Lineage 2 Introduces Highly Questionable P2W Cash Shop Items

By Jason Winter, News Editor February 15, 2018

A best-in-slot item in the cash shop? That's pretty much classic pay-to-win, right? Oh wait, it's not automatically BIS, it only becomes that if you upgrade it properly. And the upgrade item ... is also in the cash shop. Well, now.

That appears to be what Lineage 2 is doing with its new Circlets of Power. As MassivelyOP discovered, these Circlets require a lot to get them to their highest power levels, including three rounds of enchanting it from +0 to +5, each of which requires a Blessed Circlet Enchant Scroll -- "available for a limited time in the L2 Store" -- and the first five of which have a chance (no word on what that chance is) of failing and resetting all your progress. You can examine the entire overwrought process here.

Players are, unsurprisingly, not very happy about it all, with many voicing their displeasure on the announcement thread.

While revenue for the first Lineage game has been trending downward for about a year now, Lineage 2 has been small-ish but steady for about half a decade now, so there wouldn't seem to be some quick "need an infusion of cash now" method to NCSoft's madness. Or maybe the success of Lineage M on mobile has the company re-examining the profitability of its other titles and there is a sudden need to financially justify the existence of one of NCSoft's "lesser" games.

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In this article: Lineage 2, ncsoft.

About the Author

Jason Winter, News Editor
Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

sss 3 years ago

Game is dead many years, no one like scammers its fake free to play game, with locked content, locked characters... good you going down and not fool people anymore.

Bloodmyth 3 years ago

No matter what game I play these days there’s p2w, some are more blatant than others, I do spend some cash each month on a game I enjoy as I don’t mind spending on my Hobby, however it feels like games are being designed to require a cash shop and cater for Cash Whales who can throw money at whatever gives them an advantage over a more cosmetic cash shop to supplement the game which would suit everyone.

Robert D 3 years ago

I played this game and was on top for 10 years in Hindemith, Phoenix and Chronos,. The free to play ruined the game which was the best in class with unparalleled gameplay. It's really a shame. I met my wife in this game and occasionally give it another try, as another user said, for nostalgia.... But the pay to win now and lack of competitive PVP is insane. The game is just awful now. This development is just more of the same. We play L2 Revolution now, which has the same p2win, but due to it's nature as a mobile game is less serious so it's less frustrating. I for one would still play a legacy L2 server with a subscription model, but it seems that idea is DOA.

kek 3 years ago

not surprised, played this game when it went f2p and it was bad already. The game was golden in it's era of Chronicles, now it's just a bot feast and whoever dips more cash shop items.

Pure nostalgia which now fades away in an instant