I don;t see it this way. I buy WoW tokens to…
Fund a new character on a brand new realm. I wish I could send gold cross-realm but Blizzard says no.
I buy bags and pay for riding and flying skill.
Gear on the AH, I do not buy.
I have never bought a boost. Do not intend to.
So I have never seen a token to be Pay to Win. N9ot likely to see it that way.
I have no problems with this. I am indeed fine with it.
I’ll be honest and say that I haven’t. I basically never interact with the PvP in this game.
Does that matter? There’s no reason anyone’s game pace needs to match anyone else’s. So what if some players pay to boost. I don’t gain anything by matching them. If the issue is that you need to keep up with the community to a degree in order to find people to group with then that would only be an issue if the vast majority of the community is boosting you, which I am very skeptical is occurring.
I’m not really sure I understand this point. Why is simply not partaking in the WoW token not an option? Or if you do purchase a WoW token, just don’t buy a boost. I’m not sure what this push to purchase carries is. There’s plenty of players at every level of content to group with so you could just play the game like most people do. The game is in fact balanced around not purchasing carries. That’s partly why we get new catch up gear every patch. Catch up gear is more than enough to get started dungeoning and raiding.
How much gold do you actually need to play the game? I’ve never bought a WoW token and I’ve only extremely rarely farmed mats to sell for gold. I’ve hovered around 200k since the end of WoD and I’ve raided/dungeoned actively in every tier. Aside from the very recent addition of legendaries (which I think is its own can of worms) you don’t need gold to get gear or progress. You can get progress with gold but it turns out that just playing the game normally is also a fine way to do that. If someone else buys their way to better gear than me I’m still really not sure why that should matter to me or anyone else. We’re late in the season, I would expect PuGs to have to deal with some strict ilvl competition boosts or no boosts simply because everyone has been playing this tier for months. Getting rid of the WoW token or even somehow making carries impossible won’t change that. Once next season rolls around any new players can deck themselves out in whatever the new catch-up gear is and be on pace with the rest of the community, no boost needed.
Yes that is very prevalent in this thread too so I’m not entirely sure if OP is trolling or actually thinks WoW is P2W…
I use WoW tokens to pay for my sub and for expansion pre-orders, so I too defend the WoW token. Leveling is actually my favorite aspect of the game, so I’m able to buy 'em (*the tokens off the AH, with gold) due to my army of alts I’ve made over all these years. 
I’ve only ever paid for the first few expansions physical copies, prior to everything being an electronic transaction. Plus the subscription fee before the implementation of the WoW token. By your logic, what exactly have I paid to win for? Not really being hostile here btw, just genuinely curious as to how you came to your conclusion?
Buying an expansion or game time isn’t pay-to-win. I hope that answers your question.
“Pay to Win” would indicate that people gain an advantage over other people, such that it makes them perform better in the game if they pay real money for advantages.
In WoW, you’re pay to boost; but that doesn’t make it inherently pay to win. You could buy your way to full Mythic clears and have the best gear in the game; you’re still only one person in a group of 5 or 20, and your own gameplay matters a LOT more than your gear does. You could buy your way to full PvP gear; you’ll still get destroyed by a better player in PvP.
So no, while you can pay to progress and pay to improve your character, it’s clearly not pay to win.
It mostly did. So I guess it comes down to how a player decides to play the game? Because no single player is forced to pay money to clear content lol.
*Sorry, that didn’t make much sense after re-reading it. No player is forced to pay money to just play the game, other than buying the game itself + a subscription.
What is John Gear?
A criteria for a game being pay to win, isn’t that they’re forced to pay.
Hmm, well I dunno, I guess I just don’t understand the P2W mentality. I’d much rather earn things for myself, and have much more fun in doing so. 
Lol so I just Googled, “What is P2W criteria” and this is what I found:
Buying power and advantage over other players is p2w.
It’s that simple.
I would definitely agree WoW has some potential P2W aspects to be taken advantage of…but just not for me.
I usually only buy tokens to support my raiding. Since I haven’t been raiding here recently I have been taking a break and focused more on farming.
I’m looking pretty set going into 9.2 gold wise.
Nice! Same here dude. Gonna need that gold for them new leggos.
And that’s probably the best way to play WoW. A lot of people out there are too concerned about a limited time mount or getting an achievement that will eventually collect dust as soon as the next expansion launches anyways.
Just play and enjoy, and try not to keep up with the Joneses. Or worry about being left out.
ALL of that, and then some! No trying to keep up with the best, or having any FOMO here. Just playing casually, for fun! For what fun Shadowlands provides, anyhow…
Lol okay. Sure. But whatever definition of P2W you use, it’s “settled”! What about by other definitions? What makes your definition the definition?
You would first need to defend your idea of “win” before you could “settle” this.
I can pay for power so yes WoW is P2W… doesn’t matter if there’s middle men. Paying money results in more power… P2W.
That is literally the only way to buy those upgrades with a token though. Whether it’s a boost or the AH or whatever, there’s always a 3rd party involved…your entire argument falls flat right there.
Spend as much as your lil’ heart desires then! 
I dont have a problem with the token either if the money it generates helps the quality of the game. It seems like based on other games with p2w, the quality of the game will gradually decrease in order for blizzard to make more money off tokens. I hope that isn’t the case, but shadowlands has various systems in place that promote people to buy tokens and I wouldn’t say it’s a coincidence.