Deep Disappointment in Harrowing 2013
Riot,
This will be my third Harrowing as a member of the League community, and I find myself deeply saddened by what I'm seeing as a downward trend. Skins for Harrowing have ranged from dissapointing (Mundo Mundo) to brilliant (Kitty Cat Kat, Definitely Not Blitz) in the past and it seems to me that the re-release of all of the old Halloween skins is covering a decline in new content. The vast vast bulk of this Harrowing is re-releases (Ward Skins, the return of previous skins) and the new mystery gift feature which frankly feels like a test run for a Christmas feature. There are exactly two brand new pieces of content that have been announced for this Harrowing:
Officer Vi and Nightmare Zyra
I know from reading Ironstylus responses elsewhere that making Zyra skins is ungodly difficult, and I respect that and have no real comments on that skin other than to say it looks great.
Officer Vi also looks great, but it is fundamentally un-creative. I know that the skin is based upon a fan-art that was done several months back, and I applaud you for basing a skin on a customer's concept art. However, Vi is a police officer and providing a skin in which she essentially dresses up as what she is... My wife is an ER doctor, and I asked her if she'd like to go as a doctor to a Halloween party we're throwing. She looked at me like I had lost my mind and asked if I was trying to skimp on money for a costume. I feel as though you guys were working on Officer Vi, realized Harrowing was coming, and hurriedly threw the skin into the promotion when you didn't have anything other than Zyra coming down the tubes. A similar skin (Officer Cait) was released outside of the Harrowing promotion and somewhat reinforces this idea.
Compared to the absolute GLUT of content we got last year around this time (Elise, the 3 Harrowing skins, the 3 Shadow Isles skins, an entire map entering open beta, the advent of Ward skins) you can see how a single "in theme" skin regardless of how good it is plus another skin that only loosely could be called thematic is going to be a major let down. I looked forward to this promotion for months, and I don't think I'll muster the same anticipation next year. Your company is growing Riot, it makes no sense that your promotions should be shrinking. Prove me wrong.
