lineage 2 micro transactions are not bad by most standards.
the pay to win aspect is a little nasty, but it's only harsh because of the low chances for the strong stuff.
lineage 2 micro transactions are not bad by most standards.
the pay to win aspect is a little nasty, but it's only harsh because of the low chances for the strong stuff.
NC fails to employ either model of F2P that actually works long term, and they are going way overboard on the P2W.
You can even employ P2W as a model and make it healthy, its called the waves system, which alls they would have to do is exactly what they are already doing, but they lack the second wave, which is when a few months later you introduce an item or items much like what you already sold with slightly reduced stats at a far cheaper price, which maintains the competition for almost all, and then a few months later you do an event where all players can receive both previous waves items for free, just by logging in and joining into the event, with those first wave items being rarer of course, and the second wave items being common, but with a simple appearance change that keeps the second wave items unique.
In this example, yes you introduce power items, but it only upsets balance in the short term, and the big spenders buy in right away, you lose no player base because the lower spenders know help will be forthcoming, and the none spenders stay to stick with their friends and eventually get back on par with all as well, its a win win all around.
The other way to do it is to not really introduce P2W at all, I played a F2P that was highly successful doing this, Jade Dynasty. You could buy items like a never ending HP pot or MP pot ( you still had to click them for each use, same as potions, they just were not consumed ) but the player base could still just get the normal potion types in game doing quests and from shops, many, many more examples like this, nothing that changed in game balance, and of course the same market every F2P game uses, the appeal items you have just for looks.