Monthly Archives: October 2014

“Kite, peel, flash, and ignite” are common words in the world of League of Legends, a popular on-line game released in 2009 that has grown to become the most popular on-line video game in the world. The growth of this game is revealed in a New York Times article titled “Behind League of Legends, E-Sport’s Main Attraction.”

League of Legends 2013 World Finals

“‘Player experience is first’ said Joost van Dreunen.” For starters, League of Legends is a free to play game, charging players only for premiums that do not change game-play; League of Legends premiums only provide visuals and the game is ultimately requires skills.  How does Riot persuade players to purchase these premiums? Simple: most of the game’s premiums can be purchased for an affordable price of under $10.00. Players that have invested thousands of hours will willingly spend some money to visually enhance game play. Up to date, League of Legends, has also hosted 4 World Championships, large scale events with millions of spectators. Riot has stated that these events are not meant to earn money and are only meant to popularize the game, much like an endorsement. Riot’s thinking has not failed as they have reaped $1 billion in revenues due to the vast amount of players that are willing to invest in the cheap premiums offered in the game. League of Legends has been constantly expanding as a successful free to play game, yet due to the large scaled nature of the game and the new ideas constantly brought into the game, Riot is on a long and successful road.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/technology/riot-games-league-of-legends-main-attraction-esports.html

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/10/technology/league-of-legends-graphic.html?_r=0 -Interesting video of player movements in League of Legends.

In this eye catching article titled “It Looked Like a Stabbing, but Takata Air Bag Was the Killer,” the death of Hien Tran was the third case of the defective airbag problem by Takata. These series of deaths, caused by the exploding airbag sending deadly shrapnel flying at the victim’s face, signals a major issue for some key Japanese car manufacturers, including Honda and Toyota.

Hien Tran, an unfortunate victim of the Takata air bags.

Many recalls have been made by Honda and currently there is a “safety crisis” in the Japanese automobile industry. In the automobile industry, aside from technological innovations, design, and energy reduction, safety is a huge issue. Losing ground in safety guarantees would mean a major deficit and issues for these large automobile manufacturers as well Takata, which will likely begin to lose partnerships. In order to recall vehicles to solve these airbag issues, these manufacturers will no doubt utilize many expenses, but more importantly, they will begin losing reputation with customers. My family recently purchased a new Honda Odyssey, however, we have gotten no notice of recall. Nevertheless, these incidents have given me a negative viewpoint towards Japanese car manufacturers and, likely similar to many other consumers, will cause me to greatly reconsider future automobile purchases. I believe that car manufacturers must not only better ensure the safety of their future vehicles, but also establish more secure and well researched partnerships. While Takata failed Honda and other car manufacturers, they also failed to properly ensure that Takata were properly functioning before bringing their products into the market.

Businesses often suffer from external pressures and oppositions due to marginal analyses on whether a project may bring great benefits or even greater harm and costs; BC Hydro’s newest project currently faces this barrier. BC Hydro’s “$8-billion Site C hydroelectric megaproject” on the Peace River has met strong opposition from the First Nations. Arguments regarding the damage to wildlife and farmlands have been raised and currently BC Hydro is in a standstill with their proceedings; in a broader sense, there is a political debate regarding the social “utilities” and the harm to the First Nations people. Sadly, this debate shows little promise in satisfying both the First Nations people and the project’s intentions. The Canadian Court demands that BC Hydro demonstrate “both a compelling and substantial government objective” in order to proceed with the project and they justify their goals with the need for developments due to the “region’s growing population.” Inevitably, however, in fulfilling these hefty goals, the First Nations will suffer damage to their lifestyles.

The proposed dam site.

In business, while ethics are very important and should be taken into consideration, it is almost impossible to satisfy every opinion. Decisions ultimately involve sacrifices and businesses will often have to make sacrifices to pass entry barriers. Solutions have been offered in this debate, such as the ultimatum between building the dam or pursuing liquefied natural gas development; choosing one will mean forgoing the other, however, as seen in this ongoing debate, it is inevitable that both BC Hydro and the First Nations will suffer losses, one more than the other.

Websites:

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/First+Nation+chiefs+stage+Site+showdown/10215965/story.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/site-c-or-lng-pick-one-say-b-c-first-nations-1.2776481

Twitch TV

In response to Nunu’s blog “Video Games, The New Frontier,” I strongly agree with Nunu’s statements about the important business strategies associated with acquiring gaming companies, such as Amazon’s acquisition of Twitch.Tv, however, I would also like to emphasize the significance of these purchases. An article titled “Charting the Rise of Twitch,” shows that Twitch.tv was originally an non-existent website that has grown to become a dominant video game streaming website. Twitch channels are able to acquire over 300,000 viewers, numbers that Twitch.tv never anticipated, while streamers are able to amass millions of viewers over the course of years. While the article states that Twitch.tv has yet to surpass sites such as Youtube, the growth of Twitch.tv throughout the years signals the growing popularity of video games. Nunu further outlines Microsoft’s acquisition of Mojang, the creator of the popular game Minecraft. While simple in play, Minecraft has become one of the most played games in the world. The number of Minecraft players surpassed a shocking number of 300 million since 2012 and is the most purchased game in App stores due to the simple yet diverse game play; Mojang successfully used the strategy of differentiation to provide an appealing and different experience for customers. In the video game industry, the idea of differentiation is very important since most games similar in price. Video games with original concepts, such as Minecraft, are able to rise in popularity. Games that are not able to differentiate themselves from existing video games will not be successful. Companies such as Microsoft and Amazon see the rapid growth of the video game industry and are taking initiatives to acquire these companies in order to, themselves, differentiate from competitors with a wider customer base. I believe that the battle of video games has only begun and with the evolving nature of technology, the variety of video games will only keep growing.

Sites:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/26/technology/charting-the-rise-of-twitch.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/07/11/riot-games-league-of-legends-officially-becomes-most-played-pc-game-in-the-world/

http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/ries-trout/positioning/

http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/generic.shtml