Enclothed Cognition, Skins, and Player Behaviour

KnightofMorrigan·May 22, 2016·5 votes·1,057 views

So after I just finished this video, it got me thinking about the game many of us have played more than any other. Now we talk a lot about aesthetics of a base skin matching the feel and narrative of a character. That's about being true to story, but what about skins?

Some of us talk about how skins can affect the way we play, even though most of us still regard them as strictly cosmetic (removing some skin outliers that impact clarity of game information), but do what about when deciding what skin to use? I know that I have a system of certain skins, for example, depending on what position I play Morgana in: Ghostbride for top, blade mistress for mid, Lunar Wraith/sinful succenlence (once they fix the face on the splash art D:) for support, and blackthorn for the (non-existent) games where i attempt Jungle Morgana.

I imagine that sorta system is pretty common for a lot of players, but does it go beyond that? Are you more likely to be more aggressive or passive depending on the fantasy of your skin? Do you even notice? Do you only conciously notice skins during the loading screens ( pretty splash arts)?

I'd also love to hear from rioters involved with character and skin design (or any that would like to chime in) how much, if at all, is this sort of thing thought of during skin design? Is it strictly the narrative/gameplay fantasy of the character that determines what skin series you want to put them in? Is changing the way players play based on skins something you've ever even looked into? Perhaps this could be a new metric you could track (similar to skills ranked first; comparing KDAs, wards placed, etc across a statistically signifcant enough group if it exists) and release some sort of cool dev blog post, or maybe even a study of your own! (I'd be so down for RIOT research and academia department. Sounds like awesome reading, and a great way to use such a powerful tool to better game design and SCIENCE!!! https://youtu.be/b6Y6YNhyxOI ^here's some side swag about that!) .

Feel free to leave thoughts and feelings below about anything in the post, and lets get everyone in on the conversation! I'm sure there's olent of rioters there who love to talk about this kinda stuff.

4 Comments

PlacentasMay 22, 20162 votes

I'm a bit out of it right now so I am upvoting and viewing this later. It's pretty interesting. I have noticed that I only use Runeguard Voli for ranked matches and the other skins for normals/aram. I feel like he looks the most badass in that skin, and you know what they say, look good feel good.

KnightofMorriganMay 22, 20161 votes

Confidence is key so they say. I know personally, If I'm playing a skin I really like, even if it's only a side thought and not in my mins during the game, I feel better about making confident plays (At least at the beginning of the game).

DecritMay 22, 20162 votes

Well, when playing Pentakill Morde i feel just FUCKING HARDCORE :D

It' s something i thought up on lately ( also because i too follow EC ) and i think that while it might be true for skins ( because they are unrealistic and over the top, and also we can pick one from many ), it might not be true at all for base skins ( because we don' t attach much fantasy to it, rather riot attaches fantasy to it tied to lore and other reasons and only then we attach ours) or for chromas. I think this is also why chromas aren't much popular, besider other reasons.

KnightofMorriganMay 22, 20161 votes

This is probably why people were so upset about splash arts too (even if this reason was more subconcious to the fact that they just didn't think some things looked good). This fantasy they had was damaged. They didn't like it only because of quality, but a lot of times they said things like "that splash doesn't fit the theme, or convey the story of that version of the character". I know that's how i felt, when sinful succulence morgana got the background with all the burnt cookies, dirty bakery, and generally messy kitchen. The face i thought wasn't fitting for the feel of the character (Morgana may be a bit s2distic but she isn't ugly like a demonic harpy), and the background that told the story and made the scene feel alive was also gone.

People probably don't play as well when they're playing a skin they don't like or are dissatisfied with, even if the discrepancy is extremely small.