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On outdated Skin prices

DoniaClotilde··2 votes·2,957 views

Hey Riot, hey GD (is this still called GD? Long time I don't lurk into the forums), I hope you're having a nice day/evening.

I'm an avid LoL player and skin collector who hadn't played in a while . I've seen a lot of changes since I left but one of those who I noticed the most is how much has Riot's skin team has improved. I mean, look at DJ Sona, look at Arbiter Vel'Koz, look at Firecracker Jinx, look at most 2014 skins, those are artworks that the company wouldn't have been able to do before. They really deserve its prices and I can't stop being amazed at everything Riot releases in the art department.

However, this creates a problem. There a lot of skins that if released today, would have had a much lower price. One of the most obvious cases is Magnificent Twisted Fate. As much as I find the model of that skin cool, it is nowhere near a 1820 skin. If it was released today, it would probably be worth 520 RP. Let's also take a look at Nautilus' new incoming skin, Inquisitor Nautilus. The skin is impressively good, having even new particles and being 750 RP. However, why does he have other two skins with basically just a new model which are more expensive than this one?

There are lot more cases of this and I think that Riot reducing the price of some outdated skins would not be a loss, but would cause an increase of sells in those skins.

With anything more to say I apologize for any grammar mistakes since I don't have a very advanced English level, and hope you have a great day! :D

13 Comments

Tsunday1 votes

Honestly I agree that Riot needs to change the pricing of their old skins. I believe they said they wouldn't do it because of the amount of time those old skins took to make back in the day. For skins like the TF one it isn't even available in the store anymore, it's only available a couple of times a year.

I tried to explain price tiers to one of my friends the other day (she's level 15) and so I tried to use the few champions she knew as an example (Lux, Morgana, and Annie) and it didn't work out very well because those champions have a bunch of 'mispriced' skins that made it hard to compare prices with her.

GaleWinUnleashed1 votes

Try showing her some of the more recent skins, as those fit more comfortably into the now-established price tiers.

Tsunday1 votes

You'll notice with the 3 champions I listed (those are pretty much the only 3 she plays besides Jinx) there really aren't any good skins to show her. Most of them have a bunch of old skins and a lot of the skin tiers are missing. I was going to use Janna as an example as I own every Janna skin and I know she has some pretty decent tier differences but when I asked if she knew who Janna was she's like 'is that the weather lady? I think I've seen her once'

GaleWinUnleashed1 votes

What a tragedy! You must demonstrate the greatness of the Storm's Fury! None can be allowed to go without witnessing the glory of the all-powerful Janna! Janna

Tsunday1 votes

Except she only plays mages in botlane. I guess I could get her to play Jinx for me, but that's a scary thought because I'd be tossing her up against higher level players to show her my lady love.

GaleWinUnleashed1 votes

That could be tough, then. You could stoop down to an AI game in order to show off Forecast Janna, the second best skin in the game (DJ Sona #1).

Tsunday1 votes

:/ first of all Victorious Janna will always be the best skin in the game, DJ Sona is #2. Secondly, Forecast Janna isn't even Janna's best available skin. Frost Queen, and Fnatic both beat Forecast. Forecast has one of the best VOs in game, but definitely one of Janna's weaker models. I own every Janna skin (except Victorious) and I don't even use Forecast half of the time.

GaleWinUnleashed1 votes

I would use Victorious every game if I had it, partly because it looks great, partly for bragging rights. Unfortunately, I didn't play ranked during Season 2 :(

redniwediS1 votes

GD is still around, you just have to click the button on the left that says General Discussion. it's isolated from the rest of the forum post wise due to the shear number of posts that happen in it, or at least that's my understanding.

Darastrix1 votes

It also has to do with the amount of work put into a skin, Animation updates, VOs, Visual updates, retextures. The reason some older skins cost more then their better looking more recent brethren, is that Riot had to put a lot more hours into the skin, they are able to release more skins of higher quality now, but it wasn't always like that. And to just change the prices of skins, think of people who may have spent full price on Ice Toboggan Corki, Magnificent TF, Annie In Wonderland, etc. I can understand the reason why you say this, but maybe Riot could do a throwback to old skins by starting to sell them 25-50% off.

GaleWinUnleashed3 votes

There were some price reductions a while ago. 3 then-Legendary skins (Astronaut Teemo, Piltover Customs Blitzcrank, and Lion Dance Kog'Maw) were reduced to 1350, and all previous owners of those skins were refunded the difference. I received 470 RP for owning Astronaut Teemo.

However, that was only offered for the Legendary skins, because those were never put on sale for half price like all lower-tier skins. A more comprehensive skin re-pricing would run into serious issues with this, because there are huge numbers of older 975 skins that don't even belong in the 750 tier anymore (in terms of quality; time spent developing is still relevant). Reducing those prices would absolutely cause complaints from people that had bought them at the higher price, demanding a refund. The best Riot could do in this case would be to refund half of the difference between the new price and old price, which would still feel unfair to those that had purchased the skins at full price rather than waiting for a sale.

One possible solution would be to take all of the older skins, the ones that do not fit their price point by today's quality standards, and group them under a new category, possibly named "Vintage". This category would not override the current Legacy category, but would be a secondary classification for the ones it applies to. It is by no means a perfect solution, but it would at least offer an explanation for why some skins have mismatched features and prices.

Sukishoo1 votes

Arbiter Vel'Koz

Arclight*

The Nautilus reason iis that, for the the other two skins that are 975, is because they give all of his abilities new particles where as his upcoming skin only changes them in one (the shield).

Bresn1 votes

So from the comments it looks like the prices aren't cutted because of time and effort spent to make those old skins and how owners will be pissed.

  1. Time and effort used... that was years ago
  2. Pissed off owners? No excuse to charge skins higher than what they're worth, Riot has a pricing guideline, they need to follow it instead of catering to existing owners.

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