I mean, arguably a good example of a worse practice.
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Exactly this.
I understand why people look askance at a company offering things for sale in addition to the purchase and subscription price for a game like this, but in the end it comes down to two things:
1. Businesses are there to make a profit.
2. Completely optional items are available based on the discretion of the purchaser.
Number 1's pretty self explanatory and number 2, as Jojoya said, is up to the person deciding to spend the money. As far as entertainment costs or other uses of discretionary income go, a $22 glamour that I'll get hours of use out of is a better dollar/unit time value than a movie or a meal and drink out. It's all about perceived value. I went eight years playing this game before I bought anything from the Mogstation because I didn't find it to be of value given my financial responsibilities. Now that I have greater discretionary income, dropping $15-20 once a month is nothing so I perceive greater value in the purchase as the cost is a lower percent of my total income and I can afford to buy it in addition to spend my normal entertainment budget. Hell, one less meal from McDonald's for me and my wife is probably a good thing!
At $13.00 per month, plus a bi-annual expansion cost of $60, XIV costs 51 cents per day; that's just over 2 cents per hour when spread across 365 days. If you average one (1) hour of play time per day, that's 51 cents per hour ($13 x 12 + $30 = $186; divided by 365 = $0.509). If you average two hours per day, that's 25.5 cents per hour. These days you'll be hard pressed to find a not-free hobby that provides the amount of entertainment time per unit cost than this game.
{Edit addition}
You're welcome to hold your opinion on peoples' spending habits, but should think twice about expressing them in public. It's unkind and generally impolite to get down on people based on harmless actions that have no direct bearing on you. How others want to spend their money is up to them, not you, and it's not your place to publicly comment on their decisions.
Segueing into; no, it is not quite literally your business. Companies offering items for sale that are purely discretionary and have no direct bearing on game play is not an awful practice; it's opening up another revenue stream. At this point there's no turning back and we have to accept that additional monetization from the Mogstation isn't going away. People purchasing Mogstation items aren't promoting it any longer as it no longer needs promotion; they're just spending their money in the way they see fit.
TL/DR: Mogstation isn't going away so people buying from it aren't promoting it or causing SE business people to consider it as a potential revenue stream: it's good money to them and is here to stay. Businesses exist to make a profit and opening up multiple revenue streams is smart business. What people spend their money on is their decision and while you're free to have whatever opinion of them you want, it's not a good idea to express it in public.
Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I had a good laugh when I heard that Word/Powerpoint/ect. was going to be a monthly subscription. Though if we are to go back on topic, I doubt much will change. Plenty will whale out and SE will keep doubling down on this situation. It happened to a number of MMOs in the past like EQ2 and WoW and history loves to repeat itself in an era where history would rather be forgotten. It would be silly to think that XIV wouldn't follow considering they are the new poster child of MMOs similar to how EQ2 was before WoW took over.
I agree with Voltyblast here. I wanna see Square Enix continue to make shitty financial decisions, to the point it becomes untenable. $25 outfits with 4 pieces. $30 with 3 pieces. Watch people defend that. WATCH THEM. Yes, my motive is spite. How could you tell?
A sad day and a sad community. Yet, this community will defend anything and the evidence bears it out. May as well grit your teeth and get used to it~
Oh come on, no need to go full Sasuke. During ARR and HW the devs/SE had to prove themselves. Meanwhile many called SE the EA of Japan due to the SE's money hungry ways and questionable decisions. Once XIV became top dog, what did you expect? Let me tell you the secret that will make you laugh at all of this...
It's a video game, don't sweat it. There will be more video games and there are plenty of video games already made that might be better! Have you played all of them? I bet there are some pretty good ones out there!
I think their logic here is that they made the male and female variants of the bottoms available to both, as I said in a different thread. Hence the price hike. I definitely do not think some halfslops are worth $4 extra though. They did this previously with male and female variants of the top for the street attire.
I don't know if that has already been discussed in this thread, I haven't read it.
I made fun of my friends who went SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY over the Shiba mount.
And here I am sorely, sorely tempted to do exactly the same for a vanity glam I'll wear for a week.