How many of these threads come up and nothing was done about it? Not trying to be pessimistic but it is a fact. Take it or leave it, this game is pay to win, and they know it but just won't openly admit it.
Once a thread reached a conclusion and people join the bandwagon saying this, this and that is pay to win. The mods will come in and lock the thread because it is considered "Flaming without constructive input".
I know and understand the GM and developers are trying their best to fix this game, but sadly you can't get rid of the pay to win crap from this game, because it will die when you are too generous in terms of premium paying content. They have really limited man power and resource to do it without killing the game.
But regarding the stuff being talked about in this thread, there are some items indeed that shouldn't have been sold on the item mall, which kills the uniqueness of certain items and feeling of accomplishment. Things like Pink Afro, it has several fake version currently sitting on item mall, few shades different from the faith one but it already kill the purpose of collecting Pink Afro, same with all the unique weapon costume, is that easter bunny backpack being faith for real? and there is a fake event one. I can't imagine how many people spew blood when they see they are going to sell lolita as lucky spin costume (fortunately it was a totally different). Then we have this military leader lucky spin thing that resembles the noble set too.
Currently, we have this akram kingdom costume and anicent royal costume as "End game achievement" because you can't use item mall medal to get it and premium won't affect it. But you know, if you are rich, you could always buy the whole set for 25b. There are plenty of "End game achievement" in this game, but it's just the matter of how you look at it, you could always treat quest reward as achievement, getting highest kill count in AA as achievement, but if you are talking about achievement with respect to veterans asset/collection, you only have so little to look for, because with money everything is possible.
Whether you agree with me or not, I will still have to say it, because I do think the current state of the game, the PvP aspect of it is very pay to win. You can go in and queue in PvP games with (10) gear, gemless then get rekt badly. But in order to stand a chance against on those veterans or paying players, you need to have the following prepared.
1 ) Full (15) refined equipment, top tier gems
2 ) All those blessing passive, regular, adapt, disciple, so on, don't say this make no difference because they are only 1-2% each, but when you add them all up, they make a huge difference
3 ) Clan skills, one of the worst idea implemented into the game where in order to be competitive you have to be in a large clan
4 ) Akram kingdom outfit, though not everyone is a persistent tryhard, many ppl prefer good looking costume than using this thing
I know these are do-able for a veteran who has good knowledge about this game, market, but this is definitely not do-able for a new player within a year. You could argue with me that it is do-able if you grind like a no-lifer, but we are only talking about one character in here, what if a new player picked a class that is not their favourite? It is not worth it to grind that much then realize all the effort are wasted for nothing. The veterans in here somehow continue to survive and exist because every patch of the week, they only have to catch up a little, those "little thing" they only have to spend so little effort to get it. But by adding those "little" achievement and status needed to become competitive, you just keep enlarging the gaps of a player who join this game freshly and the veterans. Think about a visitor with a short sword, how long do you need to poke, to poke your way to Lv.230 without fking up your skill / stat? Now go back to those 4 points that I made, see you next year or just never again because you don't have the patience to grind for something that does nothing but a power gap between free players and paid players.
The whole market of ROSE online has been revolving around heavily on item mall items ever since this game went free to play. Want to refine? Sure, item mall. Want to collect some ultimate costume? Sure, faith and lucky spin. Want some quick zulies? Sure, sell item mall.
Anyways, the PvP aspect of this game is pretty much pay to play, otherwise it is play to lose. If anything, the 4 points that I listed should be disabled for PvP, but you know it's a video game that hang in for 10+ years, it's not so easy to get rid of them for a fair play or the game will die. When a game only has [....] this amount of players actively playing it while it has [........................] this amount of player hardcore afking 24/7, you know how good a game this is.