WoW Players Can't Decide Whether Or Not The Game Is Pay-To-Win

World of Warcraft players on the game's official subreddit are currently deep in a debate surrounding a tricky question that has reared its head multiple times as of late in the game's community: Is WoW pay-to-win, i.e. does spending money on the game via microtransactions result in faster or better character progression?

The conversation was started by reddit user Citrinitas696, who began the topic with a provocative question: "How is WoW not p2w? Disprove this image." As of writing, the reddit thread has more than 1,300 comments.

At the center of the debate is whether or not the game's WoW Token is, in essence, a method of pay-to-win. First introduced in 2015 during the game's Warlords of Draenor expansion, the WoW Token serves multiple purposes. For players who need in-game gold, they can purchase the WoW Token from Blizzard for $20. That token, which is good for 30 days of game time that normally must be bought with real-world money, can then be sold in-game via WoW's auction house for gold. The cycle looks like this:

1. Player purchases WoW Token for real money.
2. Player sells WoW Token for in-game gold on the auction house.
3. Another player purchases the WoW Token using gold to get 30 days of game time.

The token was implemented to give players an officially sanctioned method of gold-buying. WoW has long been plagued by gold farmers using bots as a way to collect and then sell gold to players via various third-party websites, an act which is against the game's terms of service. But that hasn't stopped the gold-sellers, or players, from participating in the system anyways, especially in earlier versions of the game, including WoW Classic, where gold is much harder to come by.

With the WoW Token, Blizzard looked to battle the gold-sellers at their own game, while also giving players who were heavily invested in the MMORPG and had plenty of in-game gold a way to essentially stay subscribed to the game for free. The WoW Token is currently only available in Shadowlands. It does not exist in WoW Classic or Burning Crusade Classic, though it is available in the Chinese version of those games, leading some players to believe it's simply a matter of time before it arrives for players globally.

Now, years after the tokens' introduction, players are discovering that gold can be used for just about anything in-game. While players aren't purchasing new stat-boosting items or character progression from Blizzard directly, buying and selling WoW Tokens does give players with mountains of gold the ability to purchase power, albeit in a roundabout way. From expensive new ranks of powerful legendary items to "carry runs" from experienced players through rated Arenas, high-level Mythic + dungeons or higher difficulty raids, each which grant players some of the best items in the game, it's all available in exchange for gold.

Players are divided on the topic, and it all comes down to each player's definition. Some say that even though players can purchase better gear with gold or use it to have players carry them through some of the game's hardest content, it doesn't actually make those purchasing tokens better or more skilled players. But others say that being able to spend money for any kind of advantage outside of cosmetics is explicitly pay-to-win, even if it is obfuscated by the extra step of having to use that gold to pay other players for boosts instead of Blizzard directly.

The pay-to-win argument, and the increasingly large number of in-game microtransactions in general, was the primary reason popular ex-WoW content creator MadSeasonShow recently announced he would be quitting the game. The image at the top of the pay-to-win discussion on Reddit is actually pulled from MadSeason's departure video, and many of the comments in the thread echo MadSeason's own arguments. It's a topic the content creator has explored in-depth before, in an hour-long video titled "The Ballad of the Level Boost," discussing Blizzard adding a paid level boost to Burning Crusade Classic, as well as other microtransactions like the WoW Token.

It's true that having large amounts of in-game gold can, in a substantial way, benefit players of Blizzard's MMO. But since players are not purchasing power from Blizzard, and instead are essentially purchasing power from other players using gold acquired from the token, the answer to the question of whether or not WoW is pay-to-win is still up for debate, and likely will continue to be for some time.

Blizzard is currently dealing with the fallout from a state of California lawsuit accusing Activision Blizzard of fostering a "frat boy" work culture where harassment and discrimination against women is common. Those allegations have led to the departure of Blizzard president J. Allen Brack and head of human resources Jesse Meschuk, as well as in-game changes that saw the removal of NPCs and items named after a former WoW game director explicitly mentioned in the lawsuit.