Where Winds Meet is free2play, but offers various cosmetics for real money. Some of the pretty skins can be quite expensive: those who want to look good must pay a price. One particularly expensive item costs about as much as many Germans earn in a year. However, the buyer shows generosity.
What is this item?
- The “Mirage Boat” is – as the name suggests – a boat that allows the owner to cruise through the world on set routes.
- Alongside the boat comes a unique skin with many effects and extravagance. The price for the bundle: a whopping 40,000 US dollars or about 36,500 euros.
- For comparison: according to statista, the average income in Germany in 2024 was 32,399 euros. One player has managed to afford it nonetheless.
This is what the player does with the yacht: At least one of these boats is already cruising on the water in Where Winds Meet. However, the owner is not just showing off; they invite other players to small events.
Buyers of the yacht can invite friends to join the ride. The player uses this to offer fellow players small mini-games on their boat and distributes rewards – including experience points, as a user writes on X:
On the boat, it is also possible to try out different skins through the wardrobe and even walk around, a kind of fashion show. You do not have to buy the skins yourself; only the boat owner needs to have them.
The events happen frequently, and you will receive a notification when it starts again. You can easily participate through an icon in the top left corner.
Expensive cosmetics cause controversy in the community
That a “whale” – as players who spend a lot of money on F2P games are called – uses its spending for the benefit of the players, instead of gaining a “pay2win” advantage like in other games, pleases many fellow players of the boat owner.
On Reddit, there is considerable praise for the action. It is said that a system in which a few fund such a good, free game for everyone is quite pleasant. This way, everyone benefits, and everyone can play at their own discretion. It’s like “taxing the rich,” or rather, giving them crazy bonuses, but at least only cosmetically.
However, the monetization is also facing considerable backlash. On the one hand, many players are unhappy that certain skins in the global version of Where Winds Meet are significantly more expensive than in China.
On the other hand, there are, for example on X, but also on Reddit, concerns about the very fact that skins are offered at such prices:
This goes beyond microtransactions. This goes beyond macrotransactions. This is something entirely different, and the fact that there is even the possibility to spend 40,000 [dollars] in the game disgusts me, optional or not.
Zenith Star on X
In other threads, there are concerns that such aggressive monetization will eventually affect all players, at the latest when it becomes too expensive for them or when no one is left to admire them.
So far, however, the community still shows enthusiasm for Where Winds Meet, and not just because of small prestige events like the gatherings on the yacht. Particularly a hospital is currently causing a lot of interaction: Sick players meet online in Where Winds Meet at a “clinic,” saving a ton of gold and also helping the healers
