Is Mad World: Age of Darkness PAY TO WIN? 

Another game I was interested in but is now a hard pass because of the strong possibility of P2W. And even if it's not full P2W, there is too much focus on pay for convenience and other cash shop type of nonsense. I guess there are players who can overlook this stuff.... but not me. This game is a hard pass. Such a shame because the art style looks great.

@@henrythegreatamerican8136 Meh. I'll still play it. But like you said, it will probably get overwhelming and cause a lot of people to leave. I won't pass it off without at least playing the game, though.

So they use the same generic korean design as every godamn single dumpster fire mmo. Jesus Christ.

I really wonder why people still cry over Lost Ark being too much pay2win. I was able to compete till i stopped in august 2022 with 6 characters clown or brel ready (1475-1500) long before clown was even released as almost f2p (only bought ark pass, skins to wear or char slots to try out other classes). I stopped playing, but never felt a real pay2win. The game had two other issues: 1. The only endgame is raids which results in FOMO and people only picking often the "best geared" players (this issue does not exist if you have a static raid group) 2. The market was inflated as hell due to too much gold around by bots (this was the real issue and not the cash shop gold actually because it results in more gold buyers from external instead of cashshop = higher prices for crystals and also more gold around for market flipping. But: I stopped in august and tried it out a week ago. I again enjoy the 1460-1500 content (valtan, vykas, clown), you can hone to 1445 for zero gold costs, a free character to 1445 incl. free 4x3 + level 5 gems (and enough mats/gold for 1460) and I just do not care about endgame anymore. I bought a brel bus for my main which costs almost nothing just to dive into 1500+ chaos dungeons and guardians later (so my main over time gets 1520 and i spend not even one minute active doing something). Just do the stuff I like e.g. vykas, valtan, clown and use the gold for brel bus. staying at 1520 and may do some free honing to 1540 over time. if you do not feel any fomo you really can enjoy the game a bit. That's the way I should have played the game back then and will play the game a bit now. I mean there is really zero benefit on trying brel or brel hardmode at all. It's just bigger numbers but does not mean its more fun. I would rather play 10+ different characters only doing valtan these days than doing brel with anyone of them. The biggest issue is actually the FOMO you got from this game and every korean player telling you what to do and how to play the game most efficient... instead of just "enjoy" whats fun in the game. But to get to a point: The big question is how does any "pay2win" effect you in madworld. It is pretty irrelevant fo me if you can get the best gear from any market as long as you can find it by yourself over time. Why should i pay money for progression while all the game is about is progression. Is like buying a full geared BIS poe account... congrats: you have mastered the game. There are other games like Black desert that (as of today) are still kinda pay2win but no one cares because there is no need to be actually "the best geared one". In Lost Ark I only competed with mates I played with that have been F2P so I just didnt care about whales. So lets wait how mad world may develops over time before acting too early.

Yes! I was thinking the same thing, that would be great for everyone. The rate of gold gain actually seems pretty good so I would expect that to have a good bit of success.

I think early access in the long term shouldn't be a huge issue. In the short term though it will lead to founders pack players having a fairly sizeable advantage. However, in a month it won't mean nearly as much.