The Original Free-to-Play Pledge

The free-to-play pledge is a promise made by Nexon that basically details what their philosophy is regarding the Black Market. It's a much debated part of Combat Arms, especially with specialists available without rank requirements and NX-exclusives.

The following is the original text of the Pledge:

First, Combat Arms will never cost a penny to play. Period.

Second, we believe that in any first-person shooter, being able to use real money to buy an uber gun sucks. It makes the game dependant on money and not skill (thus defeating the purpose of Free-to-Play), and skill is what a first-person shooter is all about. No point in competing if some new guy has a mystical weapon with magic bullets that always seem to find your head.

So, no weapons will be bought with Nexon Cash. Ever.

If you're looking for the Golden Gun that will help you pwn everything with one shot, look elsewhere, because it's not here. Skills are not bought, they are earned.

You want that new, awesome weapon? Keep playing, and you'll eventually get it. All players will be on an equal footing weapon-wise (grenades included). We make money by selling the cosmetic items — stuff like shades, different uniforms, helmets, etc. Nothing game balance related is sold in the Cash Shop, and it's going to stay that way.

You won't have to pay a subscription fee either. Every single one of Nexon's games are Free-to-Play, and subscription free. You need a free Nexon Passport to play, and that's it. If you have one already, just download the client and start playing. In addition, don't expect to be bombarded with endless ads — we don't expect you to pay not to see them. We want gun clicks, not mouse clicks.

That's our promise to the player base, and we're going to keep it. 

Notice my emphasis of "...no weapons will be bought with Nexon Cash."
Shortly after the BM was released, it was changed to "So, no unbalanced weapons will be bought with Nexon Cash."

The current Pledge is a lot longer and contains more details. It is accessible via the main page by a button labeled "What does free to play mean?"

Did you know? 
Nexon has sued 4 hacking websites, with 3 stopping their Combat Arms exploitation activities.