Riot Games reviews

[-] Weakened culture screening – as a result of the company’s growth, there’s been some controversial weakening of hiring standards. It’s really hard for example to find core gamers who are also really great at <insert esoteric professional skill>, so the company has had to loosen some of its standards with regards to hiring people who genuinely love games and can be termed core gamers. These hires may assimilate just fine. Or they may go on to hire additional people who don’t game, thus sending us down the long, slippery slope towards becoming another <insert game company full of people who don’t play or care about games >. [-] Immature internal infrastructure – There are about three times as many Rioters today as there were two years ago. Many internal systems are still those of a much smaller company and are groaning under the load. From the “emailpocalypse” of 2012 when many emails were lost to the fact that there’s no longer a room that fits everybody for our “all hands” meetings, this is a company that needs to trade up to big boy underpants. [-] Management upgrades incomplete – The exec team is struggling to build a layer of trusted and strategically aligned managers that they can rely on to act in a way that’s consistent with their vision. This means that they occasionally micromanage, “swoop-and-poop” and display other behaviors that don’t happen in mature organizations where mid-level management is trusted, aligned, and held accountable. I’m confident this situation is evolving in the right direction, but it’s currently not where it needs to be. [-] Hot, flat, and crowded – the current offices are increasingly less hospitable to getting work done because we’ve outgrown our current space and are jamming people into an office that was never designed for this sort of seating density. It’s like Lord of the Flies if you want a conference room and headphones (free from IT of course) are a must if you want to actually focus on your own work for a beat.

- Inexperienced leadership and management - Occasionally conflicting goals and strategies - Santa Monica traffic and living costs are prohibitive - Lack of feedback on performance from management - "Boys Club" mentality to process improvement and new ideas, if you're not already part of the in-group, your opinion is undervalued One downside of Riot's meteoric rise to publish the most-played game in the world is a lack of foundation building and infrastructure stabilization. Young leaders and managers bring drive and passion to a workforce, but inexperience and some naivete cause the success to rest on a shaky framework.