Is it Pay to Win? Raid: Shadow Legends

Raid: Shadow Legends Sacred Shard

Welcome to ‘Is it Pay to Win’ – a column where we examine a game and decide if that game is has aspects of pay to win and to what extent. Check out Is it Pay to Win?: Defined to see how we break down the components of pay to win (p2w), such as pay for advantage, pay for convenience, and pay for cosmetics.

Raid: Shadow Legends describes itself as a “mythical RPG with hundreds of champions and 14 factions”. While it’s originally a mobile game, it is also available on PC. It features champion collection (with level and gearing of those champions), dungeon bosses, a campaign (with a story, sort of) clans, tournaments, events and more. It has a cash shop that allows you to buy most things you could acquire in game.

Scoring:

  • Pay for Power: 4/5
  • Pay for Advantage: 4/5
  • Pay for Convenience: 4/5
  • Pay for Cosmetics: 3/5
  • Pay to Win: 3.86

See below for a brief game play description and a detailed breakdown of how we come up with those scores.

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Elyon Goes Free to Play + Delay

Kakao announced today that Elyon was going to go free to play as well having a near month delay. While the game going free to play isn’t shocking, what is unexpected is the timing, as many assumed it would be out for a few months before that transition might occur. In this video, we discussed their announcement, the reason for the change as well as the implications of what “free to play” means to their cash shop.

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Is it Pay to Win?: League of Legends

LoL Cash Shop

Welcome to ‘Is it Pay to Win’ – a column where we examine a game and decide if that game is has aspects of pay to win and to what extent. Check out Is it Pay to Win?: Defined to see how we break down the components of pay to win (p2w), such as pay for advantage, pay for convenience, and cosmetics.

League of Legends is one of the most popular MOBA games of all time. It is free to play with an earnable currency and a purchasable currency that is used to buy their premium items.

Scoring:

  • Pay for Power: 0/5
  • Pay for Advantage: 1/5
  • Pay for Convenience: 3/5
  • Pay for Cosmetics: 5/5
  • Pay to Win: 1.6/5*

Keep reading to see a rough game description, our basis for these scores and our overall verdict.

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