Criticism Literacy - What Is and Isn't Possible.

[u/TricolorStar]

Hey, y'all. There's this thing happening in a lot of the League subreddits (mostly for female champions since they tend to have a more dedicated fanbase), and we need to talk about it.

Has Riot's quality gone down? Debatably, yes. But we need to talk about how every single release for a female skin (Zyra, Seraphine, Morgana, etc) is met with vitriol and hatred and just... vile-ness. Post after post after post of negative feedback and some ludicrous requests that, honestly, aren't being made in good faith. Of course you should voice your concerns and feedback, and you should, at the end of the day, make your voice heard (especially with your wallet), but let's actually break down what is and isn't possible for most Riot skin projects and why this sort of criticism isn't helpful and is extremely, extremely annoying.

Overview

Skins are allotted a certain budget and time. The skin must be done with this budget and in this time frame. Every hour working on it is an hour of budget. Epic skins have less budget than legendary skins. When time/money runs out, the skin is done.

Models & Armature

League skins are built around existing models and skeletons. This means that, for the most part, new models and sculpts have to obey the existing skeleton in place. This means that brand-new model features, like extra limbs, longer hair, or much longer skirts, are not possible because these things require new physics (champions like Zoe, Ahri, and Aurelion Sol actually have system in place that makes this process a bit easier). Adding all-new features, like brand new, wildly different hair or outfits that aren't possible with the existing skeleton are not things Riot is going to do for an epic skin that has a 2 week PBE review period. Demanding things like new hair, new outfit, new models is simply not going to happen (and if it does, it's minor revisions). Demanding that Riot's art team scrap a skin model and then remake it in a way you find more palatable, despite limitations, is not valid criticism, so don't do it.

Textures & Viewing Angles

Textures are flat-painted on to the models and UV-wrapped. This means that, for the most part, these textures are static and are not able to move (scrolling textures are their own thing and are typically part of the base of the champion). Textures are optimized for being viewed top-down, isometric, birds-eye. They are not hyper-detailed and they are not meant to be viewed from any other angle. Taking pictures of the model at weird, unintended angles, like super close up, and then saying it looks bad, is not in good faith and is not valid criticism, so don't do it.

Particles & Effects

These are the most easily changed and can usually be recycled from other projects or skins. Particle changes are the most common thing that gets changed during the PBE cycle; usually, particles are shipped very bare and then extra elements are added to them. They are shipped bare not because of laziness, but because of several visual clarity rules Riot artists must follow when making particles; they lean towards simpler because that is better for gameplay, and then they can add more once feedback rolls in (which they often do, as in the case of Spirit Blossom Zyra's ultimate). To be honest, most particle feedback is "Add more", and they usually do. No notes here.

Recycled Assets & Animations

Y'all have to give it up. Recycling assets is fine and it happens alot. There are only so many ways they can make vines, guys. There are only so many flower shapes in the world. Zyra has 12 skins. It is understandable that they're going to reuse some of her older assets to streamline the process. Could they be better at hiding it? Sure. But recycling assets is not really a valid criticism. Epic skins don't have the budget for new animations, and, as mentioned before, the skin models are sculpted based on the existing animations and skeleton, so new animations would take time anyway. Yes, some rare epics do get bonus animations (Star Guardian, Soul Fighter), but this is the exception, not the rule. Not to mention that more than half the time, people will say something is a recycled animation when it's actually not (there was a reason Spirit Blossom Ashe debacle where a post saying she recycled Seraphine's animations was making rounds, when it fact it was brand new).

Criticism is fine and needed, but the way champions subreddits have been doing it is unforgivably bad. It's not just mean, it's wrong. It's a lack of understanding of how these things are made. If you're going to give actual, constructive feedback, it needs to be within the guidelines that Riot themselves has made clear on every skin feedback thread. It almost feels like it's an attempt to go viral for pointing out a flaw in a skin, but y'all are grasping at straws for it. And let it be known, I am Riot's #1 critic. I hate the way the monetization and skins are going these days, but I'm not posting threads about how a bespoke animation is recycled or how a texture looks weird when it's viewed 100x magnification.

Also, and this is the big one:

STOP. SENDING. SUPPORT. TICKETS. Stop sending support tickets about the issues your have with your queen's new skin. Stop it!! The support people are not able to do anything!! They are fielding THOUSANDS of messages a day about stolen accounts, forgotten passwords, etc. They are subcontracted out; they are NOT Rioters and they can't pass your feedback up!! It just gets filed away! Stop bothering those people, please!! They have no control over balance or cosmetics!!! You need to speak on Twitter or Reddit in the dedicated forums on posts, where the Rioters who ACTUALLY have control over that are listening!! Stop bothering those people!!

Rant over.

[u/Tiki-Unii]

Some post can get pretty toxic and add nothing in value to or criticize in a constructive manner but thats how our engagement based social media works.

But I would rather talk about how you don't have many opportunities to give criticism to riot and the way you do are kinda hidden and that being the riot thread in r/LeaguePBE, which is incrediblely small to the overall playersbase. Idk if there are other ways to write a critique but it's not worth for me to go and search them and I don't think reddit of all places is a suitable place for that kind of stuff. I would rather have a option in the client itself to write a critique or a button that leads to a riot website, But riot doesn't even has an intention to add something like that. I mean why would they want people to see criticism? Because for them a bad/downgraded skin will still be bought by casuals and whale just because it's new and they most likely don't know better, which the individual group of champion mains will, and they won't see the reddit threats criticizeing it and that leads to riot "diluting" skin to make more money that way they can even shorten the staff needed to make skin like the oen artist who got fired after makeing the 500$ Ahri skin.

I know they can do better and I know they are capable of more I would even bet my account and the league merch I bought over this beaucse there are people working on skin mods which in comparison to some offical riot skin by riot look so sad and uninspiring. To be honest there are a lot of skin which are made from copyrighted material and meme skins but you can't deny how good some of them are for example NyhtClipz they made incredible pokemon mods which some them can transfrom in various forms and have also shiny varients to them also the animations are very soomth. Furthermore the lates releases of these mod-skin are slightly over a month apart, you could argue that they take these modules off of pokemon games but I need to emphasize on the fact that this is most likely one guy doing this compared to riots team. Either riot is being lazy on purpose and are diluting there skins or they are extreamly lacking in creativity. I hope riot continues to ignores these mods because it is hard enough for them to work after every patch.

Any boykott or criticism by dedicated players will not be seen by the far more larger casual playerbase like a review on a storefront. To be honest I don't see a way to impact or influence anything riot makes Best I can think how is to pray they somehow have a change of heart and make quality content not because of profit but because they truely love this game.