Pay2Win, when money matters more than skill

In 1946, the first ever video game was released, 60 years later the first game with in-game purchases was released. 

Today, almost every game has an in-game shop and the possibility to pay with real money for cosmetics. But it gets even more extreme. In some games, a purchase can give you more than just different cosmetics, it can give you an advantage over other players, for example by giving you better weapons or help you to reach these weapons faster. That is called Pay2Win. Pay2Win means that you have an advantage over other players and even in-games in which you don´t have to fight against each other you can still unlock items faster or even instantly. 

In the last few years, Pay2Win has become more common in every gaming genre. The most known Pay2Win game is probably FIFA Ultimate Team, in which you can get the best possible team without even playing a single game. Every year the same game is released with just some slight changes that don’t make the game much different than it was the year before. But people still spend thousands of euros every year to get a chance to compete, since it is very hard to get a competitive team without spending money. But the worst part is that you aren’t even guaranteed to get something useful for your money since you can only buy FIFA packs for real money. These packs are a real gamble because it is random what player you get. There is a minimum rated player you get but these players aren’t worth much on the in-game player market and they don’t perform in a game. So if you’re not the best FIFA player, it is extremely hard or extremely expensive to get a team that can perform competitively. In addition to that, there are Youtubers who are able to open a lot of packs because they can use the footage for a video and minimize their lost money or even make profit. The problem with that is that you don´t want to watch the useless players being unpacked, that´s why most of the time such videos only contain the good players getting unpacked. This leads to people thinking that the chances to getting a good player are much greater than they actually are.  

Luckily for you to buy money cards or have a bank or PayPal account you need to be 18 or older. That limits the risk of children spending their money unmindfully.  

Pay2Win can get very dangerous very fast, you have the possibility to spend a lot of money without getting something that is worth the money and you can also kind of get addicted to gambling since P2W is luck-based in most of these games. But most importantly, you shouldn’t have to pay for a better chance against other players in a game you already paid for. 

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