With green color I've marked P2W levels that average anti-P2W person should like about Turtle WoW, with yellow criteria that are contested and require more discussion and with red problems that anti-P2W person would hate about Turtle WoW. The levels of P2W depth are following:
- Level 1 : Can't pay to Win at All, there is no way to give the Game Money beyond original Purchase.
- Level 2 : Cosmetic Purchases, where they are pay to win because content design changes to make the best looking things get behind a paywall as you dont "win" until you look the best possible way.
- Level 3 : Early Game Boost that is overclassed quickly, basically time saver type of pay to win.
- Level 4 : System based adventage that makes the game easier to play, basically quality of Life behind a paywall like inventory slots or an update with balances (DLC).
- Level 5 : Skip "un-fun" parts of the game like Level Boosts or Grinding requirements to reach the "fun" content immediately.
- Level 6 : Money CAN directly buy Power, but the power achievable this way has a ceiling or is capped, there's only so much you can pay and non-paying players can still reach it.
- Level 7 : Money directly buys power, and the power achievable this way has no ceiling nor is capped, you can buy as much power as you want but non-paying players can still THEORETICALLY reach it.
- Level 8 : Money can buy power AT A CHANCE, essentially gambling for Power where you may not see your money's worth or have it overflow, Psychological theory comes to play in the game design (addiction elements/sunk cost fallacy) to keep a Player on it even if they dont spend anymore.
- Level 9 : Money can buy power either at a Chance or Directly that non-paying players have NO WAY of achieving, essentially dividing the game in two completely different experiences and the hard wall is eventually hit by either side.
- Level 10 : Subjectivity, what you want from the game is the only important thing, if that is locked behind a paywall it is pay to win to you.
Note these levels aren't my own and are very general to fit every game made, I only compare them to this server. I don't find these criteria perfect for WoW because in my opinion they lack division into categories like pure gameplay, appearance etc. Below I justify why some levels aren't P2W-free.
- Level 1: You have a way of spending money in Turtle WoW via donation shop. However, as Torta has stated below in the comment, Turtle WoW is completely free to play.
- Level 2: Some cosmetics are locked behind donation shop - that's a fact. There is even one Dev responsible for making elegant clothes in the shop.
- Level 3: I don't know anything in Turtle WoW that can be classified as Early Game Boost. Everyone experiences same start.
- Level 4: There are a few conveniences for donators: mobile bank, mobile AH, mobile vendor, 36-slot bags. Definetely QoL features.
- Level 5: The problem is with Goblin Brainwashing Device. It can be bought by 2 ways: via real money from donation shop or by purchasing it in the game for 350g. Surely, it's not a big thing but I can't mark it with green.
- Level 6: Here starts the problem. There is no way to buy gold, gear, levels etc. However, Power can be seen as appearance for some players. If so, there are some cosmetics and mounts in donation shop that can't be obtained in any other way than paying - thus non-paying players can't get them.
- Level 7: Same as above. Though donation shop has ceiling - there isn't infinite number of things you can buy.
- Level 8: I would normally mark it green but there was one seasonal incident. During Easter 2024 Turtle Team added eggs to the donation shop and guess what - there were random things from shop inside. At first drop chances weren't described so we can classify them as loot boxes. I even saw rumors in world chat that Thunderfury can drop from these eggs. Of course this wasn't true but some naive people might have believed. In that case there is psychological element involved which some people may find immoral.
Nevertheless, the eggs were removed shortly after due to negative feedback from community. Currently there are no loot boxes on Turtle WoW.
- Level 9: Yellow because as said earlier some people may perceive appearance, pets, mounts as Power. There is a chance involved in those eggs. Rest is bought directly and non-payers have no way of receiving items from donation shop.
Share your opinion.
EDIT:
After a year of reviewing this post I decided to expand it to include list of new controversial things added to the cash shop. This list consist of things that weren't possible to obtain when I originally wrote the post in 2024.
- Extra stable slot for Hunter pet obtainable only from cash shop.
- Summonable stable master (or whatever it's called). Sounds like useless item but if you think about it, it gives Hunters some new ways of playing in battlegrounds where they can switch their pet to adjust to the PvP situation.
- Guild Tabard incident - Guild Tabard was new feature added to Turtle WoW in 2025 that allowed your guild to have tabard that also worked like Hearthstone - it summoned you to your guild's house. At first it was obtainable by 2 ways: your guild master had to pay 5000g to vendor or they could buy it directly from the cash shop. Devs unintentionally allowed the tabard from the cash shop to be sold to vendor for gold. This unintentionally worked like WoW token on Blizzard's servers. It was changed shortly after devs find out so the tabard couldn't sold to vendor.
- Race Change bug fiesta - originally game wasn't designed to handle race or especially faction change. Currently you can get some faction specific items or mounts and then change faction to keep them and get access to your new faction items! There are a lot of bugs related to this issue and devs still are unaware about most of them. I personally know a Human Paladin who owns Frostwolf mount (Horde specific mount for playing AV).
So in the past you could spend money to change the faction and get P2W powers like double battle standards in PvP or preserve priest's racials from old race.
- Summonable Moonwell - Horde tailors are especially harmed by this (Alliance has their own Moonwell in Stormwind).
- The title for completing specific amount of quests for Horde is unobtainable without Race Change.