A few months back some dev said that they intend Dust to have "one of the fairest microtransactin system" or something along these lines. The focus was that it won't be P2W in any way... but looking at the recent changes I don't think they can accomplish this goal. I mean what have they added recently?

Militia BPOs

Originally intended to be removed form Dust they're now back and more numerous than ever. It seems like every weapon has a Militia BPO now you can only buy with Aurum. In addition to that there are unique Dropsuit BPOs, namely the Quafe suits. Only obtainable by spending Aurum of course. And well, they are free suits and free weapons. Making sure you don't lose anything when dying. They're only standard stuff though, so maybe that's still fine. But just the sheer amount of BPOs becoming available now makes me worry. Heck: It even takes away from the aspect of being careful what you run. And in the past Militia BPOs were limited. You couldn't run everything when you wanted a free fitting. Now that's changing. As running militia stuff is, expecially for FW, the easiest way to stay ISK postitive it really takes away from being careful about what you're running. Low on ISK? No problem. Just run your free fitting the next few matches. What doesn't make it better are...

APEX suits

Fair thing: You can farm them. That is if you play for Minmatar or Gallente. Try farming these on Amarr or Caldari side when only getting ~200 LP every match because they're ALWAYS losing. (that's another matter though) But hey! You can of course spent 30 bucks on these Protosuit BPOs. I mean of course: They're only fitted with standard equipment. Doesn't change though that these suits are completely free and the easiest way to get them - that is if you don't want to farm for a month - is just buying them.

Market Contract

Our beloved stripper in the Captains Quarters. Spend Aurum to get more money from selling stuff. I guess that speaks for itself, doesn't it?

SP Booster

My favorite really. Increased cap for everybody? Fine. But now you can not only boost that cap with active boosters, no. You can ADDITIONALLY boost your already active boosted match SP further with an instant booster. As SP are one of the most important things in the game this reeks of P2W. I mean of course everybody gets them and I was still fine with normal active boosters. But now the additional instant boost? There's a fine line you have to draw when it comes to saving time without being P2W. And I think that point crossed that line.

Strongboxes

Best way to get Officer gear. A relatively grindy / hard daily (sometimes only doable by buying boosters) gives you one key a day. You can of course buy more keys... for Aurum.

Loyalty Ranks

Damn. Have you tried increasing that thing without spending Aurum? And it gives you more of everything. More SP, more Money, more LP. Spending Aurum seems to be the best way to get a higher rank here. Earning warpoints and winning matches seems to do almost nothing. Especially considering how many matches you win when playing FW for Caldari/Amarr.

In the past most of the stuff you had to pay for you could also get by looting in FW and PC. And it wasn't the best gear either and people had to continously pay to support running suits using Aurum gear. That was still fine. But now by spending Aurum you have the best chance of getting Officer gear. You get passive bonuses by spending lots of Aurum. You get gear which isn't used up when you die. The cover of being able to get everything for free anyways by just playing is slowly vanishing, as that's not the case anymore for a lot of stuff. It really looks like CCP is currently turning Dust into a P2W festival.

It's been "p2w" from the start and the devs will argue that it's not but a two new players start. One pays money and one does not. One gets an APEX suit and one does not. That is very clearly paying for a direct advantage. The only difference is once you get to the higher skill points, paying does nothing. So it works out in the end but this is a free game so enjoy it.

Its not pay-to-win but the over monetization is getting a bit annoying.

Yes, Dust is P2W...

Lol, if you're getting wrecked by militia or standard you're doing it wrong. If you make the argument that they are getting an advantage, so do people in Proto suits. Should we remove those if they are getting an advantage? How about squads?

Strongboxes aren't P2W as they only have a CHANCE to get you something OK with the occasional Officer weapon. I see Officer weapons destroying everything else all the time...

Dust is only becoming pay to have a slight advantage/skip the work/wait, and honestly, when was it not?

Not really, but they are monetizing the crap out of this game much, much more than usually. Like all the big 'features' are just another way CCP is trying to monetize the game, they are more than trying to by making features more of a grind and keep players playing instead actually improving the game.

ccp needs to sweeten the pot even more if you ask me. more bpos! ide make everything bpo. depending on what you spend and your level it can either be permenant or timed like boosters. instant sp boost needs to be way more for 100 aur.

make it worth the money. if you want a proto bpo limit the option to timed if you are not level 5.

bust out the good stuff.

thats the one messed up thing about all games with microtransactions. nobody every opens the flood gates.

there are just so many things they can do.

OP doesn't have a clue what P2W is P2W occurs when spending money on the game gives you a bonus that can't be earned via other means in game.

Like you don't have a clue what I'm talking about. I specifically mentioned becoming P2W. Currently I would say it's extremely borderline with the tendency to become full out P2W. I mean the SP boost for example... I accepted it when it only was Active boosters and passive boosters, even though that was laready too much for some people. But now they upped that one with instant boosters. Every little thing is getting monetarized here.

To the people saiyin they have to make money somehow: Of course they do. But at some point it starts to hurt the game. You could also make money by selling purely cosmetic changes. Yet the stuff which is actually gameplay changing and you can only get for Aurum is increasing. How long before the first Aurum only weapon comes out which is better than proto and also a BPO?