I feel that mmo players in general just pervert the term pay to win as time goes on. I remember when the term came out, it was in reference to the Asian made mmo's where if you didn't put money down you were guaranteed to be at a disadvantage. They sold items or armor that was clearly superior to crafted/dropped ones or if you didn't purchase a boost it would take you 5x longer to get to where they are at.
I am surprised that it is now being applied to cosmetics, sounds like first world problems.
p2w is used way to liberally nowdays, it dillutes the term imo.
I realise it's going to be a subjective matter all the time but to me the only p2w that bothers me is if you can gain gameplay advantages by paying real cash for it. To me, a subscription fee is not p2w but many advocates of f2p uses that definition as well. Cosmetics should be the only thing available to buy for real cash if any. I prefer to have no cash shops at all (but that's like almost impossible in todays games).
Anyway, sofar AoC has made no indication whatsoever of going towards my definition of p2w (as described by Tomoyuki above).
In a way, you are right. But, its not to the extent that we all hate it like other P2W. Here is why. In all the MMO's I have ever played that had really good tradeskilling, I knew people in game, in guild, that only tradeskilled, thats it. They loved it. It was why they played the game. Though, they were not a huge target for the games, they were still a needed commodity and a needed role in most games. These tradeskillers are really the only one's that this has an effect on in the P2W platform. That being said, it really isn't P2W because it gives no one an advantage over another in that part of the game. Had they handed out recipes or something, then yes. So in most ways, discretely, you are wrong. This doesn't fit the description of pay to win. I respect your opinion though, and see where you are coming from, I just disagree.
I don't think style options for bakers are pay to win. Unique skins are fine, as those are very limited and people who supported the creation of the game DESERVE such rewards. It's fine as long as those rewards are limited.
But I kind of agree that there shouldn't be any unique cosmetics AFTER the game launch. Everything you can buy with real money should also be achieveable with in-game effort, from my opinion, and paying will only save you some time. But to be honest, I'm fine even with unique bought skins and options, that's kind of "Pay2Win" I can accept, because it doesn't provide ingame advantage and is a form to encourage players spend money without discouraging those who don't.
The real problems lies in 2 days early access for 400$+ bakers. Well, this IS Pay2Win in any sense. With 2 days advantage you can do A LOT, and the main point is claiming the best land avialble and headstarting nodes. Especially if nodes locations will be the same as in Alpha/Beta, players would aleady know where they should focus their activity on in order to evolve towns faster. So with best spots taken and becoming citizens the earliest, that is clearly Pay2Win, as devs mentioned several times in their videos how big an advantage early citizens get. Also they can sort of dictate their own rules by starting eaerly settlements, as most players will try to join already developed settlements as those have higher chances to evolve into metropolice. So bakers will naturally stay on top.
But I can accept it as well, as it's only one time opportunity, as starting with second server everyone will have equal chances to rise to the top as long as they start playing when the server opens. It's quite a clever way to entice bakers, and I think it can be forgiven, especially if things won't carry over from alpha/beta.
Overall all games I've playd that claimed to be completely P2W free still had some sort of P2W imlemented (Like Path of Exile with inventory tabs that directly increase your growth speed). And Ashes of Creation have no lasting P2W things starting with 2nd server, so if they won't introduce anything similar to early access for paying customers in the future, I'm not going to call it P2W game.
Comments
I am surprised that it is now being applied to cosmetics, sounds like first world problems.
I realise it's going to be a subjective matter all the time but to me the only p2w that bothers me is if you can gain gameplay advantages by paying real cash for it.
To me, a subscription fee is not p2w but many advocates of f2p uses that definition as well.
Cosmetics should be the only thing available to buy for real cash if any. I prefer to have no cash shops at all (but that's like almost impossible in todays games).
Anyway, sofar AoC has made no indication whatsoever of going towards my definition of p2w (as described by Tomoyuki above).
But I kind of agree that there shouldn't be any unique cosmetics AFTER the game launch. Everything you can buy with real money should also be achieveable with in-game effort, from my opinion, and paying will only save you some time. But to be honest, I'm fine even with unique bought skins and options, that's kind of "Pay2Win" I can accept, because it doesn't provide ingame advantage and is a form to encourage players spend money without discouraging those who don't.
The real problems lies in 2 days early access for 400$+ bakers. Well, this IS Pay2Win in any sense. With 2 days advantage you can do A LOT, and the main point is claiming the best land avialble and headstarting nodes. Especially if nodes locations will be the same as in Alpha/Beta, players would aleady know where they should focus their activity on in order to evolve towns faster. So with best spots taken and becoming citizens the earliest, that is clearly Pay2Win, as devs mentioned several times in their videos how big an advantage early citizens get. Also they can sort of dictate their own rules by starting eaerly settlements, as most players will try to join already developed settlements as those have higher chances to evolve into metropolice. So bakers will naturally stay on top.
But I can accept it as well, as it's only one time opportunity, as starting with second server everyone will have equal chances to rise to the top as long as they start playing when the server opens. It's quite a clever way to entice bakers, and I think it can be forgiven, especially if things won't carry over from alpha/beta.
Overall all games I've playd that claimed to be completely P2W free still had some sort of P2W imlemented (Like Path of Exile with inventory tabs that directly increase your growth speed). And Ashes of Creation have no lasting P2W things starting with 2nd server, so if they won't introduce anything similar to early access for paying customers in the future, I'm not going to call it P2W game.