2.2 Retainers via Microtransactions

[paul1984]

MMO'S have always had some form of micro transaction in a sub based game lol. take wow for example. £20 for a mount and about £10 for a pet £40 for an instant level 90 character.

[KupoNuts]

MMO'S have always had some form of micro transaction in a sub based game lol. take wow for example. £20 for a mount and about £10 for a pet £40 for an instant level 90 character.

So all other MMOs instantly must jump on the same boat just because WoW did it?

[Dhex]

So let's go over a few things:



Cost:
Retainer Ventures consume various amounts of a Token type item. The level range shown in the image is lv41-45, has a Retainer iL req of 30, and a single Venture costs 1 token and takes 1 hour to complete netting 7 Apkallu Eggs and experience. Considering the iL and level requirements and the EXP and time taken to gain that EXP - essentially makes Retainers another gathering class. Very similar to leveling a mule - but now it's mostly automated.

By having Extra Retainers you would have in theory the capacity (more inventory & more mules) to gather more in a short period of time (due to it taking an hour) but you are limited on your "max cap" by the Venture Tokens.

Basically -> EXAMPLE:
If Joe has 2 retainers and 10 tokens it would take 5 hours to use up all his tokens and let's say they'd both level 5 levels.
Jim has (via Mogstation) bought 8 extra retainers - he has 10 and he could use up all his tokens in an hour and his 10 retainers would level 1 level.

Questions you should ask:

How do I get Venture Tokens?

How often do I get Venture Tokens?

How long will leveling a single Retainer take?

How long does gearing a single Retainer take?

Jim might beat out Joe in the long run months down the road - but by having more Retainers he's got more time/gear he needs to invest in them. As it is all Jim really has over Joe is that he can blowout his tokens faster and will have more inventory space floating around.

How this system makes the game better:

Able to gather while doing actual combat content.

This really is almost exactly the same as having and leveling Mule character - except it's mostly automated and tied to your main character and doesn't come with the inhibiting factors like:

A over-camped mob; Apkallu, Sheep, Etc.

Having to memorize Unspoiled Node times and hop through your mules to manually gather.

Having to use a friend or your Free Company chest to move items/gil around.

How this system makes the game worse:

Increased devaluation of materials. Supply - no demand (currently).

Devalues the open world slightly for people that kill monsters to farm items.




Buying more retainers is far from P2W - no different than paying for additional characters as you did in previous games AKA -> Mules. Gil thus far is mostly useless - Housing being the only thing most players are willing to spend their money on.




I think this thread is ridiculous.

[Immut]

The real question is... What you gon' do with all that junk? All that junk inside your trunk?

Put it on my retainer, obviously.

[Jennika]

It's probably just going to be for storage space just like your mule in ffxi and the only retainers you can level and send out on ventures are the ones you get in game.

From the translated interview that this thread links: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...penness-to-F2P


It seems that a lot of users are interested in sales of Fantasia (the item to change your character model), so how about that?

Yoshida: We're going to be talking about that in the LIVE producer letter on the 21st. Also, we're planning to introduce the ability to purchase an additional service which increases the number of available retainers. It'll be even more valuable with the additional retainer systems available with the patch which will make retainers more useful than ever.

[Tharian]

I hate to say this, but Micro-Transactions have existed in this game ever since the 2.0 release in the form of World Transfers. So complaining now that they are introducing additional services to their Micro-Transaction Service is kind of silly. If you were really upset about Micro-transactions being in this game, you should have started complaining when World Transfers were introduced to this game.

[MattAn24]

Paranoid lunatics everywhere! Hilarious.

And apparently the Fantasia Potion being an optional service is totally okay? Guess what, that's a microtransaction.

There's a little thing called VETERAN REWARDS. Use your brains, people. Where the hell are you getting this asinine assumption that they'd start selling mounts/minions as microtransactions, when they're *rewards* given per certain amount of subscribed days.
Not every *needs* several retainers. These things are going to cost extra. It's also kind of necessary considering RMT (real money traders) could *easily* monopolise on it and freely buy up multiple retainers, crippling the server economy, as if they aren't doing that already.

Seriously, people. Grow up..

EDIT: The key word here is you can send your retainers to go and gather items for you. None of you bitter folk bothered to consider that RMTers could very easily abuse that system and completely destroy the Market Board economy? No. No you didn't. There's a REASON extra retainers cost extra. The system would get abused hard if they were all simply free.

[paul1984]

but when you think about it the retainer will be using it's own server for the stuff you want it to do so the extra cost needs payed some how. but yea if they start doing this for mounts pets and other stuff then yea it is going to fall

[Kayo]

What points does this thread as a whole even have? In what way does selling Retainers ( storage space) make a player P2W? Even with this whole Retainer Venture deal, it's not like they are giving you "gear". So how in the heck is any of this P2W? Changing your character (visually) is a "Microtransaction" Are you going to tell me that people are going to P2W off of Character appearance? >.>.

I never said this was P2W, in fact I dont even care if it is, its besides the point. Although I would like to point out that this being a P2P game, whether or not an upcoming feature is P2W shouldnt even be on the table. Regardless, in this case its all the same F-U to me from Yoshi and SE. Its double dipping, selling us more content which we should have included with the sub. I love how every time some dev decides to sell us content it supporters always point out the usual services. Name, appearance, and server changes are outside of the actual game... services made to your established character offered to those who changed their mind about their character. Its not actual content nor are they exclusive to RMT since you can always reroll a new character with a new name in a new server. None of that will apply to these RMT retainers.

MAYBE, I could accept this if the retainer is accessible on all characters. Mostly because im on entry level sub and it would still come out to the standard price (assuming its $1 a month). However even then it would still be a kick in the nads for those who already pay a full sub, have multiple characters in the same server, yet still can xfer or mail items because SE decided to put that common feature behind a pay gate and milk its fans for more money.

[MattAn24]

MAYBE, I could accept this if the retainer is accessible on all characters. Mostly because im on entry level sub and it would still come out to the standard price (assuming its $1 a month). However even then it would still be a kick in the nads for those who already pay a full sub, have multiple characters in the same server, yet still can xfer or mail items because SE decided to put that common feature behind a pay gate and milk its fans for more money.

The key word here is you can send your retainers to go and gather items for you. None of you bitter folk bothered to consider that RMTers could very easily abuse that system and completely destroy the Market Board economy? No. No you didn't. There's a REASON extra retainers cost extra. The system would get abused hard if they were all simply free.

And you keep saying "RMT retainers". That's.. Not what RMT means.
RMT are the real money TRADERS that are bots in-game. That's who would benefit most if these bonus retainers *were* free! The bonus retainers are not *itself* "RMT". They're "optional services". See? Optional. Meaning you do not need it. Hell, I barely even have ONE retainer! Never had a need for one!