Game of Thrones: Kingsroad

Game of Thrones: Kingsroad is a free-to-play game, although in it's early access period the only way to gain access was through the purchase of one of three bundles.

• Standard for roughly 25 USD, granting Early Access, a set of cosmetic items, as well as 350 of the Premium Currency the game offers.
• Deluxe for roughly 50 USD, granting more cosmetic content, more premium currency, the first premium battle pass as well as a mount and in-game currency.
• Ultimate for roughly 90 USD, granting yet more cosmetic content, mounts, currency, as well as an upgraded version of the premium battle pass.

Currencies

The game offers many different types of premium purchases, some of which are purchased via real money and others only via the premium currency called "Iron Bank Mark". These marks can be purchased in bundles that are sized to never match the cost of shop items.
For instance, the game offers many cosmetic outfits. These range between 600 and 720 marks. Marks equal roughly 5 USD for 100 marks so these cosmetic outfits cost roughly 30 to 36 USD. However, bundles comes in sizes of 20 (1.20 USD), 94 (5 USD), 200 (10 USD), 510 (24 USD), 1300 (58 USD), and 2900 marks (120 USD), never matching any of the cosmetic bundles. Curiously while writing this text the size of the bundles changed between views. The size of the bundles reduced by roughly 10% after spending an hour in the game. The price of the bundles did not decrease.

Many purchases in the shop are made using a different currency; "Golden Dragon". This is earned from daily challenges, as battle pass reward, or through various bundle purchases. This currency can be earned entirely for free and can be spend on some cosmetic content but not all. Earning this currency for free is a slow process and as such can be bypassed through various paid means. This includes bundles, subscriptions, or simply through purchasing them via the premium currency.

The game also offers another currency; "Copper". This is the primary free currency used for in-game shops.

Many purchases are not made via any currency and are instead purchased directly with real money. This includes things like character customization changes, a monthly subscription, and various currency and item bundles.

The game includes more currencies beyond these for various specific purposes, such as "Tribute", "North Tokens" (earned for in-game repeatable activities), "Reach tokens" (earned from other repeated activities), "Stormland Tokens" (earned from yet other repeated activities), "Royal Favor" (earned as a reward for repeated monthly subscriptions), and "Artifact Pieces" (earned from Artifact Expeditions). Additionally the game may feature currencies unique to certain events. For instance, the Christmas event features "Snowflake Coins" which can only be earned during the event and are removed once the event ends.

This wide variety of currencies makes it confusing to know what you are really spending your money. Real value is hidden behind exchanges of exchanges.

Subscription

The game offers a monthly subscription. This grants a number of benefits are grant you certain advantages. Increased max RP, a set of special discounts in the shop, much improved inventory and equipment slots, increased health potion and ammo capacity, increased Copper and RP gain, access to special content, increased estate worker slots, production time, and production speed, and an increase in daily trade limits.
While this subscription is entirely optional, the advantage gained by it puts you at a substantial level above those who do not purchase it. The game inconveniences you greatly for not purchasing this subscription.

The subscription can be purchased in 3 packges:

• 30 days for roughly 12 USD, this also grants one time access to a variety of currencies.
• 90 days for roughly 30 USD, this grants yet many more currencies.
• 180 days for roughly 54 USD, granting yet more currencies as well as unique cosmetic content. This last bundle can be purchased only once per account.

Limited packages

The game sells many different limited offers.

• Starter packs, which can be purchased either once or twice per account grant a set of currencies, convenience items, as well as mounts and cosmetics. These range from roughly 4 USD to roughly 110 USD.
• Monthly Offers, granting a set of convenience items and currencies. These are sold for one of the premium currencies as various price points ranging between 20 and 50 USD depending on the bundle size of the currencies. These can only be purchased once or twice per month.
• Weekly Offers, much the same as the Monthly Offers for of course limited per week rather than per month. These range from roughly 2 and 30 USD. These are limited to one purchase per week per bundle, with 4 bundles total, but one other bundle can be purchased a total of 20 times per week.
• Basic Offers. these are specific purchases that are limited by week or by month with different limited quantities per bundle per account. These range from 2 USD to roughly 50 USD depending on the bundle. These are all convenience items.

These packages are all rather confusing and once more push the whole fear of missing out aspect, but largely in convenience items.

Battle Pass

The battle pass has two reward tracks, free and premium. The free track offers a range of rewards in the form of currencies, convenience items and various crafting materials.
The premium track offers far more currencies and convenience items, as well as cosmetic content. Many of the crafting materials are earned in high quantities, making them a rather convenient way to acquire these rather than earning them through regular play. The premium track also rewards items that grant you direct power. This comes in the form of mount equipment and Legendary Jewelry. Mount equipment improves certain statistics of your mount. Legendary Jewelry grants your character large improvements in stats or abilities. These also have random effects which are not known until you acquire them. These items give you a significant boost in power.

The premium battle pass is purchased using the premium currency for 660 marks, equal to roughly 30 USD. However, once again this does not match any the bundle sizes. If you wish to purchase the battle pass you will either need to make multiple purchases (510 + 200 marks, costing 34 USD and leaving you with 50 marks left over), or make one larger purchase (1300 marks, costing 58 USD and leaving you with 640 marks left over).
The game also offers a premium plus bundle for 960 marks, once again not matching any bundle size. This would require the purchase of the 58 USD bundle. This premium plus bundle grants an addition set of cosmetic rewards as well as a head start of 15 levels in the battle pass.
The battle pass does reward some premium currency back on some levels, but not nearly enough to purchase the next battle pass.

Battle pass levels can also be purchased instantly, rather than needing to level them on your own. This costs 90 Golden Dragon currency per level. As discussed before, this can be earned for free in limited quantities or purchased with the premium currency. Levels end up costing roughly 2.50 USD per level. The battle pass consists of 45 levels.

The game may be free-to-play and it's perfectly possible to play the game without ever spending money, but doing so puts you at a significant disadvantage. The disadvantage is felt mostly in convenience. The game is largely single player or limited co-op, it's not a primarily multiplayer game. Mechanics are made purposefully slow, limited, and inconvenient enough that purchases here and there will feel like the much better solution. This is seen in every aspect of the game, from limited inventory space that is filled with fluff and repeated items, but can be increased with various purchases, to slow to earn currencies that can instead be purchased through various means.
Everything is made obscure, confusing, and misleading, all in an attempt to convince you that spending money is indeed the best option.