eCommerce Q&A

RiotUdyr·10/1/2014, 7:51:12 PM·46 votes·307,597 views

Welcome to the Riot eCommerce Q&A, hosted by Hippalus, Udyr, WizardCrab, BuboBubo, newscott, Wingfield, SaberPrivateer, and DontHassleThaHoff

We are the team at Riot responsible for: • The store • Pricing • Weekly sales • Free to Play rotation • Gifting • Mystery skins • Flexible bundles • Summoner icon rewards • Double IP weekends

We can also weigh in on other topics such as world playoffs, who’s the best jungler, or why crabs are cooler than mechs, but those are personal opinions only!

706 Comments

Moobeat10/1/2014, 7:58:27 PM35 votes

Few follow up questions from stuff mentioned in the last AMA:

Any progress with being able to make a wishlist for content?
Any headway on making a shop available outside of the client (for purchasing sale / limited time content if one can't access the client)?
In the past you guys mentioned wanting players to be able to create their own bundles - is that still on the table?

OH NO ITS LU BU10/1/2014, 7:58:49 PM34 votes

As someone that's spent a metric assload of money on skins and always looked forward to the idea of lifetime rewards, why are people who don't buy anything's opinion taken into consideration when they don't buy anything.

QuestForDankWeed10/1/2014, 9:29:37 PM30 votes

Hey guys!

Long time player here, you all have aided in getting me to invest just a few too many dollars since that start of 2011

A few questions, comments and suggestions on my experience over the years regarding things that fall under your department:

The mystery skins program is brilliant. The gamble is thrilling and draws people in, promotes gifting, sells merchandise to otherwise uninterested parties who would never purchase the skin, and still feels rewarding, even when you get skins for champions you don't play.
I think it would be beneficial to update champion tags. When I say tags, I mean how champions are tagged as "Support" and such. This does extend to searching in champion select as well; but as far as marketing goes, when somebody is looking for a new champion to buy, pointing them toward champions for the role they are looking for is useful. (Personally, I think the system as a whole should be updated. If I were to create a new system right now, I would use a 2 tag system: Primary roles/lanes would be the first, and would label someone as a Jungler/Top, or as Mid/Support, or as Bottom Lane Marksman, ect. The second would list strengths of the champion; for example. Ziggs can be tagged as having/being Safe. Pusher, and Harass. I would like to consider letting players vote on tags, as well, to keep up with the meta, but that has its own issues
Whats the possibility/likelyhood of seeing more types of goods to purchase? Or something else to dump IP on? As you can probably tell by my account name, I have much IP to spare; and I'll always find an excuse to purchase more RP.
So if you handle icon rewards, what kind of decision power do you have on rewarded events? I'd really like to see more LoL events like the Ionia, Frejlord, and recent Shurima events, of course; but I'd like to see more cool stuff for both lore and Riot interaction in general. Everything from Riot vs Community games/Arams/tourneys for glory or icons, to permanently instated events/icon rewards (Basically achievements of a sort) for things like gifting, level milestones, owning every champion, X number of normal wins in a game mode, playing every mode X times, owning all the skins for a champion or a skin set (Commandos, for example), and so on. I just feel there is more that can be done with this without ruining the experience for people
This suggestion is a stretch; but I think it may be needed. Is there a possibility of awarding a free runepage and X amount of IP for reaching level 30? This is mostly for ranked play; I don't feel like 2 rune pages and a tiny champion pool are often enough to jump right into ranked play; and this can benefit people who will play with both newly 30 players and smurfs alike; it may help reduce the number of people who run into ranked at level 30, and can only play 1 role and 2 champions reliably
Runes suck. I have 3-4 digits spent on this game, and thousands of games over 3-4 years; I still don't have a 'complete' (IE, Useful) set of runes with runepages. On top of that, there are plenty of runes that are noobait (Gold quints...), runes that are basically still mandatory (HP instead of armor, now), runes that are either broken/mandatory or useless (% HP runes on heavy HP tank jungles), and general inconsistency in pricing while still managing to cost a small fortune. Runes are probably my last major gripe with the design of this game, outside of the gameplay. I like the general business model, I'm happy with progress made in graphics, Im happy with the direct of the client changes and upgrades, I like the store, I like the skins and release schedules; but I hate runes. It has so much potential as a way to "Customize" your gameplay, but ends up being ruined from imbalances and cost of the systme as a whole Are you guys looking into this at all?

New Irelia and Thresh skins pls kthx

That's it; apologies for the word wall and thanks for doing this AMA!

Zetryo10/1/2014, 8:06:34 PM20 votes

Can you sell more merch? I keep hearing about new stuff coming but where is it? I'd love to buy the stuff they give out at events.. I wanna swag out in Lulu gear..

Nsane10/1/2014, 7:54:25 PM14 votes

A giant enemy crab has appeared. What do you do?

Deep Terror Nami10/1/2014, 10:26:29 PM13 votes

Mystery Skins, Y U NO have timer showing next availability, and/or reset at a specific time of the day rather than 24 hours after last skin purchase? I've been around for 3 Mystery Skin sales, and each time I bought all I could each day but because I didn't write down the time and log in for the reset you guys definitely lost at least 50$ from me (and I'm sure many others didn't get the max amount even though they tried).

Anxiety Plus10/1/2014, 8:06:04 PM13 votes

Last month we some some World Championship summoner icons hit the PBE (like the one attached), any chance those are going to see the light of day on the store? I like the look of them way more than the 2014 set, personally.

Thanks!

EvilMarshmelow10/1/2014, 8:46:37 PM10 votes

i know that you're not responsible for the skins themselves, but do you think championship riven will ever come back?

i made a petition about 10 days ago that has 12k signatures and rising of people who want it to come back if thats any help.

Gavran10/1/2014, 7:55:06 PM9 votes

Sorry if this isn't your area, and you'd probably release something if there was anything to say but the last post I remember about it came from Hippalaus I think soooo...

Any news about lifetime RP rewards? :P

Restafarri10/1/2014, 9:03:52 PM9 votes

Is there a possibility for a Elsa Themed Janna skin for Christmas, Because if that's the case, I'll build a snow man out of a wad of cash and mail it to you!

LY0NEX10/1/2014, 8:03:29 PM9 votes

Could you guys possibly make Sale Schedules for every month? Or did it reflect negatively on sales? Cause, for me personally, it takes me 2 or 3 days to buy RP which brings me to my next idea. Are there any plans to allow people from North Africa (Tunisia in my case) to buy RP officially? Like cards or mobile purchases because, I have to get someone to buy RP FOR me, it would usually cost me DOUBLE the usual cost cause of currency difference AND the buyer's interest (30 % ) and it's just not something I'm happy about to be honest, I WANT to support you guys and spend some money on the game if I'm buying something I like but spending DOUBLE every single time I wanna get something is pretty inconvenient don't you think?

ClueClown10/1/2014, 8:47:16 PM8 votes

Your Double IP weekends are something that most games tend to do to help along grinding, but I feel like you don't do them very often compared to others. Do you plan out your frequency and longevity for each Double IP weekend? And if so, how? Also, why is it only weekends? I feel like Double IP shouldn't have to be confined to only Saturdays and Sundays. Not saying they should be 24/7 since I know people still need to work to unlock things. Thank you for taking the time to answer!

Linna Excel10/1/2014, 8:35:37 PM7 votes

When is Popstar Ahri going on sale?
What about Scarlet Hammer Poppy going on sale? What are your guys thoughts on Poppy as a champ?
Why are runes so expensive? As I've said the fun of buying 3 runes does not compare to the fun of buying a new character. The pricing is off and I wish that rune pages were the sink, not runes.
Why doesn't the store have a wishlist feature? This would both clue you in on what people want to buy, what would be good for a sale, as well as let people filter out skins they don't give a crap about?
Why can't we have icons for skins/champs we own?
Who do you predict will win the esports finals?
Godzilla vs Gamera: who wins?

MrBuffington10/1/2014, 8:21:24 PM6 votes

I had heard that there might be a rune page sale before the end of the year, and I was wondering if there might be another rune sale in the near future as well. Thanks!

Keikomatsui 10/1/2014, 8:31:33 PM5 votes

What does it take to work for the eCommerce department? What kind of experience is "good" on a resume? What kinda degrees are relevant?

Basically, what makes a potential applicant more desirable then another?

Buddhas Disciple10/1/2014, 9:06:27 PM3 votes

Can I have a Draven

Being a Bear10/1/2014, 9:15:05 PM3 votes

Can you guys make a summoner icon for Being a Bear like me? >.< Volibear