TLDR: There are two ways to justify progress in a game: proof-of-play and proof-of-pay. Stay away from games that allow the latter if you like your money. ---

TLDR: There are two ways to justify progress in a game: proof-of-play and proof-of-pay. Stay away from games that allow the latter if you like your money. --- Yeah this is the problem with pay-to-win games. Pay-to-win often becomes pay-to-resell-equips-for-a-profit, which is just gambling on the future value of those in-game digital tokens, items, and currency. Without a good game underneath, it eventually becomes one big valueless scheme. Pay-to-play is often implemented in such a way that it is actually pay-to-win. A really good bullshit test on any video game is to first ask which category it falls under: 1. Pay-to-play (sufficiently constant join-fee, this is fine.) 2. Pay-to-win (DANGER!) 3. Free-to-play (often implies paying for cosmetics, this is fine.) One should carefully understand all value streams associated with a particular game, specifically when real currency goes into the system, what comes out? Some red flags that indicate a game may be pay-to-win: 1. You can buy EXP 2. You can buy better gear 3. You can buy scrolls that allow you to progress much faster (exp boosts, spawn increases, item drop rate increases, etc.) 4. You can skip levels with money Put simply, if Kim Jong-un can walk into the game and be the best player in under 72 hours, then the game is probably a waste of time. MMO games need to be done right, there can't be sudden phase-change events like a new player suddenly becoming the best player because they bought $84,000 in items from the cash shop (twinking is fine, since it can be backed by proof-of-play).