Is Crowfall Already Pay-to-Win?

As of the writing of this article, the Kickstarter for Crowfall has been out for a little under four hours. The game already has over $300,000 raised and is on pace to possibly cross the finish line tonight or early tomorrow morning with a goal of $800,000.

For those that are not familiar with the game, Crowfall is a Sandbox PvP MMORPG by ArtCraft Entertainment that seeks to bring skill back to the genre. The team equates it to Risk where guilds and players seek to control worlds while competing against those of opposing factions and, in some cases, their own. 

The question all Kickstarter MMOs face is the same Crowfall faces, do the crowdfunded rewards make the game Pay-to-Win even at this early phase? It’s one that received heated debate on the forum and won’t go away anytime soon. My hope is to bring some clarity to the discussion and offer my opinions on the matter.

The Tiers

Before diving super deep, let us go over the rewards and tiers in the Kickstarter.  For the sake of this post not being a book report, I will condense the rewards to generalities.

• Your standard rewards: Early Access (higher backed amount, earlier the access), Digital Copies, Name in Credits, Digital Soundtrack, Digital Art Book, Weapon recipe set (cosmetic) VIP Membership (higher backed amount, longer the duration), Weapon recipe set (cosmetic), Reserve Character name, Forum badge icons, Statue, Access to expanded colors for Guild Heraldry, Reserve Guild Name, Name a fallen monarch, Name a location, Starting titles, Studio tour, Monthly Q&A, and a private dinner with founders.
• Rewards that may impact gameplay: Additional character slots, Exclusive Stronghold for personal kingdom (small-large), Cottage for personal kingdom (can be multiple), bonus tax-free parcels for personal kingdom (5-80), Divine Cathedral, Villa for personal kingdom (can be multiple), Manor for personal kingdom (can be multiple), Imperial palace, your own campaign.

Discussing the Rewards

The rewards that seem to impact gameplay are the ones that are at odds with a segment of the community. It is hard to argue against the claim that some of the rewards give advantages over other players that are just starting out. Being able to have tax-free parcels does mean that upkeep might be significantly less than what others may be able to garner through regular play. The real question though is if it gives people enough of an advantage to be what we would classify as Pay-To-Win. 

All of the rewards thus far are ones that do not seem to affect combat directly, instead influencing some of the money sinks or upkeep. This may become a bigger deal with guilds but that over time may even out as people use up their free parcels and the world’s reset.

VIP membership entitles you to passive training but those are available through subscribing as well and are limited to three characters in total. The extra character slots will not be able to take advantage of passive training on all of them as they only count towards three characters currently. Any training on characters after that will have to be obtained through normal play. Then there are Kingdom plots themselves.

If you managed to back the game at a level where you got starter game access to these plots, you will have a leg up in some manner. The question of what these plots give or add to your kingdom is the problem. We really do not know a lot of what will be there or what bonuses will come from having them. There is a small amount of information behind them but they are one of the big unknowns. Tag that one with a maybe.

But really, it’s too early to tell.

We have yet to see what they have in mind for their cash shop. ArtCraft stated it will not be Pay-To-Win and that all of the items will be cosmetic. Whether or not they stick to that is something we will not know for sure until they cross that line. We are just going to have to take their word for it before we see evidence of such. 

Right now though, I only see small advantages that will wash out as temporary bonuses and not what can be called Pay-To-Win. That said, I invite you all to give your own opinion in the comments section below. Everyone’s is different and offers a different points of view that I would love to hear.

Note: For 100% transparency, I backed the game on Kickstarter.