Eh still wrong though. Subscription payments only give you access to the servers.
Having access to the servers doesn’t necessarily mean you can play
Can’t play, you can win, eve though you are paying.
I would concede that the game is p2w if I could get my +15 or my AoTC achievement without the need to log into the game.
I’ll even go with the example of:
So all I need to do is spend real life money to get my direct upgrades. There is absolutely no game play involved.
I should then be able to buy the token, transfer it to gold, give my money to a random person, and log off and have my upgrade. Even though this isn’t direct, we’ll go with it.
Pay to win requires no participation. Pay to win means I should be able to buy the token from the shop on my phone and when I log into the game, have my rewards waiting for me
Humm, you mean like some kind of idle game?
The kind of game where there is a weekly competition to see who can do the most damage on the big “raid” boss and get big chunk of loot if you finish first but where you’re limited in your number of attacks?
But thank god you can reset those limited attack by paying RM and keep idling and still finish first in a winnable competition am I right?
Well, according to some, it qualifies as P2W.
See I don’t need to win any type of competition or contest, I just need to acquire literally anything at all really and it count as a “win” apparently.
WoW is only P2W if and only if you want to spend that money. But it is not forced by any means, so you can’t really agree that it’s a full blown pay to win game. I’ve never paid any money IRL to participate in any aspect of the game, and never will, but that’s just me.
Really it comes down to just how you play the game. Like if you don’t have enough time to commit to a Cutting Edge raiding guild…Aren’t good enough to get 2.4k+ Arena rating…Or in order to have cooler looking transmog or a mount or whatever your motivation is, then yeah you could certainly buy those things by spending cash on WoW tokens to pay for the gold carry. But that’s not really how the game should be played imo, and realistically would your game play be all that fun if you just bought everything? It would be interesting to see the WoW token removed and where that would take the game though…
The only thing you actually have to pay for is the game itself, and the monthly sub. (Which can both be purchased with gold. )
Retail- Yes because the WoW token exists people can pay IRL money for in game gold which can be used for a myriad of services (player provided of course). Because there exists a way by Blizzard to convert IRL cash into in game currency WoW Retail is P2W.
Classic/TBC- No. Due to the lack of WoW Token (on non Chinese and I believe Korean servers) there is no way to convert IRL money into in game currency. One may argue about the dark portal pass (an deluxe edition) however you can’t continuously buy that. Part of P2W is that you can continuously put in IRL money to improve.
What about Gold Buyers/Sellers?- This isn’t sanctioned by Blizzard. Gold Buyers/Sellers are 3rd party and are against ToS.
What about Store mounts/pets?- A mount is a mount, unless the store starts selling a mount that fly’s faster than 310% speed and cannot be gotten anywhere else (with relative ease in Retail, Classic is different because there is no standardization of mount speed ie unarmored horses are 60% while on retail they scale with riding). For battle pets unless there is an in game pet that can have the same stats and builds then this may be P2W.
What about subscription/expansion purchase?- You can’t keep buying the same expansion to increase your power. Subscription is one per account to maintain access.
What about player provided services for Gold or BoE items on the AH?- No this is not inherently P2W. However in retail because you can buy gold with the WoW token it is P2W on retail. Even if the person buying the service has never bought a WoW token its still P2W because the option of buying gold is there.
In summary-
Retail - P2W because of WoW token
Classic- Not P2W
The problem with your theory is that you were always able to buy gold with real $$$. Now you just pay Blizz, not a third party, and there is an actual market value associated with it that fluctuates. So if that is your means test, then I guess this game has always been p2w.
However buying gold with real $$$ from 3rd parties has always been against ToS. I don’t believe you should factor in 3rd parties which break ToS into the P2W or not P2W decision.
It would be interesting to see the WoW token removed and where that would take the game though…
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