the culture of sexism at riot games ” did not throw a good light on the situation at Riot. Dozens of interviews with former and current employees revealed not only that discrimination against women is the order of the day, but also of a very chaotic system of teams and a lack of decision-making structures. The complete article can here being found.
After reading the article, many fans rightly asked themselves "How does such a company manage to develop the world's largest game (even if the title is slowly becoming Fortnite) and keep it successful?"
The information.com's report on frictions with the Chinese publisher Tencent does not come as a surprise and reports a sharp drop in players and sales figures.
One problem here are certainly the long-standing problems with “toxicity”, i.e. the unfriendly behavior of the players towards one another and especially towards beginners. Players who got their accounts banned or banned and then ended up in matches when leveling a new account with League of Legends beginners are known to insult them at the slightest mistake. Numbers were already buzzing through the news that the 60% of the newcomers stopped very quickly.
What's the best way to see the world? On the back of your best yeti buddy, of course! pic.twitter.com/dPIBS0djVG
- League of Legends EU (@loleu) 13th August 2018
Riot tries to fight against such problems, but a real antidote has not been found.
League of Legends - Weakness at the highest level
As a reaction to the last article there was an official statement from Riot, accordingly the player numbers are no longer at their peak, but still at such a high level that League of Legends is doing incredibly well and only weakens in comparison with its own record numbers .
"League numbers are down from their peak, but it's still one of the most-played games in the world and we're very happy with the numbers, and we think some of the new content we're putting out soon can only help with player numbers, “Riot said. "Basically, League is doing incredibly well by any measure except its own very high watermark.
The relationship with Tencent is the best it's ever been. We talked to Rioters about it a fair amount back in February and while the Arena of Valor situation wasn't great, we worked through it and leadership's take that it made the partnership stronger. We're working together toward an exciting future, both for League and our upcoming games (yes 's'). "Source: Dotesports
