Paragon community is raging over packs and P2W concerns

Paragon players are going all sorts of crazy with the new packs that Epic Games is selling in its store. These Paragon packs range from $19.99 to $149.99 and the big issue with them seems to be the inclusion of loot crates, which aren't guaranteed to unlock all the cards and gems. $150 is a lot of money and for a lot less you can get all the current and future gods in SMITE, for example.

The pay-to-win concerns are raised even more with the amount of chests available in these packs. Chests contain cards and gems which directly influence gameplay. Here's a good example when comparing two new Paragon players, as ProBrownie puts it:

“Basically you're buying fixed skins from each pack, to obtain all the exclusive skins you have to buy each bundle as the top one doesn't include the ones from lower down and they are unobtainable elsewhere that though isn't the main issue.

The main issue is that for example two new players when they first begin playing neither has access to all the cards or gems in game, then if one of those chose to purchase the top diamond pack they'd immediately have access to better gems and cards meaning they will instantly be able to have better builds and counter whoever the other player who didn't spend any money picks all in turn while they are unable to use anything other than default, that in turn will put the player who didn't spend money off the game and the player who did buy it is just allowing epic to justify this and ruin the game for plenty of potential newcomers.

If we had ranked this would be horrible and the player base wouldn't grow, spending money shouldn't keep you relevant time invested and skill should, if they want money promote more skins improve the loot crate system and add more things for us to spend our money on that doesn't impact gameplay.”

Another issue that the Paragon community is having is that each of them (of the four available) includes a different set of skins. Some players are complaining about the need to purchase all packs to have the full skin sets, while others brush it off by saying you should just purchase the pack with the skins you prefer. It's down to player preference in this particular case.

Ultimately, there's a lot of value in each pack for its price, but the pay-to-win concerns aren't exaggerated. Even the departure of former Paragon director Steve Superville from Epic Games after 15 years is being related to this move, as Steve said Paragon would never sell cards:

“One of the things they reiterated was not to sell cards. It stays fair because gameplay impacting things such as cards and Heroes are always available or only earned through playing the game. There is no “insert dollar, get shockwave”. That’s our metric and mantra that we use: if it impacts gameplay, you can only get it by playing the game and spending reputation (which is our time currency).”

There's definitely a lot going on with Paragon, and this is already leading to a serious uproar. What do you think of these Paragon packs and will they affect the future of this game?