TL;DR by creating a skin that forces an audience of people who are willing to spend large amounts of money to engage in a loot box based system that is designed to utilize gambling mechanics and encourage spending, Riot is pushing a vulnerable population of high spenders into a system that encourages high spending, which can cause them to continue to engage with the loot system and spend even more of their money than they would have otherwise.
Hey everybody. This is my first every post on Reddit even though I have been lurking around here since I started playing the game 6 years ago. However, after hearing about Prestige Aatrox here, I decided that I had to say something. I work for the government as a specialist in influence and behavioral modification, and I immediately recognized the manipulative psychological tactics used in regards to the acquisition of Prestige Aatrox. I wanted to dissect exactly what Riot did, why it matters, and how they can change their actions to be more respectful and honest towards their player base. So lets get started.
First, we need to look at the Prestige skin line as a whole. According to this post on the League Forums, these skin line was originally introduced to the player base as a status symbol for "players that value rarity/exclusivity" and are willing to put forward the "additional investment requirement (centered) around engagement" while also allowing players to "use event loot purchases as a way to supplement their token earn rates" (remember this last point, it will be important).These skins developed a reputation in the community as skins earned by players who were willing to grind out the large number of games required to get these skins. The Prestige skins were received with a positive outlook at their beginning as some players invested the resources to acquire them, meeting Riots specified objective. People associated the people who earned these skins with the time investment required to get the skin.
Now comes Blood Moon Aatrox Prestige. This version of the Prestige skins can no longer be obtained via a time investment. It can only be acquired through Prestige Points, which have to be bought. Now, the identity of this skin is shifting from a symbol of dedication, to a symbol of what Riot Mort described in this post as a "look at Mr. Moneybags over here" and "I'm a big spender" skin. Riot is using the good will of the player base to boost the appeal of this new skin that represents something different than it originally did. While I personally think this is manipulative thing to do, I don't think the concept of a "big spender" skin is inherently bad. If there is a market for these type of skins, then Riot should push to fill it. However, it is how Riot has you go about your big spending that is truly manipulative. To acquire the Prestige Points to get Prestige Aatrox, you need to spend your money in a very specific area of the League Marketplace: The Loot System.
Most people believe that Loot Boxes are a bad characteristic in the gaming industry, but they may not understand exactly what these systems do to you cognitively to encourage spending. To grossly simplify how these systems work, when you open a loot box, you experience a positive feeling, and when you get a big reward like a skin you really want, your brain releases even more chemicals that make you feel better. However, by making these big rewards of positive feeling occur at random, that positive feeling is stronger in your mind and you will crave it for longer. That is why gambling can be so addictive. The randomness of a huge reward makes you keep striving for the reward for longer, which keeps you engaged with that system. So, in order to access Prestige Aatrox, you will be exposed to this loot system with a range of 20 loot boxes (by getting the blood moon capsules and a gem stone bundle) to 100 loot boxes (if you buy each one individually). You aren't just spending $100+ to get one skin, you are getting a huge amount of variable content along with it, which could provide you with a positive interaction with Loot system. Again, this isn't inherently bad, but when you add it all up, it shows the complex influence operation that Riot has put together.
Riot's target audience for this skin is people who are willing to spend a large amount of money on a single skin. They say it themselves. They are taking that audience, and they are pushing them towards the loot system, which we know is designed to encourage more spending using gambling-like techniques. So, by getting this vulnerable audience to engage in this predatory system, they are actively trying to develop more whales for their games. And what's sad is the fact that we should have seen this from the beginning. When they first created the Prestige line**,** they tied those skins to the pass system, which also gave you free loot boxes, and you could always purchase loot boxes to get tokens. The Prestige skins have always been tied to the loot system, trying to drag players into interacting with it. Riot has been pushing us along this path the entire time, and now they are taking the next step by creating a skin tied exclusively to manipulative systems.
I love League. I have played this game more than any other game, I have invested an unholy amount money willingly over the years because I love the skins and I wanted to support Riot. However, if my theory is correct, that Riot is actively trying to put people vulnerable to gambling-like behavior towards a manipulative gambling system, then that is the single worst thing I have ever seen them do over the years. However, there is a chance that I am wrong, that they aren't trying to herd us like sheep. If that is the case, Riot needs to change this system. I can see a few ways they could do this:
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Return to a grind based system to reward the players willing to devote the time, maintaining the objective of rarity
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Have the skin be linked to Champion Mastery to really reward the dedicated mains of these champs and maintaining the objective of rarity
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Give people Prestige Points simply by buying RP, which maintains this new objective to create a skin for big spenders. There are plenty of people who are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on this game, just not in the loot system
I really hope Riot looks at this system. It is manipulative and it abuses the good will of the player base that has invested so much into this game. We are the life blood of Riot, but stuff like this makes them seem more like mosquito sucking every last drop of blood we have. This decision makes me question if Riot really cares about the interests of the community, but I hope they prove me wrong and change this manipulative scheme.
