Cash shop confirmed

[Tyla_Esmeraude]

Also since you're a XI expert (obsessed) and are always striving to turn this into XI HD remake, how did the cash shop work there?

Hey now. FFXI didn't have cash shop. :P They only charged once for a password generator thing (forgot the name) and as a plus for buying it, they gave you extra inventory space. Which was nice. They did it so that players could have extra security to avoid accounts getting hacked. They also offered another ingame item for real money. The talisman, that gave you some teleport benefits. I don't know exactly since I never bought it.

Asides from that, the inventory space has been free, same with seasonal items (even the old ones) you just have to pay gil. They never had a cash shop. This is what I loved about the game, it was unique and different from the other MMO companies who were ripping you off directly to your face. It's called company ethics. A company without ethics that only sees players as dollar signs is a turn off for me personally and makes me stop playing their games even if they are good. That's why when you establish a company you set a mision, vision and values. Values that move your company. The company should stay true to their values until the end. The main drive should not be the money.

I love FFXIV's dev team and all, but I have to be honest. I think that putting the old seasonal items in the cash shop whereas one time people could buy it with gil, is very very unfair for the new people who might've missed the events and it comes off as greedy.

I know it's a company and they are there to make money. But never ever abuse of your clients (us) because they will not buy any of your products ever again. They will notice. You have to keep your clients too in order to make money.

With that said, it would be nice that the items that are going to the cash shop would also be available in game, because there's diff type of players and both should be treated fairly. One type despises the RNG or they just don't wanna spend more time trying to get a vanity item and would rather throw the money at it. The other type sees it as a fun challenge and feels more satisfaction earning said item by actually playing the game.

However it's not up to the Dev's team to make these financial decisions... so let's not give them a hard time but do give them honest feedback.

While I disagree with what they are doing, I respect their decision. And all this is, well, my honest feedback.

[Teryaani]

I hope everyone who whines about the cash shop will unsub.

Here's hoping they don't. Here's hoping they make their opinion known and then keep playing.

....cash shop alone was not the cause for them to go F2P but it certainly helped.

Maybe. But for at least two of those (D&DO and SWTOR), the cash store had nothing to do with driving down subs. Those games had loads of other issues that caused that. I think people are ascribing way too much sub-killing power to the cash shop.

[Erudain]

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Rift added "special editions mounts" back when it was P2P, it was a re-skin of the faster mount in game, ppl was mad since you didn't have to get it/pay it with in game money.

Aion started with weapons skins back in 1.8 (lightsaber skin for swords, popsicle skin for mace) etc, then in 2.0 they added the "socketing success supplements" (permanet item in the store) and "100% socketing success supplements" (timed offer, they sold those for 1 week IIRC) for manastone socketing when it was still P2P. that was their field test that they could include game changing items to the store.
Then on the other hand, you have the "legit RMT" it can create, I remember ppl buying the lightsaber skin on the store and then selling it in-game for millions.

It's true as you say the games had other issues, that's why I said the cash shops weren't the only reason ppl left, but "another" reason people left....and if you are losing ppl the least you want to do is give them more motives to leave.

One can truly hope they will not go down this road with FF XIV cash shop...problem is trying to cope with what you hope for and what history of the MMORPG genre tells us...

[Shadray]

Wow this is a big thread

I suggest we wait and see what happens rather than predicting.

If they keep the shop to fluff items i.e. mounts, pets, clothes, etc. then I don't see it being much of an issue. I see this as paying a bit extra for the leather trim.

If they start adding 'power' or 'story' to the shop then they are gonna have to go FTP or BTP. Given the current sub numbers I suspect that would be a bad move for them.

It does raise an interesting question though... Where do you draw the line? If they add an 'xpack' to the shop im sure we would all buy it. How much content do they have to include to make it an 'xpack' and not just gated content?

[Teryaani]

One can truly hope they will not go down this road with FF XIV cash shop...problem is trying to cope with what you hope for and what history of the MMORPG genre tells us...

The examples you gave (faster mount, better gear enhancements) are P2W, Yoshi seemed pretty firm on it being vanity only. I can understand the skepticism though (<cough>housing<cough>).

I'm going to hold out hope that they are going the blizzard route and just sell pure vanity (excluding WoW's new "pay for level 90!" nonsense. Screw that noise). As long as it's vanity stuff and the gear and minions are untradeable, this shouldn't affect the player base.

[Negotiator]

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Good point!
I'll be more blunt about it...

Are you watching, Yoshi? Can you say NO to Mr. Matsuda and tell him to stop looking at the ff14 subscribers like a rigged slot machine?

btw I'm done talking to passive people that accept everything they're told, you guys have fun staring at your odin horse you bought and be proud of it.

[Riepah]

I hope everyone who whines about the cash shop will unsub.

To speed up the process of this game going F2P and offering P2W stuff on the cash shop so you can buy success?

[Dwill]

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Sorry to disappoint you but I haven't lost anything. My stance is "A company has every right to want money so let's wait to see how it turns out". Yours however is fear mongering and pure conjecture and don't say that I'm making conjecture either as I clearly stated that there is no way to know as of now what will and will not be in there in the future.

By the way, you have yet to explain how they don't need the money. You keep claiming that they don't yet the annual report for the fiscal year of 2013 claims otherwise.

[Amberyl]

You'd have thought moneyhatting Tomb Raider off to m$ would have covered the annual bonuses this year... Guess Yoshida-san needs a new imported merc too o_0

[Tupsi]

Hey now. FFXI didn't have cash shop. :P

Actually, for awhile they sold item codes for the Barret and Shirt (Vanadiel Collection bonus items) for about $4 each, it went over quite well because some people wanted them for other characters they had and didn't meet the requirements for (as they've been playing for 9 years at that point.)