Isn`t just vanity. Is 2 diferent experiences and thats why is bad.

[Izsha]

Jacost gets it. It is functionally the same thing. Just because it comes on a dvd in a box doesn't matter. You are buying the content on the dvd. And most games are digital dl anyway now. If you want an example of a cheap little story paid add on I'll point to not one but 3 from SE in their last mmo. Ffxi had 3 tiny add ons that had a side storylines, a few story battles, and a special piece of combat gear at the end (very good, generally bis gear at at the time).

Your argument basically boiled down to expand being larger scale so it's ok. That's weak, and there are examples by this very company doing smaller scale tack ons. Those 3 story pack were 10 bucks each at release for a story you do in an afternoon while an expansion was 20 bucks and expanded the world for years. Either your ok buying content beyond your sub or you arent. The scale and being worth the money are just cop outs by letting you decide on a case by case basis if you are OK with it. If that is the case then I can just say a minion for 3$, or a fancy wedding for 30 is 'worth it' and now I'm no more right than you. You can't be against buying content on principle then turn around and say expansions, add ons, CEs, and digital give aways at paid live events are ok. If you pick a side you gotta stay there, not jump ship just because it's a good deal.

[Roris]

Extra retainers put a greater load on the server since it now has to store more data, so it makes sense to charge players for them. Of course allowing alts to be more easily used as "mules" would be the better option, but that's a different discussion.

Your entire argument about the expansion boiled down to "it's actually worth the price". You don't even know what the price is yet, so how can you judge that? For that matter, we don't know what the cost is for the gold wedding. Would you say that it's "actually worth the price" if it was $1? We don't even have total confirmation on what is in the paid plan. Like I said, I disagree with that bait-and-switch that SE pulled, but I suspect that the higher-ups gave Yoshi an order on the matter sometime in the last month or so. Yoshi has been shown to genuinely care about the game, but he doesn't run the company. What I'd like to see from SE is more transparency, rather than pointlessly bashing a business for wanting to make money.

Extra Retainers put as much load on storage on a server as alts and new characters do, seeing how there are accounts that can have a max of 40 players across all servers both with 2 free retainers and a full character's data takes far more space than 2 additional retainers, the servers already account for this extra data in the database and more. System wise only one retainer can be fully accessed at a time, so even the extra processing load is equal for everyone, venture completion messages are handled client side and item searches are optimized enough so that those two extra retainers being searched also doesn't cause bigger stress.

My entire argument is yes, if the content to price ratio is good, go ahead. Since ARR's price is $30 it's safe to deduce the expansion will be priced accordingly, either at that exact price, possible lower or maybe even higher. Even if it's twice ARR's price at $60 it's arguably ok but not really, if only because "that's the price of a WoW expansion so it's ok when others do it". More than that? Yeah no thanks. The same can be done to weddings, simply adding what the Draught Chocobo costs for one/two players to obtain + a minion + costume + extra fees. Though yes, we still don't have concrete prices so it is all well founded speculation right now. Though I'd honestly be surprised if it was less than $10 for just the second tier wedding, or even costed gil like some people are hopefully thinking. Now yeah, no one can really decide what's actually worth spending money for anyone else, so if paying $25 for a mount is worth it for a loyal fan because they're showing support to their favorite company and franchise, go ahead too, no qualms about it.

Funny you mention transparency because that's exactly what I said the first time seasonal items were introduced on it. Had the cash shop plans been announced well in advance, even as far back as 2.0's announcement, most people would have been more accepting of it. Yet it's always 2 weeks or just a week before a patch and always announced out of nowhere, especially after teasing items and features for a whole year. It's that exact same change of plans at the last minute that makes people weary on where the game is heading. No one here is against a company making money or else they wouldn't be subscribing and wouldn't have subscribed since 1.0 in the first place. People do indeed want more transparency, it's where this issue comes from in the first place. Yoshida is the producer so yes, it does fall on him even if his hands are tied and he's forced not to say anything or hold back on announcing cash shop plans as much as he can. He was much more open during 1.0 so all this just makes him look more disingenuous now, regardless if he wants it to be like that or not.

Jacost gets it. It is functionally the same thing. Just because it comes on a dvd in a box doesn't matter. You are buying the content on the dvd. And most games are digital dl anyway now. If you want an example of a cheap little story paid add on I'll point to not one but 3 from SE in their last mmo. Ffxi had 3 tiny add ons that had a side storylines, a few story battles, and a special piece of combat gear at the end (very good, generally bis gear at at the time).

Your argument basically boiled down to expand being larger scale so it's ok. That's weak, and there are examples by this very company doing smaller scale tack ons. Those 3 story pack were 10 bucks each at release for a story you do in an afternoon while an expansion was 20 bucks and expanded the world for years. Either your ok buying content beyond your sub or you arent. The scale and being worth the money are just cop outs by letting you decide on a case by case basis if you are OK with it. If that is the case then I can just say a minion for 3$, or a fancy wedding for 30 is 'worth it' and now I'm no more right than you. You can't be against buying content on principle then turn around and say expansions, add ons, CEs, and digital give aways at paid live events are ok. If you pick a side you gotta stay there, not jump ship just because it's a good deal.

Your argument basically boils down to "it's okay when my favorite company does it regardless of how it does it" which is fine but it's also the weakest argument anyone can present. Lots of people had and still have qualms about Abyssea and the addons, even then story content will always outweigh vanity according to the common definition of progression. No one here is against buying content at all, in any way shape and form, especially since the main pro cash shop argument is "no one's cutting content yet, you can still get the same content for free you just don't get the extra vanity". The principle is about a company telling people well in advanced about their monetization plans. So if they're going to monetize Golden Saucer, Airships, etc. they might as well announce it clearly in advance especially since the Japan Fanfest is coming, instead of always being vague about new content and then announcing the cash shop side of it at the last second.