Eorzea's Voice (Change): Gathering Opinions for Ze Cash Shop

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Originally Posted by Nici

A question comes to mind tho...why when a company like blizzard has such a cash shop in place almost no one says anything?...as far as i can remember there was no major negative feedback when it was implemented like SE is getting now for the implementation of their own cash shop, although its been many years my memory might be faulting so there may have been, but as it stands now its been fine.

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There was the same type of complaining by some people on their forums when it launched but then after awhile nobody cared.

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Originally Posted by Zumi

There was the same type of complaining by some people on their forums when it launched but then after awhile nobody cared.

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Which will also happen here. One can only complain for so long until they finally realize that nothing changed.

If it's stuff we get from veteran's reward at a later date, I'm cool with it.

Will things change? Probably not, doesn't mean it's a great idea.

A subscription based game should not have a cash shop. Simple as that.

Opinions are like... you know what. That being said, and for what it's worth:

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Originally Posted by Yshnal

1) Before the introduction of the cash shop you could buy past years' event items for a small gil fee. Now you have to pay real cash, just because.

2) As the dev. team doesn't have unlimited time, it means that part of the time that would otherwise go to develop things for everyone to enjoy will go now to the cash shop.

3) We're more than sure that they'll throw the cool looking designs to the cash shop, and the normal/ugly ones will be the ones that we'll get for "free". You don't have to be very smart to see that, as they want to be able to SELL them, not having them sitting there with no sales.

4) We already had this discussion when the extra retainers were introduced, with people saying "it won't get worse, you're paranoid", "it's just retainers, they won't put a cash shop", and "I'm sure that ventures will be hard to get", among other excuses. History is repeating again, and some people keep their blindfolds no matter what.

5) We're already paying a sub, and the game is very successful. SE doesn't need the money and, coupled with 1), it's a slap in the face of all of their customers. In other words, this not very customer friendly, and we're in our right to voice our concerns (and even stop paying if we so want).

6) Just because it's vanity that doesn't mean that it doesn't matter. Everyone plays (or has been playing for over 4 years) the game for a reason, and they're in their right to enjoy it doing whatever they want to do. Just because you only care about raids that doesn't mean that other people shouldn't enjoy collecting vanity items (see housing, for instance). Getting some of it out of their reach all of a sudden is a cheap move on SE's part.

7) Minions attached to physical items don't fall under a cash shop category, even if they're almost crossing the line. After all, what you're supposed to be buying is the physical thing, and the minion is a gift. Not to mention that physical items can't be produced as fast as digital ones, so this doesn't have the same screwing potential as a cash shop does.

8) Expansions are NOT the same thing as this. The price of it VS it's value regarding content, systems, etc. is more fair that paying 2-5€ for a single digital item.

9) If we wanted to have a cash shop we could be playing another MMO, even those P2P ones that already had one. Maybe we were here partly because it didn't have that "feature"?

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As it stands now there are several vanity items which are no longer obtainable. Items like the "Snow" and "Lightning" outfits as well as the XIII weapon skins. FFXI and DQ minions are unavailable to any player who had missed or started after the special event. Do we expect them to run these special events indefinitely?

Maybe you joined or came back to the game a week after the summer event ended, and you just love the way the yukatas look. What effect does it have on the player community if a person chooses to spend extra money on an item that is seasonal or previously but no longer available in game?

Why not add these items to a cash shop?

Is it a sentiment of "I was there and you weren't" mentality similar to how some people feel about echo in the coil?

They aren't selling instant Atma --> Animus --> Novus --> Nexus upgrades here.

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Originally Posted by Yshnal

Opinions are like... you know what. That being said, and for what it's worth:

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Mmm.. I forgot for a little bit of time that extra Retainers were an extra thing.

I do not think SE will hold to its word, and not because they've flip flopped on other issues. Already I'm seeing players attempting to justify p2w deals on the cash shop. Even with Yoshida's assurances, SE is a company at the end of the day. And I believe they will give in to the temptation and attempt to sucker new and existing players with deals to go buy advancement, items, or levels. And people will defend it, saying that "its not bis, so its OK." , "money will never buy skill." Or "its only DoH."

The fact of the matter is this is not the first company that claimed to have made a vanity only cash shop. And if wouldn't be the last to renege on that promise if it did.

A cash shop is nothing like buying a soundtrack that comes with a code for an in-game item. The soundtrack/book/doll/etc has value beyond just a slip of paper inside. Someone may buy the item solely for the code, but that doesn't take away the fact that you are paying for and investing in more than just that one aspect of the purchase. I'm okay with investing in items like this. I know what all I'm getting out of the deal and am happy with that.

I'm very disappointed that they are going the cash shop route, especially since it is still vague as to how this revenue will be used. At the London festival they gave examples of how it theoretically could be used, but nothing listed concretely. That they are adding the shop in 2.4 yet don't know clearly how they are using that additional income makes me hesitant to invest in it. If I knew with certainty that buying a Slepnir mount directly went to housing server expansion, for example, I'd probably be more open to it. Transparency on the shop regarding what these funds are going towards would do a lot to ease those concerns and show goodwill to the player base that the development team's future focus is not going to be using their resources to pack the shop, that they will continue to bring solid content and vanity to regular subscribers who don't use the shop.

Finally, 'pay to win' cash shops are not the only kind that can be harmful or negative to customers. I've seen vanity shop systems, such as the one in TERA, which can be just as unpleasant. I want to know that Yoshida and the XIV team will not go this route over time either.