League of Legends players worried new skins look too alike
Riot GamesLeague of Legends players are expressing concerns that the game’s new skins look similar, claiming that Riot Games is not prioritizing visual clarity in new cosmetics.
League of Legends has over 1,000 skins available in-game, with hundreds new of ones released each year for purchase.
With that many skins, it’s not hard to think it’d be difficult come up with new and visually interesting ideas for the 157 champions available on Summoner’s Rift. Riot Games has even held votes to let the fans decide which themes they should go with in the future, as well as which champions should get VGU overhauls.
Now, fans have voiced their concerns that new skin lines are crossing the line when it comes to visual clarity, and that they are beginning to look identical.
Riot GamesLeague players concerned over new skins
A post on LoL’s Reddit page went viral regarding complaints about new cosmetics appearing too similar to one another.
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The submission complained about how Riot treats skins in thematics and noted, “In the past skins were more ‘simple’ yet more specific in a thematic. Now I feel like there is a base idea shared everywhere, like certain particles and effects, and they slightly change color and shape between a line and the other.”
The post also drew attention to the lack of visual distinctness across skin lines, using the example of Lagoon Dragon Kai’Sa and Crystal Rose Zyra, whose abilities they had confused for one another.
One commenter noted that one skin, in particular, didn’t prioritize visual clarity and said: “Thunder Dragon ‘F**k you and your clarity’ Lee Sin entered the chat.”
Riot responds to League clarity issues
Riot released a blog post in May 2021 about clarity in League, noting the steps they’ve taken to improve visuals in champion design, skins, and hitboxes.
Game dev BananaBandit focused on the importance of clarity in LoL, saying,” “We see clarity as the ability to understand what’s happening in League and respond to it. Because League is highly competitive, this is obviously quite important. There are three major things we strive for: gameplay should be clearly conveyed, always preserve hierarchy, and noise should be kept minimal.”
Although this provided some insight into their design process, players have still voiced their concerns about issues with the newer skin lines.