NHL 26 WOC is now pay to win

"What these builds actually sell is the perception of superiority, while players without them remain entirely capable of competing on equal footing."

Are all the premade builds equal to custom builds based on stat points and xfactors? To the extent if I wanted I could create a custom build with the same stat points and levels of xfactors given. 

Last time I checked that was not possible so please enlighten me. 

KidShowtime1867​ 

"I still don't think it's pay to win and more pay-for-skill-leniency. The fact remains that buying these builds in no way whatsoever guarantees a win."

Alright, let's try this another way.. by your logic the majority of the players in this game are always AFK, correct? 

The fact remains that most people are using controllers and not keyboards. It doesn't matter that there may be a given definition that encompasses controllers as well. You MUST take the term literally. So perhaps 90% (rough guess) of all players that play NHL are AFK?

Or is this different because P2W taken literally is easy to argue against (once again despite having a definition from multiple reputable sources that encompases a plethora of things and not just guaranteed wins)  but 90% of the community being AFK taken literally sounds really bad for the image of this game. 🤔 should we tell everyone not to buy because so many players are AFK?

I'm critical of this game but if someone told me 90% of the people they play with are always AFK I can't even imagine agreeing with them based on poor semantics.. I can't actually believe this is still your argument.. it's  like the "I'm not touching you" while your finger is an in from your sibling's face, and being unable to understand why you get spanked after despite being told you were antagonizing your sibling (literally being GIVEN the definitions and dismissing them because you can't fathom being wrong)

hiperay​ "to say it is pay to win, maybe you should go look at a game like NBA 2k or NHL 360 to see what pay to win REALLY looks/looked like."

So because NHL charges less per build that means it's not P2W, or not AS P2W at least? 2K is absolutely an example but I'm unsure that exonerates this series based on $ value. I'd also argue that I believe 2K puts more back into their games. New story, new city, new animations, etc. Meanwhile we had the same BAP for 5-7 years or something, and this new one is perhaps worse due to form score? So I don't feel as bad about paying more in 2k (imo) Not to suggest they get everything right, but you at least see the effort. I know watching LG players play 2K is a pretty rough watch. This game seems to get further from anything players want, we're getting further and further into arcade style and the addition of things like "full pressure" that nobody asked for, while things that have been asked for, for over a decade have not been added. If you buy 2k at full price at the start of the year and play as much as you would need to in order to max the NHL battle passes, you can get a fully maxed build without paying. So I also struggle to understand that argument. I mostly defend 2K because if EA had their same business model I wouldn't even care that it is P2W/ pay to skip the grind. Let me make a build, I could pay a little to get him started and skip a little early grind, but it's my custom build, maybe add some better balance with builds so like with 2K there are not a VERY small handful of "meta builds" but actually LOTS of them. Other players could get just as good of a build without paying, no fomo of missing weekly xp, no fear of ANOTHER build dropping that renders the previous obsolete.. that would be a lot better than EA builds/ OP builds. The way it's currently done just feels like a mobile game feature.. idk just really cheap arcade style gameplay and now features. I personally feel this game has gotten far worse over the last 4-6 years, but again just my opinion. In 2K making your build, and building him up, using him to switch between multi-player when friends are online and single player career grind when they're not (using and developing the same build in the same universe) just feels far more Immersive, building him slowly for a few months is fun and feels rewarding. Paying/ grinding a battle pass.. not so much (for me) maybe others feel differently and grinding a battle pass is fun/ rewarding? Getting on 2K, and my friends see i go from an 88 to a 92 ovr since the last time we played feels good, I feel like I did something.. telling my friends I bought a build/ grinded through a bunch of random weekly xp challenges to get a build, not so much... i do feel 2K is P2W, I dont like everything about the game, and honestly I hate basketball, but the game is FAR less buggy and feels FAR advanced. I don't need a city to walk around (but it's probably more stable than the store in NHL as I've experienced multiple crashes in the store).. but they have that, it adds immersion, they have public courts, I can see people play, they have LG leagues built into the game.. the presentation system is 50 years ahead of NHL. There is just so much content and stuff to do. I feel I NEVER run out of things to do, and if I do.. I can make a new build and build that up.. and again.. to me, that grind actually feels fun and rewarding. However, if your argument is the price of making a build viable when the game releases.. i def understand what you're saying.. it is entirely too much and P2W. 

I'm admittedly unfamiliar with NHL 360. I've heard good things about building your skater and having more options but I'm unable to accurately comment on anything.. I'm sure my feelings on 2k adequately covers most of my feelings though.