Aion 2 needs a completely new payment model
NCSoft is notorious for the strong monetization of its own MMORPGs, and ahead of the Korean launch, the developers even openly stated that Aion 2 will have some pay-to-win elements. In practice, however, the game’s payment model turned out to be so aggressive that it received criticism from the Korean community.
For the free-to-play MMORPG, for example, there are two different subscriptions. With one fee, you get access to features such as the auction house, player trading, or currency exchange. With the second monthly fee, you get more loot and expanded access to certain content. Ambitious players currently have to pay about 27 Euros to the developers every 28 days for both subscriptions to keep up.
In addition, there are two parallel battle pass paths, each with a free and a paid path, running for 2 months. In theory, you can earn the premium paths of the battle passes, but you need one of the two subscriptions to exchange the earned currency Kina for real money currency Quna.
The subscriptions and battle passes are complemented by an in-game shop and the possibility to exchange real money currency Quna. Kina, in turn, plays a significant role in many features and systems of Aion 2. If you want to upgrade your equipment to the best it can be, you’ll need a lot of Kina. Investing real money can greatly accelerate this form of character progression.
Bots rejoice, players suffer
What such a real money system combined with a free-to-play model does is something we have been seeing for years in MMORPGs like Lost Ark or Throne and Liberty. The servers are flooded with bots trying to profit from real money trading. This in turn quickly negatively impacts the economy and player experience. None of the games have sustainably managed to get the bot problem under control.
It is also highly problematic to have several optional subscriptions that are not optional for ambitious players, as well as multiple battle passes, an in-game shop, and the omnipresent real money currency. If you want to keep up without having to play 15+ hours a day, you must transfer several times the amount of the WoW subscription monthly to NCSoft.
This will definitely not work in this form here in the West. If Aion 2 is to be a sustainable success in Europe and the USA, the developers need to overhaul the payment model and switch to a fairer, less aggressively monetized variant. There is even some hopeful light at the end of the tunnel: The largest studio for MMORPGs wants to improve its image, announcing a move away from pay-to-win and a voice for gamers
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