Free-to-play game offerings are increasing every day on the Internet. Some people think that the model of supporting a game with optional micro-payments is the way of the future for all games. Riot Games has taken that tack and it’s become the emphasis for their latest ad campaign. We talked with Chris Enock, Marketing Director at Riot Games, about marketing for League of Legends.
What was the nascence of the “Paying for games is scary” campaign?
Chris Enock: We know that many gamers are taking a huge risk when they decide to spend $30 or even $60 for a game without truly knowing if the game is good or not – and that is scary. With a typical game, you don’t get to play the full game until you pay money up front. Riot Games believes that allowing players to play as much as they want for free before deciding if and when to spend money is a better service to gamers. With League of Legends, it’s much less of a shot in the dark for gamers because they can play for as long as they want before putting down their money – and even once they want to make a purchase it doesn’t have to be nearly as much as $30.
Who are you specifically targeting with the campaign?
CE: Specifically, we’re targeting enthusiast PC gamers who are passionate about gaming, and looking for a fast-paced challenging experience. We are looking for core PC gamers who may be hesitant to pay for games before fully experiencing them. These are probably gamers who have had the unfortunate experience of paying for a game upfront, only to find that it wasn’t a great game when they started playing. League of Legends solves that issue by letting you download and play the game completely free for as long as you want before you decide if and when you’ll put money into the game.
You can have all this chaos for free!
Why do you think there’s such an appeal for a competitive online game like League of Legends?
CE: I think the fast-paced, player vs. player team-based action of the game coupled with the strategic element of leveling up and equipping your character is appealing to competitive gamers. League of Legends sits between RTS games (it’s played from a top-down perspective) and RPG games (you control one unit that increases in abilities and power), and can be typically played in 20-40 minute sessions, all of which combine to make an appealing style of gameplay with very high replayability. League of Legends is the first free game to compete with industry incumbents for some of the top industry honors (such as IGN.com’s Reader’s Choice award for Best Multiplayer Game of 2009 and GameSpy’s Gamer’s Choice award for Best PC Game of 2009 and a nomination for Game of the Year from GameTrailers.com).
Give me a little more detail about what you’re looking to do with the campaign on Google and Facebook.
CE: We’re looking to reach out to core gamers and let them know that there is an alternative to paying for games entirely up front when they may not know if a game merits that kind of investment. Facebook and Google are just the first way we are reaching out. We are also introducing flash ads and other vehicles to get the message out.
Tell me about the person who got 500 people to try the game.
CE: His in-game name is Grez and he’s a very good social marketer. We have a “Refer a Friend” program that gives players in-game rewards (such as points and exclusive character “skins”) for bringing friends into the game. Though posting his unique link, Grez managed to get over 1,000 people to try the game and play enough to get to level 10. As a reward, he will have an element of one of our maps named after him. I don’t think he knows all 1,000 players personally, but he has been able to get his link posted in high-profile areas by talking about how to signup and get into League of Legends. He’s helping us to get the word out, and doing quite well at it. Those types of gamers that evangelize to their friends have always been out there, but we are actively encouraging and facilitating their behavior by rewarding it.
The program for being kind to “newbs” is intriguing – how did it come about?
CE: This program was conceived by our Community Director, Steve Mescon, better known as “Pendragon.” Because our game is almost entirely a player vs. player experience, the experience can often be intimidating for new players. I believe we have the best community in our genre, but as anyone who has played online player vs. player games before knows, players can sometimes be aggressive or harsh to each other. What we attempted to do was define a set of standards that constituted what we consider to be good sportsmanship. Most of our players have responded in an overwhelmingly positive manner and we have hundreds and hundreds of posts of players who spontaneously pledged to follow the code of conduct – part of which is to “Leave No Newbie Behind,” explaining the game’s nuances to struggling new players. It’s just one of the many things we are doing and plan to do in the future to keep improving the League of Legends community.
Why, in general, do you think the free-to-play model is superior for online?
CE: One of the biggest benefits to players is that you don’t need to make a big initial investment in the game. From a business perspective, it allows for a couple other things. For League of Legends it completely eliminates piracy, since you need to be connected to our servers to play, and the ability and incentive to pirate the game is drastically reduced. Our client is widely available on pirate file distribution services and we think that is great because it introduces our game to new players.
From a business perspective it also more closely aligns our incentives with that of our players. For a traditional boxed product, aside from a couple DLC options, most publishers don’t have a financial incentive to keep players playing – essentially once they buy the box, the traditional game publishers don’t get more money from players continuing to play (it really is just a cost to them). However, players in League of Legends purchase when they are highly engaged in the game. Our incentive is to keep them playing.
To that end we have not stopped improving the game since launch (our team supporting the title now is actually bigger than it was at launch – as opposed to a traditional boxed product titles where the team size is typically cut after launch). We roll out new content for the game every 2-3 weeks, and we have a major update we’re calling “Season One” planned for this summer where we will add a new game mode and several other improvements with the aim of keeping players engaged. We plan to keep on improving and expanding League of Legends for a long time.
