[mugwumprk]

I'm not in that industry, but if I was, I bet you could do something shady. Perhaps people who buy expensive skins have an increased chance of "luck" within the game. Critical hits may be more likely, more high quality gear drops. It's possible there isn't a clear line between gambling and fashion. At least, that's if the industry is unscrupulous, and I generally assume that describes most companies.

[Darmody]

Having played a lot of games, if that was the case, it would be vox populi. In all gaming communities there are very smart people and if the damage output is important, they'll have it traced, if loot if important, it'll be traced too.

[mvdtnz]

In the Call of Duty games if you purchase a premium skin the matchmaking algorithm tries to match you into servers where fewer (or no) players have that same skin, to increase the feeling of exclusivity. This is not a secret, Activision even patented the idea.

[Terr_]

I wonder if anybody specifically gets "elite" skins to increase their odds of being matched against easier opponents.