No Pay to Win Game Tarisland Finds Themselves in a P2W Crisis - Releases Statement

mmorpg.com:

The MMORPG Tarisland, originally advertised as the pinnacle of a “No Pay-to-Win MMO” has recently been embroiled in a controversy regarding its monetization model which includes accusations of it being pay-to-win (P2W). The uproar from the gaming community has been significant, with complaints appearing across Reddit threads, Discord, and YouTube, highlighting the multitude of issues.

Players have been giving the side-eye to Tarisland after the closed beta allowed thousands of play testers to join in and not only test the game itself, but its monetization model too. During the closed beta, players wereallowed to spend real money for in-game items, and as the game was touted as not being pay to win, the developers probably thought that opening up their shop during testing was going to be inconsequential and an easy way to earn some funds ahead of time.

However, after players were able to see what the shop stocked, things took a turn with complaints that this no P2W (Pay-to-Win) game was actually quite pay to win. Furthermore, players questioned why Tencent was starting to remove the “No P2W” branding from their socials. Players pointed out that the current monetization during closed beta allowed for a Closed Beta Benefits Card which granted players in game gold immediately for real money, and an Elf Messenger Bag, that allowed for large in-game fund transfers that could be used by gold sellers in the future to transfer in-game funds that could then be used on the Auction House to buy the most powerful items.

As one could also imagine, other items such as crafting materials or anything on the auction house that could be bought with gold, would also be easily accessible to those that buy and transfer gold from other characters