Cash shop confirmed

[Sho86]

I see it as more like Blizzards approach to the cash shop. As long as it stays away from gambling loot boxes, its perfectly fine for a pet here and a mount there.

Except its already not like Blizzards approach. Even they don't rip out past items and place them up for ridiculous amounts of money.

[Vhailor]

They somewhat tried being different with FFXI, while it was profitable for what it was, it was a very small game and as such it took it a long time to be profitable.

Exactly and, from a business standpoint, I can certainly see why SE has taken the path they've chosen. The fact that it disappoints me personally, along with other players, doesn't change this fact.

To each their own, I suppose. I just regret that myself (and others) have been sacrificed in the name of larger profits - not in the least because I need to hunt down a new MMO in the sea of available titles if I want to continue to enjoy a modern-day version of FFXI

[Mugiawara]

Not a disappointment if you support a game that deserves to be supported.

When I hear the words cash shop I think of SWTOR. But this is not at all along the same lines.

Isn't that game F2P now?
It's hard to compare many P2P games nowadays because almost all of them jump ship and roll CS/F2P road and they end up doing a lot better lol.

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

Because hoping for people to leave a game with legit concerns and all is a cool thing.
Have fun with a dead game again, because watch them go and make something exclusive.
SE is silly enough to do it...they are almost always doing SOMETHING wrong.

[Gextiv]

As long as it stays away from gambling loot boxes, its perfectly fine for a pet here and a mount there.

Oh man, the nefarious RNG box that ruined GW2 for me... Do we not already have stuff of similar nature in-game? Unfortunately, I believe this game has the type of player base that would enjoy and defend such business practices(e.g., rng cash shop boxes).

Time will tell, I suppose.

[Xhominid]

snip

How does this make sense to anyone? To plenty of people, P2P is a dying breed and not many people like paying 15$ a month just to play a game as is, now you are saying you are okay with an extra 5$ to make it more selective!? I'm not really sure what your aim is, but it's definitely not trying to be a "consistent image".
You need to get that despite what XI was doing, it was only a sucessful MMO in terms on not screwing over SE. Like it or not, sometimes pandering to everyone is the best way to make cash and while it sucks, it's understandable comparing to watching a game wither and die. I'm not the biggest fan of cash shops, but I would absolutely take one than pay more out of a subscription just to play a game.

[Xhominid]

I guess you are one of those people happy to get half baked stuff priced the same as the old full content.
They just made my subscription worth less, so it's like I'm paying more.

Assumptions, assumptions and more assumptions. "Let me continue acting like I know this person based on what he says rather than what he's thinking".
1. By your own assumptions, you think before you speak and you are pretty damn hostile already, making this conversation pointless.
2. I don't care about the content because the 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 is obviously the biggest gamechangers while everything else is mainly "new dungeons, a new small area" and patchnotes in the meantime. And no, I'm not that type of person, so thanks for that.
3. I AM NOT A FAN OF THE CASH SHOP, BUT I'D RATHER TAKE THAT THAN BUMPING THE SUBSCRIPTION! None of that means getting half content or any other stupid things like that.

[Vhailor]

How does this make sense to anyone? To plenty of people, P2P is a dying breed and not many people like paying 15$ a month just to play a game as is, now you are saying you are okay with an extra 5$ to make it more selective!? I'm not really sure what your aim is, but it's definitely not trying to be a "consistent image".
You need to get that despite what XI was doing, it was only a sucessful MMO in terms on not screwing over SE. Like it or not, sometimes pandering to everyone is the best way to make cash and while it sucks, it's understandable comparing to watching a game wither and die. I'm not the biggest fan of cash shops, but I would absolutely take one than pay more out of a subscription just to play a game.

My point is that the type of MMO I want to play is a selective one. This is completely independent from whether or not such a model is economically viable or not - I'm merely stating my preferences as a gamer. In my case, pandering to everyone is sufficiently damaging to a MMO that I simply won't play it. This doesn't hold true for everyone, but it does for me. I'd rather not play a MMO at all than play one that only half-manages to meet my desires from a title.

This really holds true for any genre. We all have things that we like, and if the market doesn't provide them, many of us choose to simply abandon the market, rather than settle. It's entertainment, after all - why settle when there are countless other options?

Edit: This relates to my desire for a "consistent image" because a development team that pursues a rich and varied game world, while ignoring unnecessary or market-focused accommodations, might need to charge a higher fee in order to be economically viable. In other words, I'd rather pay more for a niche title that is designed with gameplay as the sole focus, rather than pay less for a broadly based title that is designed with the size of the user base in mind.

[Xairos]

I would like to hazard a guess and throw this out there that a few of those who are against the cash shop aren't against it because of what it is, rather what it could represent: SE making an mmo to be popular instead of trying to be different. Buck the trend. Swim upstream... what have you.

I am fine with the shop, but that is because after playing 2.0 I realized that SE was moving towards trying to make a popular mmo that has slight differences from your average WoW clone.

Yoshi looked at what makes a mmo popular in today's market and tried to make somewhat of a compromise. I hate wow, but i will admit, it has some good ideas on accessibility and how they present their content. In my youth I would have adamantly argued for SE to sink and be different rather than change and try to find some workable medium.

Also, I admit to getting the CE upgrade (digital because i was impatient) just for the minions and the mount and the gear. But this was after getting the 2.0 for free because I had 1.0.

[Lux_Rayna]

I don't get the displeasure. I mean if we think about it, paying for an FFXIV sub does not prevent you from buying FFXIV artbooks/merchandise/posters/etc. In fact, when the meteor survivors out people were trying to see if they were for sale! Why is it, then, that "digital" merchandise is a problem? Instead of buying posters and t-shirts, you now have the option to buy cool ingame stuff.

For some reason, adding merchandise inside of a game causes people to go up in arms. If we were to take that same coolDRG vanity armor and sell it outside of the game as a cosplay piece, you guys would be all over it! Why the difference?

[Moqi]

Merchandise is not game content, I don't understand why you would even compare the two. I sub to play the game, not to get posters.