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The NX/GP Imbalance is the ever-growing gap between the players who use NX and players who only use GP.
Overview
At the beginning of the game, there was no Black Market; players could only use GP items. There was really no dissent about this, since every user stood on even ground against each other. While a small minority of players might have lamented that there were no premium weapons to choose from, they probably had no idea of what was to come later.
To support a "high-running" game like Combat Arms, Nexon soon released a CA-styled "Cash Shop" known as the Black Market. At the time, it promised to only offer cosmetic variants of items (to maintain the balance in-game and keep things fair), which they did. Weapons were either given a whole new look with the same stats (such as Gold-Plated items), adhering to the then-unedited Free-to-Play Pledge, and players didn't really seem to indifferent about it. Most users didn't see a reason to buy such a flashy weapon, other than for "prestige," because it offered the same benefits the standard version of the weapon. Players might have remarked to a player with a Cosmetic Variant, "Hey! Nice gun!", or chided them about spending NX for no reason. Possibly because of their (low?) popularity, Nexon decided to take a different approach on things, forsaking any previous commitments.
However, this soon changed when Nexon released the M416 CQB, a gun hailed by many to be OP by means of having little to no recoil.. It was a major improvement to the GP-standard M416. Soon thereafter, many content updates, mid-month supply drops and new weapons that were introduced are mostly NX-only, with a few exceptions once every two or three months. To make things worse, they edited their 'Free to Play Pledge' to adhere to their now-unreasonable standards. More and more weapons were released without a GP variant (AA-12, Ultimax 100, M21E, WA-2000, AN-94, REC-7, M960, M110 SASS, M1866, G3, CZ805) or had a GP variant which was rendered obselete due to the fact that the NX version of the weapon is more reliable and has better stats (M416 CQB, M39 EMR Desert, ACR Sandfire, M6A2 SRT, FAMAS G2, F2000 Tactical, SG556, MTAR-21, AUG-A3, M14 SE, AK-74M, G18 Cobra) whether it was damage increase, more portability/accuracy or less recoil.
Furthermore, NX users have frequent access to permanent weapons, costing only a mere 20,000 - 30,000 NX, whereas GP users get permanent GP weapon sales only once or twice a year and spend almost all of their hard-earned GP, from as much as 75,000 GP to 200,000 GP!!
On December 18, 2013, the Combat Arms team released a new type of system in which players could have access to permanent GP and NX weapons: the TAU Weapon Upgrade. This system allows players to collect Nanotechs from the Roulette Wheel and exchange them for the GP standard variant of a certain weapon family (Further details can be read about on this page). The first "base" TAU weapon in Combat Arms history being the M417 TAU. With this new system of "earning" weapons, the NX/GP imbalance controversy could finally cease and sit at a standstiill. Whether this system is permanent, or a way for Nexon to attract more players and potential customers is unknown to the general public, yet is very promising in the rewards it ensures.