Cash shop confirmed

[Alukah]

Hopefully this will not open the doors to this game being pay-to-win

Even if it does it wouldn't matter for some people, they believe they are helping the game by accepting micro-transactions, so I assume they would be okay with a VIP pass for extra coil allowances or special buffs.

[HorrorStory]

Not entirely shocking, seeing as they wanted to sell Fantasia potions.

Cash shops should be expected in MMOs going forward these days. Just like AAA games and microtransactions...it's a sign of the times.

[MiniTofu]

I pay a subscription fee for full access to game content. Unless it is necessary to limit content to players due to technical limitations, that content should be available to all paying members. Double charging for content that is perfectly capable of being distributed to all players is unacceptable. I can understand charging for extra retainers if the game servers simply cannot handle every player having more than two. However, it is clear that something like a mount/minion/dye does not need to be limited in this fashion, thus SE should not be profiting extra from it just because they know they can take advantage of us.

Pretty much this! Thank you! I couldn't say any better.

[Mysteran]

If some players are planning to quit VanityShop, they have a pretty childish mentality. Why were you playing the game in the first place? How does VanityShop affect sudden stop that?

Don't come at me with the assumptions, "Slippery slope into Pay2Win," or, "potential content that would normally be put into the game." The former was shot down immediately as they made the announcement. The latter is like arguing that because someone pirated a movie, that they would have gone out and bought that movie, and thus it's a lost sale. You can't assume potentials to be exact.
Half of VanityShop is stuff from past Seasonal Events and Slepnir didn't have a price tag next to it, so...

...all this drama over Vanity? My bewilderment on here never ceases.

EDIT: How're some of you going to feel if they end up making the minions Veteran Rewards down the road and Odin comes in at 2.5?

The problem with your argument is that all the people making these "Slippery slope into Pay2Win," or, "potential content that would normally be put into the game." (as you put it) statements have seen this happen over and over again in previous games. Every single time it starts with "It's just vanity", "Well, it's just a minor bonus for new players to help them catch up and haven't we added all sorts of great content to the store you can't get anywhere else?", "Well, it's just so people can all get to the awesome end game and check out all that new content we added... to the store", "Well, we decided to make the game Free to Play. But if you want 85% of the content we make you'll need to pay extra. And it's not nearly as cheap as it would have been had we continued the subscription service since we are now offering things a la carte. But we have this awesome 'VIP' model where you can pay just as much as you were paying before and get about 75% of the content! Isn't that great?!"

I've played a number of games I loved that went that route. I'd really not like to see it happen again with FFXIV. Every single one of them promised it wouldn't go further down the slope. And every single one of them did.

[Tupsi]

However, it is clear that something like a mount/minion/dye does not need to be limited in this fashion, thus SE should not be profiting extra from it just because they know they can take advantage of us.

Kind of like how they knew people would buy the soundtracks specifically for the minions? You can't blame a business for knowing how to make money, to be honest. Nothing is limited, there's still plenty of mounts and minions you can get in game. Did you know? You can't get the veteran reward mounts and minions normally in game either? Thus limiting their availability based on your logic as well? Because we have to be subbed for a very long time to gain them, meaning we have to pay quite a lot of money to get something that should be, by the logic presented here, available in game.

I've played a number of games I loved that went that route. I'd really not like to see it happen again with FFXIV. Every single one of them promised it wouldn't go further down the slope. And every single one of them did.

And I bet those games you played were:

1. Free To Play.
2. Pay to play, failed and went F2P to save itself.
3. Got sold off and relaunched as F2P
4. Buy to play thus used the cash shop as a way to make money.

And I bet those games you played weren't:

1. Pay to Play and used the cash shop to make money by paywalling everything.

Remember: the thing is, the MMOs that go down that "slippery slope" are 99% of the time F2P or equivilent MMOs becauase that is their source of money - you can't think that a "free" MMO is truly free, right? It still cost developers tons of money and hosting costs they have to recoup somehow.

[Ruri]

Lol at people cancelling over this.

[Darkshade]

I'm not really sure why some people are fine with being charged on top of their subscription for the kind of content that has been a driving force for progression, trade, crafting, and intentional instance revisits.

I don't really get why people are fine with double dipping period. It's a very blatantly greed driven practice, and accepting it only encourages more consumer manipulation practices. They only have to change a little bit at a time. Get you acclimated. Let you find excuses for the small stuff till you're eventually totally fine with it. It's happened before with other industries.
Hell, did you know cable used to be commercial free?

Microtransactions are so crazy overpriced 99% of the time too. 1/100th of an expansion pack for 1/5th the price? It doesn't take a physicist to see that doesn't match up. And adding that with a subscription is just clawing through the sofas.
I cannot abide by this sort of behavior at all. Even if XIV turned out to be my favorite game of all time. I can't see double dipping as anything but a seriously low practice all around.
Why would you allow that to happen to you?

Should add this to OP.

[TheRogueX]

Do we make this a drop, similar to the Extreme Primal mounts? Or do we put it into a cash shop?

Why not both? The best Cash Shops sell exclusive vanity gear, but anything else can also be obtained in-game somehow.

[Darkshade]

Lol at people cancelling over this.

If people disagree with the direction and choices a company takes, they have every right to not support that product.

[Mysteran]

And I bet those games you played were:

1. Free To Play.
2. Pay to play, failed and went F2P to save itself.
3. Got sold off and relaunched as F2P
4. Buy to play thus used the cash shop as a way to make money.

And I bet those games you played weren't:

1. Pay to Play and used the cash shop to make money by paywalling everything.

Remember: the thing is, the MMOs that go down that "slippery slope" are 99% of the time F2P or equivilent MMOs becauase that is their source of money - you can't think that a "free" MMO is truly free, right? It still cost developers tons of money and hosting costs they have to recoup somehow.

You always do like to make assumptions when I see you debate on the forums.

I'll state none of those games started as Free to Play, or were Free to Play when I started playing them. Many of them ran for years before coming to that point.

But your reply also stresses the point people are trying to make.

"the MMOs that go down that "slippery slope" are 99% of the time F2P or equivilent MMOs becauase that is their source of money"
And this isn't a F2P game. This cash shop is added onto a subscription model. As the other games I was talking about. It's the first step of the slippery slope (well, probably second or third really for FFXIV, but probably the biggest of the steps) that a lot of people against the cash shop are speaking of. We've seen it before. We've heard the promises before. And we've gotten burned. Forgive me if I don't believe yet another person that claims it won't happen.

Either way, I'm headed to bed. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of the discussion.