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Legacy skins should become a legacy concept.

Wild Geese··19 votes·1,724 views

At first, Legacy Skins seemed to be introduced to weed out the "palette swaps" and some of the really lame skins of League of legends (Such as Frozen Shen). However soon after, they'd just dump a bunch of stuff in the legacy vault for the hell of it, maybe the skin is old or something. It almost never made sense but it was a way to make a quick buck with their announcement of which skins would be moving to the legacy vault.

But ever since Champions got these VU's, the idea of legacy skins have seemed ridiculous. Starting with around Poppy, where they made even her most outdated skins interesting. These were no longer "legacy skins", they were new skins. But if you missed that one week after her relaunch, you have the option of 3 Poppy Skins (Out of 8!).

And then chroma's came out, and suddenly the palettes swap concept behind making skins legacy didn't make any sense either...

So what are legacy skins now? They are just a way to sell loot boxes and flash sales, that's all they are. In the case of Boxes, that legacy skin has a 1/800 chance at best of dropping. Can't use lootboxes to get what you want. They got some value but it's pretty much just a random system. Even with the improvements to loot boxes, it's not a way to get a legacy skin (Unless, you want to spend around $1600?).

So really guys, I don't get it. They update the skin, they update the splash art, it's new. It's not legacy. Sell it for one week, after you have to win the lottery? Why not just - when the skin is updated splash art, updated model - I dunno take it out of the legacy vault?? Because you know, it's new. It's a new skin that is not legacy anymore. And the system stopped making sense years ago anyway.

I wouldn't even be mad, they got plenty for sale, it's just cosmetics. Look, I get it. But after years and years of seeing them do this, it's just annoying. It's an insult to the customer. If I wanted to buy Vandal Twitch, I'm not going to just buy Kingpin Twitch. $10 becomes $0. The system instead caters to all the fools who don't buy things they want - they buy things because they might -lose the chance-. Classy.

I'm not talking about event skins that are tied to things like Season rewards, Christmas, Lunar Newyear, etc. That's all fine - those make sense and most of it is on sale once a year anyway. I'm talking about the legacy skins that have no reason for being so other than to make money by dubious means.

edit: I'm talking specifically as the skins Riot classifies as "Retired". You can look up the list if you please.

22 Comments

Ok sure but why5 votes

[{quoted}](name=Wild Geese,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=xpYlk4bn,comment-id=,timestamp=2018-02-25T21:23:46.723+0000)

They are just a way to sell loot boxes and flash sales, that's all they are.

Well, yea

Riot sold out to a Chinese company called Tencent a few years back, and they've been behind Hextech Crafting, the shortening of matches for the LCS, the removal of URF, and a lot of other stuff

I remember when Draven Draven came out, though; I literally bought Draven just to get that skin because they said "This will be Legacy soon"

ModWulf Helhammer6 votes

Tencent has had a majority holding in Riot pretty much since they started. The idea that Tencent controls what Riot does is just a simpleminded conspiracy theory

Ok sure but why3 votes

Tbh if I was Riot, I'd rather blame Tencent for those shitty decisions than pretend I did it myself

But I bet Tencent wouldn't allow their little sheep to say something like that

ModWulf Helhammer4 votes

"Shitty" according to you. To someone else, they could be the best game decisions.

What you like isn't necessarily the majority. Remember that.

Ok sure but why2 votes

URF and Longer games were definitely things the majority of people miss, no matter how many times Riot will say, "Oh no they don't"

ModWulf Helhammer1 votes

Proof please.

You can't make a statement like that and not provide any backing.

Ok sure but why3 votes

Okay, name the last time anyone on these boards has ever said "I'm glad games are so much shorter! I love these stomp-fests where one side always has a major advantage!" or "Oh, I'm so glad Riot took away URF and gave us this wonderful, wonderful All Random mode which forced certain summoner spells and limited the champion pool!"

And then scroll through all the posts on these boards which said the exact opposite

ModWulf Helhammer1 votes

The boards doesn't represent even a minority of the game population. Neither does Reddit.

Add to that, people don't generally come onto a forum to compliment something they enjoy. Usually, they just enjoy it.

Hella Kaiser2 votes

tbh, tho... they represent the players that care about the game

Hella Kaiser2 votes

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/

https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/

well... they might not represent the majority, but they represents the majority of players that care about the game.

Wild Geese1 votes

Yeah i'd tend to agree with you. Besides, it really makes no difference to my argument. I don't care if League is owned by Riot, Tencent, or Brittney Spears.

Chembaron Yamada3 votes

Depends. While I understand the reasoning for stuff like King Rammus and such, I think special holiday skins like Lunar Revel, Halloween and such should stay legacy.

They return in these holidays anyway and they feel a bit more special that way.

Wild Geese1 votes

Oh I'm agreeing with you, in the last paragraph. Like any skin that has to do with an annual event, fine. Makes sense, you can buy it once a year anyway. Or skins tied to going to PAX or Underworld or Ranked - those are exclusives for their own reasons too!

But the majority of "legacy" skins, really have no reason to be there. These are the skins Riot classifies as "retired" that make up the bulk of legacy content. Especially the ones that have been updated and remade.

Fairyfleur3 votes

Masquerade Evelynn and Lollipoppy :(

(Seriously, memes aside, Lollipoppy is actually really cute.)

Irokaiser3 votes

Completely agree. If a skin gets a massive update, its not the same skin ad should no longer be legacy content.

I Main Swain3 votes

excuse you did you just hate on king rammus our lord and savior also that skin wasnt made unavailable because "it was lame" it was because it was a gift to the beta testers and also theres no way riot would have been allowed to sell it

Revali2 votes

Legacy skins are pieces riot thinks didn't hold up to modern standard of skins so they locked them away for a tl;dr, iirc.

InTheory1 votes

I'm not entirely sure, but I think that vaulted skins are purchaseable for a short period of time when the champion gets a V(G)U. Someone confirm that?

Wild Geese7 votes

Yes, they are. I mentioned that. I don't think that's really good enough, as I said, it's a pressure tactic, most people who buy those just buy them for not losing out. What if somebody joins the game a week from now and wants Secret Agent Miss Fortune? Tough luck to that guy.

InTheory1 votes

Oh I must've overread that (embarrassing). There are two sorts of skins that are vaulted: a) very old skins b) certain thematic event skins

I think Riot has a reason to vault very old skins. They have the selling numbers and of course they want to promote newer skins instead. Raising old skins is imo a special for those who already own the skins, but all in all they are still cheap and Riot would not want to sell cheap skins if they'd also could more expensive ones.

Considering thematic skins, announcing to vault them does definately increase the run on these skins. They won't go on sale or anything and will be bought for full price. Players have to decide: take that skin now or never, no matter if there's going to be a better skin in the next 2-3 years.

All in all I think it's all marketing strategy and we have to recognize that skins are basically the power station that keeps the company running in terms of funds.

Wild Geese3 votes

OK, you really need to read what I actually said. Three times did I mention, when they are going to update a skin, it is no longer legacy. That old reason for legacy skins doesn't make sense anymore. If the quality is now high, and it has new splash art, new rendering, and so on; it's reason for ever being in the legacy vault has expired.

Here's an idea, when they remake these skins to be high quality, just raise the price. Why have Emerald Taric as a 520 RP Skin that you can't even buy when it could be a 975RP skin that you could buy? The new version is as good as any other 975 RP skin.

AmazoX1 votes

Legacy skins are still legacy skins, just updated to look better, not a newly released skin, end of discussion.

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