Free hand-outs?

[Shirai]

No more or less ridiculous than receiving top tier abjurations, cursed gear and UNM weapons/gear. We already get the currency given to us via goblin chests.

Serious question: at what point do you consider the rewards too much?

As long as it stays a gamble it's all the same to me. Your chances of actually recieving something good are pretty slim as it is.
The Unity thing is a double roulette already, you're not getting the gear/items directly from the gob but a reward chest, which may contain a high level item but usually contains crap.
As for the abjuration dial; Even if you get a top tier abjuration you'll still have to buy the cursed item and most of the time the gob'll hand you worthless level 75 era abjurations to use as toilet wipes.

I'll probably go "Hold on, wait a second" once moogles and goblins start handing out free R/E/M weapons, or when you can use that dial more than once a day per character.

[Fae]

I honestly forget to do it most the time b/c things so luck based seem a waste of time to me [In regards to dials]

[Shirai]

So what?! If that is the reason they're still playing, let them!
They are also part of the reason that you and them and me are still able to play and enjoy this game. It's also their subscription that keeps this game going.

And if you think your world is so bad, move to a more populated one. It's what all the cool kids do these days.

[Diavolo]

So what?! If that is the reason they're still playing, let them!
They are also part of the reason that you and them and me are still able to play and enjoy this game. It's also their subscription that keeps this game going.

You think casual players paying for stuff to be handed to them are what's keeping the game alive? Interesting.

[detlef]

You think casual players paying for stuff to be handed to them are what's keeping the game alive? Interesting.

Heh every one of your posts is dripping with condescension. Is that intentional?

Unity drops are like what, 3rd tier and dropping? I had some misgivings with the abjuration dial, but in the end body drops were far more uncommon so really it was just a nice treat for a handful of lucky players. Those free dark matter augments probably ruined the game in your eyes.

I'm not understanding who is actually hurt. Is there a better argument than some casual getting a Jovian Body abjuration won't join a Pakecet shout group?

[Pixela]

You think casual players paying for stuff to be handed to them are what's keeping the game alive? Interesting.

It's amusing you think it's not, as a now filthy casual I spend more on this game than you in a month by a large margin (my level 1 alts that exist purely for gobbie boxes alone probably put more money into the game than you do with your min/maxed characters). Also it's worth keeping in mind that with my massive amount of characters all getting "hand outs" I still don't have even 1 single set of abjurations complete or even 1/10th of UNM drops I want (and I lose no sleep over that fact either). What keeps this game alive and getting updates is money, updates are what keep people playing. Nobody is going to get all the items they want from hand-outs, the only way you'll do that is by doing the content and if your friends are all capped out it's because of double drops which you take full advantage of and not gob events.

The "hand outs" are for fun, little more than that. You can't gear a character with any of them and you sure ain't capping out, if I can't with my little army of characters than nobody can (outside of immense luck).

[Diavolo]

Those free dark matter augments probably ruined the game in your eyes.

Viewing the issue in black and white as you just did there is why you have trouble understanding the other side of the argument.

This isn't about one person (casual or otherwise), one drop or one specific type of content. It's thousands of items given away daily, affecting everyone to some degree, both positively and negatively, like the brief examples I mentioned earlier in the thread.

If those goblin NPCs were handing items from outdated content no one plays anymore or crafted gear no one bothers making anymore that's one thing, but they've been handing out rewards from the newest areas of the game. Ask yourself, does Final Fantasy XI need to be doing this to keep its subscriber numbers up? If the answer is yes, why? I'm genuinely interested in your response.

This topic brings to mind the old proverb about giving a man a fish vs teaching him how to catch it. The dev team is giving us all a fish (or chunk of rock salt) every day.

It's amusing you think it's not, as a now filthy casual I spend more on this game than you in a month by a large margin (my level 1 alts that exist purely for gobbie boxes alone probably put more money into the game than you do with your min/maxed characters). Also it's worth keeping in mind that with my massive amount of characters all getting "hand outs" I still don't have even 1 single set of abjurations complete or even 1/10th of UNM drops I want (and I lose no sleep over that fact either). What keeps this game alive and getting updates is money, updates are what keep people playing. Nobody is going to get all the items they want from hand-outs, the only way you'll do that is by doing the content and if your friends are all capped out it's because of double drops which you take full advantage of and not gob events.

Again, black and white - you assume that if you get all the gear you want from the goblin dials then it has a negative impact on the game, but if you only get a select few pieces it has no impact whatsoever.

This isn't about me vs you either (re: money spent). This game only exists today because of the millions of players that it has attracted over its almost 14 year existence. While the population numbers today are a far cry from where they once were, it's probably safe to say the vast majority of active accounts are played by people who would continue playing even if the hand outs came to an end.

[Pixela]

Again, black and white - you assume that if you get all the gear you want from the goblin dials then it has a negative impact on the game, but if you only get a select few pieces it has no impact whatsoever.

This isn't about me vs you either (re: money spent). This game only exists today because of the millions of players that it has attracted over its almost 14 year existence. While the population numbers today are a far cry from where they once were, it's probably safe to say the vast majority of active accounts are played by people who would continue playing even if the hand outs came to an end.

Of course but ending the events would lead to a large drop in profits, or are you saying ending them would usher in a large wave of new players?

[detlef]

Viewing the issue in black and white as you just did there is why you have trouble understanding the other side of the argument.

This isn't about one person (casual or otherwise), one drop or one specific type of content. It's thousands of items given away daily, affecting everyone to some degree, both positively and negatively, like the brief examples I mentioned earlier in the thread.

If those goblin NPCs were handing items from outdated content no one plays anymore or crafted gear no one bothers making anymore that's one thing, but they've been handing out rewards from the newest areas of the game. Ask yourself, does Final Fantasy XI need to be doing this to keep its subscriber numbers up? If the answer is yes, why? I'm genuinely interested in your response.

This topic brings to mind the old proverb about giving a man a fish vs teaching him how to catch it. The dev team is giving us all a fish (or chunk of rock salt) every day.

You completely ignored that part of my post and focused on my comment on dark matter. Let me get this straight then. Adoulin dial is okay because Delve and Skirmish are outdated. But Unity is pretty much outdated too. I'm sort of with you on abjurations but I think the body abjurations were sufficiently rare to render the argument moot.

Now, as for whether FFXI needs to be doing this to maintain subscriber numbers... Who knows? I think people appreciate these campaigns not only for the free gear but also as a reassurance that the game is still alive. When the dev team comes up with something new and inventive, I like that. Maybe that thing is new content like Ambuscade, maybe it's something that's arguably worthless like the patio. Maybe it's something that a small minority will appreciate like mounts. And maybe it's a new way of giving treats to the playerbase. I don't personally need any help getting abjurations, but somebody out there was genuinely happy to get something. I ignored dark matter augments, so 6 free ones per day was amazing (and let's be real, no reasonable person was already doing dark matter augments so that didn't negatively affect anybody).

We all know the saying about giving a man a fish versus teaching a man to fish. How about "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." Okay, you hate the idea of a Jovian Body abjuration loading for a random person. So how would you get that person to farm Pakecet instead? Maybe instead of giving out abjurations, SE could give out NM triggers. But now I ask you, is that really going to make people do the content? It's not that I think giving people free stuff will get them to do content, I just don't think anything short of nerfing things will get people to do things they wouldn't otherwise do. So if a given player was never going to do Pakecet anyway, then sure, give him a chance for a Jovian Body. What's the harm?

[Ketaru]

All of the UNM materials have crashed hard in price, so it does effect the economy. Look at that person who spends a lot of RL money and time with all those mules just to do this campaign lol. I can't believe people would do that just for UNM, you realize how easy to kill most of these are?

If you're worried about the economy, I hope you extend your opposition to double accolades, double unity coffer drops, double personal loot from Escha NMs, and double personal REM drops from high tier battlefields. Those have done more to affect the prices of highly coveted consumables than any once-per-day freebie box ever would.

With the fervor in this thread, as well as the name, you'd think thread was about social welfare programs or something.