Who is Optional – A Question of Consumer Value

[Shioban]

Wrong usage of pay to win. Those words have been losing the meaning for some years. Paying to win means buying something that it's exclusive and gives adventage, weapons with higher stats than those you can get in-game for example.

That's literally what I was saying.

They're not adding in anything to allow you to advance in the game.

It's all vanity.

[Dyvid]

That's literally what I was saying.

They're not adding in anything to allow you to advance in the game.

It's all vanity.

So is wedding vanity? Is housing vanity? Is crafting and gathering vanity? Is everything but PvE vanity? Content is content whether it's PvE, PvP, or sandbox. The fact is they are hiding half the wedding feature and to "win" the best gear and items from the wedding event you have to buy it for real money = pay to win.

Disclaimer: I'm not going to get married but I do believe patch updated features should be free for subcribers. CS is for services. If SE really needs more money then raise the month sub fee but don't nickel and dime us with paywalls. I would much rather pay $2 extra a month and have Slepnir drop from Odin EX than be required to spend $20 to get him.

[Shioban]

I'm a minion collector, minions are my content and the cash shop provides advantage on my in game activity from extra cash in addition to the sub fee D:

So if I pay the cash shop - I win the minion (which happens to be my in game goal) = Pay 2 Win D:

Pay to Win in the eyes of a developer, the vast majority of it's players, and anyone who isn't trying to shout "LOOK ITS PAY TO WIN, LOOK LOOK IT MUST BE BECAUSE I LIKE THIS!"

That's not what the industry considers 'Pay to Win'.


Pay to win is where actual gameplay content is by-passed, eased or enhanced through real world transactions;

Better Gear, Better Stats, Removal of Weakness, Limit Break Builders, EXP Buffs, Allagan Tombstones Puchase.

THOSE things would be considered 'Pay To Win', not "I like to collect minions, therefore it must be pay to win", by the vast majority of the community.

Click here

Where do four tiny minions and a mount come under "Essential Vanity".

So is wedding vanity? Is housing vanity? Is crafting and gathering vanity? Is everything but PvE vanity? Content is content whether it's PvE, PvP, or sandbox. The fact is they are hiding half the wedding feature and to "win" the best gear and items from the wedding event you have to buy it for real money = pay to win.

Disclaimer: I'm not going to get married but I do believe patch updated features should be free for subcribers. CS is for services. If SE really needs more money then raise the month sub fee but don't nickel and dime us with paywalls. I would much rather pay $2 extra a month and have Slepnir drop from Odin EX than be required to spend $20 to get him.

IF. And only IF, they actually do add tiers to the mog-station the free ceremony is still available.

I'm not saying it's the most ethical choice, but the choice is still there and they've made it for you.

You have three tiers, you choose which tier you want. If you feel it's worth your money to buy it, then buy it. If you feel it isn't then don't purchase it and show them that it's not what you want.



You can type paragraphs, upon paragraphs into the forums. But if people buy it, it'll continue.

That's a fact. Numbers vs. Words.

[Edeline]

Where do four tiny minions and a mount come under "Exclusive Vanity".

Fixed it for you.

[Shioban]

Fixed it for you.

It's not particuarly exclusive. The minions cost 2-3$, if you feel the minion isn't worth that much, then simply do-not purchase it.


The basic run-down is that these minions/mounts/services/semi-useless-vanity that they add is basically adding additional funding by cashing in on those with either a collectors bug, or a fickle choice of mind.
The EU servers being added before, on or after the expansion have been considered and finally finalised as a result of the extra income from the vanity/services they've added.

Fantasias, Retainers, Name Changing and Vanity Items were ALL requested by players from 1.0 and 2.0.
The forum archive proves this, (obviously not everyone was pro-vanity items, but the pro's of adding it out-weight the simply con of "I don't want to pay for it")


I would be vehlemtly against vanity items in the Mog Station if it out weighed the benefits of extra content in-game as a result.

If a few low-production minions, mounts and old seasonal items along with essential MMO services gets new content, new datacentres and more. Then it's worth it.

Their cost is not the problem. It's the fact that they're releasing, and will keep doing it, for the cash shop only. And not only minions that cost 2-3$. The more they see selling, the more they'll throw in there.

Yes. Minions that were commissioned by the development team to be made FOR the mogstation. The minions have a very very low production time and cost, therefore it's easy to produce a wide variety of them without having a major impact on overall development time, costs or the game client itself.

Yes, it's frustrating for some that "They'll just keep adding more", I completely understand why they're furstrated. But that doesn't mean they're going to stop adding things into the game, they'll simply add and make things specifically for the mogstation as a way to make some extra money along side subscriptions.

The world isn't fair, and you can't have everything that you want. But in this case you can, you just have to fork over the premium they're asking for.

It's like insulting your customers with your greed. That's how people feel here.

Customers request EU datacentre, SE oblige.

EU datacentre will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to setup and maintain.
Extra revenue is required in order to balance out profit, development costs and further expansion of the game.

Developers look for alternative ways to earn extra money beside subscriptions.


Datacentres are very, very expensive and take months of preparation to setup a network cluster whilst maintaining a certain quality and standard required for an MMO datacentre to prove functional, this is not cheap.
As a result, they're going to need extra money to procure the finances for a third datacentre, and therefore optional basic items that have no real impact on the game as the best choice without offending players by adding in "Pay to win" progression additions.

INB4 "But subscriptions", the profits from this are torn apart and thrown all across the board at Square Enix into the development of other titles and endeavours.

[Edeline]

It's not particuarly exclusive. The minions cost 2-3$, if you feel the minion isn't worth that much, then simply do-not purchase it.

Their cost is not the problem. It's the fact that they're releasing, and will keep doing it, for the cash shop only. And not only minions that cost 2-3$. The more they see selling, the more they'll throw in there.
Let's say you would like to go to the cinema for pure enjoyment (like playing ff14) but then at the gates, they'd charge you $12.99 to enter the cinema (ff14) and once you're inside you expect to see the movie you want, since you already paid but they offer different types of movies (game content). Free boring movies that no one barely watch (but have the option to) or pay even more to see the fancy hollywood ones (exclusive vanity). You would say 2-3$ is nothing! but then they release a new movie that you really wanted to watch, and they charge you 20$+ after those 13$ for a single movie. (if you think they'd sell a mount+minion perks for the wedding for 2-3$, sorry to break it for you but they won't). While being realistic they don't charge you for entering a cinema, but buying the ticket for the movie you choose to watch, they're double charging you for no reasonable reason. It's like insulting your customers with your greed. That's how people feel here. "Getting over it" is letting them win and control you as they please because you'll pay anyway.

[Ilisidi]

Customers request EU datacentre, SE oblige.

EU datacentre will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to setup and maintain.
Extra revenue is required in order to balance out profit, development costs and further expansion of the game.

Developers look for alternative ways to earn extra money beside subscriptions.

EU datacenter was requested before the game went online. That's when it should have been set up. No tedious disentanglements and preparations to move an production system.

And would you like the profit data for FFXIV again? The game is turning a major profit, the cash shop is just extra-milking for the cherry on top.

[M0xie]

EU datacenter was requested before the game went online. That's when it should have been set up. No tedious disentanglements and preparations to move an production system.

And would you like the profit data for FFXIV again? The game is turning a major profit, the cash shop is just extra-milking for the cherry on top.

Before ARR, Square Enix was very much in the deep red on this game. Are your figures accounting for FFXIV as a whole and the money they lost on it?

[Ashkendor]

If SE really needs more money then raise the month sub fee but don't nickel and dime us with paywalls. I would much rather pay $2 extra a month and have Slepnir drop from Odin EX than be required to spend $20 to get him.

Maybe you would, but many people would not. If I'm not interested in the cash shop content, I simply don't buy it. If that content was "given to me" at the expense of raising my subscription, it's not really free anyway.

[Edeline]

That's literally what I was saying.

They're not adding in anything to allow you to advance in the game.

It's all vanity.

Click here