Cash shop confirmed

[Asierid]

Gold paint came in the mail. Free.

Various minions and mounts for subbing x amount of days. Free.

Recruit friends! Free mount and item.

List goes on.

EDIT: Hell, even 1.0 was free for a time. Granted the game sucked. But still.

[Darkshade]

Yes. How dare they offer outdated content items to everyone for a fair and reasonable price. I cannot be the only one to show off my pumpkin head and brag about it now.

It's not like we get free paint and whatnot because of mistakes, we would hate that.

Items in 1.0/XI and even one of the last events were usually re-obtainable via either a vendor or a similar seasonal quest during their next iteration.

edit: and before anyone trips out for me not spending the extra minute to black out his/her name

[Zanmato]

As long as they stick to past event items, I don't see a problem with this.

HOWEVER...

Sleipnir Mount was set to be an item obtainable from Urth's Fount (Extreme), which may have been pulled from the fight and put into the $hop instead. Now, I cannot know if such is the case. The mount may still be an item you can get from the fight, but if that is the case, then it is SE's duty to say so, so that people don't run around unaware of it and buy the mount.

In the end, we pay a monthly fee, SE should leave it at that, or they will risk losing A LOT of players.

[Asierid]

Snip

WoW players said that. Now they have more subs and more revenue to make what is to be a (supposed) great expansion. (Though I still hate the game)

It changes nothing so long as they keep it vanity and nothing more.

[Tyrn]

WoW players said that. Now they have more subs

I could've sworn WoW has dropped from the 12 million subs they had when they introduced the shop in Wrath with the glowing pony that people had to sit in queues to buy down to around 7 million now, maybe I'm going crazy.

[Aegis]

You're asking me to cite a source based on personal motives. Right. Make a poll asking that if that makes you all hot and bothered. People don't just get the CD and go: "Oh boy, it comes with a free pet too! That's nice." Most of the decision to spend money on a physical CD, when you can just get the music elsewhere, comes from the ingme item that comes with it.

You keep thowing about 'most people' bought it for this reason, you must have something to back that up, or why would you be so adamant it's true. Share it with us, please. Don't keep us in the dark.

Apparently you can justify spending money on an ingame item with no real world value, but not a physical item with tangible value.

Also, any other way of getting the soundtrack on a disc is illegal. Some people shy away from that.

[Zanmato]

Snip

This is not WoW however. FFXIV: ARR has far less paying players world-wide. The financial loss this may bring can prove to be doomsday for FFXIV: ARR and maybe even SE itself if they don't play it safe. SE's finances are far from stellar and they can't afford fucking up, that is for sure.

I could've sworn WoW has dropped from the 12 million subs they had when they introduced the shop in Wrath with the glowing pony that people had to sit in queues to buy down to around 7 million now, maybe I'm going crazy.

You're quite right. Adding up to that, WoW has actually lost an incredible 800,000 subscribers the last 2.5 months.

[Riepah]

Various minions and mounts for subbing x amount of days. Free.

Recruit friends! Free mount and item.

List goes on.

Veteran rewards are there to encourage people to stay paying customers. The friend referral system is there to get more paying customers.

Of the things you listed, the gold paint is the only thing that was an unusual, nice gesture. They messed up a little and gold paint wasn't gettable for a day after they said it was in the game, but giving 4 pots of paint to everyone just like that to make up for it was nice of them.

[Riviere]

Veteran rewards are there to encourage people to stay paying customers.

Well... it's the only choice they have if they want to play the game.

[Asierid]

Character limit is bad

Far less than WoW, yet far more than any of other active MMO's so far. Seeing as how SE has been in the hole when it comes to money since before ARR, it wouldn't surprise me that they are putting in the shop. This is the first time they are positive since before the release of ARR and they can take what they can get. This not only gives people a chance to get one time items that are now gone, but also allows for more vanity within the future.

Look harder BTW, Blizz released a 600k increase in numbers in the last quarter. I'm comparing the two since WoW is the only other P2P game with a working cash shop that doesn't have anything game breaking. (No. Boosts are not game breaking. The game practically hands you a max level in a few days.)