You can buy weapons and prime frames, so I guess it depends on your definition of “win” but I’d argue that yes, technically it does. The larger issue of WF however are the layers of FOMO they have that turn the entire game into a job / chore that you have to attend daily, which is ultimately why I left it, even though the core gameplay itself is definitely fun. Frankly why I probably won’t play their other game either because it is almost certainly going to follow the same live service formula as WF.
It would be nice if games didn’t maliciously try to put hooks into players at every turn. But you can learn to balance it.
I have a Dojo with just my group of friends. We build it out with just what we need to progress. We play for like a month every few years, when the itch hits.
FOMO is damn near gone from Warframe now, aside from Baro. I’ve been playing for over 8 years.
I agree with most of the stuff you’ve said expect the FOMO bit - there are three very specific items that are never coming back for obvious reasons, which are irrelevant to the overall story and hardly affect anyone’s enjoyment of the game. Every other item has eventually come back.
Edit: on a second read, you mentioned the game is P2W. That’s definitely a way to say you’ve not played the game, so now I’m angry I spent half a minute writing my comment.
My playtime for WF is in the 4 digits and I was at a fairly high rank at the time, but thanks for the attempt to dismiss my points. Yes, being able to directly buy equipment is the very definition of pay to win. And yes, the game is several layers of FOMO, regardless of your denial. One being artifacts / vaulting, which is a way to keep you log in and grind specific garbage missions. If you don’t, or if you’re plain unlucky, you miss your chance for many months (unless you pay of course). Another are the various faction caps, which there are many, again to keep you logging in to grind it up. If you don’t, you won’t be able to keep up with the reputation that is needed to progress through various gear to progress through various content. This was all already bad enough, but the fucking cherry on top of that was adding their form of a FrEe battle pass, as if that’s somehow a good thing. Yes, now the game dictates even more what you have to do (and where), instead of letting you do what you want to do. Because if you don’t, you won’t progress through the tedious, grindy and completely brain dead battle pass journey, missing all the rewards. “BuT DaRkThOuGhTs, ThOsE ReWaRdS cAn Be EaRnEd EvEn In LaTeR sEaSoNs!” No. Just no. You’re just adding more chores to the already way too long list of completely pointless and dumb chores. That’s not making it better, it’s making it even worse, because you’re just increasing the list of shit you can’t get. Luring people in artificially like this, by triggering their FOMO, are predatory dark patterns. If you want me to keep coming back to play your game, then just provide a fucking enjoyable experience. All those things do exactly the opposite of that, and thus I quit.
A lot of people struggle to understand that a lot of the fun of warframe is in the progression. There really isn’t a lot to do that’s interesting when you get into the endgame, so paying to progress faster ultimately takes away some of that fun.
Now, there is plenty of fun to be had building and trying out new weapons, but that does get old without a goal to reach for while using them.
Also, very few people actually play the PVP mode. I’ve never touched it myself and I’m in the endgame.
So from an outsider who doesn’t understand this, they see that players can pay to progress faster and think it’s pay to win - because in most games it is.
It arguably isn’t anymore, although it looks like it is. Yes, you can buy prime frames and weapons, but can’t buy the mods or arcanes directly from the game to outfit them. Even then, prime weapons on their own are not the best in the game by a long shot, and a prime warframe does not guarantee it being “meta”.
The weapons that are the best are locked behind story quests, and even once you unlock one of those vendors, only one of them that you can buy with platinum is any good.
They were considering adding a destiny style story skip, but when they asked for feedback it was so negative they immediately relented.
you can buy prime frames and weapons, but can’t buy the mods or arcanes directly from the game to outfit them.
How is this not the opposite of a pay to win mechanic? Either you play the game to find the mod or find someone to buy the mod from.
An even cooler thing is operator progress, whereby no amount of paying can take you through.
The whole prime access is a p2w mechanic that prior to Liches was arguably considerably more important.
Now with Lich, Sister and Railjack weapons that are all play-only access.
Galvanized and Prime mods you can’t p2w.
Nevermind the whole Steel Path and incarnon adapters, where while a small set is plat available, and the only good weapon in that set is the Angstrum, and aforementioned Galvanized mods.