SE: Why I don't buy Cash Shop items even though I sometimes want to...
A couple years ago I would often say 'I want this boss as a mount' during a particular raid. I probably said so several dozen times, whenever my roulette landed there, and then SE added it as a mount. I was so hyped until I realized it was a Cash Shop mount. I was tempted to buy it and still am from time to time, but the rational part of my mind sees problems. The mount is quit expensive (relative to the cost of the game and subscription) so I said I would wait for a sale: I have not seen it on sale. The mount was mostly a copy-paste-assets mount but priced like Cash Shop mounts with completely new designs. And the mount came with generic mount music rather than the boss theme. Maybe it is just me but the price that many mounts cost I would expect the option to choose whichever music I want and as a bonus I would expect an orchestral linkpearl that lets me hear the custom song of my choice in a zone even when I get off a mount.
The last time I was tempted to buy the ephemeral mount made with copy-pasted game assets I decided I would buy an on-sale hardcopy of the Encyclopaedia Eorzea instead for nearly the same price. Readers might think I'm just cheap, but I don't mind giving a company money for enjoyable services it provides. In fact I have always paid for a multi-character subscription even though I only use one character. I consider this like tipping because I enjoy playing the game and using the service. If the prices were more reasonable I would probably buy some Cash Shop items, but the higher the prices get the more it adds to two further irksome implications: 1) Where is the money going? 2) There is a negative sentiment amongst many gamers that supporting Cash Shops in games causes harm to games.
SE is involved in a lot of game titles that I will not play. If I were to buy FFXIV Cash Shop items how much of that money is reinvested back into FFXIV rather than trying to prop up titles that I couldn't care less about. I want you to make more and different FFXIV content though. So I would urge your company to explicitly state when buying items on the store what percentage of money goes into developing more FFXIV content. I do not expect it to be 100% but knowing that 50% would be reinvested back into FFXIV would make it more enticing. Right now it is a mystery and most of the money could be going towards some games I will never play.
Cash Shops can ruin games if developers are not very careful. FFXIV's Cash Shop has seemed successfully mindful of this in my opinion. Most of it is cosmetic and stuff people missed from past seasonal events. I have many emotes and glams that new players will not have because I was there and if they want it they will have to pay. This system is rather reasonable. If I see someone with the 'play dead' emote or those waving Cheerbird glowing sticks I am a little jealous but I was not there to get them. When I see someone on the Cash-Shop-only mount that I want, I know that they paid the premium price to get it. I am not jealous, because I could buy it, but I do get an uneasy feeling. The more people that buy Cash Shop items and the more profitable it is, the more it could cause more and more items to be put in the Cash Shop rather than in the game as rewards for achievements. This has started to happen more often: recently a hairstyle that players have wanted for a long time was added to the game as a Cash Shop item. It seems like such a small thing but it is a very slippery slope. If the quality of the Cash Shop mounts, emotes, or glams surpasses that of the in-game ones people will start to raise an eyebrow. I can also understand limiting how many players can cosplay important MSQ characters. If we knew that a certain percentage of the money were being reinvested into FFXIV content maybe I wouldn't get that uneasy feeling about whether my purchase would help or hurt the game.
Now here is an idea that might help you sell more Cash Shop items. Some people do not buy Cash Shop items and are annoyed by people who do. Many Cash Shop items are too easy to spot in game. While I would like to know where the money is going and that care will continue to be exercised in what is chosen to be put in the Cash Shop I am not someone who is annoyed by those who do spend their money on cosmetics. That said, I do not like the idea of riding around on a mount that might offend someone who has strong opinions about Cash Shops or those who think you are just showing off how much real money you spend. It's one of the reasons I do not buy them. What you could do though is figure out a system where all players could earn a Cash Shop item from time to time. You used to give out glams for being subscribed for a length of time. Give out a free choice from the Cash Shop items from time to time for maintaining a subscription. Or give out a choice of a Cash Shop item after achieving certain Total Achievement Point breakpoints. Give the option to choose one free Cash Shop item when players buy a new expansion. My point is that if players had the rare opportunity to earn a free Cash Shop item of their choice once in a while, no one would really know who paid for a given glam/mount or earned it in game. Being able to earn a Cash Shop item from time to time would give back a little to your most loyal players, especially those against Cash Shops or those who do need to be careful with their money. It would also allow more people to buy and use Cash Shop items without feeling potentially discriminatory eyes on them because no one would know they spent real money.
