5 ms·

I spent a week or so on site as a contractor (well technically a contractor for a company with a contract).. I certainly didn't leave thinking "hey these guys h

I spent a week or so on site as a contractor (well technically a contractor for a company with a contract).. I certainly didn't leave thinking "hey these guys have it great". I still keep thinking about their company policy: employees were expected to play their game every day. Can you imagine if McDonalds said they expected staff to eat at least one meal every day in-store?

legohead 8y ago
Reminds me of when I worked at a smaller telecom company who had a crazy VP. He would approach random employees, ask them who their long distance carrier was, and if it wasn't the company, he'd fire them on the spot. "Why are you working for us if you don't believe in us?"
novia 8y ago
I was in a Wendy's recently and saw a "now hiring" sign. One of the selling points was "free meals" so...
- stephenr 8y ago
  I didn't say "they are told they can play the game for free", and Wendys isn't saying "You will eat at least one meal a day from Wendys"
- onetimemanytime 8y ago
  Imagine the alternative...Wendy's employees having lunch at McD's, in Wendy's uniform during their lunch break. (leaving aside the logistics of having your emps take an 1 hour break for lunch during the busiest period.)
jayd16 8y ago
There's a lot wrong with Riot but dog fooding the game never struck me as that odd. If you work on gmail you should probably use gmail often. If you work on an iOS you should probably spend time using an iPhone.
- kadendogthing 8y ago
  These games tend to be about 30 minutes in length and can be quite tedious. It's not exactly like firing up another game and getting through a few games in about 20 minutes. It's extremely involved.
  - alpaca128 8y ago
    Maybe on average, but from my experience a couple years ago it's more like 40+ minutes, and about every second game you're called every name in the book because someone else on the other side of the planet didn't like that you equipped an item they don't like.
    - shanehoban 8y ago
      The game has definitely evolved since then. I remember those days and still play pretty frequently. The level of toxicity among the playerbase has definitely reduced. It is still a quite toxic environment though.
  - magduf 8y ago
    Is this something they were expected to do on company time, or personal time? If company time, then it doesn't matter how long it takes, that's the company's prerogative to have their employees burn billable time playing their game. If personal time, forget it.
stevenwoo 8y ago
I have worked at a McDonald's and at least when I worked there, workers got something like $5 credit per eight hour shift back in the 1980's. Most people used it to eat a meal but sometimes we would trade credit with KFC or Pizza Hut workers for variety. I have also worked in games on smaller teams and considered it a responsibility to play the game to make sure that everything I could influence worked well (or I changed it so that it did) or that I could evaluate other parts of the game versus user expectation/current state of the art. Maybe things are different on larger teams/projects.
- djakjxnanjak 8y ago
  This probably reveals how out of touch I am... but I always assumed people in the back could just get free food. Is the manager watching? Would fellow employees narc on you?
  - fermentation 8y ago
    Really depends on where you are and who you’re working with. Lots of fast food places are pretty cramped in the kitchen, and you’d pretty much have to be friends with whichever set of bosses are around.
  - stevenwoo 8y ago
    You could take food but it probably depends on the manager on shift, at the store I worked at the manager was the owner so she was pretty strict when she was around (distinctly remember coworkers joking about how she was pretty OCD about counting cups/sauce packets because that all cost her money so she emphasized being stingy about distributing those/accounting for loss). Coworkers did not have the same amount of skin in the game unless the managers held them accountable for inventory levels.
  - mercer 8y ago
    I worked at McDonald's for a while, and taking food was a fireable offence. I'd get a discount though, but honestly eating the food I'd been stewing in for hours wasn't a great proposition, so mostly just a practical way to eat something if I hadn't brought anything from home.
jjeaff 8y ago
Expected to play the game daily on your personal time? Or as part of your regular work day? If the latter, then that's a good, and perfectly reasonable expectation. If the former, nope.
anbop 8y ago
Using the company's product is a perfectly reasonable request, either "on the clock" for exempt employees or contractors or as part of the job description for non-exempt.
solatic 8y ago
That's called dogfooding - how can you expect your entertainment product to be any fun if your own workers aren't having any fun playing it? Leave aside for a second that it doesn't scale into large companies - for the product people and engineers working directly on the product, it doesn't seem like such an unreasonable expectation. If you come from the school of thought of "I'm a professional, I clock in at 9 and clock out at 5, here strictly for the paycheck, strict separation of life and work" then OK, it's not a fit for you. Thankfully, not every company has to be a fit for everybody.
- stephenr 8y ago
  > for the product people and engineers working directly on the product The expectation as explained to us was for all staff, regardless of role.
  - solatic 8y ago
    When was this? I remember reading that they understood that culture wasn't scaling, so they dialed down to an expectation that employees like to play some games, of some kind, at some level (including casual). But that used to be their cultural expectation when they were smaller (sorry I don't have a source). Clearly that culture (everyone must play the product) doesn't scale when you need to hire into roles that have nothing to do with the product itself.
    - stephenr 8y ago
      It was a while ago.... Checks calendar.. 2012.
Impossible 8y ago
I've interviewed with Riot a couple of times and it's always been an interesting experience. The first time I interviewed the recruiter basically hung up on me in the phone screen after 20 minutes because I hadn't played League of Legends.

legohead 8y ago

Reminds me of when I worked at a smaller telecom company who had a crazy VP. He would approach random employees, ask them who their long distance carrier was, and if it wasn't the company, he'd fire them on the spot. "Why are you working for us if you don't believe in us?"

novia 8y ago

I was in a Wendy's recently and saw a "now hiring" sign. One of the selling points was "free meals" so...

stephenr 8y ago
I didn't say "they are told they can play the game for free", and Wendys isn't saying "You will eat at least one meal a day from Wendys"
onetimemanytime 8y ago
Imagine the alternative...Wendy's employees having lunch at McD's, in Wendy's uniform during their lunch break. (leaving aside the logistics of having your emps take an 1 hour break for lunch during the busiest period.)

jayd16 8y ago

There's a lot wrong with Riot but dog fooding the game never struck me as that odd. If you work on gmail you should probably use gmail often. If you work on an iOS you should probably spend time using an iPhone.

kadendogthing 8y ago
These games tend to be about 30 minutes in length and can be quite tedious. It's not exactly like firing up another game and getting through a few games in about 20 minutes. It's extremely involved.
- alpaca128 8y ago
  Maybe on average, but from my experience a couple years ago it's more like 40+ minutes, and about every second game you're called every name in the book because someone else on the other side of the planet didn't like that you equipped an item they don't like.
  - shanehoban 8y ago
    The game has definitely evolved since then. I remember those days and still play pretty frequently. The level of toxicity among the playerbase has definitely reduced. It is still a quite toxic environment though.
- magduf 8y ago
  Is this something they were expected to do on company time, or personal time? If company time, then it doesn't matter how long it takes, that's the company's prerogative to have their employees burn billable time playing their game. If personal time, forget it.

stevenwoo 8y ago

I have worked at a McDonald's and at least when I worked there, workers got something like $5 credit per eight hour shift back in the 1980's. Most people used it to eat a meal but sometimes we would trade credit with KFC or Pizza Hut workers for variety. I have also worked in games on smaller teams and considered it a responsibility to play the game to make sure that everything I could influence worked well (or I changed it so that it did) or that I could evaluate other parts of the game versus user expectation/current state of the art. Maybe things are different on larger teams/projects.

djakjxnanjak 8y ago
This probably reveals how out of touch I am... but I always assumed people in the back could just get free food. Is the manager watching? Would fellow employees narc on you?
- fermentation 8y ago
  Really depends on where you are and who you’re working with. Lots of fast food places are pretty cramped in the kitchen, and you’d pretty much have to be friends with whichever set of bosses are around.
- stevenwoo 8y ago
  You could take food but it probably depends on the manager on shift, at the store I worked at the manager was the owner so she was pretty strict when she was around (distinctly remember coworkers joking about how she was pretty OCD about counting cups/sauce packets because that all cost her money so she emphasized being stingy about distributing those/accounting for loss). Coworkers did not have the same amount of skin in the game unless the managers held them accountable for inventory levels.
- mercer 8y ago
  I worked at McDonald's for a while, and taking food was a fireable offence. I'd get a discount though, but honestly eating the food I'd been stewing in for hours wasn't a great proposition, so mostly just a practical way to eat something if I hadn't brought anything from home.

jjeaff 8y ago

Expected to play the game daily on your personal time? Or as part of your regular work day? If the latter, then that's a good, and perfectly reasonable expectation. If the former, nope.

anbop 8y ago

Using the company's product is a perfectly reasonable request, either "on the clock" for exempt employees or contractors or as part of the job description for non-exempt.

solatic 8y ago

That's called dogfooding - how can you expect your entertainment product to be any fun if your own workers aren't having any fun playing it? Leave aside for a second that it doesn't scale into large companies - for the product people and engineers working directly on the product, it doesn't seem like such an unreasonable expectation. If you come from the school of thought of "I'm a professional, I clock in at 9 and clock out at 5, here strictly for the paycheck, strict separation of life and work" then OK, it's not a fit for you. Thankfully, not every company has to be a fit for everybody.

stephenr 8y ago
> for the product people and engineers working directly on the product The expectation as explained to us was for all staff, regardless of role.
- solatic 8y ago
  When was this? I remember reading that they understood that culture wasn't scaling, so they dialed down to an expectation that employees like to play some games, of some kind, at some level (including casual). But that used to be their cultural expectation when they were smaller (sorry I don't have a source). Clearly that culture (everyone must play the product) doesn't scale when you need to hire into roles that have nothing to do with the product itself.
  - stephenr 8y ago
    It was a while ago.... Checks calendar.. 2012.

Impossible 8y ago

I've interviewed with Riot a couple of times and it's always been an interesting experience. The first time I interviewed the recruiter basically hung up on me in the phone screen after 20 minutes because I hadn't played League of Legends.