Earlier this month, two different MMOs, Aion 2 and EverQuest Legends, revealed their monetization plans in the same week, and it was exhausting. To hear angry gamers tell it, both games are egregiously pay-to-win and dead on arrival.

Guys, I’ve been doing this as a job over 16 years, and every single MMO feature ever devised has been called P2W at some point or another. I’m not saying nothing is ever P2W, only that the term has been abused to the point of meaninglessness. When I hear it, my instinct now is to assume it’s just The Gamers At It Again and not a real problem in the context of the genre. I’ve come to hate the term as much as I hate the concept because the only people throwing it around are really mostly upset about the “pay” part, and it drowns out the people with an actual point about the “win” part.

Is there MMO discourse you’re also tired of seeing?

Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!