????Riot Games游戲公司的多用戶版《英雄聯盟》（League of Legends）是全世界玩家最多的游戲。這款免費游戲是所謂的多人在線競技（multiplayer online battle arena）游戲，或簡稱為MOBA。2009年推出后，《英雄聯盟》現在擁有超過7,000萬個注冊用戶，其中約3,200萬用戶每個月都會玩。

????就算在很容易一夜爆紅的游戲業，這也是讓人震驚的高速增長了。它的成功秘訣何在？

????馬克?梅林和布蘭登?貝克是Riot Games的兩位創始人，現在分別擔任公司的總裁和首席執行官。貝克曾是貝恩公司（Bain & Company）的戰略咨詢師，專攻媒體、娛樂和私募基金行業。梅林曾是美國銀行（US Bank）的分析師，也曾任Advanstar Communications公司的企業營銷經理。他們倆都是鐵桿游戲迷。Riot創立的初衷是在新興的MOBA領域打造能引導業界潮流的新款游戲。當時，這個領域已誕生了動視暴雪公司（Activision Blizzard）的《星際爭霸》（StarCraft ）和《魔獸爭霸》（WarCraft）等力作。梅林稱：“憑借《英雄聯盟》，我們是想在游戲情節、游戲社區、電子競技和知識產權這四個方面展現自己的特色。”

????這兩位創業家能在全球大獲成功的關鍵因素是，這款游戲是免費的。它是最早由北美出品的幾款可免費獲得所有內容的游戲之一，并而且還能提供新加入游戲的角色，即所謂的“英雄”（Champions）和其他內容的付費微交易。貝克稱：“馬克和我創辦Riot的時候，絕大多數玩家還得花上60美元，才能在游戲機或個人電腦上玩傳統的盒裝游戲。”

????他還說，現在手機和平板電腦早已是免費游戲的天下，甚至在發燒級游戲中免費試玩版也是家常便飯。他指出：“很多傳統的大型多人在線游戲（MMO）已變成了免費加升級的模式。還有很多重磅新游戲都是免費發布的。過去八年間，游戲業確實經歷了一場革命。”

????中國科技巨頭騰訊公司（Tencent）2011年2月斥資4億美元購買了Riot Games的大部分股份，但這家公司還是一直保持著獨立性。憑借致力于開拓游戲世界的700多名北美員工和約300名遍布全球的員工，Riot的創始人充分利用人數不斷增長的粉絲群改善游戲體驗。貝克說：“只有給玩家他們認為有價值的內容和服務，免費模式才能奏效，所以我們一直忙個不停。一旦我們搞砸，玩家是不會放過我們的。”

????在Riot位于圣塔莫尼卡的辦公室內，梅林和貝克并沒有屬于自己的獨立辦公室。他們就緊挨著游戲開發人員辦公，員工和游戲玩家都很容易找到他們。他們通過稱為Thunderdome的內部編程馬拉松（hackathon）讓工作充滿樂趣。梅林說：“我們最重視的價值之一就是挑戰傳統，所以我們會把這個獎頒給挑戰種種限制的人，就是那些通過破壞既定規則、傳統和官僚主義來實現不同凡響的成就的人。”

????Riot Games' League of Legends is, by multiple accounts, the most-played video game in the world. The free-to-play game, a so-called multiplayer online battle arena game, or MOBA, launched in 2009 and has over 70 million registered gamers with some 32 million playing on a monthly basis.

????Even in the overnight hit-prone video games business, that is startling growth. What's going on?

????Riot Games was founded by Marc Merrill, who serves as president, and Brandon Beck, the firm's CEO. Beck is a former strategy consultant for Bain & Company where he specialized in media and entertainment and private equity. Merrill is a former analyst at US Bank and corporate marketing manager at Advanstar Communications. They are both die-hard gamers. Riot was created with the intent of putting a new spin on the emerging MOBA genre that had spun off of modifications of Activision?Blizzard's (ATVI) StarCraft and WarCraft. "With League of Legends, we really wanted to differentiate across four primary dimensions: gameplay, community, e-sports, and intellectual property," says Merrill.

????One key to the success these two entrepreneurs have had globally is the fact that the game is free. It was one of the early games out of North America to be designed to allow free access to all the content and offer paid micro-transactions for new in-game characters, called Champions, and other content. "When Marc and I founded Riot, most gamers were being asked to pay $60 for a traditional game-in-a-box to be played on consoles or PCs," says Beck.

????Now free apps dominate the mobile and tablet stores, and free trials are commonplace even in hardcore genres, he argues. "Many traditional MMO subscription games have converted to free-plus-upgrades," Beck points out, "and many important new games are launching free. Over the last eight years, there's been a real revolution."

????Although Chinese technology giant Tencent paid $400 million for a majority stake in Riot Games in February 2011, the company has maintained its independence. With over 700 employees in North America and another 300 around the globe focusing on expanding the game world, Riot's founders have utilized their growing fan base to improve the game experience. "The free-to-play model only works when you're giving players content and services they value, so we're really kept on our toes," says Beck. "Players aren't shy about telling us when we've screwed up."

????Merrill and Beck don't have separate offices inside Riot's Santa Monica offices. They sit nestled among the other game developers and are accessible to employees as well as to the gaming public. They keep things interesting at work through internal hackathons, called Thunderdome. "One of the most important values is challenging convention, so we often give this award to someone who's challenged constraints -- someone who's broken rules, conventions, and bureaucracy to accomplish something exceptional," says Merrill.