Cash shop confirmed

[Catsby]

Then I will just buy it. I doubt I will have to take out a second mortgage.....

Whether or not you can afford it isn't the problem. The problem is that you are willing to hand over real money instead of fighting a boss or hiring a crafter for it. Once you start doing that the developers start producing slightly fewer bosses and crafting recipes. Over the next couple years (if you bothered to stick around that long) we missed out on several updates worth of content because the systems and resources to produce it went directly to the cash shop instead.

[Black91CRX]

No. that's not how this works. people working on cash shop items are people not working on dungeons, crafting items, bosses, emotes, or other meaningful content. think critically about what's happening here.

That's assuming that the majority of the items will be cash shop EXCLUSIVE. Not simply past items that newer subscribers would have no chance of obtaining otherwise. Again, people need to chill out. Way too early to start panicking.

[Asierid]

Whether or not you can afford it isn't the problem. The problem is that you are willing to hand over real money instead of fighting a boss or hiring a crafter for it. Once you start doing that the developers start producing slightly fewer bosses and crafting recipes. Over the next couple years (if you bothered to stick around that long) we missed out on several updates worth of content because the systems and resources to produce it went directly to the cash shop instead.

I am still waiting for a source on this popular P2P MMO that has a whole updates worth of items on the cash shop. Hell, WoW's numbers have even climbed since implementing more items into theirs, and adding it into the game.

[kyuven]

No. This is a cash grab and the game will suffer for it in the long run. Many older MMOs had no trouble sustaining themselves on monthly subscriptions and expansion sales so there's absolutely no reason why FFXIV cannot do the same. If you are the type of person who likes to stay with an MMO for longer than a year I guarantee you will notice the change in community and content and you will hate it.

I'd like to point out that history has long shown that optional services for premium fees have never actually hurt an MMO's financial viability. In many cases it has actually SAVED it.
FFXIV is in a very small minority of profitable subscription based MMOs. WoW, FFXIV, FFXI, ESO, EVE and Wildstar are pretty much it right now. And y'know what? Most of those have some form of cash shop. Hell, FFXIV already technically has a cash shop: We can pay for extra retainers and Fantasias.

[KenzieLynch]

Many older games are not around, nor even come close to the numbers that games which do have shops have. They also were cheaper to run, since they had smaller numbers. Optional services do nothing to change the community as they are available to everyone.

Next.

You know, acting obnoxious doesn't negate legitimate points that players such as myself and Catsby have raised. You can say 'next' all the live long day, but it doesn't end the discussion.

[IveraIvalice]

Doesn't really matter at this point. Let them unsub, it doesn't change the fact that the shop is coming regardless and the hard headed that can't seem to get what an optional service is. People have larger problems if they are sitting her complaining over random vanity items that have no effect on anything in the game.



The game is 100% available to you. You can play it and all the content it has, no problem. Want the shiny mount now? Pay for it. There are more mounts in the game you can ride then the one in the shop. Again, optional.

As everyone else who has their head on straight has said, it's coming regardless. Speak with your money and unsub. We really don't care because, for the 15th time, it doesn't effect the game. You guys forget this is a business before it is a game. Reality sucks.

All of this is wrong and is not even an opinion.

The game is not 100% available to us if there things we cannot get without the cash shop obviously.
This is a game before it is a business because without the game they would have no business, you cannot have one without the other. and proof of that is the fact that people have left and will leave still because of this AND that the game survives on the subscription model that it has been. It it was failing then it would go f2p with a cash shop. But adding a cash shop while still charging a monthly sub is blatantly trying to milk us for as much money as possible.

They are not struggling, they are greedy.

Not everyone plays the same as you and only care about the necessities of being able to progress through the game. Some people play for everything but raiding and dungeons. Some people play to collect minions and mounts and do nothing but craft and make furnishing and work the market boards.

You say the game is 100% accessible to everyone but it's really just all YOU need/care about.

The subscription fee only pays for the basics then. I'm not ok with that

[Lyron]

Bye.

People that can't understand how to make money as a game dev don't need to be here anyway. I still have yet to hear anything that would make a logical arguement as to why this is bad aside from: "I pay a sub so I don't want it".

You make money by making a good product. For MMOs, that usually involves adventuring around a massive world for treasure with a decent community. Cash shops tend to dampen that when instead of exploring the world or community for desired things its instead placed in said cash shop. Its part of the reason why people feel the genre is weaker these days and why people flocked to XIV: ARR to begin with.

And you have received logical arguments, you have just discarded them because they don't fit your viewpoint. That goes against the very concept of an argument.

[JarinArenos]

Bye.

People that can't understand how to make money as a game dev don't need to be here anyway. I still have yet to hear anything that would make a logical arguement as to why this is bad aside from: "I pay a sub so I don't want it".

It's called "double dipping". We pay a subscription fee for ongoing development and content. F2P games charge for cosmetic and minor boosts (see, the highly-successful Guild Wars 2 model).

People who will defend games they like regardless of flaws baffle me. The fact that this cash-shop garbage is *already* taking away from content we would have received is somehow lost on you? The "I have yet to hear any logical argument" statement just tells me you haven't been listening.

[Asierid]

/sigh

Because there is no argument here. You can sit here and say you pay money all night long, that's fine and dandy, I do too. And quite frankly, yes it does negate the points. Let's look at numbers:

Again, WoW's sub numbers have risen since they re-worked their shop.
Rift was saved from certain closure by opening theirs.
Tera survived as well after opening theirs.

That's just 3. 2 of them are free to play and even have game changing items within the shops. Wow doesn't and still is rising.

So. I am waiting for the facts as to why this is bad. I say it again. Next.

[kyuven]

You make money by making a good product.

That's not precisely true.
You don't necessarily make money by making a good product, you make money by making a product that your target customer base feels is worth paying for. Wal-Mart's very existence should prove that you don't need "good" products to stay in business, you just need to appeal to the wants of your customer base.
People want more minions, glamours, and mounts. It's less resource intensive and more profitable to add them to a cash shop where those that want the otherwise useless items can pay a small price to have them than it is to add them to the world via loot tables or the like. Gold Saucer will probably have a lot of gimmicky loot available that will also be available via the cash shop, and this is just the first set.