Neverwinter is not necessarily more P2W than Path of Exile or most other similar MMOs

nighthalas

Some players have stated that Neverwinter is P2W but Path of Exile is not P2W. In practice, it seems that any MMO game with character progression is P2W by strict definition because of RMT companies which specialize in enabling, mediating and securing trades of in-game items, currencies and accounts between players in MMO games.

I decided to conduct a small investigation. Right at this moment on the website of one of the world's biggest and oldest RMT companies there are 612 item offers and 19 account offers related to Path of Exile and 8 item offers and 17 account offers related to Neverwinter. Although Path of Exile officially offers only cosmetic items in the premium item store, there have been over 100 completed transactions involving in-game items and accounts just by three RMT traders during the last three days (July 27 - July 29)! It is possible to see how many transactions there have been because anyone visiting the website can look at a seller's reputation and all of his or her transactions are visible if a buyer left some feedback about a trade. There were at least 100 completed transactions involving orbs, chisels, maps, six-socket items and other items in Path of Exile just during the last three days, and I bothered to look only at the logs of three traders and saw only a list of transactions in which buyers left some feedback.

In the light of this discovery I think it is a really good thing that Cryptic Studios and PWE have included the Zen/Astral Diamond exchange in Neverwinter. Without this mechanic there could be enormously more trading of astral diamonds or other items related to Neverwinter at websites of RMT companies. With Zen/Astral Diamond exchange more profits go to the company and not to RMT traders.

lewstelamon01

I'm sorry, but "Pay 2 Win" discussions are not allowed per RoC. Please refer to my sig for the link to current Rules of Conduct as they were recently revised, and it is the users' responsibility to make themselves aware of all changes to RoC.

Neverwinter Forums Rules of Conduct wrote:

Rule 3.08 - No Inappropriate Discussion Types
. . . . Inappropriate discussion-types include, but are not limited to, the following discussion types: Politics, Religious issues, Abortion debates, drug use, etc. Common sense should dictate what is appropriate or not. Also, "Pay to Win" argument threads are prohibited.