For this next installment of “Conversations with Intrapreneurs,” I had the pleasure of speaking with Jeffrey Burrell, Global Head of Sustainability and Social Impact at Riot Games. I sought to learn about their collaboration across the gaming industry to create the Digital Thriving Playbook, a resource for creating digital spaces that help people thrive.
From the start, it was a daunting task. The gaming industry is huge, estimated to reach $522 billion in 2025 worldwide. In the US, 2 in 3 people play video games, and an estimated 205 million Americans play video games at least once a week. It’s stunning to learn that the 2024 World Finals for League of Legends, the most popular of Riot Games products, attracted hit 50 million peak viewers and recently hit a new viewership record in this year’s tournament.
Despite the growing popularity of online gaming, it’s no secret that disruptive online behavior is a pervasive problem. A recent study found that a quarter of young gamers, aged 10-18, “see some form of toxicity most of the time they play.”
Jeffrey and colleagues from across the industry believed the industry could do better. They wanted to create a more positive gaming experience for customers and create value for the companies that compete to produce games that attract global audiences. So they set out to figure out what that path could look like.
Admittedly, it’s a huge task to change the ways games are designed, especially the games that already have a dominant market share. But Jeffrey is confident that over time this Playbook will influence how digital spaces are created, starting with the design of games that have yet to be introduced to the market.
I was eager to speak with him and learn more about this work.
Nancy McGaw: Jeffrey, you have been on a multi-year journey to create this Playbook with the bold intent to influence an entire industry. How did you get started and who was involved?
Jeffrey Burrell: Several years ago a group of us from the gaming industry met to discuss how to reduce the disruptive behavior that players often encounter online. But we quickly shifted our focus from trying to define and punish negative behavior to figuring out how to design digital experiences that incentivize positive behavior and build resilience.
We realized that stopping bad behavior after it happens has limited returns. Our intent was to figure out how to develop games that prevent that behavior from happening in the first place. We called on the expertise of designers, developers, academics, and other thought leaders to be sure whatever we recommended was based on the right theories and the right science. And more than anything, we wanted to be sure the solutions would be highly practical, and deeply impactful.
The idea of creating a Playbook began to emerge from these early conversations. Ultimately, the Digital Thriving Playbook was created in partnership with the Thriving in Games Group (TIGG) (previously the Fair Play Alliance), and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, and the Riot Games Social Impact Fund – with lots of input from diverse experts within and beyond the gaming industry.
Interestingly, there was broad interest in this initiative from tech companies because player dynamics are very applicable, not just to games, but to any type of digital space.
Nancy McGaw: When did you release the Playbook?
Jeffrey Burrell: It came out as a soft release in 2023 and since then has gained momentum as we have publicized it more widely. As of today, the site includes 118 articles, representing about 2 PhD’s worth of work.
Nancy McGaw: The Playbook is all online and free, correct? What will viewers find there?
Jeffrey Burrell: Yes. The Playbook is an extensive online resource available to all that is frequently updated. There you can find the “Community Group Individual (CGI) Framework for Digital Thriving,” the foundation for the work.
Also, the Playbook features very specific examples, from popular games, that showcase digital thriving in action based on the specific outcomes designers would want to achieve. One of my favorite examples is from a notoriously difficult game where you can leave helpful messages to other players adventuring behind you. When another player “likes” your message, your health bar will refill giving you a needed boost.
Sometimes I use the analogy of a cookbook to describe this resource. We are constantly being told to have a healthy lifestyle—to eat right, exercise, make sure you sleep. But without clear, actionable ideas, or specific recipes of what to make with the ingredients in your kitchen, it’s hard to know what to do to achieve this healthy lifestyle.
Like a cookbook, the Playbook shows you what steps to take to create spaces online that contribute to digital thriving.
Nancy McGaw: What evidence do you have that the lessons from the Playbook are taking hold?
Jeffrey Burrell: There has been extensive interest in this resource. Many organizations—like the Lego Foundation, UNICEF, and various children’s hospitals—have reached out to learn more about how to develop responsible technology interventions for youth.
We presented the Playbook at the 2025 Game Developer Conference to a standing room only crowd. This level of attention signals that game developers want to be more intentional about the outcomes they achieve with the games they create.
To date, developers have created games and put them out there hoping for the best in terms of player behavior. Now an increasing number of developers are realizing that the WAY a game is developed can encourage what we call “pro social” behavior.
And the Playbook contains many examples of experiences in games that already build in these opportunities for “digital thriving.” These examples illustrate how games can enable people to want to show up and interact, to play and socialize. Already we see evidence that developers are learning from these examples and putting them into practice.
Nancy McGaw: That seems laudable from a social impact perspective, but is there any business value in that shift?
Jeffrey Burrell: Absolutely. Disruptive behavior by players online is expensive for companies. Players don’t want to be bullied or threatened, and they may stop playing if they are dissatisfied with the behavior of other players online. Their friends could follow suit. This undermines the popularity of a game which results in lower sales and retention.
Also, player support tickets, which are created when players report inappropriate or offensive behavior online, require investigation, imposition of penalties, and monitoring. So they are costly for companies. And this kind of behavior takes a toll on the community managers hired by companies to oversee online engagement.
Nancy McGaw: We are very interested in the role that corporate social intrapreneurs, like you, play in driving positive change within companies and beyond. In this broad, cross-industry effort what role did you play?
Jeffrey Burrell: I viewed my role, more than anything, as building a sandbox where all of the experts could meet, share ideas, and create something amazing. Then I worked to protect this space and keep everything moving to the tangible, functional outcome.
There was a tremendous amount of work the team put into developing the right solution to the problem space; but they needed to be able to iterate quickly, learn, and revise without feeling like they had to fit into a pre-existing mold.
As an intrapreneur driving the process, I had to manage that delicate balance of having something to achieve and to continue forward, yet give people the space they needed to experiment and think deeply about the problem space.
Nancy McGaw: I don’t imagine that working across the industry to create such a Playbook was in your job description. How did you manage to get buy-in within Riot Games?
Jeffrey Burrell: Ha, well I certainly didn’t begin by saying “Hey, I have a great idea but it’s not going to hit immediate returns.” I understood that this work was like planting and creating a garden that would take several years to grow.
I tried to frame it in terms of achieving a series of small wins rather than focusing initially on the long-term objective. I focused on demonstrating the benefits of engaging with experts, the player demand for change, and small indicators of how this work adds business value of revenue, costs, and reduced risks. And then I just tried my best, like I said, to keep the work in its own protected sandbox.
To me, this is a critical part of what intrapreneurs do at their best. They imagine a possibility of what could be, collaborate with others to build the path forward, test their hypothesis with low stakes, protect the space for innovation, and bring along stakeholders with small wins. They keep the overall vision in mind, but have to be extremely pragmatic at every step.
Nancy McGaw: What else can you tell us about the importance of this work? I’m especially keen to understand how this work can take the burden off parents or caregivers to monitor online behavior.
Jeffrey Burrell: It is a critical shift. What the industry has done for a long time is to put the onus of good behavior on the players themselves. It does offer tools for parents of young children to monitor online gaming experience. For example, a parent or user can activate a filter to ensure that no swear words are heard during play. Or you can limit communication and interactions amongst players. Also, there are ratings for games that help guide purchasing choices, but these ratings only help you understand what the base content of the game is—if there’s a lot of violence, for instance, or mature themes. But the ratings don’t give you any ability to monitor online interactions.
I keep thinking that digital spaces now are pretty much the equivalent of physical spaces when I was growing up. I remember I would go to the park by myself and play with my friends. My mom didn’t need to come there. She knew that in the interactions I had with my friends, if someone was out of line, there were those nonverbal communications that guided behavior. If someone was playing a really rough game of basketball, for instance, you don’t want to play with them again.
That’s what’s missing in these digital spaces. So that’s what we’re trying to create, these self-reinforcement mechanisms so that even if a parent doesn’t fully understand what’s going on in the game, that the good is still being amplified.
Nancy McGaw: Any final comment?
Jeffrey Burrell: This work really matters. Online gaming is such a large part of many people’s lives that we have to get this right – especially for children. There is a lot of work to do, but the Playbook is a critical step, and a collective step, in moving us in that direction.
This blog post was originally published on LinkedIn. Follow Nancy McGaw for more insights on business and society.