Lost Ark has a luck-based upgrade system
In 2019, Polygon wrote an essay on middle school students who was a victim of bullying by fellow students because he used default Fortnite skins Buy Lost Ark Gold, and hadn't purchased special outfits. The child purportedly "begged his parents for [money] to buy a skin because no one would play with him." Sadly, that is hardly the only example of microtransaction-based bullying.
In the same year the children's commissioner for England organization released a study that demonstrated other young Fortnite players were in a position of being bullied because they did not spend money on exclusive in-game skins.Genshin Impact is another fascinating case of a game that has succeeded in finding new ways to push the possibility of paying-to-win microtransactions.
That game infamously sports a large roster of characters playable that are hidden behind what is known as the "gacha" method. Only way for players to gain access to those heroes is to make use of gems, which players earn in-game or can purchase with real cash. To unlock the stronger and more rare characters, players need to add more gems to the gacha system, and hope Lady Luck smiles on them. For added complication players can upgrade characters by receiving duplicates from Genshin Impact's digital slot machine. So, in order to fully upgrade the most expensive characters, you must sink even more gems/money into Genshin Impact. There's really no other way to get there.
Games like Lost Ark, Fortnite, and Genshin Impact have different monetization strategies, but it's hard to overlook the similarities. Lost Ark has a luck-based upgrade system hidden behind a monetization paywall, similar to Genshin Impact, and gamers who don't use Lost Ark's cash shop could be shut out of certain activities or be disregarded (not like Fortnite players that use pre-installed skins).
These are games that conceal their pay-to-win mechanisms so well that you don't realize how incentivized you are to purchase these games until it feels more like a commitment than a choice. It's becoming more difficult to recognize pay-to win games since the pay-to-win strategies are becoming more subtle Lost Ark Gold for sale.
