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

[LunaHoshino]

I don't understand how you can say this at all. You like that instead of minions, mounts, etc., being included in the game as they normally were, they instead are being sectioned off and charged extra for?

Yes, I do. Given the choice between farming a fight for hours upon hours in the hopes of getting lucky and getting that super-rare mount or minion drop or shelling out a few bucks for it, I'd much rather spend the cash and spend my time in-game on something more fun and productive than hoping RNGesus decides to smile upon me. I don't have unlimited time to spend playing the game. I do, however, have enough spare cash to be able to spend a few bucks on things like that here and there.

[Katsaria]

I suddenly remember why I don't go to Dualshockers.

[Jynx]

The marketing department will *always* have a say on what is put in the game, no matter if it's paid or free.

Your obviously dodging my response, you wont deny that the marketing department is picking the game apart to find the monitizable aspects.

The marketing department would pick through the games content to see what the best items to promote are if the cash shop didn't exist. They wouldn't be doing their job otherwise, look at it this way. What system was recently hyped up for a few months to be a big addition to the game?



Yo what's up wedding.

Guess what the next game system to be involved in the cash shop is? This just shows the marketing department is damn good at their job hyping players up for something to only turn around last minute and tell us to get the full experience you have to shell out more cash.

[AzakaTonnerre]

No one said that ALL the revenue will be reinvested, but a large part of it is. That goes for every revenue generator of a company. In the end the more revenue = more resources equation is steel-clad, no matter what percentage of that revenue is re-invested.

You yourself said money is not put in the bank, I showed you it was. You yourself said...

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.

...I showed you that it isn't and provided a link to SE's own financial information for you to look at and evaluate, instead of just spewing generalizations based on nothing but what you think SE is doing with its money. Last year SE put 14,865 million yen in the bank as cash while at the same time it raised its salary and equipment expenditures by 43 and 208 million respectively. So an additional 14,865 million was put in the bank, while spending only an additional 253 million on typical costs associated with reinvestment on something directly attributed to games and development beyond what they were already doing. Meanwhile they paid out 3,446 million in dividends to shareholders.

253 million in increase in salary and equipment, 3,446 million in dividends to shareholders, and 14,865 million increase in cash on hand (Bank). Sorry if that 1.36% reinvestment into development activities doesn't seem to most to be the "Large investment of what's left over" that you spoke of.

Next time rather than just saying over and over again that a large part is reinvested, maybe read a P&L, cash flow, and/or balance sheet and see if it is first. If they are publicly traded it is not hard to find.

[Alexander_Dragonfang]

Since when is taking content, spliting it into parts, making one free and the other paid healthy of games or players?

Cash Shops are good when they are healthy (vanity only) not when they are made by ripping content appart and leaving stuff behind a paywall. Makes the "free" part of the experience feel uncomplete and unsatisfactory on top of all. Which is never a good marketing option is it?

From this point onward, has been already confirmed what we call when retainer services were up. SE is going to taka parts of content that could perfectly be "free" and ask for microtransactions for them. This is going to happen to all that "unnecesary", "optional", "vanity" content only which players have been waiting for months/years. The wedding experience should be one, should come with all the items related to it to be selected by players in-game and thats all. Having to pay for literally half the thing or getting a second tier, free, cheap and uncomplete experience just doesn`t feel right. Not when you are paying for it already.

If they want to have a cash shop, ok, sell services like fantasia, card changes and server transfers, thats perfect. They can also sell mounts, minions, haircuts, hats and even glamour armors as long as they are not related to any kind of lore inside the game, plot characters or ingame systems (for example, Slepnir which should be an ingame reward or the minions which should be sidequests rewards or event rewards). Cash shop needs their OWN items, made FOR the cash shop, not taken out from the core game and being thrown into it. This is all what is wrong with the actual microtransaction model SE is doing, is here to stay and is TERRIBLE for us.

[Spellbinder]

If they want to have a cash shop, ok, sell services like fantasia, card changes and server transfers, thats perfect. They can also sell mounts, minions, haircuts, hats and even glamour armors as long as they are not related to any kind of lore inside the game, plot characters or ingame systems (for example, Slepnir which should be an ingame reward or the minions which should be sidequests rewards or event rewards). Cash shop needs their OWN items, made FOR the cash shop, not taken out from the core game and being thrown into it. This is all what is wrong with the actual microtransaction model SE is doing, is here to stay and is TERRIBLE for us.

Okay, so cash shops are good when they're vanity. Call me crazy, but the optional dresses, tuxedos, and chocobo available via the gold and platinum plans sound like vanity to me. Is there a problem? I don't see how a few extra dress designs and color options for your wedding are "ripping content apart" and leaving it behind a paywall.

[Alexander_Dragonfang]

Okay, so cash shops are good when they're vanity. Call me crazy, but the optional dresses, tuxedos, and chocobo available via the gold and platinum plans sound like vanity to me. Is there a problem? I don't see how a few extra dress designs and color options for your wedding are "ripping content apart" and leaving it behind a paywall.

As i said, when they are taken out the game to be put behind a paywall is it bad.

The dresses options, tuxedos and chocobo are part of the Wedding System too, just like the ceremony and the quests. Nothing of this is optional, they are all part of a whole experience and they are being put behind a paywall. If they make a 3 headed flying dragon mount, perfect, put it in the cash shop. If they want to add Cloud`s fenrir as a mount, perfect to the cash shop. If they want to put a Buster Sword skin on the cash shop, more than welcome! all of those are examples of perfect and healthy cash shop items. Having "half" the wedding (isn`t part of a wedding to select the clothes and to leave in a nice elegant form of transport anyway?) behind a paywall isn`t right.

Is actually sad. SE isn`t even working on the cash shop, it just takes things that could be perfectly in game, that knows players want, and moves them behind the paywall. Instead of using all this years of FF games to make cool cash shop items. Thats another bad part of it all, even the cash shop feels lazy.

[Arkine]

I was under the impression that paying a monthly subscription meant that I had access to all aspects of the game.

Fantasia, name change, server transfers and retainers (And only because we can't trade to our alts or nobody would ever buy extra retainers) are all the cash shop should have, and nothing else.

I'd be shocked if they don't cash shop some cards or gold saucer aspects, more mounts and minions, and I also suspect that we'll start seeing fewer glamor items available for free from now on.

[Sapphic]

snip

Thing is many seem to not notice is that subscription fees have been static for MMOs for a very long time, yet, production and upkeep costs have increased massively. Initial investment needed is inthe 10s of millions for a AAA MMO, plus salaries have increased along with inflation. Non game breaking micro transactions will allow SE to cover costs easier and reinvest more into the future of FFXIV. If you don't agree with it, don't use it (I'll agree with you if it ever becomes P2W by quitting), and allow those who dont mind it to give SE more money to reinvest in the game you enjoy.

I'm not stating that as a "white knight" or whatever term the kiddies throw out these days, but as a realist.

[Roris]

FFXI has stayed afloat with constant updates for a decade without any cash shop whatsoever, Dragon Quest X is also pretty healthy and getting constant updates too without both a global userbase and a cash shop, both also happen to be SE MMOs.

That is all.