Is there any other game developing company that is greedier than NcSoft ? I redownloaded Lineage2 and was so dissapointed and disgusted by their predatory cash shop...

So I have a long, mostly fun, history with NcSoft. I have played, and loved, Lineage2 for 12 years.

I quit sometimes after Goddess of Destruction Chronicle was released, and, last week I decided, fueled by nostalgia, lack of mmos to pvp in, quarantine, whatever, to give the Lineage2 Classic server a go. I downloaded the NA version, that is managed by NcWest, a branch of NcSoft.

Got in the game, that Dion theme hit me straight in the feels like a freaking wrecking ball.... Played for a few days, learned the ropes just to find out the game is only a shadow of a once great if not greatest open world pvp mmo to date, a game now plagued by predatory cash shop tactics....

The cash shop is FILLED with pay2win items. Capes that gives stats, brooches that gives stats, transformations that gives stats, talisman bracelet that holds several talismans that, you guessed it, gives stats. Everything you can think of that boosts your stats are in the cash shop. All of these in a game where the monthly fee is switched to a "optional" VIP system that goes up to lvl 10 according to how much you spend in the cash shop.

But wait, there is more, the VIP tiers gives you preks, the higher they go with 10 being max VIP lvl, even PVP extra dmg perk .

And this is not all, for you guys who are familiar with Lineage2, do you remember the soulshots, those consumables that made you hit harder in pvp and pve and were crafted by dwarf classes ? Well they removed the ability to craft them and are as of now a cash shop ONLY consumable. Swipe to use soulshots like you would swipe to use bullets in Entropia Universe.....

I mean, i get it, servers need money to be kept alive, developing teams need to be paid, but HOLLY FUCK, on a game that "orbits" around open world PvP, to add all those pay2win systems that literally splits community into whales and commoners, this is the worst form of predatory cash shops i have seen to date.

To date i was thinking that Blade&Soul, another NcSoft mmo, is the king of pay2win, but i was wrong...nothing i have played beats Lineage2 model of pay2win, advertised as a f2p game....

Are we, the mmorpg lovers, doomed to play games with such predatory cash shops or is there a light at the end of the tunnel ?

Sorry for the long rant but i felt the need to vent after seeing that horrific pay2win disguised under a "truly f2p model"...