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Chroma Packs Should Be Free For Skins

Penta Penguin·4/15/2015, 8:11:45 PM·114 votes·10,025 views

I understand that this is a free game, and Riot needs to generate a revenue somehow and wants to profit. But I question how far Riot needs to go to do so, and how much of a profit margin is okay before it becomes exploitation.

Considering:

  • Now three ultimate skins which cost almost $30, were only on sale for a few days and will never be on sale again, and each sale had progressively less value
  • The metric ton of other skins in this game, each one costing around $7 or more on average
  • The exorbitant IP costs and champions that can be purchased with real money instead
  • The never-ending increase of RP priced content that comes into the game
  • The massive fan-base (consumers) that this game has
  • The huge tournament events and venues that Riot can afford

It seems to me that League of Legends is bringing in far more revenue than the average F2P game, and the plays that Riot are making do not seem fair or considerate of their consumers.

It's been a few years since Riot stopped making plain recolors and selling them as skins, because they just couldn't do any better as a smaller and less experienced company. Now they're doing it again; and they still want to charge you for it, on top of the money you may have already paid for a skin that's getting a "Chroma". The Riot of today, with all their technical prowess and creative experience, still wants $5 for colors.

Is this fair?

A 1350-tier skin usually has a lot more going on than a 975, with new particles and sound effects on top of new modeling and textures.

But for 975+ 560, all you're getting (depending on which skins are getting the Chroma) is a new model, textures, and color options.

It's my conclusion that charging nearly $5 for color options - a traditionally free option in many games until recently when the F2P model took over - is exploitative, or dangerously close to being so.

I urge Riot to do the right thing, and offer the skin-based Chromas as Champion Mastery rewards as was mentioned. Put an IP price on it if you really have to pressure the fan-base any further, but please do not increase the RP cost of this game for these Chroma packs.

The F2P model gets a lot worse than this, and it's looking like Riot is headed in that direction. I hope we can avoid that. Look at a game like Smite, with it's fragmented purchases (skins, emotes, VOICES) and exclusive skins trapped in gambling schemes, and ask yourself if you really want League to go that far. Riot is a large and resourceful company, and is in a perfect position to set an example of integrity for F2P developers.

71 Comments

Noraver4/16/2015, 2:43:00 AM22 votes

Would actually like if I paid for a chroma with IP; For a skin I already own.

My friend has Dragon Fist Lee Sin, but he really likes the blue one. He also has 112,000~ IP. He isn't going to want to give Riot more money for a ten second colour variation, while he still has that much IP sitting around.

Drunk Rummate4/15/2015, 8:41:51 PM15 votes

Agree. I've paid a huge amount for the skins that I have and to be frank it's not worth my money to go back and get them all in several colors. I would be extremely happy as a buyer if the chromas were made available as part of the skin package and very likely to buy more skins in the future as a result, but Riot can't expect a dime out of me for chromas separately.

Baron of Bread4/16/2015, 9:27:35 AM14 votes

You are saying that Riot is being exploitative because they are allowing you to purchase something cosmetic for their F2P game that you think costs to much. Saying a product is so expensive you won't buy it is fine, but saying a company is exploitative because their optional product that has no bearing on their base product other than a minor cosmetic effect costs more than you think it should is ridiculous. If offering a purely optional product that you don't want to pay for is exploitative then most of the world is beyond exploitative (which is arguably true).

And a quick answer to this question of yours:

Is this fair?

Short answer: YES.

Long Answer: The producer of a good/service has every right to place whatever value they want on said good/service and charge for that amount. If any consumer decides that the good/service is not of the value the producer charges for it, they have every right to not buy it. If enough consumers decide to not buy it at that value the producer is forced to reduce the value to where more consumers judge it to be worth the charge and thus buy it. Of course, this only works in a non-regulated economy, which is the case here. As such, if you want the chroma packs to cost less then don't buy them and hope that your cost assessment is similar to other's cost assessments. If all goes according to plan and the packs are to expensive then the cost will go down if Riot wants to sell many. If not, then the masses have disagreed with you and decided that the packs are worth the cost. At which point you can either decide you still don't want to spend the money or decide to re-assess the pack's worth.

TJKDeity4/15/2015, 10:05:54 PM11 votes

I agree. It would mean a lot to the community if Riot did something purely just for us to enjoy. I would benefit Riot anyway because it would get more people playing and increase the amount of loyal fans in the community.

Silents4294/16/2015, 6:19:45 AM8 votes

How dare Riot want to seek other forms of income without resorting to pay to win methods most free to play games resort too.

I mean who do they think they are wanting to feed there families and god forbid have them hire more people to make content come out faster and of higher quality right?

Nah. Lets complain about cheap recolors and how Riot is "milking there fanbase"

I GONNA FK ON U4/15/2015, 9:58:16 PM8 votes

Adding the 1350 rp tier (and making that the standard for decent skins) was bad enough. Riot is out of their fucking minds with this recolor shit, especially on skins you already pay for.

SeductiveGrandpa4/15/2015, 10:22:52 PM8 votes

Wait on a second, lets just hope they do the whole : Champ Mastery = Chroma thing instead of the whole paying for chromas in the end.

PapaGreg214/16/2015, 12:32:21 AM6 votes

[deleted]

Aerothal4/15/2015, 11:10:43 PM6 votes

why do you guys always want free things? people work on that stuff and they deserve to get paid.

ShaftyMegee4/16/2015, 11:09:55 PM4 votes

If you don't think it's worth it... then don't buy it. As you said at the beginning of your post, this is a free game. You don't have to spend a dime on this game and have just as much fun as someone who has spent 100$

Matthevv4/16/2015, 6:08:43 AM3 votes

As it is now I will never buy a chroma pack. What the hell is Riot thinking charging so much for this? Why were recolours unacceptable before and now acceptable again? This is bullshit.

Dunkrius2g4/16/2015, 1:14:22 AM2 votes

How about it costs 2 times the RP of that skin in IP? E.g. Dunkmaster Darius. 1820*2= 3640 IP for either All recolors or 1 of them. Should apply for all skins. Base skins should be 1k IP each OR you can earn them through Mastery Thingy Champion only.

TL:DR 2x the Rp of skin to IP e.g. 975 RP * 2= 1950IP for either 1 or all 3 recolors for skins. For base skins, earn through Champion Mastery EDIT: I barely buy skins. The only skin I have is Woad King Darius and that was cuz of a discount. If it does cost RP, I won't buy it BUT this is just me. It'll be different for everyone else.

r11na4/17/2015, 1:23:06 AM2 votes

Don't buy it and they will be forced to change it. I've spent money on skins I appreciate the effort and time put into them and it supports the game also.

But you've got to be straight up insane to spend money on Chroma packs (fk that i'm not calling them chroma packs, I'm calling them what they are: Palette Swaps) A 5 minute palette swap in MS Paint. This should be bundled with skins or purchasable with IP, not sold separately for RP.

Głacıes4/26/2015, 6:56:31 PM2 votes

The game itself is free. League of Legends is not a pay to win game and you should be thankful for that. If you don't want to pay money for in game luxuries then simply don't, if you like the game enough, if you like the skin enough, don't complain about having to pay for it. You yourself said that Riot needs some sort of profit for all the expenses of this game and that is how they get it, I honestly don't understand what you are trying to get at here. Riot is a business.

Daunzo4/17/2015, 3:15:29 AM1 votes

Riots on some fkn kush if they wanna charge us for these skins. All i know is that these skins shouldn't even be worth a dime.

richardqiqi4/17/2015, 4:57:28 AM1 votes

AGREE!!!! SUPPORT!!!! RESPECT!!!!

Takeuchi 174/16/2015, 5:26:03 PM1 votes

I would really like people to stop trying to label Riot as a greedy cash machine without even knowing Riots profit margins and investments. seriously. if you dont want them to provide you with the game, which is free to play, or with new champs, skins, game modes, merchandise (like their new store provides), or events like LCS, which I'd bet they contribute a fair amount to, then dont complain.

That being said. if someone can provide all this statistical info on what they make, what they spend, where they spend it, how much they pay their employees, how much they pay themselves (ie owners/ceos etc) and its found that they are really greedy and are making way too much money. then i'll rescind this statement and join the crowd of hate.

Tylo Snoyer5/1/2015, 3:44:26 AM1 votes

I have no idea what kind of work goes into developing a skin or a champion or anything like that. That being said, the Chroma Packs are just color swaps. If it's more work than going into the developing software and selecting all of color "X" so it can be changed to color "Y," Riot might have some validation in charging for these skins.