Reason 4: The Pitfalls of the Payment Model
In our article on the strengths of Honor of Kings: World, we highlighted that the free-to-play payment model is more tame than in other online games from Asia. The main reason for this: There are hardly any pay-to-progress mechanics, and most paid content concerns cosmetics or champions (similar to MOBAs).
Only that a few upgrade materials have wandered into the paid path of the battle pass makes character progression easier.
Aion 2 has 2 essential subscriptions, 2 battle passes, a cash currency linked to the auction house, and an in-game shop in its home market. Honor of Kings: World is not monetized as harshly.
However, it helps that the focus of Honor of Kings: World is on cooperative PvE, and equipment in almost all PvP modes is standardized. Only in one PvP mode do you fight with your actual equipment strength. However, according to our previous impression, this is completely optional.
The subscription in Honor of Kings: World only concerns people who want to invest money in the premium currency regularly. There are no extra bonuses or other benefits through the subscription. In direct comparison, Aion 2 is much more problematic.
The only concern we currently have is the random-based gacha system of Honor of Kings: World. There is a protection against bad luck, but with some bad luck, you could spend a lot of money before this protection kicks in. The element of chance should never play a role in monetization.
Moreover, we always find it annoying when particularly nice-looking clothes can only be purchased but not earned. This immediately negatively impacts the reward feeling of obtainable content and shifts the designers’ priorities away from regular players toward real-money investors.
In the final assessment of the payment model, much will ultimately depend on how new champions/classes will be introduced in the future. During the playtest, almost all champions could be earned, and some of them could also be purchased alternatively. The big exception is the champion from the battle pass, which can (for the time being?!) only be obtained if you level the paid path sufficiently. Sooner or later, if you must spend real money for the most powerful class combination in ranked PvP, the model of HoK:W will also be problematic.
Looking at the potential strengths and weaknesses of Honor of Kings: World: Could this MOBA spinoff be a game for you? Will you check out the western version at launch, or do you already know that this is not for you? Feel free to let us know in the comments! By the way, we asked you in a survey what is important to you in MMOs. Here are the results: What is most important to the MeinMMO community in MMOs? The last place does not surprise us at all
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