Exclusivity design, archive and seasonality in Prestige skins (LoL 2018-2026)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62008/ixc/16/02DisenoKeywords:
luxury, VFX, Fashion, seasonality, skins, League of LegendsAbstract
Prestige-tier skins in League of Legends condense forms of digital luxury in which visual design, temporal rarity and managed access operate as coupled persuasive mechanisms. This article examines their evolution from 2018 to 2026, focusing on the shift from Prestige 1.0 to Prestige 2.0, the Mythic Shop, archive reintroductions and commemorative variants. It adopts a descriptive-interpretive case study combining a quantitative delimitation of the subcatalogue, aimed at stabilising an object shaped by rotations and returns, with a comparative qualitative analysis of its value operations. The corpus supports a functional typology in five groups: F1 surface gilding, F2 perceptual experience and legibility, F3 media event, F4 storytelling and secrecy, and F5 programmed seasonality. The analysis shows that Prestige organises exclusivity not as absolute unrepeatability, but as circulation design: the archive may return, while its value is reactivated through variants, limited windows, rotations, retrospective hierarchies and access differences. The system thus monetizes the past without fully dissolving the temporal hierarchy that grounds exceptional status.
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