Riot Games president defends company against accusations of greed

Riot Games president and executive producer of League of Legends Marc Merrill made a surprise appearance on social news and entertainment website Reddit last night to answer questions about League of Legends and defend the company against accusations of greed.

Posting to a thread in which a Reddit user complained about a lack of a new client for Season 4 of League of Legends, Merrill addressed the accusation that Riot Games was "a money hungry company" that had greedy business practices.

"It's pretty frustrating when people try to position us as greedy, because look at it from our perspective," Merrill wrote. "1. We build pretty much the first successful free online game in the West that core gamers actually really like and play. 2. We did this by building a really fun game, constantly investing over and over to grow and improve this game...

"Millions upon millions of our players spend zero dollars on League and enjoy it endlessly. We're COMPLETELY OK with this. Greedy how? You do not have to spend money. It is completely opt-in.

"We do all this because [Riot Games CEO Brandon Beck] Ryze and I are gamers. Always have been, always will be. We play the shit out of League of Legends. When servers go down, we flip out. When we don't deliver on something we promised, we flip out ... and change the world internally..."

Merrill's full statement can be read here.

Merrill also addressed questions in the thread from users about the lack of a new game client for League of Legends. "When you are Riot ... there are lots of additional considerations that need to be managed," he said, listing examples like making sure the client works in 15 different languages and balancing existing and future technology.