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Originally Posted by
Lunafreya
And you insinuating that people who dont want to buy high priced stuff must live in trash cans is any better? I suggest you calm down. I'm not poor and neither are the majority of the anti cash shop people. We are simply passionate about the game and want content in the game. Not everyone wants loot right away in their faces for real money. Calm down.
Agreed. My concerns are not money related, or not related to my money situation.
I had a discussion recently on reddit with someone on /r/mmorpg, and I feel that him and I said it best - so I am just going to copy paste here. I am the non-quoted, the other person is the quoted text.
Well, I purchased and subscribed to the game with the understanding that there is not a cash shop. This was added later. Items are added to it are definitely not required, but a lot of the core game is not required either. Why is X item in the cash shop and Y item is obtainable in the game?
The real reason it bothers me, though, is that they are double dipping business practices. It'd be like Netflix charging monthly and then randomly down the road certain movies cost rental prices like in Google Play and iTunes. They're business model up to that point was a clear sub for all, and now they're copying the model of their free competitors in addition to charging. It'd be even more understandable with Netflix, as everything they distribute is not theirs by right vs everything Square is distributing is Square's by right.
Further, I find it worse in FFXIV than Netflix, due the nature of attachment to your progress in MMO's. In Netflix, I have no attachment to anything and can unsub quite easily. However, FFXIV hooked me and had me grow attached to friends, FC mates, static-mates, the story, my avatar and so on. After they had me hooked, they added the cash shop. It's a lot harder to just cut the cord at that point, and move to one of the better deals.
One thing that particularly bothers me with the store, as well, is that the prices are higher than Guild Wars 2 and Wildstar (2 F2P competitors).
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So if it's not worth the money they're asking, don't buy it, or find a way around it. You're not getting robbed if it was never promised to you in the first place.
I don't think you understand my concern, to be honest. I don't want the items (or most of them), and don't care that I don't have them. I simply find the business practice to be shady.
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It could be great for consumers if the game was run at-cost and didn't work for profits but just the love of the genre. There's a good amount of games that are doing that, but I don't think WoW ever was meant to be that.
True, but that isn't what I want either. Square is making more than enough revenue off of their subscription. If anything, I'd rather they raise the subscription, than have microtransactions. I'd also just support more appropriate prices (not $18 for a dress that isn't even account wide, but maybe $3 for a dress that is. I'd be surprised if they didn't get 6x the sales).
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I know that I said I wouldn't respond but I wanted to say that I did misunderstand. Your problem isn't economic as much as it is with the predatory practices. I actually completely agree. These companies take advantage of emotional attachment to make radical business changes and force unhappy customers to continue to use their product. And if there are no private servers, there's not really a place for you to go for the exact same experience. I definitely agree pricing is out of control at this point. I've never stopped being mad about League of Legends $30 skins.