That's good, there is a reason that there is segmentation even in the luxury segment. Whales compete against each other (you clearly don't *need* any of the top premium expansions). If everyone can have it, it's not a differentiator anymore.
Even whales (I find the term rather inappropriate, because in my opinion it implies stupidity on the whale's part, whereas in most cases it's just an addiction-prone personality, as Jim Sterling accurately describes in many of his videos, or just people being rich and not caring) aren't usually committed in going all in when it comes to those premium expansions. Still it's interesting to note that even players that are clearly "whales" or at least "dolphins" such as myself prefer to invest in more efficient ways such as magic residences rather than buying more space? The divide between the value offered by pretty much anything else which costs diamonds and the last few premium expansions is so huge it's not even worth it to all but the most dedicated of "whales", which is my main point.
A disclaimer: I personally think that one should be able to use their hard-earned money however they wish, including virtual goods, if it makes them feel better. I myself literally burn 250 to 300 euros per week in ammo at the shooting range, and while I limit my diamond purchases to offers and about 100 euros every 3 months or so, if someone wants to spend 300 euros a week in Elvenar, then by all means he should go for it if he can afford it. The only problem is when "whales" are coerced through exploitative tactics such as FOMO, lootboxes, that kind of thing. Inno is not as exploitative as many other companies, but some critics could be made in that sense, starting from the implementation of veritable lootboxes in the last events (which I personally don't mind, I actually think these new events require less if not no diamond investment in order to get the grand prize, or in this case a level 9 evolution thing, which a guildie of mine managed to get already without using real money), but my main gripe is the ever-growing need for land space in order to finish questlines, and the price of premium expansions going up exponentially.
You keep using examples of actual real life items that you can buy, own and touch, land in this game is not real, you don't own it and you can't touch it although you can buy it and that is where the similarity ends. In my opinion you can't compare real life items with virtual items but like i said that is just my opinion and maybe you disagree. I feel that we will never agree on this subject so it is pointless continuing the disscusion so therefore i am going to leave it there.
I don't think there's any difference between something you can own and touch and something that isn't "real", but rather something that lasts for a long time and something that doesn't. See my example above - bullets are very real, I can touch them, and they even weight quite a lot - yet at the end of a session they're just spent casings (which can be reloaded to save some money at the cost of time, but that's another matter). So going by that example, buying stuff in Elvenar lasts me more than bullets - my regular session averaging 3 hours. Of course I bring home fun, experience, interactions with range buddies, and so on - the final point being, both are hobbies, and both don't really get you anything "solid". Unless a zombie apocalypse hits that is, in that case my hobby will prove a most useful investment.
(some would indeed consider abandoning a game they deem too expensive)
