Eternal Bond - Standard Plan and Gold Plan

[polyphonica]

When development was mentioned, cash shop was something not even known to us. When they told us plans 6 or so months ago, there was a chocobo involved. And a white dress. Now I'm being told have to PAY for the chocobo and the white dress I was promised, because SE wants extra money on top of my 15 bucks a month?

I think we have to at least wait to see what the various plans are first. They said on the stream that the Standard Plan would be fully-featured, and the Gold/Platinum plans would be just extra frills for people who want more. But at the moment, they haven't yet released the full details. For example, I don't think they ever implied that you'd have to pay cash for the dress.

i'm sorry but this greedy way is bad in soo many way. but people have take the habit to be milk dry and think is normal, when it's not normal! it's really bad. it did begin with the retainers, after they have added minion, mount and old seasonal event item in a shop.... now it's litterally a content that is different if you pay real money... what it will be next? some dungeon or part of the gold saucer that can't be play if you don't pay the right to acces one content?

the point it's not to allows this because it's only cosmetic, but to let them believe they can milk us like a cow and go farer! it's time to say stop! not because it's unfair, simply because, if we allows them this...what will be the next step?!?

I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but the developers have often compared the game to a theme park. When you go a theme park, you pay an admission that gets you in the door, and this gets you basic access to all the rides/attractions within. But they definitely have additional services inside the park for people who want extras, such as souvenirs, commemorative photos, and the like. It seems to me that this is how S-E is thinking of the game. Your admission gets you into the park and you get access to all the content, but if you want to spend extra, you can get extra frills that are not necessary to experience the content, but nice to have.

It probably is greedy to see it that way, but there's a fair bit of precedence for it when you think about the rest of the entertainment world (concert tickets + merch/souvenirs/food, movie theatres + 3D/Imax/concessions, etc.).

[Spellbinder]

I think we have to at least wait to see what the various plans are first.

Wait and see? Wait and see!? Nonsense! I demand more jumping to conclusions...and pancakes... (mostly pancakes)

[polyphonica]

Wait and see? Wait and see!? Nonsense! I demand more jumping to conclusions...and pancakes... (mostly pancakes)

Pancakes sound good.

There's also a whole other side of this issue that people may not want to talk about. What happens if you want to dissolve your "eternal bond"? Do you keep everything if you bought a gold/platinum plan the first time around?

(Someone was mentioning elsewhere that they suggested the Gold plan would be $10 per person and the Platinum would be $20 per person, and each of the two partners can choose different plans. So it implies that the extras are personal and not related to the ceremony itself. Also, incidentally, they suggested elsewhere in the presentation that they haven't yet fixed personal housing so that couples can share them, but it's something they intend to do.)

[lackofwords]

Each time they roll out with additional items onto their paid services, people complain then forget about it.

Remember retainers when ventures rolled out?
1 2

How about the removal of previous event items to cash shop?
1 2

If anything, I thought people would be more upset with the removal access to in-game content. That was previously content you can always have access to as long as the event rolls around.

But, if the consensus seems to be indifferent to removal of in-game vanity content, then I highly doubt there will be any changes to how they are rolling out the premiums for the Eternal Bond system. Because, it is just another vanity system.

A few argued that the chocobo serves some in-game purpose other than vanity, but you could just refer to the outcome of the additional paid retainers and ventures for the results of that.

In my perspective, it is still not a 'Pay-to-Win'. However, they are slowly cherry picking away all the vanity items onto the cash shop. They know how susceptible people are to pay for it. Remember at the Las Vegas Fanfest, around 4h56m on the Q&A panel, crowd cheered for the new exclusive vanity items.
http://www.twitch.tv/ffxiv_fanfestival_na/b/579807814

[Edenholt]

editing this post to not derail the thread. it's an important matter and I don't wanna be the party pooper.

[polyphonica]

It's not like people forget about it. It's just that if you keep pushing too much SE ban you. I know some people who got banned for have criticized SE on the DRG magic defence issues and the lock out on end game content. Imagine if people kept complaining about the cash shop every day! I might even get a warning for this post.

That's a pretty heavy accusation. I highly doubt they ban anyone for simply having an opinion about something. Usually it depends on the way you express your opinion, and whether you break the rules or defy moderator guidance. There is so much criticism posted on this forum regularly that I highly doubt they're in the business of banning people for being critical in a reasonable way.

[Taliph]

That's a pretty heavy accusation. I highly doubt they ban anyone for simply having an opinion about something. Usually it depends on the way you express your opinion, and whether you break the rules or defy moderator guidance. There is so much criticism posted on this forum regularly that I highly doubt they're in the business of banning people for being critical in a reasonable way.

They banned quite a few people simply for quoting yoshi in their signature on the topic of player housing.

Edit to add:

It can't be that alone because a lot of people are still using that very quote in their signature. I've found that it's usually not as simple as the people who are banned try to say it is.

It was that simple, I myself had to remove that from my sig to avoid a ban.

[polyphonica]

They banned quite a few people simply for quoting yoshi in their signature on the topic of player housing.

It can't be that alone because a lot of people are still using that very quote in their signature. I've found that it's usually not as simple as the people who are banned try to say it is.

[Riepah]

That's a pretty heavy accusation. I highly doubt they ban anyone for simply having an opinion about something. Usually it depends on the way you express your opinion, and whether you break the rules or defy moderator guidance. There is so much criticism posted on this forum regularly that I highly doubt they're in the business of banning people for being critical in a reasonable way.

They've actually banned me once before for something somebody else wrote. The second time I was banned for calling somebody ignorant, while others get away with calling people brain-dead and other, harsher things. They can ban you on a whim if they so desire, and the support won't help you out, you'll only get the same copy&paste response every time you try to appeal a ban.