Very conflicted about the cash shop...

[Eggnook24]

The expansion, kind of falls under this.

Expansion is main story and continued content. I'm talking about paid dungeon instances with possible exclusive drops. That'd be bad.

[Caillum]

If a game like WoW, which still has over double the subs of FFXIV, has a cash shop, why can't FFXIV?

If they keep the items purely vanity, then it will just be a matter of you finding value in spending X amount of dollars for it. If you don't find value in spending that money, then you must not really want it or need it. This is just a good business model. If SE can make extra profit, without alienating a majority of their player base (i.e. not selling pay to win items), then it makes sense for them to do this. Also, I'm sure a lot of this extra money will go back into the game and help the development of actual in-game content.

[LLSmoothJ]

While I can see both the pros and cons of using a Cash Shop, my feelings about it is this.

If they put things up in the cash shop such as Cloud's and Tifa's outfits/hairstyle and a Shoopuff mount, that would be one thing. But if we start seeing things like a race-specific outfit that can be worn by all races, Garlean-styled armor (or helmets), Minfilia's outfit, or lore-based items in the shop, then it'll be annoying.

[Fyrebrand]

The subscription fee doesn't automatically entitle all players to use all FFXIV-related services and features free of additional charge.

That's funny, because it did mean that until just now. Apparently, the subscription fee is no longer a fee to experience the whole game, but merely just parts of the game. Our subscription money is literally worth less than it used to, from now on.

If they want to add purely cosmetic extra features to the game for purchase, what's wrong with that?

You know, it's funny that people defend this cash shop scheme by saying it is "vanity only" or "just cosmetic stuff," as if it is insignificant and should not matter to anyone. But if it were insignificant and did not matter to anyone, then no one would ever buy it. The only reason these things are for sale is because they matter, and make the game more enjoyable for players.

If you don't like them or don't want to pay for them, play as usual and ignore the shop.

Nice glasses on your character, by the way. Hope you enjoy them, because from now on stuff like that will become more and more rare unless you pay extra. Those minions you used to win by participating in FATEs or getting a lucky drop in a dungeon? No more of that. Next time you see someone in awesome-looking armor, or carrying a shiny new sword, and you ask "Wow, that looks awesome, where did you get that?" -- the answer will be "the cash shop." Want that cool chocobo barding or mount associated with the next primal? Well you won't get it by mastering the content or getting a drop -- it will be available to purchase for money. But hey, that's alright, you can just enjoy your pre-existing, out-of-date "vanilla FFXIV" gear and mounts, and remember the days when those things used to be available in the actual game.

[Gilthas]

Eh, really not happy with this cash shop thing.

I don't care if it's just cosmetic crap. One of the things that justifies making players pay a monthly fee is that we would get access to everything in the game. Yeah, Retainers already broke this, but I guess FFXI and it's necessity for paid mules didn't make me complain much. But a cash shop for cosmetic stuff? That's how Free to play games make their money and has no place in a subscription game.

[Songi]

The game hasn't had an expansion or a drop in subscriptions and they're already talking about adding a cash shop. Yup, sounds to me like they're already doing damage control for when the expansion turns out to be a flop.

[Tupsi]

That's funny, because it did mean that until just now. Apparently, the subscription fee is no longer a fee to experience the whole game, but merely just parts of the game.

The irony of this statement is there's people who pay the $10-$16+ a month and only utilize a fraction of the game's content that does exist...plenty who've yet to even touch Second Coil. Losing out on vanity items doesn't suddenly negate 99% of the game you do have access to with your sub fee.

[Gilthas]

The game hasn't had an expansion or a drop in subscriptions and they're already talking about adding a cash shop. Yup, sounds to me like they're already doing damage control for when the expansion turns out to be a flop.

This is just stupid logic.

For one, subscriptions have obviously already dropped some since release (though are likely stabilized).
Second, if they thought that the expansion was bad, they'd delay it and keep releasing normal patches until they thought it was good. Serously, they actually made a CG animation for the expansion (something that never happened with FFXI).

It's obvious that they just saw an opportunity to make some extra money given that WoW does this too.

[SpookyGhost]

The irony of this statement is there's people who pay the $10-$16+ a month and only utilize a fraction of the game's content that does exist...plenty who've yet to even touch Second Coil. Losing out on vanity items doesn't suddenly negate 99% of the game you do have access to with your sub fee.

It literally negates 99% of the crafts available to every DoH except CUL, and each patch those high end crafts will be moved to vanity. It also negates the point of doing Treasure Maps entirely, which was one of the few fun things I did in this game over the past 2 months. On top of this, since apparently SCoB is important to you, imagine if they charged you 10$ extra to play that content every week - after all, it doesn't negate 99% of the game you do have access to with your sub fee, it is only a fraction of the entire game, yet now it costs a fee to do. You should be more than happy to pay for the privilege to access a raid in a game you're already paying monthly for, no? Oh, does that sound... unreasonable, maybe? Yeah, it is a bit dumb to pay for things you should already be able to do/obtain in the game. Oh, but because it's something you don't care about personally, it should be fine for everyone that it be removed from the game and sold separately. Mmmmmmm.

[Tupsi]

It literally negates 99% of the crafts available to every DoH except CUL

Dungeon drops in level 15-49 dungeons does this already - CT/ST and Coil does this already. Solidery, Mythology and Allied Seal gear does this already. The only benefit crafted gear has is if you have the money and time to overmeld pieces when..instead, you can just do the content

So no..it doesn't negate anything that the game doesn't already negate by design.

since apparently SCoB is important to you, imagine if they charged you 10$ extra to play that content every week

This analogy Does. Not. Work. because that's called Freemium model.