2.2 Retainers via Microtransactions

[Razzle]

When I first saw the Mog Station website I knew it was going downhill, behind that cute little moogle logo stands a marketing plan to get more cash on top of a sub fee. Under services there is "coming soon", am I the only one not wishing to find out what is "coming soon"? lol

Give fantasia as a quest reward? As a seal exchange? As a rare drop? As a treasure hunt? Why pay on top of a monthly fee for that?

Sadly the days of paying 100% p2p are gone or close to that. These days we have developers develop 100% of a game, but only realeasing 50% of it and then after some weeks release the other X2 25% as a "DLC" for more money, with the rest "coming soon".

You can't buy a 100% game and be done with it these days.

[Valendred]

When I first saw the Mog Station website I knew it was going downhill, behind that cute little moogle logo stands a marketing plan to get more cash on top of a sub fee. Under services there is "coming soon", am I the only one not wishing to find out what is "coming soon"? lol

Give fantasia as a quest reward? As a seal exchange? As a rare drop? As a treasure hunt? Why pay on top of a monthly fee for that?

Sadly the days of paying 100% p2p are gone or close to that. These days we have developers develop 100% of a game, but only realeasing 50% of it and then after some weeks release the other X2 25% as a "DLC" for more money, with the rest "coming soon".

You can't buy a 100% game and be done with it these days.

It's a travesty that this is the current state of the gaming industry, to be frank.

[Razzle]

It's a travesty that this is the current state of the gaming industry, to be frank.

Yeah, but it's the players that didn't notice this that lead to that. As a marketing person of a big company I can easily tell what's behind the good talks and cute presentations of shops and developer letters.

SE is a business and it wants to make as much money as possible, but players should see the big picture when they agree to pay for something and not just what the company present to them.

[SendohJin]

Give fantasia as a quest reward? As a seal exchange? As a rare drop? As a treasure hunt? Why pay on top of a monthly fee for that?

i am okay with that. FF MMOs are not like others. people have one character that can do most everything, people are identified by their name, race and general appearance. it should not be easy to change your character in game besides basic cosmetics and that's what we got.

[Razzle]

i am okay with that. FF MMOs are not like others. people have one character that can do most everything, people are identified by their name, race and general appearance. it should not be easy to change your character in game besides basic cosmetics and that's what we got.

Huh? It is easy to change your character if the potion is on the shop.
It is not easy to change your character if the potion is a rare drop, or requires days of work, you know, actually playing the game than just accessing an online store and buying one.

[SendohJin]

Huh? It is easy to change your character if the potion is on the shop.
It is not easy to change your character if the potion is a rare drop, or requires days of work, you know, actually playing the game than just accessing an online store and buying one.

a lot less people will do it willy-nilly if they had to pay real money for it, if it's a dropped item people might do it just because they have one.

[Razzle]

a lot less people will do it willy-nilly if they had to pay real money for it, if it's a dropped item people might do it just because they have one.

Um, I don't get it lol
It's better to have the item instantly when paying for it, than it is to work and play the game towards it...?

As a player I'd like to think that the more things I can do in-game - The better. I'd like every single thing to be obtainable in game, even if it's super rare or take days to reach to - more goals for me.

[SendohJin]

Um, I don't get it lol
It's better to have the item instantly when paying for it, than it is to work and play the game towards it...?

As a player I'd like to think that the more things I can do in-game - The better. I'd like every single thing to be obtainable in game, even if it's super rare or take days to reach to - more goals for me.

it's not a goal they want people to have. it's an option they have to offer because some people truly regret their design choices but by design (of wanting people to be attached to a single character), they don't want that as an in game goal for people to race change every month or so.

[Razzle]

it's not a goal they want people to have. it's an option they have to offer because some people truly regret their design choices but by design (of wanting people to be attached to a single character), they don't want that as an in game goal for people to race change every month or so.

FFXIV: A restriction reborn. The whole game is already locked out. I don't see why not put a lockout on that if that was a problem for them. I somehow lean to believe it's to get more money on top of a sub and not because "they don't want people to race change every month or so."

In fact, having it on an online store with no lockout, would allow players to change every month or so, while having a lockout in game would not.

[Orophin]

Give fantasia as a quest reward? As a seal exchange? As a rare drop? As a treasure hunt? Why pay on top of a monthly fee for that?

Character alteration has always been a service charge in subscription MMOs, as well as other services such as world transfers.

This whole thing wouldn't be an issue if paid retainers were simply ONLY for storage space.

I think we simply don't have enough information yet. We're taking a very loosely translated Japanese article (not done by Reinheart even) and assuming the worst.

In 1.0 they were going to charge an extra $1.00 per month for extra retainers before the development team shifted. People that came from FFXI were willing to pay that because we had to pay for extra characters in that game. This game, however, has a totally different playerbase now with many different backgrounds.

I don't think they will ever degrade the PvE experience by implementing significant paywalls through the Mog Station, but depending on the functionality of paid extra retainers, this could really churn some waters. If it's simply for extra storage then I'm sure most people won't care. If these same retainers can do Ventures or are the only retainers that can do Ventures, it's going to miff a lot of people because game features in a subscription game should not be behind an additional paywall.