In PlanetSide 2, people with a membership will receive certain bonuses and weapons. Many have taken this badly and vocalised their distaste at Sony Online Entertainment, claiming this would give unfair advantages.

Matt Higby, creative director of PlanetSide 2, explained why this is not true: "As much as I want to give you the definitive answer that PlanetSide 2 is not pay-to-win, it turns out it’s actually a fairly personal question, and people define what exactly pay-to-win is in their own way."...

He stated that free-to-play players will have no restrictions regarding to the usage of weapons, armor and vehicles. Higby: “No weapon, vehicle, attachment, continent, class, or certification is unavailable to you as a free player. Everything and anything that can affect gameplay is available to unlock through gameplay. This is a big deal.”

Higby also assured us that payed members will have no advantage in a one on one gunfight, the best player will be the victor. 

“Our goal is to make it so that any fight you have in the game with another player is entirely won or lost based on that player’s skill, rather than how much money they’ve spent or how much time they’ve invested in the game. We want a player who is badass at shooters and has just jumped into PlanetSide 2 for the first time to kick ass at it without spending a dime, and they will, because the ultimate arbiter of your success or failure in the game is your own personal skills (be they driving, firing, teamwork, tactics, etc.) and not which gun you bought.”

So you may think, what do people with a membership get then? From the information that's out now it will include: cosmetic accessories, passive 50 percent boost to offline/online certification accrual, XP, and resource rates. They will also get priority in login queues.

“What these benefits don’t do is give the guy who spends money on this game some overwhelming advantage that a free player has no access to." 

Are you tempted to become a member, and do you think the advantages of payed members are fair?