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Originally Posted by Lune
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Some of the rewards are tangible in-game items and persist after Alpha and Beta into the launch game, and you are absolutely paying for ingame advantages:
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Pay to Win is justified somewhat in this case because people who pay cash are going to have considerably greater abilities than those who do not. Trailblazers will be more efficient and effective crafters and gatherers, with less impetus to buy resources from other people in their little RMAH. No, it's not the most offensive Pay2Win ever, but it also can't be lumped into the same league has a more purely Pay2NotGrind game.
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All of which are craftable in game with very little work. I spent 5 hours playing today and I got to having the top end items in the game, with relative ease. If you think the fact that you get these out of the gate is "paying to win", you're an idiot. This is standard Free to Play marketing. I don't like it, I have bashed other games on this very forum for it, but it isn't pay to win. Paying to win is when certain items that are specifically overpowered are locked out of general use unless paying with real world cash, and produce effects that cannot, in any other way, be met. If the same effects can be met in other ways, it's simply a free to play model. It's not as if you pay $50 bucks and you get the Golden Pick of World Rending that can mine exclusive material that can make the top end items that no one else can do without purchasing the Golden Pick of World Rending.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lune
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Win in the context of a sandbox game refers to advantages, luxuries, extra abilities.
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Quote:
win·ning ˈwiniNG/ adjective
adjective: winning; superlative adjective: winningest
1.gaining, resulting in, or relating to victory in a contest or competition.
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This game isn't a competition, and it isn't a contest. You're attaching your own connotative subjective interpretation that is simply silly. You can't win if there is nothing to win at. The only way you can win is if you put in your head that there is some imaginary contest between who builds the biggest dildo house. But such a contest is yours, and yours alone, and has nothing to do with the design of the game.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lune
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In a pay to not grind environment, all features are available to everyone; you're simply paying to access them more expediently. In this situation, a non-paying player can never gain the abilities of a Trailblazer, that is, superior efficiency.
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In what way? The void network can be accessed by any player that constructs a vault. The band that gives you a boost to critical craft success does not elevate the item beyond a stat that another player could not get by making numerous more crafts. Again, it's about saving time. Have the band? You need to craft the item fewer times to get the maximum stat allocation. Don't have it? You may need to make more to get the maximum stat allocation.
In no way does the band make it so you can create items of a power that another player cannot make themselves if they take the time to do it. That's the essence of F2P boosts, it's the same as experience boosts, it is the same as the XP pots being sold on this server for the Pantheon thing: It cuts down on the time it would take to achieve the same result other people take longer to do. That is not pay to win, and it is irresponsible to try to label it as such.