That isn’t a pay to win though you’re also more limited on what you can do with it. Mind you motion sickness and “artificial G force” hit you because the brain is unable to comprehend that you are in a video game. So those doing VR often feel things those who have only a mouse and keyboard do not. Another thing Pay To Win would imply is that the game developers added it to the game which you have to pay for to have an advantage.
Primary Example: World Of Tanks, Artillery gives you an RTS like POV where the rounds will hit that is P2W, Since that involves real money and is something the game developers purposely added. VR does not follow those same rules since you are paying for something developers do not own. Such as VR headsets they don’t own them its just a feature they added for those who play.
Then those people wouldn’t use it. Those who don’t have much problem will, and they will win more often. So yes, it’s obviously P2W. It doesn’t have to make ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of people win more to be P2W in general…
And although I wasn’t talking about it originally, premium vehicles are still somewhat P2W, simply because they come spaded. So you skip the hundred battles you would have done worse in getting to spaded status, and thus win more. As are crew skills. I wasn’t focusing on these though because they aren’t specific to simulator mode unlike the first thing.
Did you pay to use the VR feature? does Gaijin own the VR headset?. No? then it is not P2W. But by all means keep claiming this logic its getting you far and so off topic.
Bushes could be seen as a “P2W” feature before they were destructible via tank shells, artillery, plane strafe, bombing, etc. As it gave an unfair advantage in the game. But VR heads do not.
Another thing Gaijin does not own VR headsets, you made that choice to sought one out.
So I’ll phrase myself one last time, Pay To Win implies to the game, not anything that is external, which means your buying a VR headset is externally->Real world which does not count and only makes you devalid your claims.
The term is not “Pay to win with the developer profiting specifically”. That would be “P2WWTDPS”
The term is “Pay to win”
Did you pay money? (Yes, for a VR headset)
Did you win more? (Yes, most people who aren’t motion sick do win more)
= P2W
And yes bushes are also P2W (still are, just less so, since you still get an advantage prior to them being shot off, especially if they prevent you being noticed so the other person doesn’t KNOW to shoot them off)
Note that for VR headsets, I didn’t even say Gaijin could have done better. Maybe they couldn’t have done any better for a simulator game. That’s fine. Even if there was no wrongdoing, though, it’s still P2W. And that turns away a lot of players, thus answering in part the OP’s question. Formula 1 Racing is also P2W, and there’s not really any way it couldn’t be. People still find it fun to watch, but it heavily limits the potential competitors that can enter.
VR is a heavy advantage too and that costs another 500 too
in the end Air Sims aren’t for everyone and Warthunder Air sim really shines only in the Early Jet era and maybe in the Prop eras too but there it gets competition from IL2: Sturmovik
The difference between HOTAS and No HOTAS is pretty big. But the difference between a decent but cheap one and a top end HOTAS though is quite minimal.
Nobody who has a computer doesn’t have a mouse, so no, nobody is paying extra to win. If mice were very expensive rare commodities, then it would have been “yes”
