After launching Tree of Savior’s open beta in the Korean servers on December 17th, publisher Nexon fully launched the game and opened up the game’s cash shop on December 29th, but it hasn’t gone smoothly. As you can see in the image above, players in the Korean server held a demonstration against the cash shop items in the game (via Reddit).
The main gripe that has caused this demonstration are the EXP books. You can purchase these with 9TP (Tree of Savior Points) and by using them you get an experience boost of 30% for an hour. They’re highly desirable as players report progression in Tree of Savior relies a lot on grinding – the EXP books offer a way to speed that up.
In short, the EXP books encourage a pay-to-win approach to playing Tree of Savior that would break the game balance. For the record: TP accumulates over time or can be purchased with real money, and 300TP is about $25.