".League of Legends, a free-to-play online PC game from RIOT Games, was originally launched in October of 2009. Since that time, RIOT has learned a bit about creating new content for the game while at the same time maintaining a good-standing relationship with its players. We built up forums, we built out just really heavy community presences in terms of releasing certain spotlight features every week and just finding ways of interfacing with them as well as, you know, working on the game itself," explained Paul Bellezza, Associate Producer at RIOT Games.
The company hopes that what it announced for the game at the 2011
E3 Expo will work for both players and the game itself. In addition of a few new playable champions, the company is also adding a spectator mode. This new mode allows for players who aren't in a specific game to watch games in progress. RIOT plans for spectator mode to have what the company calls "Shoutcasting", which is essentially play-by-play for matches.
Realizing that it would be easy to cheat atLeague of Legends via spectator mode, RIOT has implemented a delay (similar to that used in live sporting events) so that spectators can't clue active players into what the other players are doing at any given moment.
"I feel for the companies that have been effected by this because at the end of the day it's the players that are feeling the brunt of the effects of it and as a player of a games-as-a-service company, that is one of the most important things for us," said Bellezza. "So, to our players I would say always know that RIOT Games will never ask for your password. We're never gonna request your personal information. Your confidentiality is of the upmost importance to us."
The RIOT Games Associate Producer says the company is doing all it can to maintain server security but recognizes that such an attack could happen to any company at any time.
While spectator mode and shoutcasting will be debuted during the upcoming in-game championships, the exact full launch of the mode has not been decided upon.
On a side note, Bellezza commented on the cyber attacks that Sony and others fell victim to earlier in the year. The issue strikes close at home for RIOT Games since the company.