Play to Win, Not Pay to Win

HabitRPG's goal is to help players improve real life habits. It "gamifies" our lives by turning all our tasks (Habits, Dailies, and To-Dos) into little monsters we have to conquer. The better we are at this, the more we progress in the game. If we slip up in life, our character starts backsliding in the game.

We earn gear to build up our avatar by improving our habits. We find random pet eggs, hatching potions, and food to create our pet stables. We also earn badges and unlock other features such as the class system and quests as we progress.

All these gaming features are available in a "free-to-play" format. Although subscriptions and gem purchases generate revenue for the game, there is no "pay to win" scenario. "Pay-to-win" is described as being able to gain a significant advantage over those playing for free. Gem purchasable items are mainly cosmetic and aesthetic, or as Tyler Renelle calls them, "avatar flair".

With the exception of quests, gem purchasable items give no advantage to our in-game stats. This would actually defeat the purpose of the game which is to motivate us to improve in our real lives. Buying backgrounds, hairstyles, and gear for our avatars does not affect our completion of our Dailies and To-Dos which is how we advance in the game.

Questing is a social accountability aspect of the game where we can join together and defeat a monster by completing our tasks. These provide extra motivation since not completing our tasks causes the monster to deal damage to us and to our questing partners. Several quests are unlocked as we progress and these give some in-game stats bonuses as rewards. Other quests can be purchased with gems, but these can be shared by several players, only one of whom needs to buy it.