World of Warcraft players on the game's official subreddit are currently deep in a debate surrounding a tricky question that has reared its head multiple times as of late in the game's community: Is WoW pay-to-win, i.e. does spending money on the game via microtransactions result in faster or better character progression?

The conversation was started by reddit user Citrinitas696, who began the topic with a provocative question: "How is WoW not p2w? Disprove this image." As of writing, the reddit thread has more than 1,300 comments.

At the center of the debate is whether or not the game's WoW Token is, in essence, a method of pay-to-win. First introduced in 2015 during the game's Warlords of Draenor expansion, the WoW Token serves multiple purposes. For players who need in-game gold, they can purchase the WoW Token from Blizzard for $20. That token, which is good for 30 days of game time that normally must be bought with real-world money, can then be sold in-game via WoW's auction house for gold. The cycle looks like this: