Does Pay-to-Win Make it a Bad Game? - Lost Ark

Lost Ark - Does having a game considered Pay 2 Win make it a bad game? Or are you still allowed to enjoy it as a Free to Play player?

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[ababearskorea]

Wait, you said what you wanted to say and now I'm supposed to decide for myself? Uh, I come here for you to do my thinking for me. I thought we agreed on that when I clicked like, comment, and subscribe....

[Harmonia]

This MMO timeline has been crazy these past few months.

This is all hearsay from mutuals when I say this btw, but iirc there was a huge migration to FFXIV from WoW that went over capacity and closed off its servers.
So with one game being abandoned in protest and the other being full of players, it seems like a good time for new MMOs to open up and have a welcome reception and honeymoon period.

[webbygaming]

Comparing an MMO-ARPG to a mobile or Gacha game is not without merit, but it also is not the best comparison. Your point is well-made that in Gacha games you can be locked out of content if you do not pay, whereas in Lost Ark you are not "technically" locked out of any content. You are, however, at a significant disadvantage to reach those item levels needed for advanced content (also, please do not point to professional streamers who have 1300+ gear and are F2P, they are NOT average players, it is literally their job to sit for 15 hours a day and grind).

Nevertheless, a Lost Ark to Genshin Impact is an apples to oranges comparison.

People know what they are getting when they play a Gacha game. For reason I will never fully understand, many people even love the slot machine type of mechanic. MMO's are not supposed to be slot machines. It is an intentional and predatory system in Lost Ark.

Action MMO's, on the other hand, do not come with the same "understood mechanics". People do not consider or fully expect the levels of "pay-to-win" that a game like Lost Ark has. For example, here we are weeks after the NA launch and people are still arguing EVEN IF Lost Ark is pay-to-win! Which is, I believe we can agree, a ridiculous argument. Nevertheless, people are still arguing that today. That same debate (argument) is rarely heard about Genshin Impact.

The issue is not if Lost Ark is pay-to-win or not, and if so, "does that makes it bad"... no, the real problem is the trap intentionally set by the developer and the publisher. The designed and coded in limitations followed by ways to pay to bypass them. The so-called "create the problem and sell the solution" system. It is a predatory system that does in fact follow your Gacha game point about FOMO. FOMO is not just mobile or Gacha games, it can be created in MMO's as well. When someone sees streamers at 1300 gear score quickly and playing the "end game" content, and players on forums, Reddit, discord, et al saying they have achieved the same (which may or may not be true in many cases), many people who are struggling to increase gear scores so they can "join in on all the fun at 1300" feel the need to reach those same levels and will eventually pay cash. And it is not a case of "oh, well that is just their choice then!" when it is a fact that the system is designed that way. As mentioned before, it is predatory and it is sleazy.

What should happen, but never ever will of course, is that people stop supporting these predatory games. If players demand an honest and easy to understand monetization model or they will not play the game, developers and publishers will be forced to respond. However, at this time it is far too easy to generate "hype" and get masses of people excited about a game. So no matter how predatory or dishonest the monetization system is, the company will still make its money from hype alone.

Make no mistake, the hype around games like Lost Ark is not natural and it is not created by players. Hype is a very deliberate and carefully designed marketing technique that even manages to get people overwhelmingly excited about a game they have never heard of before. There are even specific and well-crafted formulas for "hype" based on the original ideas shown by Edward L Bernays. The hype surrounding Lost Ark was every bit as predatory as the Cash Shop.

[altec]

I have over 1 million gold and 25, 000 blue crystal and 2 characters over 1300... haven't paid a penny. Thanks to all the pay 2 win players buying my mats once I hit tier 3 lol

[vaylara]

I just hit 50 some days ago, was almost unplayable until last week due to queues when I came home from work. So I am not yet into this gear upgrading stuff. This 'aura' thing is something around 10 Euro a months right, but you can buy one or two packets from the shop for 20 in total and get multiple months aura out of it according to another Lost Ark youtuber. So I guess its not so bad in total?

[DragonCaller]

In every video i have seen i have not once have heard how Whales control the economy, Few of the people on Karta server are 10+mil gold and over 100k BD's. They essentially Can control the flow of the market and had done so for the first 4 weeks of NA/EU Release, Now that a higher % are getting up to Tier3 it is becoming less but it is still a issue. Those that say its not so bad with honing used the cash shop to there advantage in most cases, and are pleased with honing because they realize that with players having honing trouble they can continue to amass big profits don't fall for it (conspiracy theory or is it?).