I was reading Kill Ten Rats review of Age of Wushu and came to the description of the cash shop: "The cash shop is an unmitigated disaster, with not a single item which becomes permanent to the player. Every item, cosmetic or not, has an expiration timer. Yes, you are basically renting." I very much agree with that assessment: Buying virtual stuff somehow feels a lot better than just renting it.

I'm relatively okay with the kind of virtual purchases that basically increase your xp or virtual currency gain for some time, whether that is in the form of a "premium subscription" or some sort of double xp scroll. But I absolutely hate the Asian games in which the gear you buy comes with a timer. I prefer to play games at my own rhythm, and I hate thinking that I "have to" play a certain game now, before something I bought expires.

My preferred items in any item store are those that not only last forever, but also are useful forever. For example more inventory space is something that you might buy early in your career and then use as long as you play that game. In comparison to that buying some sort of weapon or armor is probably not useful all that long, because there are game mechanics in place where you just outlevel that gear. For the same reason I don't like buying resources in a game that is about resource management, because they usually just speed up your progress for a little while and then are gone. But items you "use up", like gear or resources, are still better than items that might expire while you still have use for them.