Pay-to-win (P2W) has never really been an ideal model for us gamers. It ruins the fun for free-to-play (F2P) gamers, but it can also have a negative effect on P2W players — they’ll always have that shadow in the back of their minds, “Would I have won if I hadn’t spent my money?” Or maybe that’s just something us F2P players say to make ourselves feel better.

Regardless, Star Wars: Hunters has been well-received because it doesn’t have any pay-to-win elements, at least not early on in the game. It helps give players the feeling that they can compete, whether they spend their hard-earned money or not. Interestingly enough, if Reddit is to be believed, it encourages players to spend money on in-game cosmetics.

Other Redditors have praised the game so far, calling it a positive surprise and a player-first. Additionally, many of the comments on these threads mention the fact that they are more likely to purchase in-game items and cosmetics if there are no pay-to-win mechanics present.

This gives us hope for the future. I usually stay away from pay-to-win games, and I'm sure many of you feel the same way. If I'm reading the vibes correctly, we'll see more true F2P games as time goes on. We'll be stuck with the "skip-the-grind" model for a while, but that's fine. Much better than just throwing a bunch of money at a game and winning, right?