Hey all - as I find a few minutes to browse the forums, I see many great questions that touch on eCommerce, but way more than I have the time to answer. So in order to make sure I am answering the community's most important questions first, I've decided to introduce the...
eCommerce Question of the Week!
At least once/week (but usually more often), I will answer the question in this thread that has the most upvotes. The next time I'll answer the one with the next most, etc., until you either run out of questions or I run out of answers. Keep in mind that if the winning question has to do with game/champion/skin design or something else that does not fall into my area, my answer may not be very useful (eg. ask Lyte!), but I will do my best to give as detailed answers as I can to whichever questions rise to the top.
I will start other threads for specific topics as needed, but will monitor this thread for the top rated questions, so please continue to post and more importantly, vote for the best questions!
We have an initial winner, with a clear early lead over the rest. Keep in mind I expect to answer 25-50 questions by the end of the year, so keep asking and voting, as I will get way past the first few pages before we're done.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigolfish
With the recent RP/IP reductions (IE Maokai) do you think it's odd/needs change that champions such as Mordekaiser cost 975 RP but 3150 IP, while Maokai is 780/4800?
Are there any plans to bring down these older champion's RP prices to a level equivalent to their IP prices?
Yes, it is odd. And it will get even more odd before it starts making sense. Here's the story:
As long as I've played the game, all champions from 3150-6300 IP were priced at 975 RP, which made it feel pretty crappy to buy many of those champions with RP. That's not good for players and not good for Riot. Reducing the RP price of the 3150 and 4800 champions seemed like the easy answer, but to what price? And what impact does that have on sales of those champions and other champions?
Making a change that significant without any data on what might happen is not what they teach in eCommerce class, and the only way to get reliable data is to start changing prices. Caityln and Maokai were the first, and there will be more in the next several days, which will make our pricing look even more odd. But there is a method to the madness, and within the next several weeks, I expect to make final changes that will make sense. To me anyway
And in case you're concerned, after all "permanent" price reductions (not a limited time sale), we automatically refund the price difference for anyone that made a purchase in the previous two weeks. For those who bought more than two weeks prior, keep in mind that you were able to enjoy the ownership for that additional time, which is why we do not go back further than two weeks. I should also point out that "permanent" is probably the wrong word for these price reductions, because pricing is always subject to additional change. In fact, some of these prices will likely change again once the final plan is in place.
The 2nd winning post gets answered after just 25 upvotes! Remember, any question that touches on eCommerce issues in the past, present or future will be answered if there is enough community interest. So don't be shy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xChronicSx
How often do you plan on making a skin equivalent to the Pulsefire Ezreal one, in terms of quality and versatility?
I really wish more champions had such unique skins..
This question can be better answered by our Skins team, but I'll take a stab at it based on what I've heard in the hallways.
Theme skins like PFE take many multiples more work to develop than even legendaries, but most agree they are worth the effort, so expect to see more in 2013. There are a couple of concepts in the works but they have a long way to go, and I expect 2-3 theme releases/year would be the most you could ever expect to see.
One related change we will be making in the LoL Store this year is to put PFE into the Skins tab and eliminating the Themes tab, but likely not until we have a new tab to put in its place.
Also, keep an eye out in the next week or two for some new skin release prices...
Do you think you will be working on more rune/rune page deals and/or permanent reductions?
Unfortunately I don't expect to be able to focus on runes until 2013. It is complex from a design standpoint (the tier structure, the different rune types, the impact on game balance, the rune combiner). It also plays a role in how players customize their strategies and how those strategies evolve over time, all of which impact areas other than eCommerce. I have seen some good suggestions for how to improve runes on various threads, but it will take a focused effort to gather input from many different types of players and Rioters, synthesize it all, and decide on a plan that is better for all involved. Many potential solutions will also require programming changes to the store, client or the game itself, which multiplies the complexity given that there is a lot of competition for those development resources.
Rune pages are comparatively easy. Players feel strongly that they cost too much (#1 complaint in a recent player survey), and therefore offering better deals makes sense even if it costs Riot money over time. The bundle promotion was our first solution. There are other fairly simple things we can do that will help those who missed the chance to buy the bundle, and I probably won't wait until 2013 to pull the trigger on those.
What kind of stuff do you plan on adding to the store ? You said you were looking into giving us more "thing" to spend our IP/RP on.
There are many cool ideas being looked at, but I need to be careful about setting expectations, because some of the ideas might never see the light of day if they are determined to be infeasible technically or if they affect balance or gameplay in any way. One new feature were considering experimenting with this year is the ability to purchase new skins for wards that tie to an event, such as Snowdown Showdown. The new wards could be unlocked for a limited period of time (eg. a week or two) and there might be several choices so that players who use wards would have different options for how to get in the holiday spirit.
Sorry for posting late this week - was in Austin for the GDC conference. This week's winner comes from page 8...
Quote:
Originally Posted by BtrLuckyThanGood
I asked this one before but it got lost with no answer and would love an answer from you Hippalus.
With all these champs getting Classic Art reworks and all the disagreement on which is better every time a new one comes out. Why does RIOT not just give players the new rework AND keep the old one so we can choose in game? (just like a free skin of sorts but only for the splash screen art).
Everyone likes options and it would be like giving the player base something nice for free without actually giving away anything you weren't already going to. You could even make it so only players who were around for the original got to keep the old school one as kind of a way to appreciate those who have been around for a while.
Hope to get a response =) Thanks.
This raises a few issues, most of which have nothing to do with eCommerce, but I will answer to the best of my ability. The first issue is technical. While most ideas are technically feasible, every new feature has repercussions that have to be evaluated and managed indefinitely on a global basis. If I understand what you are proposing correctly (selectable splash screen art for certain champions), it shouldn't be that difficult from a technical perspective, but it would have to be prioritized over other changes to the game, and therefore would need to be considered a high priority problem to solve for players.
The main reason we have not considered keeping the old champion designs as an option in general has more to do with the long term vision of LoL. We expect LoL to be around for a very long time, and per the team that works on this stuff, our visual upgrades are meant to modernize our champions, align them all on stylistic consistency and fidelity, and improve the consistency and quality of gameplay indicators. Keeping legacy versions of champions goes against this goal. We are, however, committed to retaining the elements that make each League champion unique and special, and I will pass along any feedback you have if you think we miss that on any of our visual upgrades.
When can we expect to see more price reductions on older champions? The refund system was a nice addition to get me a boost in my progress towards my runes and champions that I want, but price reductions are lovely and I sort of expected to see them more often
There will be another round of price reductions at the end of the month. Cassiopeia and Kog'Maw will be lowered to 4800 IP and 880 RP, while Corki and Anivia's RP cost will be reduced to 790 RP.
We are also still working on a long term champion pricing plan that will add more certainty to price reductions going forward. I will present the proposed plan as soon as I have a little more data from the recent price reductions and I have gotten more feedback internally.
Yes, as I've mentioned a couple of times, rune prices are on the list to evaluate at some point in 2013. Rune page prices, champion prices, new types of content, summoner name changes, bundles, etc. have all been higher priority because of more player interest and/or ease of solving the problem, but I recognize that rune prices are pretty high on the list of player concerns.
When that time comes, I'll seek out input from the community on what the biggest concerns are with rune prices.
Seems like an awful long time with never having had a sale since they have been introduced. Is there an official policy to black list some skins? or has this just been a very weird and unfortunate coincidence?
Good question! I did not know the answer to this one but I'm glad I looked into it. Some of these skins were on a "greylist" because of uncertainty about whether they were eligible to be put on sale. Others have coincidentally just not come up for sale quite yet. I can confirm that there is no blacklist, and the greylist is no more, so if you have been waiting for these skins to go on sale, your wait will (someday) come to an end.
Any chances to bring back limited edition skins (Kitty Kat katarina, Nosferatu Vlad, Zombie Ryze) like the Halloweens since we are to close for the event. Many people didn't have a chance to buy them cuss they started League a little bit late sadly
Can't do it, because when we originally sold those skins, we promised the players that they wouldn't come back into the store. The limited quantities of those skins is one of the things that makes them special.
The good news is we are working on a trading system that will allow players to buy old limited edition skins from one another. I can't predict yet how many months it will be til that's ready, or how much RP it will take to buy them (depends on how many buyers and sellers are interested), but it is one of the things I definitely want to make happen for players.
eCommerce Question of the Week
eCommerce Question of the Week!
At least once/week (but usually more often), I will answer the question in this thread that has the most upvotes. The next time I'll answer the one with the next most, etc., until you either run out of questions or I run out of answers. Keep in mind that if the winning question has to do with game/champion/skin design or something else that does not fall into my area, my answer may not be very useful (eg. ask Lyte!), but I will do my best to give as detailed answers as I can to whichever questions rise to the top.
I will start other threads for specific topics as needed, but will monitor this thread for the top rated questions, so please continue to post and more importantly, vote for the best questions!
-Hippalus
Are there any plans to bring down these older champion's RP prices to a level equivalent to their IP prices?
As long as I've played the game, all champions from 3150-6300 IP were priced at 975 RP, which made it feel pretty crappy to buy many of those champions with RP. That's not good for players and not good for Riot. Reducing the RP price of the 3150 and 4800 champions seemed like the easy answer, but to what price? And what impact does that have on sales of those champions and other champions?
Making a change that significant without any data on what might happen is not what they teach in eCommerce class, and the only way to get reliable data is to start changing prices. Caityln and Maokai were the first, and there will be more in the next several days, which will make our pricing look even more odd. But there is a method to the madness, and within the next several weeks, I expect to make final changes that will make sense. To me anyway
And in case you're concerned, after all "permanent" price reductions (not a limited time sale), we automatically refund the price difference for anyone that made a purchase in the previous two weeks. For those who bought more than two weeks prior, keep in mind that you were able to enjoy the ownership for that additional time, which is why we do not go back further than two weeks. I should also point out that "permanent" is probably the wrong word for these price reductions, because pricing is always subject to additional change. In fact, some of these prices will likely change again once the final plan is in place.
Thanks for the question!
I really wish more champions had such unique skins..
Theme skins like PFE take many multiples more work to develop than even legendaries, but most agree they are worth the effort, so expect to see more in 2013. There are a couple of concepts in the works but they have a long way to go, and I expect 2-3 theme releases/year would be the most you could ever expect to see.
One related change we will be making in the LoL Store this year is to put PFE into the Skins tab and eliminating the Themes tab, but likely not until we have a new tab to put in its place.
Also, keep an eye out in the next week or two for some new skin release prices...
Rune pages are comparatively easy. Players feel strongly that they cost too much (#1 complaint in a recent player survey), and therefore offering better deals makes sense even if it costs Riot money over time. The bundle promotion was our first solution. There are other fairly simple things we can do that will help those who missed the chance to buy the bundle, and I probably won't wait until 2013 to pull the trigger on those.
With all these champs getting Classic Art reworks and all the disagreement on which is better every time a new one comes out. Why does RIOT not just give players the new rework AND keep the old one so we can choose in game? (just like a free skin of sorts but only for the splash screen art).
Everyone likes options and it would be like giving the player base something nice for free without actually giving away anything you weren't already going to. You could even make it so only players who were around for the original got to keep the old school one as kind of a way to appreciate those who have been around for a while.
Hope to get a response =) Thanks.
The main reason we have not considered keeping the old champion designs as an option in general has more to do with the long term vision of LoL. We expect LoL to be around for a very long time, and per the team that works on this stuff, our visual upgrades are meant to modernize our champions, align them all on stylistic consistency and fidelity, and improve the consistency and quality of gameplay indicators. Keeping legacy versions of champions goes against this goal. We are, however, committed to retaining the elements that make each League champion unique and special, and I will pass along any feedback you have if you think we miss that on any of our visual upgrades.
We are also still working on a long term champion pricing plan that will add more certainty to price reductions going forward. I will present the proposed plan as soon as I have a little more data from the recent price reductions and I have gotten more feedback internally.
When that time comes, I'll seek out input from the community on what the biggest concerns are with rune prices.
■ Jan. 10th, 2012: Dragonblade Talon (975 RP), Guqin Sona (975 RP), Jade Dragon Wukong (975 RP), Dragon Fist Lee Sin (975 RP).
■ Feb. 14th, 2012: Heartseeker Vayne (975 RP).
■ Mar. 20th, 2012: Wicked Lulu (975 RP).
■ Mar. 23rd, 2012: Jurassic Kog'Maw (975 RP).
■ Apr. 1st, 2012: Fisherman Fizz (975 RP).
■ Apr. 2nd, 2012: Mafia Graves (975 RP).
■ Apr. 6th, 2012: Battle Bunny Riven (975 RP).
■ Apr. 18th, 2012: Blood Knight Hecarim (975 RP), Reaper Hecarim (975 RP), Warlord Shen (975 RP).
Seems like an awful long time with never having had a sale since they have been introduced. Is there an official policy to black list some skins? or has this just been a very weird and unfortunate coincidence?
The good news is we are working on a trading system that will allow players to buy old limited edition skins from one another. I can't predict yet how many months it will be til that's ready, or how much RP it will take to buy them (depends on how many buyers and sellers are interested), but it is one of the things I definitely want to make happen for players.