Sell Fantasia on the Mogstation

[Roman_Aers]

I still find it hilarious how "vanity" is weighed in at anything at all. the way your character looks does not effect gameplay balance at all. granted, it may be more important to some people then others, as it's somewhat important to me, BUT, its' not a game breaker. not in the slightest. Vanity does NOT get you anything in game, it doesnt get you more or less invites to groups, its not a requirement to enter dungeons... i could go on. anyhow, HurtigeKarl, if you actually read the posts I wrote, you would see that I posted various ways it could use paid for, both in game and out, as did MANY other people on this discussion. SE could impliment more then one way, but they WILL impliment this at one point, regardless. instead of trying to argue your point of how you dont want to pay for something to make you "look different" that only effects YOUR personal opinion on your own character and nothing more, you should focus on the actual discussion...

[HurtigeKarl]

(...)

In a PvE game, it doesn't affect YOU if someone else bought a super-weapon from item mall. Sure he makes the content easier for himself, but you can have your "balance" by simply choosing to not use that weapon.

To convince me, you need to give a compelling argument that clearly shows why it is okay to sell vanity gear in a game where aesthetics matter (i.e. not league of legends or path of exile) while it isn't okay to sell powerful weapons through the item mall in a PvE game.

Refering to "game balance" doesn't cut it, due to precisely the argument I presented in this very post.

[Roman_Aers]

you havent gotten to endgame yet, so as far as your PVE experience, youre lacking. as far as how it impacts PVE, it's pretty simple. if you BUY your weapons, or armor or what not, you essentially buy yourself spots in groups, where people who dont buy the items, grind to get similiar, if not the same value, items. simply put, when you sit in Revenents Toll trying to get into a binding coil group, and ppl who "bought" their weapons and gear who never did AK or Titan HM, beat you out simply cuz of their Min/Max, you will change your opinion on PVE game balancing.

level 1-49 is a completely different game from level 50, and when you're not there, you dont see it as well as others. You will when you need to start doing CM runs, AK runs, and getting into a Primal HM group. granted, that doesnt neccessarily count if you are in a great endgame FC, but you can not always bank on that. you still need to compete for spots in groups.

[HurtigeKarl]

you (text)

That's the first reasonable argument I read from you so far (haven't read whole thread so some may have gone missing XD).

If one is a dps like you are, due to low supply of healers and tanks, you will have to compete with other dps over spots to do endgame content. That's a necessary consequence of the scarcity aspect in the game, one does not need to reach lv50 on a battle class to see that.

If "powerful gear" was introduced into the item mall, the specific distribution of those dps will shift towards so that the dps without a such weapon would be less likely to do endgame.

This of course only affects private groups and not public duty finder ones.
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(see post below for more than 1000 character )

[HurtigeKarl]

However: why wouldn't it be okay for tanks to buy powerful gear from the item mall? Tanks would always be able to get endgame group due to them having so low population. So they aren't really competing with each other to be able to access endgame content.

Of course, one could argue that by the introduction of such equips to the item mall, the population of tanks would increase significantely. However, if that increase is not enough to make tanks compete against each other for endgame content, would you be okay with it?

[Shioban]

However: why wouldn't it be okay for tanks to buy powerful gear from the item mall? Tanks would always be able to get endgame group due to them having so low population. So they aren't really competing with each other to be able to access endgame content.

Of course, one could argue that by the introduction of such equips to the item mall, the population of tanks would increase significantely. However, if that increase is not enough to make tanks compete against each other for endgame content, would you be okay with it?

Because that dips into the "Buy to win" situation, instead of earning the gear people would simply just buy it.
Its a VERY slippery slope where people become bored very quick when there's no reward for effort.


The reason other games offer a "buy to win" solution, is because they want to make money fast. Those games have investors who've invested into the development of the game and want a return ASAP, the easiest way to do that is a cash-shop. Square Enix does NOT have investors, the game was funded out of their own pocket, so there's no rush to earn money from FFXIV, for them the money they've spent in their own long term investment that they know will reap a return over time, just like its predecessor FFXI did, the most profitable game they've had to date.