Neverwinter Selling Early Access to Moon Elves – Why Is This Okay?

Neverwinter’s Founder’s Packs were fairly impressive, and were sort of passable due to every other beta MMO doing the exact same thing. But is it acceptable from a consumer standpoint that Perfect World/Cryptic are selling new Feywild Packs in preparation of the game’s first big update?

I know just as well as you do that Cyptic needs funding for development, but it feels cheap that they are marketing this content update as a “content expansion” when the traditional concept of game expansions are actually much larger than what Neverwinter is promising.

I’m not saying the Fury of the Feywild update is small, but that it doesn’t really constitute what long-time PC gamers would consider an “expansion”. Really, where are the new classes?

In this instance, it feels like the term was shoveled in there for marketing purposes. Fans of the game can rattle on and on about how it’s getting an expansion and those a little more loose with their wallets can throw even more money at the game without feeling too guilty. It’s a win-win, right?

No, this is only a win for Cryptic and Perfect World Entertainment. The Moon Elf race, like the Drow at open beta, are being sold in packs and locked otherwise for 60 days after launch. At the time of writing, we have no idea what their passives or stats are — we are simply expected to lap it up and open our wallets because the Moon Elves are the new, shiny thing.

The above is on top of purchasers of the Knight of Feywild Pack ($59.99) receiving the unique Dark Unicorn mount and unique Sylph companion, among other things.

What is disturbing here is that Neverwinter has only been officially launched since June 20. Even before launch, they dogged closed and open beta players with Founder’s Packs and had a full-blown cash shop.

Do they really have the gall to announce a so-called “expansion” a mere two months after launch and charge $60 to get the newest race right out of the gate?

There is no doubt Cryptic and Perfect World Entertainment are rolling in dough over Neverwinter and the scummy practices ingrained into the game. It’s unfortunate that so many are willing to roll over and accept it instead of moving on to a title handled with more integrity.