Achievements and "Pay-To-Win"

[Rex Nex]

I love it too, and of course you are free to have an opinion and glad you do, people without opinions are dull, but remember, opinions are not fact, they are just opinions be mindful to treat them as such.

Unfortunately it is a fact PoW is a pay-to-win game, not an opinion. It honestly shouldn't be an argument; anyone aware what pay-to-win mechanics look like will nod their head and say "yes, this is pay-to-win, but that is fine because blankidy blank" rather then "no its not pay-to-win, stop shouting opinions like they are facts!". PoW features a system that is eerily close to what anyone expects a pay-to-win system to look like. The thing that redeems it is the ability to get trophies without spending cash.

By the way, to those that aren't quite clear as to what pay-to-win actually is, it isn't necessarily "i pay i win all the time", but rather "i pay and gain an advantage you cant have". Pay-4-Advantage should be the name, but we have pay-2-win, so that is that.

Feel free to debate what you can do to make the current system more enjoyable, but at least be transparent when it comes to how the system works. Those who pay have an up front and clear advantage over those who don't. This is not a "truly free to play" game in which you only pay for cosmetics, more choices, and/or convenience. This is the alternative; free to pay.

Feel free to reply, but I don't think I'll be heading back into the forum for a while. I don't tend to stick around places like this... but I must say I love the game too. Especially the art and flavor text. I'm just hoping it expands in the right direction, is all.

[Narol]

You've hit the nail on the head !

[MrEpik]

Right on Rex,

Maybe someone can be a primus champion without spendin a single dime in the game, it doesn´t change the fact that by spending money in this, you gain actual combat advantages that give you an edge. FACT! Not opinion.

A game that has a business model F2P that doesn´t give you a winning edge is LoL.
There, spending money only saves you time or gives you aesthetics improvements (skins), money doesn´t give you any sort of leverage in actual PvP. (and LoL is just one example, i´m sure there are others around).

[Kreegan]

The payers can afford to "arm" their gladiators with all achievements, respec them if the initially chosen skills appear to be sub-optimal (given that the balance is pretty flawed at the moment, everybody on the high levels of Primus seems to go for Last Stand at some point), buy purple gear, additional Vault slots and upgrade the Armoury which allows cheap repairs (I have only one gladiator with mostly purple items and the repairs cost about 65% of the gold earned during the arena fights without the trophy upgrades), eventually Undertaker and Doctor. This is a huge advantage indeed but if more achievements were available for gold rather than trophies, you would be able to make at least one competitive build for free. Say what you want, the top Primus gladiators have all or most of their achievement slots used and that helps them A LOT to maintain their status. Fighting with someone who can afford +10-15 to his key stats, additional attack/defense and whatnot is quite a handicap for you.