Earlier this week, the New World devs put out a video that addressed, among many other things, the perception in the PvP community that the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion is effectively pay-to-win. The argument is that because the level cap isn’t being raised to the new cap (only to 675) in the scaled PvP content (arenas and Outpost Rush), and because there’s no scaling at all in the rest of the PvP content (war and open-world PvP), players who do not purchase the expansion will be at a significant disadvantage in PvP – i.e., people who pony up for the expansion will simply have better gear and trample them.
The Amazon devs acknowledged that this is a possibility but argued that it’s not pay-to-win; the terms “pay-to-progress” and “pay-to-grow” were offered as alternatives.
I actually found the complaining a bit weird; level and gear bumps with paid expansions are frankly standard across the MMORPG genre, both in themeparks and sandboxes, with PvP and without. There are a few exceptions to the rule (like the Guild Wars franchise), but they’re unusual. I don’t super love watching the term pay-to-win be misused and rendered meaningless either. The expectation that players will stay on top of the latest expansion pack seems pretty reasonable to me. I wouldn’t go into an MMO and expect to be at the top of the PvE or PvP totem pole if I’m skipping expansions.
Has public opinion on this shifted in line with the popularity of mobile, F2P, and non-MMORPG titles? Are MMORPG expansions effectively pay-to-win or pay-to-progress?
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!
