Subscriptions and Cashshops

The cashshop seems to get a lot of hate every now and then so i thought a bit about it and came up with a question that i would like to ask you fellas here and would like to know your takes on it.

Would you rather pay adjusted subscription fees, even if that means paying double the amount of the sub fees we have right now, if that would mean the game has no cashshop at all or do you like the system as it is where the sub fees stay the same but stuff is frequently added to the cashshop.

I myself am really torn about this. I could settle for either option but i know that not many people could afford massive adjustments to sub fees which would result in excluding a massive part of the community from the game.

Nah, its fine as it is. The store doesn't affect the balance of the game besides one mount, and even then, it's a mount that offers no gameplay advantage in battle. People love to fantasia, buy glamours and new mounts. I'll happily keep paying my sub for years to come and I have done for the past 5+ years now.

You mostly hear the hate when something that was hyped up or requested for years ends up in the cash shop instead of "in the game".

Like Cruse Chaser Blasty ending up in the cash shop.

Or if we got the Nier Flight Suit as a cash shop mount, after baiting us with "oh, we'll give you a mount" .... "the mount so many of you asked for" ... "the pod" ...

The latter. I've played numerous games and a few MMO's that utilize cash shops. It's normal to have them in a game and I like them. I wish whoever works on the Mogstation would put more stuff in it such as outfits and hairstyles and weapons from other SE and FF titled games. What they have currently available to buy is rather underwhelming.

The latter as well for me, cash shops aren't something new for me in MMORPGs, and with the way things are right now, they're mostly just glamour or cute mounts/emotes. It doesn't bug me. The way the shop is out of the way of gameplay is a great bonus too.

It's simple logistics. Low sub cost + cash shop is literally the best option for both profit and for player retention purposes. You may be fine paying higher monthly sub costs, but a non insignificant number would not. Raising the monthly sub price a decent amount to cover the cash shop absence would just as easily see a decent % of people dropping the game as its now too expensive, leading to any perceived profit from such a decision taking a nose dive and defeating the purpose of the option. With cash shops, you keep an attractive low sub price overall and let the whales and popular items make up the difference.

Not to mention, the absence of a cash shop will not fix the main issue the complainers have with the cash shop in general. The simple reality in game development is that for every one item that makes it into the game, there's lots of stuff that never made it past the drawing board/got cut/etc due to time constraints, budget constraints, converting it to a player used item constraints, or simply not being able to stick it in-game without finding a good place to stick it in. The reality the complainers don't want to accept is that even if the game never had a cash shop, 90% of the items on the mogstation would have never made it in-game at all. They'd just be sitting in the discarded ideas pile.

Mogstation is a necessary evil.

The cash shop isn't twisting my arm at all into buying things from it. There's not a single thing in FF14 that attempts to insinuate or imply that if I don't buy the item necessary from the cash shop to complete a particular content or task, I'll either take 10x longer than other players to get it or I won't have the stats necessary to clear it. The stuff in the cash shop are ineffectual vanities and I feel like people should just make peace with that. In this day and age where rotten game companies construct their games to elicit a need to spend money in the shop, FF14's shop is the least intrusive.

Trust me, you really don't want to give the marketing department ideas to tink with your sub prices. You'll regret it 10/10 times.

Apparently everything on that shop, is made by a team unrelated to the actual development of the game's content and the revenue it makes, also only pays more cash shop.

That's atleast what I think I remember they once said, someone source it please :c

I think, it's a very questionable thing. Since... Well... I don't wanna bring it up but we've been getting alot e.g. less dungeon since EW despite the big success.

Now imagine if, the fanta addicts like me would finance the game with their addiction.

WE'D BE AT 3 DUNGEONS PER PATCH NOW!

Am kidding but also not kidding...

I'll show myself out! ^^

No, that being said i doubt all cash shop money goes into devellopement if any.

As long as the cash shop is just cosmetics and catch-up stuff like job and story boosts, I don't care about it.

Leave as is - the subs are at a good level compared to other subs and the cash shop (unlike some other games) only offers cosmetic items and catch up items.

There are many (and I really do mean many) people who have never used the cash shop and have no intention of doing so. There are many others who love the fluff in the cash shop and want more adding.

The way it is now is the best of both worlds.

The system is fine as is right now. I wish they would release more outfits in the cash shop more frequently actually. Hairs too.

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Originally Posted by Ranaku

The cashshop seems to get a lot of hate every now and then so i thought a bit about it and came up with a question that i would like to ask you fellas here and would like to know your takes on it.

Would you rather pay adjusted subscription fees, even if that means paying double the amount of the sub fees we have right now, if that would mean the game has no cashshop at all or do you like the system as it is where the sub fees stay the same but stuff is frequently added to the cashshop.

I myself am really torn about this. I could settle for either option but i know that not many people could afford massive adjustments to sub fees which would result in excluding a massive part of the community from the game.

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what you ask can have a place like a year ago but look up and see when was the last glam they add to the cash shop. a totally new one that is. they stopped adding things to the cash shop for the most parts

Of course it would be nice if all of the stuff in the shop was just available in game but we know that's never going to be the case. I'm fine with the current arrangement and don't have a huge issue with the vast majority of what's on the shop. I also really like that the shop is basically not in the game at all outside of the new Dream Fitting system (but even that forces you to an outside link).

There's no justifiable reason for the cash shop to even exist in a game that you have to purchase to play and also pay a monthly subscription.

Don't like it. Don't know why so many people do. Like other people have said, the second the game is in a bad place the cash shop is going to be the first thing people get mad about, the only reason they aren't now is because the game is in a good place (LOL RIGHT) at least in most peoples opinion. I guess I don't mind them putting character outfits in the shop, or stuff like past seasonal event rewards, but when a really cool outfit that could have easily been a drop for some new piece of content gets added to the store it's just lame. And stuff like mounts and dyes and other things that should be in-game rewards definitely shouldn't be on there. I mean seriously, spend hundreds of thousands of gil on some black dye or fork over like 7 bucks, that's lost ark tier bullshit IMO

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Originally Posted by Xrystofer

There's no justifiable reason for the cash shop to even exist in a game that you have to purchase to play and also pay a monthly subscription.

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I just wonder what people think would be a better solution to the problem of inflation/higher maintenance costs and all that. The thing is that the sub fees are staying basically the same over years while maintenance costs and employee wages and all that goes obviously up, so without profit from other sources company growth would stagnate. But if not a cashshop what would be the better solution?

Double the sub would cost the players, considering the time it can take for items to get put on the cashshop, way more than it would as it is right now paying for it through the shop.
And a bunch that do get put on there are old event items which a lot of players already have aquired ingame.
So to them especially the increased sub-fee would really hurt them.

Imo cash-shops are fine as long as they stay clear of P2W stuff.

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Originally Posted by Ranaku

I just wonder what people think would be a better solution to the problem of inflation/higher maintenance costs and all that. The thing is that the sub fees are staying basically the same over years while maintenance costs and employee wages and all that goes obviously up, so without profit from other sources company growth would stagnate. But if not a cashshop what would be the better solution?

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I disagree. The sub is still more than enough to pay employees and be profitable. We don't need a better solution because I don't believe that there's a problem in the first place.