Retainers, confirmed, you have to pay for them.

[TomTom1968]

1- What's your opinion about this? (Summarize)

I would have preferred a free solution. The space they provide us with by default is nowhere near sufficient if you (as the Game supports) play many roles. So first they create a system that invites you to try out different things, then you get insufficient storage space and in the end, they come up with "if you want more, pay". We talk about pixels here, more of something that exists already so no hard work is needed from DEV side to provide us with one more of the same. If they must charge us to compensate for server space or whatever is needed, I would have preferred a one time fee instad of a monthly fee. But all in all it is no biggie. It is nothing mandatory, Joe Average (1 fighting class and done) won't need it and it is your personal option so you have the choice.

2- Do you think we will have more things like this in the future totally changing our idea of FFXIV:ARR?

Once they start with such a path and receive enough interest, they will continue so Yes, I am almost sure there will be more paid "services" like that.

3- Am I just exaggerating and it's something normal or that, 'doesn't affect gameplay' even if it's confirmed that those 'ventures' will grant us items, and even if it is clear that we will need more space storage in the future?...

Naturally this isn't normal at all for me but sadly a normal industry standard these days. Constant cash flow is the keyword for managers and CEO's. If you can't generate continous revenue, you won't get budget. Developping and selling a Game only is 20th century. 21st century is develop a litte, make people pay, develop a little more and make people pay again. Repeat till people have enough and go for the next big thing.

4- Is our voice enough for change these things?

I seriously doubt it. Only chance we could have would be that only a very small number of players use services like that. But I know I will use it because I do not have enough space and I am sure many others will suck it up and pay as well so success is more than likely no matter what people really think of it or have to say about it.

5- Should retainers be in-game for guil or any other ways, giving the currency a little more of importance aside of housing?

In Game for GIL should be the way

6- Taking in mind these kind of strategies, do you think eventually the game will become a Pay 2 Win, or, not radically that, but, slowly increase the amount of money we pay per month if we want to play it full advantages?

At the moment, I do not see a P2W element just because of the retainers. They can be a reason that you may have more GIL than others if you order a lot of them and send them steadily out to gather materials but the way this Game is designed, only drops from dungeons or items you buy for tokens or a currency like Myth tomes really count.

[ShinigamiB06]

Im hung up on the fact that they want to charge an extra monthly fee for the retainers. It was enough for me to cancel my account, and nothing else in those patch notes was enough to get me to change my mind. just more of the same.

[Xairos]

I see it being paid for with cash so that gil sellers (who use the AH to make their gil to sell) would have to pony up cash in order to attempt to exploit us. If it used in game currency, then it would be GG easy since we all have a workable income in this game (not saying we all have millions).

As for Space issues, I actually level one job at a time so i dont run tight on space. I have Cooking, Fishing, Botany at level 50 and im starting weaving and i have tons of space. For battle classes I have 50 BLM, SMN, PLD, and MNK and each one (since im not too much into min/maxing) has one functional set. I even put my old AF gear on my retainer. I still have enough room to sell and gather and cook.

But I await the flood of "this is P2W and I'm quitting" threads. Every patch spawns one.

[Makado]

Asked my static what they thought and they said it was the same in 1.0 you paid extra for more retainer. ( I didn't play 1.0) so don't really see what the big deal is.

[Starlord]

Personally, if they we're being "greedy" they wouldn't have put a limit on the amount of retainers people can get ( Only 2). That to me sounds like they want to keep the game balance while helping out people who just can't throw anything away (seriously... :/ 450 slots is more than enough to hold everything and then some even for a crafter.)

Venture's cost 1,000 seals per 5 tokens. I am sure as you increase in level the cost of the venture will increase to maybe 5 tokens per "end-game venture activities". Also the thought of leveling them all the way to 50 makes it hard to "abuse the system" even with the extra 2 retainers.

This is not a sign of FFXIV going F2P. Just because they are doing something microtransaction related (even FFXI had microtransactions) doesn't mean there's a "sign" of it becoming F2P.

[Bixby]

1- What's your opinion about this? (Summarize)
Eh. I think $2 is a little steep, but I'm an old curmudgeon. Back in my day $1 for a whole other character uphill both ways, etc. As a concept, this particular thing doesn't bother me that much, because it's small. And frankly, people with enough cash can already just get multiple accounts and do basically the same thing. So this is sort of a middle ground for people who can afford this, but not an extra account.

2- Do you think we will have more things like this in the future totally changing our idea of FFXIV:ARR?
The first part of the question, yes; we will probably have more cash shop stuff in the future. The second part, I'm less sure of. This doesn't really change my idea of FFXIV:ARR. If they start giving things with more serious advantages, that'll suck, but I don't see any reason to go all Chicken Little yet.

3- Am I just exaggerating and it's something normal or that, 'doesn't affect gameplay' even if it's confirmed that those 'ventures' will grant us items, and even if it is clear that we will need more space storage in the future?...
I'm in the middle ground on this. A lot of people seem to separate "convenience" and "gameplay advantage." To me, convenience is an advantage. It's just a matter of degrees. Every minute I don't spend doing the inconvenient crap other players have to is a minute I get to do other things, and that constitutes an advantage. I don't think this will have all that big an impact. Yes, there will be some players who can really push the envelope with this and impact the markets in large ways, and some players who won't be able to take advantage of it at all. But for most people, and for servers as a whole, I don't think this will make too many ripples. What you do from day to day won't be impacted by the presence of people with four retainers all that much more than it would be by two additional players. People leave and join the game constantly, so markets are always in flux. This isn't that different.

4- Is our voice enough for change these things?
If there were enough people concerned about it, and enough people who just didn't pay, maybe. But there will be plenty of people buying the extra retainers, so don't count on it. Forums are very vocal about things like this. The average player doesn't care.

5- Should retainers be in-game for guil or any other ways, giving the currency a little more of importance aside of housing?
It's a nice idea, but it's not going to happen. In-game gil doesn't help with server space or bandwidth.

6- Taking in mind these kind of strategies, do you think eventually the game will become a Pay 2 Win, or, not radically that, but, slowly increase the amount of money we pay per month if we want to play it full advantages?
No. I expect this will be pretty much the worst of it.

[Versiroth]

If they would have given us a 3rd via in game currency/a quest and then made a 4th and 5th available via an extra monthly fee, I would have been ok with it. As is, we've all been waiting for extra retainers and to find out that thsi is the only way to get more... well, I'm very disappointed. I guess I'll just have to start deleting all of my collectible stuff that's taking up all of my storage space...

[KraggyKor]

1- What's your opinion about this? (Summarize)

I've been paying for 'advantages' ever since I subbed my second character in FFXI in early 2005, this character got me 'items'.

This is nothing new

[Xairos]

If they would have given us a 3rd via in game currency/a quest and then made a 4th and 5th available via an extra monthly fee, I would have been ok with it. As is, we've all been waiting for extra retainers and to find out that thsi is the only way to get more... well, I'm very disappointed. I guess I'll just have to start deleting all of my collectible stuff that's taking up all of my storage space...

Not picking a fight, but im curious what collectible stuff is taking up all that space. Also, do you fish? because the lures also take up a lot.

For the record: I chucked out my DL stuff, I keep AF1 and Myth gear, I also kept CT gear. All that extra fits on the first two pages of my 1st retainer. I have 4 lvl 50 jobs.

[Yshnal]

I've stated my opinion about this on the other threads, so I'm not going to repeat it (making it short, I hate it). However, I would like to ask something.

What's going to happen with those that use game cards to pay their subs? Will they have to set up a credit card or buy Crysta to pay for the retainers, if they wanted to get them? If so, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of using game cards?