A while back, there was a thread on Reddit from a younger MMO player who was curious about changes to the way players perceived pay-to-win back toward the early days of the genre as compared to now. What followed was a conversation not so much about pay-to-win but about greed and monetization and time, with several players rightly pointing out that “pay-to-win” via buying gold and accounts off Ebay is as old as the genre itself. The big change has been in the legitimization of pay-to-win by studios who’ve edged out the RMT folks and just dispense the “win” straight from a cash shop.
I don’t know whether that’s been the biggest change since the first MMORPG rolled off the production, but I suspect it’s probably one of them. What would you say has been the biggest change to the MMORPG genre in the last 20 years? And is it a good change or a bad change?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
