You think our Cash shop is bad...take a look at THIS

All cash shops are bad, enough said. lol Also people who don't like to pay a subscription but gladly will play a mediocre game just because it's free and end up paying more money for the crappy items in cash shop are bad for gaming, too. Companies who milk on this and take advantage of people by charging them absurd amounts of money are just as bad. I really don't understand this symbiotic yet ridiculous and stupid relationship betwen the two. These kind of people like to get ripped off and companies like ripping people off. It's just too perfect.

There is no less bad cash shop than others. All are equally bad. Sadly it seems like this system is going to keep on going unless they come up with a better way to generate income. The same cheap $15 a month stayed but the cost of development increased and it's just going to get worse. With so many free games out there people just expect to not having to spend a dime on anything and even think $15 a month is too much while spending way more on F2P games. P2P needs to stay afloat or we'll end up with all the game market full of crappy mediocre "pretty" looking games with no soul of their own. Expecting another game market crash like the one in the 80's.

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

You make it sound like these options are mutually exclusive. Those old items used to be available on seasonal event vendors for a tiny amount of gil, while new items you would get from the quest or some other participation.

It's not like seasonal items could never be obtained again before the cash shop, nor did we have to give up having new items for them to reappear.

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I know that they were available during subsequent events. However, rather than stuffing in-game vendors with increasing numbers of items from previous events SE chose this course. I'm neutral on whether it was a good or bad thing. I can see positives either way. One of those positives is that this method preserves the rarity or exclusivity of items obtained during seasonal events which encourages participation, to obtain the items. The flip side is that the items are no longer available from vendors in-game. There is an offsetting benefit in either direction.

I like that continually adding new seasonal items in game keeps seasonal events fresh. I like that making such items limited time only in-game encourages participation. I guess the alternative would be to simply retire the items completely. But we all know that there would be a chorus of requests to add the items back somehow, just look at the continual requests for the lightning event gear.

I imagine that there is plenty of interesting gear from 1.0-1.23 that people would love to see. That gear is permanently retired from the game. If you haven't got it, you're not going to get it unless a bolt of lightning strikes your retainer and carries them back through time to obtain something. I definitely do NOT want to see that kind of gear in the cash shop.

Finally, if making items that are effectively retired from the seasonal events provides additional revenue that can be put back into developing more content for the game, ultimately I see that as a positive thing.

I'm quite sure a "second" video game crash is going to come from a lot of other factors (shoddy quality, indie devs with too big of an ego, season passes, etc). Cash shops are a drop in the ocean.

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Originally Posted by Skivvy

The FFXIV cash shop is bad. Outside of world transfers and fantasias, everything else should obtainable in game only (IMO).

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And only obtainable in those specific events and not reused in the coming events next years.

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Originally Posted by Tyla_Esmeraude

gladly will play a mediocre game just because it's free and end up paying more money for the crappy items in cash shop are bad for gaming, too. Companies who milk on this and take advantage of people by charging them absurd amounts of money are just as bad. I really don't understand this symbiotic yet ridiculous and stupid relationship betwen the two.

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It's easy to understand and the reasons you've pretty much got right there. A lot of the time, F2P measures are distasteful to game developers too. It's really only the business side that has a hard on for it. But game devs are forced because, more and more, people aren't willing to spend any amount of money up front. Business leaders within a company love it because, well, F2P works very well from a business perspective: easy to hook customers and, as you point out, they end up paying more.

Subs are somewhat attractive because of the stability and steady income but it's a hard sell. And yeah, most people think $15/mo is a lot when they then turn around and pay their cable co often well over $100, and then their cell provider again over $100/mo in many cases.

But $50 for that really cute armor set, maybe a $10 exp boost to help them along, throw in some premium dyes to make said armor look cuter, and people will pay that happily... and again every time a new one is released...

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

But $50 for that really cute armor set, maybe a $10 exp boost to help them along, throw in some premium dyes to make said armor look cuter, and people will pay that happily... and again every time a new one is released...

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Unfortunately many people are willing to be the dripping roast that game publishers feed from. Far fewer see the up-front investment of purchase and/or subscription as worthwhile because they look at the individual $$ amounts and see that the game costs $40 or $60, and the sub is $15 a month, but all those microtransactions are only $0.99-$4.99 (or whatever) and they do not consider that all the microtransactions ultimately add up, quite possibly adding up to more than the sub or game purchase, but it's a drip, drip, drip expense and so not as visible as a one off chunk each month.

How is this even close to being as bad as FFXIV's cash shop? A mount is $25, a barding is $7, a phantasia is $10, an earring is $3. If I were a new player I'd have to spend what, over several hundred buying these items? Tell me, do the majority of players care about emotes or actual visible gear and mounts? FFXIV is a close second to having the worst model for a P2P game, WoW being the first.

FFXIV's cash shop is indeed still reasonable... except for one thing - retainers.

I could live with buying additional retainers for 10$ etc, but paying additional sub fee? It doesn't matter how small the fee is, it seems nuts.

Cash shop with reasonably priced items is far better than $40-$60 merch with in-game pack-in codes exclusive to that merch.

DGAS about the merch, I just want the minions.

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Originally Posted by Archaell

FFXIV's cash shop is indeed still reasonable... except for one thing - retainers.

I could live with buying additional retainers for 10$ etc, but paying additional sub fee? It doesn't matter how small the fee is, it seems nuts.

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From a business standpoint, it's one of the most brilliant moves in the industry. Previous games that sell inventory space only get a one time fee; MMO market standard sub fee has basically been stagnant. Yoshi finally found a way to increase it, while not scaring off (more) new players with an even higher monthly fee.

As a player, though, yeah, it sucks.