So quick rundown. I am not quitting, love the game, I just cannot understand how some people talk about this game. At some point I’ll stop spending money to continue and then I’ll move on.
I am over 50 years old. I have seen game mechanics from way back in the Ultima Online days, through Star Wars Galaxies, Anarchy Online, Warhammer Online and many more. So, I know mechanics, but I don’t understand what many players like calling the Lost Ark, “mechanics”.
Some say Lost Ark is 100% Pay to win. I think they are wrong. Having spent a few thousand I am yet to see where I “win”. I have not won anything, not one single thing.
Lets look at some game mechanics which show what I think this game is: Pay to Continue:
Stagger Mechanic.
In most games: Boss has a bar, do damage (for free) till bar breaks. Some benefit will be given to the player if you break bar. If you don’t achieve it, Fight continues without the benefit.
In Lost Ark: Go to Store, buy Grenade, (for real money/crystals) throw your grenade at boss. If you pass a benefit goes to player. If you fail… THE WHOLE RAID WIPES and you start again. Go back to shop, buy more grenades, rinse repeat till you pass the mech, or run out of money.
How can anyone call it a Stagger Mechanic? Call it Pay To Continue mechanic, it may change.
Time Stop Grenade:
In most games: To be honest I have never seen it in another game. So cannot comment.
In Lost Ark. Here we have a random mechanic that is tuned so hard many people die. At least 1 person in the raid will often fail it so the call is made to Time Stop. So the player goes to the shop, buys the Time Stops (for real money/crystals) then throws it a mechanic specific designed to be so hard tuned that someone is bound to need to purchase the grenades.
This is NOT pay to Win… This is Pay to simply continue to the next mechanic.
Worse still…
I have seen players CALL FOR TIME STOP… then they pass the final mechanic and proceed to take screenshots of themselves with the team that just cleared the raid.
You didn’t clear the raid… You paid the company to get past the mechanics that they put in the game and now you are literally celebrating the money you paid them. This game sells you the cheat code to get past a boss mechanic, the players buy it then celebrate beating the boss.
Here is a question:
How about if RIGHT AT THE END a window popped up in front of every player in the raid and said please pay 1 Dollar to continue to the Dungeon Cleared window or you wipe the raid?
How many Raid Leaders would demand every player pay the Dollar? Press Accept, just press it?
Would that be too in your face to allow you to see that every raid in this game is PAY TO CONTINUE to the next mechanic?
These mechanics are not to stop Bots, they are for making money. A lot of money.
Can you even begin to imagine of WoW World First race was decided by a guild buying a Time Stop Potion? Or by going to the shop and buying a WoW token which they then threw at a stagger bar to defeat the final boss. If that happened there would be 1 million videos overnight.
Lost Ark…
Pay To WIn? Not even close, in my opinion.
Pay to Continue? Absolutely.
Stop paying To Continue… It may change, one day.