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Elyon Is It Pay to Win?

Is It Pay to Win? Elyon (Ascent: Infinite Realm)

August 27, 2021August 27, 2021

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.

Elyon (formerly Ascent: Infinite Realm) is a korean MMORPG developed by Bluehole and is being published for Western audiences by Kakao. The game has 5 classes with a large variety of skills. It features both PVP and PVE. The game must be purchased (buy to play) and has a cash shop with microtransactions.

Scoring:

Pay for Power: 2/5
Pay for Advantage: 3/5
Pay for Convenience: 5/5
Pay for Cosmetics: 5/5
Pay to Win: 3.14/5

Here’s a video discussion of the cash shop. Continue reading for a break down of the games system, an explanation for those scores and our final verdict on the game.

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Editorial Is It Pay to Win?

Is Pay to Win Bad?

June 14, 2021June 29, 2021

Games being p2w is nothing new. With the rise of mobile popularity and the expansion of the mobile loot box, gatcha game, able-to-buy-everything business model into traditional the console/pc gaming market, pay to win is definitely not going away. The topic for today, though, is how in most circles calling a game pay to win is one of the worst insults you can give. Bad graphics can be “retro” and buggy gameplay can be “early access”, but pay to win has no excuse… Or does it?

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Is It Pay to Win?

Is It Pay to Win?: Defined

September 23, 2020September 29, 2020

This one will probably end up being controversial. Some people consider a game pay to win (p2w) if there are any microtransactions built-in whatsoever. Others will argue against a game being p2w unless you’re able to buy a level of in-game power that you cannot earn in game. Of course, there is a whole spectrum in between those two extremes.

For our purposes, we’re going to let the idea of pay to win be incredibly broad, and then we’ll break down what that actually means to the player bit by bit. Buy to play – buying the box/license – is not pay to win because everyone must pay the same amount (ignore sales, etc) and gains no advantage in any scope of the game. Pay to play – such as with a subscription – is not pay to win, because again, everyone is paying and one player cannot necessarily pay more in order to gain advantage. Pay to win elements are present if a player can spend additional money to purchase something in game. However, it shouldn’t be said that the game is inherently pay to win because of this. Having elements of a thing, pieces of a thing, doesn’t mean the whole of the game is that. For example: a game could allow duels (PVP) and not be considered a PVP game, despite having a piece that is.

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