Retainers, confirmed, you have to pay for them.

[Evil_Betox]

I don't mind but i won't be using this, nope i don't like paying for this atop of the subscription and nope i never liked the idea of having to pay for additional characters in FFXI. Yep i'm one miserable bastard, i paid $6 for both The Witcher games on Steam, i rather save this money and buy a game there.

[Mardel]

Maybe they see a steady decline in subscriptions and they are trying to milk everything they can before going F2P?

inb4 $15 fantasia potions

From a business stand point the "steady decline" is going to be off-set my the chinese launch. Regardless of how many subs we lose in NA/EU I can almost guarantee the China release will more than make up for it. The game is pretty steady and once it launches in a new market it will acquire even more funds. People are just panicking over nothing, and if it went F2P in the far off future I'm sure they probably would have quit the game long before then making their outcry near pointless.

I probably won't buy the extra retainers because I don't need it. Even if there are special items that come from using the retainer I'll probably just buy it off the market boards from selling T5/Leviathan/Moogle kills.

When it comes down to it the retainer ventures will barely scratch the surface of upsetting any market. It requires tokens to send them off in ventures. If you have to waste time to send them off you could have used that time to make money instead. So in a sense it is counter-productive, unless you can somehow make money while earning the tokens to send them off.

[Delsai]

1.) It uses real work resources so it cost SE money. It's a optional service.

2.) Nope

3.) Does not effect gameplay.

4.) Scream (cry) louder.

5.) Not if it cost real world resources and it's optional.

6.) You got to be kidding me? No, not in any way.

This should be added to the forums ASAP.

[Naunet]

1.) It uses real work resources so it cost SE money. It's a optional service.

It uses no more resources than someone making an alt and picking up an additional two retainers. Considering the number of people who only have one character is probably greater than the number of people who have 7, storage space from an infrastructure perspective should not even come close to being an issue.

[Mardel]

It uses no more resources than someone making an alt and picking up an additional two retainers. Considering the number of people who only have one character is probably greater than the number of people who have 7, storage space from an infrastructure perspective should not even come close to being an issue.

People with alts, that are non-legacy, have to pay for each character slot right? So what's the issue?

[Elim]

When SW:TOR went F2P, they forced their F2Pers to pay cash for extra space, not their subs. Their subs could buy extra space for credits(aka gil) or pay for them with real cash. Sucks that FF14 couldn't have taken that rout, instead of this very iffy money grab.

[LordSliver]

It uses no more resources than someone making an alt and picking up an additional two retainers. Considering the number of people who only have one character is probably greater than the number of people who have 7, storage space from an infrastructure perspective should not even come close to being an issue.

But the 2 extra retainers will probably work like the fantasia veteran reward, you get on all your characters new and old.

[Phaus]

I don't think people realise the real issue of it being a P2P game with the addition of paying for extra in game material monthly rather than the fact it's only $2

[Yshnal]

People with alts, that are non-legacy, have to pay for each character slot right? So what's the issue?

The standard sub is the usual/normal one (and you don't pay per character, you get the full bundle). The entry sub (the one with one character) is the one with a discount. It's differerent than being charged more.

[Amberion]

People with alts, that are non-legacy, have to pay for each character slot right? So what's the issue?

No, both get 8 character slots. But only standard let's you use more then 1 on the same world.