Riot Games CEO tells the secret of success: Genius alone is not enough.

Over the past few years, the League of Heroes has evolved from a free game that initially hit the market to a phenomenon in the gaming industry, which has been 4 years since Tencent acquired most of riot Games's shares. Earlier this year, co-founder Marc Merrill and Brandon Beck won the GDC Pioneer Award for their contribution to the industry. And now, not only the big, well-funded distributors have entered the Moba game field, but there are a lot of copycat admission, they use about 1.5 time test, but finally found that did not learn the essence of the original and forced to cancel the release.

At the Montreal Games summit today, Riot Games CEO Brandon Beck tells the secret of the company's success, which is the theme of his speech.

"Some people think that the best companies have some advantages that other companies don't have," says Beck. I don't believe in the secret of success, at least for game development, there's no shortcut to success. ”

Of course, companies such as Coca-Cola or KFC may have their own secret recipe, but the success of the game company does not depend on the secret ingredient, game companies can survive the key is talent. "The Great game is not a commodity that can be configured by secret recipes," he said. ”

Beck says that if you want to do great games, developers need to choose innovation and creativity, they get inspiration from the life outside the game. He made a special mention of the art design of the Legion Fortress 2, which was inspired by the work of illustrator Norman Rockwell and Mike Mignola.

But these inspirations are not the secret of the game's success, Beck says. There are many problems in the development of the game, and it is easy to fail to try new things. Every day there are new problems that are not usually solved by the boss's wishes. If you want to succeed in game development, you have to innovate and try to do something new that players have never seen before, which requires a team to balance the relationship between managers and members. If developers are solving problems, then management can cheer them on, rather than directing intervention.

"Talent, and teamwork is the most important factor in success, and genius is not enough," Beck says. ”

He pointed out that in 2004 the United States Olympic basketball team, then lost to Puerto Rico, Lithuania and Argentina, although the players are very good but still lose miserably. Only a genius can win a game, but only a team can get the title.

Unfortunately, the role of the human is not reflected in the game company's balance sheet. As a result, valuations and stock prices are not normal for gaming companies, and no project is more important to game companies than attracting, retaining and motivating people, although good projects are also important for gaming companies. If all the important creative talents in the company are left out, the value of the company will be greatly weakened, but from the book of a company, it seems that the company is still in good working condition.

So, what if you turn a good person into a good team? Beck says the riot approach is to keep them together with a passion and a good attitude, and, of course, it may not be the same for each company. Riot is looking for people who are curious and willing to learn new technology, looking for someone who has learned the knowledge to return to the game industry. He mentions some of the ideas in Moneyball (books and movies, "Penalty gold"), such as the fact that some statistics are overvalued. For the game, Beck says, compared with passion and potential, experience is overrated.

Last month, Riot hired Jay Moldenhauer-salazar, who never had experience in the gaming industry, to be vice president of his personnel, but he was always a core gamer, and used to be a magic:the gathering. For years, I have been insisting on writing collection articles every week. Although he does not have the professional experience in the gaming industry, he is a great fit for riot's culture, Beck says, and riot will often look for such talent.

Riot, however, did not always make mistakes. Beck says Riot games once stipulated that the league's pro players could not play other games openly, but the rules were later canceled. For professional gamers, direct seeding is one of the most important sources of income, and the riot contract is a serious detriment to the interests of professional players, and even to the enthusiasm of the players on the game. But in fact, the contract was not done by riot's research and development team, but by some lawyers familiar with the rules of the EULA, but the lawyers did not love the game, so riot thought that all the relevant things had to be done by people who loved the game, riot later apologized specifically for it.

"A deep sense of value co-ordination can make sure we're on the right track," Beck says. He says the riot company rarely hires non-player employees.

Beck says the corporate culture is too weak to distract employees, but a strong corporate culture can help large teams collaborate better. Trust is also one of the most important factors in teamwork because it makes the team more focused on the player than in the office. Moreover, good corporate culture can also make decision-making more autonomous, so that employees feel more happy. He said, "When you trust someone, it's reassuring to make decisions, because your values and beliefs are the same." ”

' Corporate culture can't be too common, ' says Beck, ' because it's too common to be mundane and without goals, and it will accept people who don't fit into corporate culture. An effective culture, he argues, would produce an exclusive role, and people who do not fit into corporate culture would not be willing to join.

And the other difference is that for a company, the most important thing is that the internal direction is correct, he launched a website called Glassdoor, employees can comment on their work. These comments are good and bad, but they are still very ' magical ' because it gives every employee a chance to express their true feelings and it makes sense to collect feedback from employees. If you put your attention to it, you'll know more about the company.

Beck finally said that he loved the gaming industry, but he had to do a lot of talent management work. Game industry and technology industry is complementary, if the team is not internal friction, the game can develop better, if the staff in order to keep their jobs worried, the company is difficult to develop.

The game industry is still a creative industry and needs genius. But the most important is a good team, only good talent is not enough.