Game Official Claims Subscription Players Are 'High-Quality' — Calls Rivals a 'Street Market' While Selling Cosmetics for Thousands, Gets Roasted Into Orbit

An official for a major Chinese MMO publicly declared that players who play their point-card (subscription-based) game are 'high-quality gamers' — essentially implying that anyone who doesn't play their premium game lacks class. The moment this hit NGA, the comments section erupted in a collective roast.

Based on the original post's image and the ensuing discussion, the controversial statement appeared to come from an official source hyping up the point-card subscription model. The official went all-in, boasting about a 15-year track record as proof of player quality. But gamers saw right through the flex — as one commenter quipped: 'They had to specifically highlight 15 years because they had nothing else to brag about? I love that saying: only turtles care about who lives the longest.'

The real powder keg was when the official compared their game to a 'membership-only warehouse club' (like Costco) while calling other games a 'discount street market.' This flex instantly triggered the community. A top-voted reply fired back: 'So everyone who doesn't play your game is low-class? What's wrong with a street market? At least their stuff is affordable and actually delivers value!'

The most devastating blow came from a player who pointed out the game's cross-platform setup: mobile is free-to-play while PC requires a point-card subscription — yet both platforms share the same game data. Translation? You're paying for the privilege of playing the same content on PC that mobile players access for free. One player summed it up brutally: 'Your mobile version is free — that just makes PC players look like absolute suckers.'

The cosmetic spending angle was where the community really drove the knife in. One player vented: 'If my wife weren't spending thousands on cosmetics, I might have actually believed the game survives on subscriptions alone.' Another top reply went for the throat: 'Saying they don't care about money is absolute BS — then why are they pumping out cosmetics at an increasingly frantic pace, even breaking accessories into separate purchases? The so-called value retention is literally the official leading players into becoming scalpers.'

The 'point-card = high-quality' claim also sparked a heated back-and-forth. Supporters argued that subscription fees genuinely filtered out younger, less mature players — 30 yuan per month was a real barrier for students back in the day. But opponents demolished this argument with personal anecdotes: 'Which normal kid couldn't afford a monthly card? I played Fantasy Westward Journey with classmates in elementary school and WoW through middle and high school — 20-30 yuan a month, who couldn't pay that?' One commenter even shared a legendary childhood story: 'A kid in my elementary school class had a gift for scamming men in-game for money and selling the gold to black market internet cafe owners.'

Zooming out, the official's 'high-quality players' rhetoric was transparently a loyalty-test play — community jargon calls it 'fan purification' (粉丝提纯). Veteran players saw through it immediately: 'As a game that's never going mainstream and is basically on life support, flattering your existing players matters more than acquiring new ones.' And: 'Lock onto the core strategy — hype up your own players, and no attack can touch you.' Still, the tactic remains surprisingly effective with some diehards — until someone asks the fatal question: 'I literally just told someone's entire family to go die in a MOBA match, and you want to talk to me about player quality?'

The official has teased a follow-up that will 'elaborate' on this topic. Whether it fans the flames or tries damage control remains to be seen. But one thing is crystal clear: in an era where gamers are seasoned internet veterans, this kind of fan-purification flattery isn't landing like it used to.