I agree. People can learn to adjust. There are plenty of items in game that can be given as gifts. Some would even be content with a few million gil.
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I mean can't you like...give people the money so they can buy it on their own? I know it kinda ruins the secret santa vibe a bit but i dunno maybe don't put so much value into something that is basically just fueled by money without any uh...deeper feelings behind it. Maybe do it with ingame items instead of giving so much kupos about a fc event that is just people throwing money at each other.
You could also gift each other irl stuff like SE merch, there are many cool things like custom made job crystals or plushies or figures, not the expensive official ones ofc. or well even art! Just hire a forking artist to draw a friend or your fc with that money, something that has some emotional value and not a stupid emote.
Unfortunately, with all the changes being made to the game, it's clear that Square Enix is selective about who they listen to. It's not like they're a BAD company, or that this is a BAD game, but FFXIV is not good as your MAIN game. It should not be the place where you hold Secret Santas with your friends and spend tons of money. Sure, it can be a fun game, but it's not worth all of that. As you can tell, FFXIV is just...kind of struggling right now.
Try gifting to your friends on Discord, Nitro is very easy to and it's cheap. You can always farm gil to give out, as lame as that is. Or you can find another game that does support gifting and has robust online infrastructure, like World of Warcraft.
People who want to sail the high seas still have a way of obtaining tons of in-game cash using RMT, and then using that gil to obtain mounts and minions. I can't endorse that anyone do this, but it's not like the community really cares about the TOS anyway. Many, many people here deeply and truly love third-party add-ons and plugins, and then using those plugins to harass people based on their parse. It's one of the most popular components of FFXIV. Many in this thread, reading this right now, love using plugins and add-ons and parsers to break the TOS. What's RMT compared to that? Do they really have a shred of moral integrity in this debate?
I agree in part. PLEASE don't throw money at this game if you already pay a sub. The existence of the cash shop is already a blight on this game, don't make it any worse. It's just a side game in Square Enix's portfolio, a feather in their cap. Someday all of these items are going to disappear and your money will be wasted. The game is already nine years old, and it's not worth investing too much into.