Cash shop confirmed

[Asierid]

Stuff

Don't know when people will learn that the gaming industry is a business. There is clearly a reason as to why, to make money. To be quite frank, your sub pays for nothing except for access to their servers, they could just allow access to XIV and charge for everything else if they wanted. Would it be smart? No.

But there have been previous threads many months ago by people asking for vanity items and vials through cash. They answered.

The amount of people that will spend money will balance out those that quit over what is a rather silly reason. The gameplay, it's story, and all of the other things that make XIV, XIV are already in your sub. Want more? Pay extra.

There is a little sentence at the bottom of the box/ToS which says that everything is subject to change. Guess people didn't read it.

[TravelerX1]

You guys need to play Defiance.... the Cash shop SE is setting up is a marshmallow and fluffy pink bunny version of the kick in the gilsack that that games cash shop was even before it went FTP

[Mugiawara]

Mog Station. Fantasias. Extra Retainers.

Been here for months and you've likely played since at least 2.3.

People asked for the Fantasia's like that and were fine about it...I dunno but I think Retainers had stepped on toes...
Server is understandable.
I don't think anyone asked for these lol.

[Vhailor]

Don't know when people will learn that the gaming industry is a business. There is clearly a reason as to why, to make money. To be quite frank, your sub pays for nothing except for access to their servers, they could just allow access to XIV and charge for everything else if they wanted. Would it be smart? No.

But there have been previous threads many months ago by people asking for vanity items and vials through cash. They answered.

The amount of people that will spend money will balance out those that quit over what is a rather silly reason. The gameplay, it's story, and all of the other things that make XIV, XIV are already in your sub. Want more? Pay extra.

There is a little sentence at the bottom of the box/ToS which says that everything is subject to change. Guess people didn't read it.

Nobody's unaware of this fact, nor are people complaining about it. Nobody's acting like this isn't SE's right. However, just because it's SE's right, doesn't mean that people are obligated to like it - and many people's opinions differ from your own, here.

Also, to add my own personal note about the cash shop (which I stated about 50 pages ago), it is sufficient incentive for me to not purchase the expansion, and not resub, contrary to my original plan. It's one small consequence of SE making this particular decision. You can view this as silly if you want, though being pointlessly derogatory doesn't really add anything to the discussion. My own personal objection has nothing to do with the presence of a cash shop in and of itself - it's more the fact that I don't want to spend my time within a community that accepts / embraces its presence in a MMO. The fact that SE seems intent on catering to this particular crowd is reason enough to move on, for me.

Anyway. I guess my point is this - if you're going to try and defend the cash shop, you should avoid implicitly criticizing those who are opposed. There are a huge number of reasons for people to have this position, and many of them are rooted in personal opinions and philosophies, which are salient points when determining how one is going to spend money on entertainment. I'm not trying to say there aren't reasons for SE to move in this direction - there are a couple of valid ones off the top of my head, and possibly others. Just don't imply that everyone opposed is being dense.

[Roris]

My cash shop is better than your cash shop!

[Lyron]

Don't know when people will learn that the gaming industry is a business.

Since when did customers stop having the right to complain about a business? If a company wants to make more money so their execs can have bigger, that's their right and its to be expected. But the customer has the right to complain about their practices. The consumer has a lot more power than some of you tend to believe and that power can often force a company to adjust their strategy.

Just keep in mind that there is a reason public relations and customer service exist.

[Yshnal]

Tl;dr version:

Against: "No P2P MMO should have a Cash Shop, I mean, look at all of the MMOs that milk players with game breaking items. I forgot to mention these are F2P and Pay to Win MMORPGs and never has happened in a P2P MMO before."

For: "Eh, doesn't bother me I just won't use it as I can still play the game just fine."

Neutral/Don't Care: "Let's wait and see what happens."

Against: "WHAT WILL HAPPEN IS THEY WILL SELL GAME BREAKING ITEMS! THEY WILL TAKE CONTENT OUT OF THE GAME TO RESELL IT TO YOU! HOW ARE YOU OK WITH THIS?"

Rinse and Repeat for 99 pages.

Nice try, but what we're saying is the following:

1) Before the introduction of the cash shop you could buy past years' event items for a small gil fee. Now you have to pay real cash, just because.

2) As the dev. team doesn't have unlimited time, it means that part of the time that would otherwise go to develop things for everyone to enjoy will go now to the cash shop.

3) We're more than sure that they'll throw the cool looking designs to the cash shop, and the normal/ugly ones will be the ones that we'll get for "free". You don't have to be very smart to see that, as they want to be able to SELL them, not having them sitting there with no sales.

4) We already had this discussion when the extra retainers were introduced, with people saying "it won't get worse, you're paranoid", "it's just retainers, they won't put a cash shop", and "I'm sure that ventures will be hard to get", among other excuses. History is repeating again, and some people keep their blindfolds no matter what.

5) We're already paying a sub, and the game is very successful. SE doesn't need the money and, coupled with 1), it's a slap in the face of all of their customers. In other words, this not very customer friendly, and we're in our right to voice our concerns (and even stop paying if we so want).

6) Just because it's vanity that doesn't mean that it doesn't matter. Everyone plays (or has been playing for over 4 years) the game for a reason, and they're in their right to enjoy it doing whatever they want to do. Just because you only care about raids that doesn't mean that other people shouldn't enjoy collecting vanity items (see housing, for instance). Getting some of it out of their reach all of a sudden is a cheap move on SE's part.

7) Minions attached to physical items don't fall under a cash shop category, even if they're almost crossing the line. After all, what you're supposed to be buying is the physical thing, and the minion is a gift. Not to mention that physical items can't be produced as fast as digital ones, so this doesn't have the same screwing potential as a cash shop does.

8) Expansions are NOT the same thing as this. The price of it VS it's value regarding content, systems, etc. is more fair that paying 2-5€ for a single digital item.

9) If we wanted to have a cash shop we could be playing another MMO, even those P2P ones that already had one. Maybe we were here partly because it didn't have that "feature"?

Now you can put words in our mouths again, or mock us, please.

[Tupsi]

Nice try, but what we're saying is the following:

1) Before the introduction of the cash shop you could buy past years' event items for a small gil fee. Now you have to pay real cash, just because.

Still can. Calamity Salvager. If you just joined you already missed the event and thus the items - Just because they offered it before doesn't mean they'll continue to do so. Even Yoshida said this during his take over in 1.x.

2) As the dev. team doesn't have unlimited time, it means that part of the time that would otherwise go to develop things for everyone to enjoy will go now to the cash shop.

Anyone with an iota of development experience would know that the item team makes items in batches then adds them to the game's data. What is done with them is up to the managerial team, this "cash shop items" aren't extra development time. Look at Patches 2.1-2.3, do you truly think they'd do less than what they've already been doing?

3) We're more than sure that they'll throw the cool looking designs to the cash shop

Tell me this week's lotto numbers please.

5) We're already paying a sub, and the game is very successful. SE doesn't need the money

This community is the only community I've ever seen that would say a business doesn't need money.

6) Just because it's vanity that doesn't mean that it doesn't matter.

Your words. Trying to put it on the same importance as raid content is why we got Crafting mats in Hard Mode dungeons instead of gear drops. "These items are hard to get, make em easier, they're just as important as gear!"...how'd that turn out?

7) Minions attached to physical items don't fall under a cash shop category

Cash Shop: Purchase Item that you can't obtain normally in-game.
Physical Item with In-Game Item Code: Purchase item and use in-game code to obtain the item you can't get in-game normally. No matter how you slice it, using the logic that's been presented both are the same thing - you can't obtain neither in-game by normal means.

8) Expansions are NOT the same thing as this

"But I pay a sub, therefore I should get access to expansion content for free. Because I pay a sub. SE doesn't need the money."

9) If we wanted to have a cash shop we could be playing another MMO

Cash Shops are an MMORPG standard just like having Quest Markers have become an MMO standard, same with "Route Guidance" in MMORPGs. You can't argue against that, it's like trying to say "Energy" based mobile games like candy crush are rare.

[ApolloGenX]

Cash Shops are an MMORPG standard just like having Quest Markers have become an MMO standard, same with "Route Guidance" in MMORPGs. You can't argue against that, it's like trying to say "Energy" based mobile games like candy crush are rare.

This is true.

Everything else you post seems to be "You don't know the future - so you don't know that they will do that" ... to which I will respond

"You don't know the future- you don't know they WON'T do that".

I will also point out that while you seem to accept the cash shop standard in MMOs... you seem to largely ignore how they are implemented.. which is confusing.

[Bruiser_Cruiser]

This blows. Just because it's not as bad as "pay to win" doesn't mean it's not bad.

Charging $5 for a minion and $? for a Sleipnir mount that should already be in the game we pay a monthly subscription for is ridiculous. They most they should ever do is provide items with actual goods like art books and soundtracks.

You should all boycott this, but instead you'll all pay in and encourage them to move more content to individual charges.

Definitely couldn't have said it better myself.