Microtransactions are here to stay. And they are a good thing.

[Saccharin]

This is (as most arguments made by those that irrationally oppose microtransactions no matter what) completely false and inaccurate.

The investment required to make this kind of items is absolutely minimal compared to the revenue they bring. A large percentage of what's left is normally invested in general features to keep the playerbase happy and subscriptions stable or growing.

And you have proof of that. Not one MMO has a cash shop increased content. This stinks of while knighting.

That's great, because you're not double dipping or even required to dip. Your subscription dips for a fully featured game that gets updated with large amount of content periodically. Microtransactions are a separate and marginal element for which you can completely avoid dipping.

It's not "fully featured" if there's stuff behind a pay wall. It feels like you're one of these people who would rather get out their credit card than actually play the game to earn stuff.

[axemtitanium]

And you have proof of that. Not one MMO has a cash shop increased content. This stinks of while knighting.

And you have no proof that formerly free things were "held back" to put them behind a paywall. We don't know and even if the devs release a statement, people will just not believe it. Ultimately, the question becomes whether other people purchasing cosmetic items has a large enough negative impact on your own personal enjoyment of the game, to the extent that you'd unsubscribe over it. If you're one of those people who would unsubscribe over "the principle" of microtransactions, you're a stick in the mud and depriving yourself of enjoyment of a game you like. But that's your choice and I can't argue with it; personally, it's ok with me if these "no-fun-allowed" types are unsubscribing. For the rest of you who are more rational, do ask yourself why you continue to pay a monthly fee to play this game and whether or not that reason has been impacted by other people buying minions.

There's always going to be the crazies who are irrationally afraid of what they don't understand. I recall a huge discussion on the 1.0 forums about possibly introducing a system similar to the way EVE Online handles monthly subscriptions, PLEX, and people went nuts calling it a promoter of RMT (actually it's designed to combat illegal RMT) and were terrified of it.

[DefendPopPunk]

And you have no proof that formerly free things were "held back" to put them behind a paywall.

I could be wrong but the sleipnir mount was in-game since 2.0.

Also, the wedding mount was shown off way before the cash shop was announced, so it was being worked on for quite some time, if that matters at all. *shrug*

Do you think people sit around and research Final Fantasy 14 like some of you, or maybe just skim the forums briefly every couple days? TO ME, who conforms to the latter, it sounds like you're a little jealous about the craftsmanship the OP put into the first post in this thread.

I mean, you only posted to say: boring, been done, you're stupid. Just sayin.

What. The. Hell.

No, I don't think that. Also, assumptions are nice, I guess. No, I'm not jealous. And the word craftsmanship is being used a little loosely here, it seems. I'm just saying, there have been quite a few threads about this in the past, where a lot of crap he's saying has already been said. In fact, he's been saying these same things in the threads that are currently active in the first page of general forums, Mr. Non-researcher (I guess?). Which leads me to wonder why he felt those replies he already posted deserved a thread of their own.

Lastly, I don't recall saying the OP was stupid but thanks for putting words in my mouth. That's always fun. Just sayin.

[Jynx]

I could be wrong but the sleipnir mount was in-game since 2.0.

You are not wrong.

Odin has been able to morph race to match the player race that killed him last, easilly implemented as a mount so much as I doubt much or any work really went into it. This is the first and most prime example of how easy it is for the company to cut content that was perfectly feasable to add to the game without a price tag.

It's been a killer to the argument that they wont cut content from the game to set it behind the cash shop paywall.