Thus Marvel Rivals shared the screenshot of a dozen or so characters yelling, “Where are our skins?” And well-praised-players had quite a response. From sheer anarchy came this wild nostalgia for one’s personal hero to receive some kind of new outfit. But there’s also this great-sounding confusion as to who really deserves new cosmetics and who deserves just maybe a break.”
The very first issue was that the developers actually included Spider-Man in the graphic! And the players were NOT going to have it. Multiple people immediately pointed at Spider-Man, stating Spider-Man already had tons of skins. One user, Spider_Blox_809, said, “bro got 9 skins and 2 more will come out next season,” which was really almost too much. User Ovatsugp put it very simply: “Get Spider-Man off this shit cause that nigga got the most skins the game. He deserves a hiatus.” Pretty universal sentiment: Spider-Man fans are doing just fine in the skin department.
But Spidey wasn’t the only one to get called out. User venom0804 brought up that “Ultron hasn’t had skins since he launched”-which is a far more valid complaint. And clark_leaks mentioned, “Hulk who hasn’t got a skin in 5 months being put with Spider-Man,” throwing into the spotlight just how starkly some characters are begging for new cosmetics while others drown in them.
The entire “over a month” line also spawned several sarcastic remarks. User ashbdjK just said, “A whole month? What a tragedy,” with heavy sarcasm, I’m sure. And DecKie_Dae just said, “Over a month,” which conveys so much and yet nothing all at once: a month, indeed, isn’t really that long in game development time, especially for creating detailed 3D models and textures.
But the discussion then genuinely pivoted to which characters actually need skins. User InvertFC proposed, “Hulk and Magneto need more. They barely have any, same with the clanker and Emma.” So at least some players are trying to rally around characters who’ve truly been neglected. And excellent000 was explicitly dragon-waiting for a “classic captain America skin,” which feels like a fair request.
The reply went full-fledged with PSI_4ce breaking down the skin history for Moon Knight through the seasons to demonstrate he’s been pretty well looked after, with multiple skins per season. That level of detailed knowledge is either impressive or concerning, depending on how you look at it. But it does go to show that players are paying very close attention to what goes on for which characters, and when.
Some started talking about game development interviews. There was a whole conversation between SamiraCGS and gyllenhell as to whether people truly understand how much work goes into the creation of 3D assets. SamiraCGS asked whether gyllenhell ever did any 3D work, and after he answered no, she said he should “look into the process so you got an understanding of what is realistic to ask for.” Which, if you ask me, is a very good point-making: it takes time and money to make game assets.
Then you get some hilarity as excellent000 asked toniboloninoni, “Why u gotta have so many damn flags 😂,” referring to a display name packed with emojis. And toniboloninoni shot back with, “couldn’t fit the vaccine emoji sadly,” which is just…such a very specific thing to be sad about missing from your username.
The general vibes here seem to show that players want more skins for neglected characters, but they’re also aware that some characters already have plenty (for example, Spider-Man). There’s a lot of frustration about how cosmetics are being handed out, but then there’s also some understanding about their creation.
What’s most interesting about this is the speed with which the community sort of rallied around it: The original tweet garnered hundreds of replies within what seemed like minutes, trying both to take down and defend the devs’ choices. It’s a strange tug-of-war between, “We want more content,” and, “But we understand it takes work” that many live service games are plagued with.
While Marvel Rivals is still pretty young by the standard of most games, players being so hungry for more customization options with so little to show yet feels apt. But, weirdly enough, people seem to have formed strong opinions regarding who ranks as top priorities for these options. That so many people snatched spoiler alert that Spider-Man probably shouldn’t be on the “needs skins” list just goes to show how engaged the player base already is.
Really, it’s all about skins, so they’re a trivial matter by nature of being cosmetic. But in modern gaming, especially in a free-to-play scenario where they are oftentimes the main source of revenue, cosplay counts for a lot. So while the players are worked up about it, they probably should be. Hopefully, devs will take a lot of this to heart for some of their future updates. Maybe that’s a good thing; maybe we’ll see more Hulk and Ultron skins soon, and Spider-Man will finally get to sit on the sidelines for a bit, or maybe not. The Marvel Rivals cosmetics pipeline-great unknown.
