Token System/Subscription

Similar to another famous MMO. These tokens will be purchased via Mog Station for a full months game time $14.99 or equal to of other countries currencies. Allowing people with real life financial issues to support their game time by playing the game or those having extra money to help support their in game currency issues.

These tokens will be sold or bought from the MB to add game time to a players subscription time using in game currency.
This would cut down on the active RMT system we are currently having issues with.

I'm sure this may have been brought up already but i do not see a Suggestions post on the forum so i figured this would be a good place to put it.

Wouldn't work sadly because of all the varying subscription prices

- legacy
- # of characters
- # of retainers

Not to say it isn't an awesome idea but unless these are Crysta scrolls it won't work.

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Originally Posted by Eidolon

Not to say it isn't an awesome idea but unless these are Crysta scrolls it won't work.

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As you implied, an item that gives crysta equal to a basic subscription fee would work perfectly. That could be done.

We already have something not unlike this in time cards. For it to work as an in-game item, though, would have required it's presence in the game from the beginning. Eve's model works because it was there from the beginning, it was one of the game's selling points to get players into the game. If they were to introduce that in the game now it would be so overpriced as to be out of reach of those that'd use it. Then there's the RMT. The reason RMT never took off on Eve is the game's other core mechanic, open world PvP. Because the markets are local and almost everything is an item if you wanted to sell your time tokens you had to 'physically' move it to market. But between the hub systems there's areas where pvp can go unpenalized making moving something like time tokens a high risk endeavor. There's no such risk here. I can buy an HQ piece of high demand armor, travel from Gridania to Limsa Lominsa and noone would be the wiser. RMT could easily start selling time tokens, real or scam.

No. Absolutely not.

No. Just no. No.


No.

No, seriously, no.

this has been suggested 21 times since the launch of 2.1.

i wouldn't mind it actually. would help me out and let me b/f help pay for my account on days i get my mom late or my card is declined,

like now... -_-;; More options to pay for an account are welcome in my book.

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Originally Posted by Eidolon

Wouldn't work sadly because of all the varying subscription prices

- legacy
- # of characters
- # of retainers

Not to say it isn't an awesome idea but unless these are Crysta scrolls it won't work.

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An awesome idea? You MUST be joking.

You think having players be able to play the game without PAYING FOR A SUBSCRIPTION is an AWESOME IDEA?!

What even is this...come on people.

This is an absolutely terrible idea. It would effectively make the game a "pay for one month sub then never pay again"

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Originally Posted by Slappah

You think having players be able to play the game without PAYING FOR A SUBSCRIPTION is an AWESOME IDEA?!

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Someone always pays. Every subscription, someone paid the $$$ for it. You don't generate tokens out of thin air (or gil, as it were).

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

Someone always pays. Every subscription, someone paid the $$$ for it. You don't generate tokens out of thin air (or gil, as it were).

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I understand that, but I strongly disagree with the fact that the people who have tons and tons of gil will be playing the game for months and months and even years without paying a single cent for the game. I simply don't like that. This is a sub based mmo and you should have to pay that sub fee to play, that's how I feel about this.

Just gonna put this out there. Runescape does this and it's cheaper to buy gold and spend it on your membership than it is to actually buy the membership.

No support

If you cant afford the Game, you have other problem you should solve in your real life first.

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Originally Posted by Slappah

I understand that, but I strongly disagree with the fact that the people who have tons and tons of gil will be playing the game for months and months and even years without paying a single cent for the game. I simply don't like that. This is a sub based mmo and you should have to pay that sub fee to play, that's how I feel about this.

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Praytell, why would it even matter if someone actually payed the sub directly or not? You're literally saying that it's a bad idea because you don't like it for no apparent reason. I don't agree or disagree with the idea of these items, as I'd probably never use them, but your argument is ridiculous. At least give an actual reason for why the idea is bad if you want to imply so strongly that it's a factually bad idea.

Kind of like the below...

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Originally Posted by KeluBehemoth

Just gonna put this out there. Runescape does this and it's cheaper to buy gold and spend it on your membership than it is to actually buy the membership.

No support

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This is a good reason to not implement the system. In fact, unless a solution is found, it would turn what could be the biggest boon of the system - reduction in RMT sales and activity - into its biggest bane - an actual increase in RMT sales and activity.

I know World of Warcraft implemented this shortly after I quit the game. I wonder how it worked out for them.

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Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

Someone always pays. Every subscription, someone paid the $$$ for it. You don't generate tokens out of thin air (or gil, as it were).

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this, in wow the ppl playing with token are actually a +5 dllr sub price boost for blizz since the token is more expensive than the monthly sub.

It is a pretty interesting system for the whole time vs money dilemma for players while taking a big bite back at RMT activity. As to whether it would work for FF 14, i honestly don't know since we also have to keep other cultures in mind. Even within wow the market for said tokens is apparently drastically different between regions, which may of may not be a negative....I honestly don't know.

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Originally Posted by Vitaminsmore

Similar to another famous MMO. These tokens will be purchased via Mog Station for a full months game time $14.99 or equal to of other countries currencies. Allowing people with real life financial issues to support their game time by playing the game or those having extra money to help support their in game currency issues.

These tokens will be sold or bought from the MB to add game time to a players subscription time using in game currency.
This would cut down on the active RMT system we are currently having issues with.

I'm sure this may have been brought up already but i do not see a Suggestions post on the forum so i figured this would be a good place to put it.

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This subject has been discussed several times in the past and every single one of them became quite heated at that. The main issue people have with this is the mindset behind it.

One person says that that people will be able to buy game time with an in-game currency, so that they don't have to pay the subscription fee due to real life financial issues. Another person says that (s)he has so much in-game money, that they save spend it on buying game time through the market boards and save money. And finally another person says it's to battle RMT, by "legalizing" it through a token system like "Chronosphere/Plex/WoWTokens/etc".

If you want to read more about these discussions, i'd suggest reading what people had to say about it in this thread (545 posts long):

Thread: It's time to reevaluate the idea of adding a PLEX/Chronoscroll-like system to FFXIV

I've said all i wanted to say about a Token system like this within that thread, but what i would like to highlight from that discussion is this:

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Originally Posted by Aldora

I’m all for the opportunity to gift game time to friends or family, but not like this [buying it with real money and then selling it on a market board for in-game currency]. If you want to gift game time, either buy a game time card for them, or have the ability to purchase game time through the Mog station, which then can be sent directly to the SE account of person you want it to be sent. The person would then receive either a real life e-mail saying that their game time has been extended for the amount which has been paid for, or the person would receive an untradeable and unsellable item in the Moogle Mail box which will extend their game time upon use.

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Offering surveys would be helpful. Just not the traditional scam ones or something like a 3 min ad a day for 20 or so days a month to earn a basic sub. Offering tradable crysta would just cause inflation, because the market would be distorted with real world prices over virtual items and RMT would become less about bots and more about "S>1 month sub for 5 mil or Fat Cat minion"

This may work on JP servers where RMT is almost non-existent (I leave my pc on about 24/5, not a single RMT tell here). But this may directly cause more RMT activities.

For example, while I was playing on Gilgamesh (RMT tells are pretty blatant over there), I noticed people were selling the Premium Wedding packages for like 3m a pop. Which was about $20 give or take. A monthly sub for FFXIV, averaging on all currencies, I would is around $14. In-game value would be around 2m for a MB sub. Now let's consider the economy. People have been complaining that they cannot even afford to buy a house. Can these people really coup up 2m ever month for a sub? Probably not.
That's where RMT will step in. I do not know how much RMT is these days, but from what I saw from the tells, I assume 1m is around $2.5. That's $5 for 2m. You will be saving $9 every month. But most likely you will be caught and slapped on the back with a ban.

This could and most likely deal a huge blow on the sub base. Right as of now, this idea is really bad.

@OP
So how is server upkeep, patches, & etc funded?

WOW actually has millions of active players subbed to pay for content development.
FFXIV is not on that lvl of income.

If they added not "Gametime Gifts" Tokens. Then theycwould need to significantly change the Cash Shop in order to offset the loss of income by players who are now playing for free.

Alot of people forget that server fuel, and paying the devs is extremely costly.

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Originally Posted by Defias

@OP
So how is server upkeep, patches, & etc funded?

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You misunderstand the OP.

It'd be someone buys the token for $15 (sub price) -> sells it to someone for in-game gil. Basically it's "safe" gil buying. I oppose it because attaching a RL price tag to in-game items is a fast way to make a game feel like crap (hi diablo 3)

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Originally Posted by Brannigan

You misunderstand the OP.

It'd be someone buys the token for $15 (sub price) -> sells it to someone for in-game gil. Basically it's "safe" gil buying. I oppose it because attaching a RL price tag to in-game items is a fast way to make a game feel like crap (hi diablo 3)

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Ah. Ok. Thanks for the clarification.
Hmm...I'm not for it. Might as well just get a gamecard or pay the sub. Considering how inflated most server markets are I'd hate to imagine the price on a token.

I wouldn't mind it would help me save money. But they would have to do something about sub prices. Cause right now I pay $7.99 a month for my legacy sub. Meaning any kind of sub token wouldn't be a good deal for legacy players.

These threads show how bad people are at math and economics. Every monthly token must be purchased by someone from SE. No one is getting a free ride. The only difference would be that more people could play the game and SE would make more money because people would buy tokens and trade them to people who can't pay monthly but can barter for tokens.

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Originally Posted by Eidolon

Wouldn't work sadly because of all the varying subscription prices

- legacy
- # of characters
- # of retainers

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What does number of character have to do with anything? You not charged for extra characters unless you talking about the entry level sub vs standard sub which still doesn't matter cause I would assume it would work the same way as time cards do. As for the rest as said before I would assume it would work the same way as time cards. It would cover your base sub not including extras and well if you were legacy you either could choose this option and pay a higher price (like existing time cards) or leave you account unchanged and continue to pay how you already are doing. So you saying it won't work is not true, would just simply be another version of a time card.

No....this is not a pay to win game.

No thanks, I argued this before and that's just a pay to win system. You are paying money to cheat your way through farming/doing content. As I said in http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post2813018

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Originally Posted by Magis

...Because they get free gil to spend on things that they otherwise would have to PLAY THE GAME FOR. You are skipping parts of the game that otherwise would have to be done through either grinding, farming, or just patience from duties. Selling PLEX cards to buy a house, selling PLEX cards to buy materia for a max meld, selling PLEX cards for even paying people to do a Coil run or give them a pony (I saw a gold buyer do this) is pay 2 win, regardless if it isn't BIS or the top of the line.

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