Originally Posted by
Edge-
Actually, most folks using the term nowadays (in my experience) have never played one of the games that spawned the term, so they use all kinds of personal definitions. Sell desirable cosmetics in cash shop only? P2W! Sell experience boosts? P2W!!! Sell high level characters? P2W!!! etc.
P2W originated from the Korean imports that legitimately sold items and buffs through the cash shop that were more powerful than anything that could be obtained in-game. It's still a practice that's in-place in many games in Korea/China and it makes them a ton of money.
LOTRO introduced gear long ago, and Rift has had gear in its cash shop since day one. LOTRO gear was mid-level stuff, and most of Rift's gear spread across all levels.
Rift dipped its toes over the line with P2W when they removed the earrings/PWW from void stones, but it's still far from full on P2W.
See, this is an issue, though. Because if the definition is so wildly subjective then it's extremely difficult to have any meaningful discussions around it : /