Mog Station is overpriced.

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Originally Posted by Vejjiegirl

Until level 30, +30% EXP Bonus

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This isn't in defense to SE, more consumer education. This shouldn't be a selling point when there is a "Brand New Ring" in-game that has the same bonus in one slot for 10 mins of effort and better stats via the Novice Tutorial for free.

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Originally Posted by Zojha

Inb4 some idiot brings up it's "optional" again, not realizing that whether something is "optional" or not depends entirely on the wants of the individual.

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Wants, not needs.

Oh boy, I can't wait to watch the forums melt down for a week over these.

Too bad texture swapping isn't a thing in this game...or at least I've never seen or heard of it happening in this thing.

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Originally Posted by Blood-Aki

People demanded these items, so of course they will put them in at steep prices, Because they know people will pay them, This was asked for.

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Originally Posted by Lunafreya

I meant the price :P They already did this for the chinese dress lolllllll

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These items are the same price, after conversion, as they were for the Chinese and Korean audience. They did not get these items for free, they paid for them just like us and they paid in equivalent value. Why is there such an expectation to get these items for less than their original audience paid for them?

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Originally Posted by Celef

Yeah cause why make it a PoD rewad ? -_-

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Cause guys will be all where's our dress? Inequality!!! grrface

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Originally Posted by LillithCale

These items are the same price, after conversion, as they were for the Chinese and Korean audience. They did not get these items for free, they paid for them just like us and they paid in equivalent value. Why is there such an expectation to get these items for less than their original audience paid for them?

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This right here is the reason.

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Originally Posted by ReplicaX

This isn't in defense to SE, more consumer education. This shouldn't be a selling point when there is a "Brand New Ring" in-game that has the same bonus in one slot for 10 mins of effort and better stats via the Novice Tutorial for free.

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Agreed. For the price of these items though, they should be account wide, not character specific. The XP bonus is pretty pointless since you don't really want to be wearing those 3 pieces at level 15+ instead of real gear, the defensive and stat bonuses are of course not there, and no amount of bonus XP will compensate for eating the floor repeatedly.

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Originally Posted by LillithCale

These items are the same price, after conversion, as they were for the Chinese and Korean audience. They did not get these items for free, they paid for them just like us and they paid in equivalent value. Why is there such an expectation to get these items for less than their original audience paid for them?

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I agree with you. However, for the rather steep price (regardless of whether it is the same as the original items in the original markets), these items should have been account wide. All the items from the original 7/11 promotion that were brought over were account wide, and that is as it should be. I have a problem with glamour items, mounts and minions being character specific instead of account wide. Other than that though the shop really doesn't have a huge amount of things, and doesn't really detract from the game, while at the same time generating increased revenue that can be plowed (and has been) back into the game.

I can't imagine many people investing in these glamour items for their Alts, and I would suggest that in actuality, more people would buy them if they were account wide since the perceived value would be higher. I think making them character specific limited sales a bit, and making them account wide not only be good PR, but would also increase sales.

But, what do I know, I'm only a customer.

PS. Fantasia needs an account wide option too.

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Originally Posted by Caitlyn

New Items! Same price like the old chinese dress ^^.

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While the dress is beautiful (and the yellow is especially lovely on your character, btw), it's really bothering me how more and more items are being designed to put into the cash shop, rather than the the game, when they are still charging us for a subscription. Heck, they charge more for these items than several good F2P games, and in at least one of those, I don't even have to spend real money on their account-wide costumes...

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Originally Posted by Naunet

While the dress is beautiful (and the yellow is especially lovely on your character, btw), it's really bothering me how more and more items are being designed to put into the cash shop, rather than the the game, when they are still charging us for a subscription. Heck, they charge more for these items than several good F2P games, and in at least one of those, I don't even have to spend real money on their account-wide costumes...

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To be fair, these items were not designed for our market, and were brought to our market upon request. They were not designed specifically for the cash shop here, so I don't think your argument specifically applies to them. The twin seat moogle mount is a pretty good argument to make in that regard though.

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

I agree with you. However, for the rather steep price (regardless of whether it is the same as the original items in the original markets), these items should have been account wide. All the items from the original 7/11 promotion that were brought over were account wide, and that is as it should be.

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I completely agree with you on this.

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

To be fair, these items were not designed for our market, and were brought to our market upon request. They were not designed specifically for the cash shop here, so I don't think your argument specifically applies to them. The twin seat moogle mount is a pretty good argument to make in that regard though.

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I am not really sure why that is relevant. It's just a conflated issue where 1. they are charging (outrageous) prices for things that should just be included with our sub and 2. they are creating region exclusive content.

It makes little sense to me why region exclusive content exists. If they are limited in their capacity to create content, you'd think they'd want to ensure all content is released for all regions, so that they can maximize the content available to their subscriber base without having added development costs to themselves.

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Originally Posted by Zojha

Inb4 some brings up it's "optional" again, not realizing that whether something is "optional" or not depends entirely on the wants of the individual.

Gathering and crafting are entirely optional if you're only interested in the tome equipment. Stats above the minimum required to clear content are optional. A second dungeon in the roulette is optional. Leveling more than 1 job is optional. Heck, if you only want to RP with a char, the MSQ is optional.

Getting mildly tired of that argument >_>

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Because it is optional.

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op·tion·al
ˈäpSH(ə)n(ə)l/
available to be chosen but not obligatory.

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en·ti·tled
inˈtīdld,enˈtīdld/
believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.

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Originally Posted by Kaurie

It makes little sense to me why region exclusive content exists. If they are limited in their capacity to create content, you'd think they'd want to ensure all content is released for all regions, so that they can maximize the content available to their subscriber base without having added development costs to themselves.

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I agree that they should not be making region exclusive gear and such. Since the Chinese servers are effectively walled off, it's less of a problem if there are quest lines or other content that are specific to China. But pictures of gear will always surface elsewhere and region exclusivity should be avoided.

The prices they charge are outrageous considering the character limitation, account wide would make it less than outrageous, but still pretty egregious. I don't have a problem with a small amount of premium fluff items in a cash shop so long as they don't alter the game play in anyway and confer no advantage not already available in game for little/no effort.

Considering the relatively tiny number of items in the cash shop, I can't see why this is an issue to so many people. Also the metallic dyes show something a bit different. They were extremely rare in game, they were added to the shop, people purchased some. And then they became easier to obtain in game as well as sellable on the MB. I bet they still sell pretty well on the Mogstation though.

Taking the Chinese dress for example. If that was added as an *undyable* outfit in a different color scheme to the one you can buy, that you could obtain in the Deep Dungeon. Would that change things? For me that would be a happy medium. Give an in-game version, of these premium items, but keep the cash-shop versions premium by allowing them to be dyed. Similar to how the Eternal Bond outfits are free in-game, but if you pay for the ceremony you get premium variants of the same outfits.

Blame the whales who make this happen, not SE. They are just catering to the people who are destroying economies by over spending money that isn't theirs on virtual garbage.
Just look at the chaos that Korean "free to play" MMO's are. They are a clear example of how these publishers are exploiting all this concept of "free", when in reality, people spend 3 to 4 times more than in a subscription based model.

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Originally Posted by Kasathar

They are just catering to the people who are destroying economies by over spending money that isn't theirs on virtual garbage.

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https://alwaysdarkestbeforethedawn.f...n-what-gif.gif

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Originally Posted by Kasathar

Blame the whales who make this happen, not SE. They are just catering to the people who are destroying economies by over spending money that isn't theirs on virtual garbage.

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Uh. Huh.

I'm pretty sure I'm spending money that is mine on this stuff and I'm not sure how this is destroying one economy, much less economies in the plural.

I hope they keep going up because I'm interested to see how much people are willing to pay for items. I wonder if it will go up to $30 per outfit and $50 for a mount. We already know a lot of people are becoming turned off by the prices and are not buying them. I'm interested at seeing the sale records from the shop and to see if there is a dramatic decline as the prices increase.

I'm kinda glad I held off on the Chinese dress. Kinda too pricey to buy both, and I prefer the Korean dress.

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Originally Posted by RukiaFae

I hope they keep going up because I'm interested to see how much people are willing to pay for items. I wonder if it will go up to $30 per outfit and $50 for a mount. We already know a lot of people are becoming turned off by the prices and are not buying them. I'm interested at seeing the sale records from the shop and to see if there is a dramatic decline as the prices increase.

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I think a decline if prices go up is a market guarantee, but some sales are also assured. There will always be people who are entirely dedicated to their entertainment, even to almost questionable levels (though also arguably funny).

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JZJKUMesRe...rthday-011.jpg

For anyone this hardcore into fandom, you do you. Very interesting to see what's actually out there and what dedication can bring lol.

For the less involved crowd, which is the vast majority, we tend to only spend where we think we should. Sometimes it can get out of hand, like with some of the F2P work with RNG being the very reason you spend far more than you'd like, but sooner or later most of us learn before it gets farther than it should. Kinda like gambling for IRL money. You win some, and you lose some, but damn those wins are sweet.

The cash shop isn't going anywhere. If they find it to be more costly to keep up, they may just take it down, but the likelihood is low since maintenance on it goes hand-in-hand with the general Mog Station that is mandatory to sub lol. If no one buys anything, they may not make anything. I don't think people realize that that also means that they won't be introducing those possible items they were going to add to the cash shop into the game.

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

Considering the relatively tiny number of items in the cash shop, I can't see why this is an issue to so many people. Also the metallic dyes show something a bit different. They were extremely rare in game, they were added to the shop, people purchased some. And then they became easier to obtain in game as well as sellable on the MB. I bet they still sell pretty well on the Mogstation though.

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Personally, I find the existence of the cash shop to be bothersome.

Before subscribing and getting hooked on FFXIV, I examined the three different options of games:

1. F2P: Money is obtained via selling fluff items in the cash shop
2. P2W: F2P but Money is used to purchase game-changing buffs
3. B2P: Buy the game, following that no sub, but cash shop is present
4. P2P: Buy the game, pay a sub

When I examined the options, I decided on a sub, because I wanted to have a neutral price that gives me everything the game has to offer.

The cash has become more and more prevalent, costs have risen, that I fail to see the difference between this and a B2P or a F2P game. The quality of the game isn't even necessarily better (Guild Wars 2 is updated frequently, and a very good game - albeit I don't play it do the playstyle preferences). With this continued trend, I have increasing desires to just unsub and go play a F2P game.

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Originally Posted by Kaurie

Personally, I find the existence of the cash shop to be bothersome.

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May I ask if you still find the existence of the cash shop to be a bother knowing that the cash shop was the reason that EU players recieved actual EU servers? I would also like the point at the rising costs have been, mostly (looking at you Moogle Mount), on outfits that have been brought over to us from another region, converted into our currency and then sold for near similar prices that the original audience paid for.

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Originally Posted by LillithCale

May I ask if you still find the existence of the cash shop to be a bother knowing that the cash shop was the reason that EU players recieved actual EU servers? I would also like the point at the rising costs have been, mostly (looking at you Moogle Mount), on outfits that have been brought over to us from another region, converted into our currency and then sold for near similar prices that the original audience paid for.

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It bothers me that they could not afford to get these EU servers with the ~ $126 million in annual subscription revenue they were already receiving. Personally, I'd rather they remove the 12.99 subscription option to generate more revenue, than lock items in game behind a cash shop.

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Originally Posted by LillithCale

May I ask if you still find the existence of the cash shop to be a bother knowing that the cash shop was the reason that EU players recieved actual EU servers? I would also like the point at the rising costs have been, mostly (looking at you Moogle Mount), on outfits that have been brought over to us from another region, converted into our currency and then sold for near similar prices that the original audience paid for.

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I think it would bother players knowing SE wasn't willing to shell out enough money to provide European servers without cash shop profits, doesn't almost every FotM MMORPG launch with NA and EU servers?

If cash shop profits are going back into the game with things other than expansion inventory which should have been done with Heavesnward's launch, then it's fine as long as they don't ramp up the amount cash shop exclusive items. I'm expecting to see huge things with Stormblood with its reportedly massive budget according to these forums. NPC clothing and events are expected at this point, but exclusive clothing that weren't regional exclusives, events or NPC clothing is a no-go for me personally and one unique cash shop mount every (or every other) patch isn't too bad as long as they aren't priced higher than Sleipnir for no good reason.

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Originally Posted by Kaurie

It bothers me that they could not afford to get these EU servers with the ~ $126 million in annual subscription revenue they were already receiving. Personally, I'd rather they remove the 12.99 subscription option to generate more revenue, than lock items in game behind a cash shop.

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Unfortunately that's not the fault of the FFXIV but rather SE as a company. FFXIV 1.0 was a failure and though they had great succes with 2.0 there were still many times in which YoshiP would cite "not enough resources' as a reason why they couldn't provide something which is -usually- developer talk for not enough funding. There was even an interview where he spoke about needing to hire on more battle content developers because they were so short staffed. Now, one would think they should just be able to take from with SE itself, but SE is, unfortunately, notorious for taking people off of one succesful project and dumping them onto another project they hope to bring succes to (Rumor speculation in this case is FFXV but there has been NO OFFICIAL confirmation of staff or funds from FFXIV being reallocated to FFXV)

It's frustrating, because through various sources, things you can read in interviews with YoshiP and even googling for information involving SEs earnings and the like, it should be clear that this game does not need a cash shop, yet the proceducer himself up and said when it was created that it was being done so to fund other projects they wanted to do for FFXIV, with the EU servers being the first ones names. Yes, SE as a company should be providing the FFXIV staff with the funding to do this, but, for whatever reason, shielded behind doors we can not see through and conversations we know nothing of, it's clear that this is not happening but why it's not happening is what we don't know.

The Cash Shop is, whether one likes or not, a feature that YoshiP felt the game needed for him to provide certain aspects to community that they wanted. Yes, it sucks but that is the reality of the situation.

Thankfully, at Fanfest 2016 in Vegas, it was said that Stormblood has triple the budget of Heavensward (Source: Me, I was there), so hopefully that means the unqiue cash shop only items we've been seeing (such as Selpnir and the Mog mount, I don't count regional exlusives as unique cash shop content because those aren't done by complete choice on the FFXIV Developers side, those are part of a contract negoation to allow the game to run in closed markets), will start to die down and it'll go back to mostly one off items and seasonal items of days past.

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Originally Posted by Colorful

I think it would bother players knowing SE wasn't willing to shell out enough money to provide European servers without cash shop profits, doesn't almost every FotM MMORPG launch with NA and EU servers?

If cash shop profits are going back into the game with things other than expansion inventory which should have been done with Heavesnward's launch, then it's fine as long as they don't ramp up the amount cash shop exclusive items. I'm expecting to see huge things with Stormblood with its reportedly massive budget according to these forums. NPC clothing and events are expected at this point, but exclusive clothing that weren't regional exclusives, events or NPC clothing is a no-go for me personally and one unique cash shop mount every (or every other) patch isn't too bad as long as they aren't priced higher than Sleipnir for no good reason.

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Two quick things I want to touch on here, since my reply above does cover some of this but:

Inventory Expansion could not be done at Heavensward because of the PS3. It's been said many many times the PS3 was a huge huge factor in expanding the inventories. Stormblood will be dropping the PS3 which will allow the FFXIV team to upgrade their infastructure as needed in order to expand inventories.

I'm guessing, and apologies if I am wrong, that the mount you are talking about is the Moogle Mount. Now, I do not disagree that the price is OUTRAGEOUS. However, it has been stated that the reasons for the price tag is because it is a flying, two seater mount that is account wide.

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Originally Posted by Kaurie

It bothers me that they could not afford to get these EU servers with the ~ $126 million in annual subscription revenue they were already receiving. Personally, I'd rather they remove the 12.99 subscription option to generate more revenue, than lock items in game behind a cash shop.

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So, increase the prices of the game subscription to satisfy your dislike for optional extras sold at a premium? No thanks. The way it is now, the sub provides all the core elements, and the remaining 0.05% of items in the game (if it's even that much) are optional extras sold at a premium. I honestly don't understand your problem with this.

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Originally Posted by LillithCale

Inventory Expansion could not be done at Heavensward because of the PS3. It's been said many many times the PS3 was a huge huge factor in expanding the inventories. Stormblood will be dropping the PS3 which will allow the FFXIV team to upgrade their infastructure as needed in order to expand inventories.

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No, this isn't the case. The inventory expansion is coming because of server upgrades. Inventory size was not limited by PS3, it was limited by the game architecture and how frequently the game could refresh the backup copy of your player data. Increasing the inventory size would have created problems on the server side. This is why they are phasing in the expansion to ensure that they do not expand inventory so much that the servers cannot keep up.

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

So, increase the prices of the game subscription to satisfy your dislike for optional extras sold at a premium? No thanks. The way it is now, the sub provides all the core elements, and the remaining 0.05% of items in the game (if it's even that much) are optional extras sold at a premium. I honestly don't understand your problem with this.

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There are plenty of optional extras that are in game and part of the subscription. Do you support reducing the subscription cost and moving all of them to pay-for items? At what point is there a line drawn?

I do not think the game sub should be upped, they already make a lot of revenue off of it. "increase the prices of the game subscription to satisfy your dislike for optional extras sold at a premium?" makes it sound like a very selfish thing. My point is that this is a double-dipping shady business practice. Square, obviously, can do what they want. I am expressing my discontent on their forums, so that they are aware that they are creating discontent with this business practice.

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Originally Posted by LillithCale

Unfortunately that's not the fault of the FFXIV but rather SE as a company.

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You make it sound like "FFXIV" is a company. While, I understand that maybe Yoshi is not the person to blame, that doesn't mean I am not unhappy about it. When you are unhappy with something at a store and you talk to the manager, it's not necessarily their fault either (maybe it was an employee, maybe it was the corporate policy). That's the life of being the boss.

My issue is undoubtedly with Square Enix, though.

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Originally Posted by LillithCale

Inventory Expansion could not be done at Heavensward because of the PS3. It's been said many many times the PS3 was a huge huge factor in expanding the inventories. Stormblood will be dropping the PS3 which will allow the FFXIV team to upgrade their infastructure as needed in order to expand inventories.

I'm guessing, and apologies if I am wrong, that the mount you are talking about is the Moogle Mount. Now, I do not disagree that the price is OUTRAGEOUS. However, it has been stated that the reasons for the price tag is because it is a flying, two seater mount that is account wide.

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Doesn't the PS3 work around inventory limitations by splitting the inventory into separate pages? In the case that even then it was limited, fair enough, but I don't see a reason to not give us an extra retainer while they sold a few extra. It's clear they knew we wanted more inventory space, but they opted to sell it in the form of retainers instead. I'm glad we're finally getting the expansion though, I do hope it's a substantial increase but I figure we'll learn more during the JP or EU Fanfests.

As for the mount, yep, it's the moogle mount. Have staff members ever stated the reason the price increase was due to it being a two seater mount? I don't see flying warranting an increase in price as that's also going to be applied to Sleipnir, and the price reasoning could because it's an entirely new model. Either way, a two seater mount isn't more than a slight bump into animation work but the price is significantly higher, as you said, it's "outrageous" to charge half the price of an AAA game for a mount. As for future two seater mounts, I'd like the option to purchase a single seater version if that's the excuse they'll roll with, I already have two 2 seater chocobo mounts and they're used maybe once every 2-3 months. :s

Oh well, as long as they don't slap on +30% EXP gain on future NPC clothing and use that as an excuse to charge more... It's clear they don't plan on changing their payment model anytime soon, better to ask for them to be more reasonable when it comes to future items, at least there's a chance they'll listen.

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Originally Posted by Kaurie

It bothers me that they could not afford to get these EU servers with the ~ $126 million in annual subscription revenue they were already receiving. Personally, I'd rather they remove the 12.99 subscription option to generate more revenue, than lock items in game behind a cash shop.

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That's kinda how it works for big companies. It's essentially a single entity that branches out into various markets. Where one department/branch makes money for their product, the funds are moved to the pot.

Think of it like you would Apple. Do you really think that a single big sale product like the iPhone keeps every single penny of sale exclusive to that division? That it doesn't get distributed among other products, services, stores, etc that cost the company money (likewise for other products and their profits potentially going to the iPhone).

SE decides how the money is used. SE is not only about FFXIV. They're not only about Final Fantasy. Hell, they're not even only about developing video games (as mind blowing as that might be to some). It's all just one big pot and everyone, including the XIV devs, want their part of it.

The better that the net income is for XIV, the more money that SE will probably be willing to give them (as seen with Stormblood's budget). Revenue doesn't mean much if expenses are so high that actual profit is minimal, which thankfully doesn't seem to be a dark cloud for XIV, though it pales in comparison to the mobile market. FFRK, for example, seems to have done more for the company in short time than XIV did lol.

The cash shop in XIV simply serves as a means to prove profitability to the company, rather than a tool to simply make people hate on the devs lol. Just a bit of reality checking in there. The more likely that money can be made, the more likely they'll get a better budget to make the game that we play better, though obviously some cash shop or merchandising is inevitable.

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

No, this isn't the case. The inventory expansion is coming because of server upgrades. Inventory size was not limited by PS3, it was limited by the game architecture and how frequently the game could refresh the backup copy of your player data. Increasing the inventory size would have created problems on the server side. This is why they are phasing in the expansion to ensure that they do not expand inventory so much that the servers cannot keep up.

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Where I got my information may have been wrong then. While I was aware that the issue was with the infrastructure and archiecture of the game, the resources I had found when looking into said the issue was compounded by the PS3 support and the fact that such sever upgrades wouldn't be possible with it still being supported. My apologies for the misinformation then.

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Originally Posted by Kaurie

There are plenty of optional extras that are in game and part of the subscription. Do you support reducing the subscription cost and moving all of them to pay-for items? At what point is there a line drawn?

I do not think the game sub should be upped, they already make a lot of revenue off of it. "increase the prices of the game subscription to satisfy your dislike for optional extras sold at a premium?" makes it sound like a very selfish thing. My point is that this is a double-dipping shady business practice. Square, obviously, can do what they want. I am expressing my discontent on their forums, so that they are aware that they are creating discontent with this business practice.

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No, I do not support that at all.

For me the 'line' is a combination of the % of game items sold through the store, and the type of items sold through the store. The % must remain trivial compared to the number of in-game items that exist, and the items for sale should never affect game play. Further, Glamour is a core element of the game, so items in the shop should only be exceptional, premium items.

As I said before I would like to see the Chinese Dress (for example) obtainable in game, but have it not be dyable, for example. So the garment is still available to anyone in game, but the premium version is in the shop.

I do not like the way that past event items have been added to the shop either. I don't think they should be there. I see this as more of an issue than things like the Chinese Dress.

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Originally Posted by LillithCale

Where I got my information may have been wrong then. While I was aware that the issue was with the infrastructure and archiecture of the game, the resources I had found when looking into said the issue was compounded by the PS3 support and the fact that such sever upgrades wouldn't be possible with it still being supported. My apologies for the misinformation then.

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There was always a lot of talk about the HUD/UI restrictions on the PS3, and it probably comes from that because if you expand inventory, that impacts the HUD/UI. However PS3 supports the extended inventory view, and I'm certain the devs could have simply implemented paging in that view to handle the increase without impacting the HUD significantly.

Honestly if I was younger, it would probably bother me alot more. Not saying young people have the wrong mindset, it's just I've become far less involved now that I'm older.

When I was younger, I was a completionist when it came to gaming. Wasn't very good at it half the time granted, but I inspired to it. When the mog station first came out, I immediately said "well, there goes collecting everything". PvP rewards made that worse. I love PVP but getting top 10 for anything is just silly.

That said, I find the prices absolutely silly. My gf bought a mount that was what... 15-20 dollars? Wut?

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

That's kinda how it works for big companies. It's essentially a single entity that branches out into various markets. Where one department/branch makes money for their product, the funds are moved to the pot.

Think of it like you would Apple. Do you really think that a single big sale product like the iPhone keeps every single penny of sale exclusive to that division? That it doesn't get distributed among other products, services, stores, etc that cost the company money (likewise for other products and their profits potentially going to the iPhone).

SE decides how the money is used. SE is not only about FFXIV. They're not only about Final Fantasy. Hell, they're not even only about developing video games (as mind blowing as that might be to some). It's all just one big pot and everyone, including the XIV devs, want their part of it.

The better that the net income is for XIV, the more money that SE will probably be willing to give them (as seen with Stormblood's budget). Revenue doesn't mean much if expenses are so high that actual profit is minimal, which thankfully doesn't seem to be a dark cloud for XIV, though it pales in comparison to the mobile market. FFRK, for example, seems to have done more for the company in short time than XIV did lol.

The cash shop in XIV simply serves as a means to prove profitability to the company, rather than a tool to simply make people hate on the devs lol. Just a bit of reality checking in there. The more likely that money can be made, the more likely they'll get a better budget to make the game that we play better, though obviously some cash shop or merchandising is inevitable.

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Obviously, I understand this. However, thank you for the business lesson.

I should note, that I also think Apple has incredibly poor business practices, and do not support their products. So, it is kind of funny you used them as a comparison.

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

No, I do not support that at all.

For me the 'line' is a combination of the % of game items sold through the store, and the type of items sold through the store. The % must remain trivial compared to the number of in-game items that exist, and the items for sale should never affect game play. Further, Glamour is a core element of the game, so items in the shop should only be exceptional, premium items.

As I said before I would like to see the Chinese Dress (for example) obtainable in game, but have it not be dyable, for example. So the garment is still available to anyone in game, but the premium version is in the shop.

I do not like the way that past event items have been added to the shop either. I don't think they should be there. I see this as more of an issue than things like the Chinese Dress.

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OK, so your line is "trivial" which is undefined and means something different to everyone. What is trivial? 1% of glamours? 0.1%? 0%? 5%? For me, the line is at 0%, and obviously you have a higher threshold, but what if someone else has a higher threshold than you? What if someone has a 50% threshold?

For the price of the outfits (and a few other things) in the Mog Station, one would think that they would be account-wide, rather than character specific. Unfortunately that isn't the case.

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

..., so items in the shop should only be exceptional, premium items.

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All that mentality does, is create or further promote the notion that there are second class citizens within our community that either decide not to obtain those items or cannot afford them for whatever reason. This is the kind of stuff that makes "Free to play games" the dumps they are. That goes for their communities and also their cash shops.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

I think a decline if prices go up is a market guarantee, but some sales are also assured. There will always be people who are entirely dedicated to their entertainment, even to almost questionable levels (though also arguably funny).

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JZJKUMesRe...rthday-011.jpg

For anyone this hardcore into fandom, you do you. Very interesting to see what's actually out there and what dedication can bring lol.

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Idolm@ster >> Love Live! >> K-ON! >> AKB47

The image looks to be K-ON...

XD

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Originally Posted by Kasathar

All that mentality does, is create or further promote the notion that there are second class citizens within our community that either decide not to obtain those items or cannot afford them for whatever reason. This is the kind of stuff that makes "Free to play games" the dumps they are. That goes for their communities and also the cash shops.

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How?

For months the cost of the Thavinarian bustier was out of reach for most average players. Most players will never acquire the raid gear or all the EX mounts and minions or weapons. There re already plenty of examples of 'second class' citizens in the game. Making a drama out of a tiny number of items in the cash shop doesn't serve your argument - IMHO.

If I was unemployed, I'd be miffed, sure. But at the moment, I work and spend €20 on the sub + retainers. And can still afford an occasional outfit. You don't have to get it immediately if you can't afford it. It's not like they put a new outfit every week. I bought the Chinese outfit, and I bought the new one and the last thing I bought before that was the Moogle mount, which was a few months before that. I can spend €10-€15 every few months on these things. Better to spend it on this and have it forever on my character than spend it on alcohol and drugs like some people do.

Look, there will always be some items that are out of your reach. For instance, I'm not getting the Odin statue because it's too expensive. I don't get a lot of the stuff from the merchandise store because the shipping is too much. Or if I do, I ship it to a friend in the UK who then ships it to me, which makes it much cheaper. I'll live without some items and if I get some, I'll be happy.

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

I do not like the way that past event items have been added to the shop either. I don't think they should be there.

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Why not? People who attend the events get them for free, and people who didn't can pay for them and support SE, which in turn means that SE gives us more things. It's a win-win situation for everyone.

For the record, my lalafell didn't exist back when the cute Valentione dress was released. However, thanks to the dress being added to the cash shop later on, she could get it. I for one support adding those items there, as I tend to make new alts that missed the past events *laughs*.

I Just wish SQEX Realized that we alredy pay U$15,00 sub per month just to have access to the game, i agree that a cash shop is a necessary evil. But omg, going over 10 bucks for an outfit is not acceptable for a sub based game.