Comment by serf

> I think Achaea and some of the other big ones do though.

Achaea's had a premium shop for a long, long time, yes. It seems they've recently added ways for players to accumulate "credits" (the premium currency) just by playing the game normally -- it's called the "renown" system. (And there have always been other programs that involve volunteering behind the scenes -- the most obvious and in-the-open one is being an official newbie guide.)

I haven't felt any strong desire to put money into Achaea, personally. There are a lot of nice-to-haves, and yes, a good number of premium artefacts that give real advantages in gameplay; but the selling point for me has always been the RP-focused world and community, and mechanically speaking you don't need artefacts for PvE. Probably the most common premium items I've seen are non-decaying vials (which are, IIRC, extremely cheap and very accessible via accumulated renown) and the Atavian wings that let you travel to a lot of different locations very quickly.

I did make a small cash purchase once, to ensure that my character would never get deleted from inactivity, but these days it seems a sufficient amount of total game time is enough to avoid that fate.

I'd definitely recommend Achaea if you're interested in a heavily character-driven world with a community that's passionate about roleplay. The cash shop is by no means a necessity (unless you're getting very deep into PvP, where my expertise runs out, so it could go either way). The volunteer staff (the "Garden of the Gods", as it were) are super active with both large and small RP events, so there's a lot of both official and "unofficial" goings-on in the world. It's really fantastic.

(If anybody here remembers Soludra, hi, that was me!)

Aardwolf does not have, and has never had, any content gated on payment. You can "donate" (legally purchase) money for in-game currency but it doesn't really affect game balance (you still have to grind for a billion hours to reach endgame).