Eorzea's Voice (Change): Gathering Opinions for Ze Cash Shop

[Leira_Raine]

Well, first of all, decided to put the minion article on hold for a little bit, because the Cash Shop seems to be very popular topic at the moment. So, I'd like to get some official opinions on the subject (that I could personally use to write the article for Eorzea's Voice on Gamer Escape). Players can always copy and paste their opinions from other threads, and I will use as many responses as I am able to (as I will also be interviewing players in-game and using the Lodestone). Thank you for your participation!

[HorrorStory]

As long as the Cash Shop sticks to vanity items that don't affect game balance, then there's no problem with it.

[Zumi]

I think it is a great idea and I can't wait to buy some minions and mounts on the shop.

Really want them to put the ponies from EX primals because I done them for about 200 hours seen 5 ponies drop and never won the roll.

[SulwynCaliope]

Omg I thought this thread was talking about more options for voice options! Hahaha I would totally pay to have more options to choose from. XD;

[Alkimi]

As it stands, being just vanity items, I don't care. I won't be using it since I'm not the sort of player who cares about mounts and minions etc.

[Riepah]

Quoting myself from a different thread;

Some people will tell you that the income from the cash shop will make the game better for everyone.

Personally, I think those people just don't realize that the stuff they're buying from the cash shop was made using our subscription money and should have been put in the game for us to aquire in the first place, not sold for more money. From now on, some development hours will flow into making minions, mounts etc. for sale in the cash shop, hours that would have otherwise flown into making minions, mounts etc. for us to earn in-game.
So far, I felt like paying our subscription granted us access to everything the game had to offer. Well, not anymore, now.

[SenBosa]

So far I have nothing against it, but I will agree that it has the potential to upset a significant portion of the player base. For example:

Really want them to put the ponies from EX primals because I done them for about 200 hours seen 5 ponies drop and never won the roll.

No offense or anything but I HIGHLY disagree with you. Those horses are the ultimate reward of skill, persistence, and luck. It is probably many (of the few that own one) people's most prized possession, and allowing another player to buy it for x amount of dollars would completely take away the value of having one of those horses.

As long as the content in the cash shop is filled with solely aesthetics that can't be obtained otherwise, I will completely support it. But please, PLEASE don't add any of the mounts that are gained from EX primals in there, or crafting materials/ primal furniture, etc, because right now those are the only things keeping the old EX primals relevant.

Also, I'm a huge fan of them adding old seasonal event costumes in the cash shop. I definitely plan to buy the ghost costume that came out for the halloween event back in 2013 that I missed.

[Freyar]

So, I'd like to get some official opinions on the subject (that I could personally use to write the article for Eorzea's Voice on Gamer Escape).

The critical concern is that this may very well be the first step towards a pay-to-win environment. While we can argue whether or not WoW's Level 90 offer is effective or not, the point is that people are able to purchase their way through the game in some form.) I've seen more than enough games start out with what appears to be an innocent enough cash shop for cosmetic "extras" move to the abusive cash shops we have in most Free-to-Play games today and this is what really terrifies me the most.

I don't object to a cosmetic item being sold (minion, mount) as I've been more than happy to grab the Postal Moogle, Art Book, Soundtracks (both), and so on. However I'm concerned that the back-end support for a cash shop will inevitably lead to the implementation of a Free-to-Play model.

When it comes down to it, I believe that SE believes that they'll stick to a fair no-pay-to-win setup but many others have failed to keep up to that promise.

[Shadex]

No subscription game should ever offer items in its cash shop that are not attainable through normal game play means. To do so is double dipping your customer base. I am fine with those that like cash shops for the ease of access, some people do not have the time to gather, hunt, craft whatever the items through normal means. But to make anything exclusive to the cash shop when we are already paying them a sub is pure greed and playing on the impulse nature of the player base. Have all the cash shop items you want but put all those items in game or... do like Secret World does and give all subscriptions an amount of cash shop money every month for their sub that they can use to buy all the cash shop items.

[Nici]

I don't mind the implementation of the Cash Shop really, coming from and playing for many years in a previous pay to play mmo that has such a cash shop i'm pretty much used to it, and I will admit to having had purchased vanity items such as mounts and pets (yes i'm talking about WoW), as long as SE sticks to only selling vanity items i'm ok with it..

A question comes to mind tho...why when a company like blizzard has such a cash shop in place almost no one says anything?...as far as i can remember there was no major negative feedback when it was implemented like SE is getting now for the implementation of their own cash shop, although its been many years my memory might be faulting so there may have been, but as it stands now its been fine.

And i agree with Riepah's opinion to a point, but i hope that the cash shop will offer more in the future...just imagine them selling more than just vanity items...like say FF XIV plush toys or action figures, and yes i very well know the SE store offers those things already, but future items like those could be offered only on the XIV cash shop...food for thought.