"Add all DLC to Cart" - Mogstation Cash Shop is akin to a Train Simulator Price Tag

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Originally Posted by Volgia

To me the idea of a potion skip is horrible because it means that the leveling experience in FF14 is so bad you'd rather pay to not have to go through it.

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It actually means "going through the storyline a second (or third, or fourth) time on an alt is so time consuming that only having to work through 10 levels is much preferred". (My favorite)

It also means "I'm only here for the end-game raiding, so who cares about the story?"

It also means "What do you mean I have another 80 quests to get from ARR to HW storyline? That's 1/3 of the entire expansion!" (Subsequent expansions settled on a more sedate 50-somthing-or-less [mostly in the 40s] post x.0 MSQ quests)

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Originally Posted by Stormpeaks

"you can either look terrible or you can shell up the money, you dont need to look good in the game you can just look terrible for free !"

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There are PLENTY of good looking glamour you can make in game.

The only thing i personally think is absurd is holiday items.
Other mmo's put those in the holiday event permanently and you can just pick it up next go around. this one tosses it on the store lmao

I mean, it's a lot of money and it's not entirely great - But in the same vein, there's no real reason to buy every single item from the Mogstation...

I would say it's exorbitant a bit with seasonal items (e.g., seasonal items I think should just be available in subsequent events for tokens from a repeatable quest to add a bit more playability to those). But I wouldn't call it predatory, which is where I would draw more of a line with it.

I don't fault people for taking a distaste for it, or if they find it scummy, matter of opinion and all - I just personally think there's far, far, far worse out there. I also think there are far, far worse things they could've done with the store.

Honestly it does seem a little too capitalist that there is an abundance of cash shop only items that is continually updated with new material while in game content such as variants have so little rewards offered that there is no point in doing them more than once.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

Snip.

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What people say and what they do can be different, and scouring forum posts isn't exactly accurate data.

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth

And no one has bought literally every item in the cash shop.

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Thanks for your input. Doesn't have any bearing on the total of all the items available for purchase, though.

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Originally Posted by SieyaM

Honestly it does seem a little too capitalist that there is an abundance of cash shop only items that is continually updated with new material while in game content such as variants have so little rewards offered that there is no point in doing them more than once.

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Even if one single content piece only gets one reward attached to it and no future updates, content as a whole is regularly having more rewards added, far more than what goes on the cash shop. There are loads in Island Sanctuary, there's the one from Tataru's questline, three new PVP outfits, four from Variants, regular glamour-from-maps and all the endgame gear as well.

They're not going to keep adding new rewards to the individual piece of content though. Everything just gets whatever it gets when it's released, and those are the rewards permanently.

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Originally Posted by Stormpeaks

"you can either look terrible or you can shell up the money, you dont need to look good in the game you can just look terrible for free !"

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This is a wrong way to go about the critique imo, because it just opens you up to people saying (truthfully) that there are nice glams in the game.
The real issue with the cash shop is that this game is already buy to play and subscription based with an extremely minimal/scarce content rollout schedule (a major update every 4 month means 3 updates a year). Some games go free to play but have a cash shop full of skips and mounts and pretty clothes to fund its regular updates (maplestory for example). Some games are buy to play and then have optional monthly subs that you can use to get extra benefits while also having a cash shop with outfits and time savers (bdo for example). But then you have other games, like this one, where they have the audacity to really try and have their cake and eat it too. These people want you to buy the base game, buy the expansion when it comes out, pay every month, *and* there's a cash shop, while the content rollout resembles a game that's preparing to enter maintenance mode. That's my point of contention at least. There are 3 monetization methods discussed here: b2p, monthly sub, cash shop. Most games do 2 out of 3. Square does all 3 and then where does the money go? People say they're fine with it because the money is going back into the game, but is it? Content rollouts taking longer, jobs getting dumbed down, more and more stuff being arbitrarily removed from the dev cycle, whole staff departments pulled to work on other games. Like let's be real; XIV money is used to fund other projects. Which is normal for a company to do, but some of you guys haven't realized it yet or choose not to.

Anyway that's the issue imo. This game's got 2 solid monetization methods, but it opts for a third while the game's pretty sparse and could just use that content in the game. And then the money they generate seems to just go anywhere but here.

The cash shop is there for those who are looking for a few extras and don't mind paying real money. No one has to buy anything from it to be able to enjoy the game.

I'm not looking for story skips or job boosts. Why would I pay extra to skip the core game experience?

I don't need Fantasias as I consider what I want my character to look like when I first create it. Being able to change hair style and color through Jandelaine is enough for me. If I really want a character that looks different, I'll create a new one since I enjoy replaying MSQ.

I'm sitting on a huge amount of General Purpose dyes I've gotten back through retainer ventures. I don't need to buy them from the cash shop.

I've got thousands of items to choose from for glamour in the game. I'm fine without the few dozens on the cash shop.

More or less the same for mounts and minions. The number we can earn through game play far exceeds what's on the cash shop.

As long as the cash shop remains a very limited source of cosmetic items and the vast majority continue to be earned through game play, I don't see the problem.

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Originally Posted by KenZentra

How is stating a undeniable fact being disingenuous? Roughly, the total price of all cash shop items combined is $5,417.36 USD

I don't know why are you are trying to equate a virtual shop for a online video game to being the same as a real life clothing store. Aside from, you buy thing and see thing, there really isn't a comparison to be made. If anything, it being a virtual shop for a online video game, the total price should be considerably lower since you can't run out of anything on sale.

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In addition, virtual items are just computer code. Ultimately, you are paying for something which doesn't exist in the real world. It should be cheaper since you are just adding a little bit of code to your virtual character.

The work needs to only be done once. Afterwards, the company has the potential for to sell unlimited copies with no labor or material cost which means Square Enix is making 100% profit on cash shop items. In those conditions, does it really make sense to have items which cost $45.00 US Dollars?