The pull factor of Pay to Play

[Delily]

Cosmetic vanity items are a part of the game. Once upon a time, these things would have been quest rewards, or rare drops. Now? They shoved it into the cash shop because people like you are so valiantly whiteknighting it.

So, whiteknighting is now defending a business practice that has proven to be successful?

[Arkine]

Not going to lie, I'm somewhat reconsidering preordering heavensward. I kinda want to wait and see if they take it too far with the cash shop at that point.

[Sholah]

So, whiteknighting is now defending a business practice that has proven to be successful?

Being successful doesn't make it good, or right. Neither does the fact that WoW does it.

[Jacost]

Does anyone have an official definition of "content"? Otherwise the semantics arguments are going absolutely nowhere.

So far there's nothing in the cash shop that interests me. My sub is still getting me everything I want out of the game and a lot more besides. It doesn't get me everything there is, but it's still a good deal for my money. If that ever changes, I will obviously stop buying it. That said, it is a concern that I will be keeping a close eye on. I'm wary about the implications for Gold Saucer...

[Delily]

Being successful doesn't make it good, or right. Neither does the fact that WoW does it.

So, now you're the arbiter of what is good and right?

[Nakiamiie]

For the first time since the first day of 1.0 alpha, i want to see this game die...

So do I.

I helped support the game when it needed us to survive. I did it because I believed in the cry for help from the devs and the company. I figured they really wanted to create a game for us, the players. That the money would come from our loyalty and ear-to-mouth subscriptions.
I was grossly mistaken. It was simply a cry of hunger... for money. And now that the game is doing "well" financially, the mask has fallen. Apparently having ethics and principles is too much asking.

I regret funding this game and this company. SE is like EA...

[Nalien]

Being successful doesn't make it good, or right. Neither does the fact that WoW does it.

This, a million times, this.

Homeopathy is a successful "business", but that doesn't change the fact that it is utter bullcrap that exists for no other reason but to take advantage of lesser educated minds. Cash shops in a pay to play MMO are pretty much exactly the same (we even have the same pathetic justification of the placebo effect; I'm sure that extra money is being put back into the game... Extra Retainers have been around for a while, and look at all the extra improvements we've seen because of that little pay to win piece of content! Why, I hardly ever 90k in Frontlines since they added that!). Sheeple will buy it up and make it successful, and other sheeple will be too shortsighted to see the implications of letting a company get away with such utter ridiculousness. Stupidity and shortsightedness seem to be the target markets for a lot in the games industry these days. Sad to see SE is no different, more so after this relaunch was so promising; "Another failure like that would ruin us!", "We need to rebuild our fans faith in the series!", glad to see they took those lessons to heart... Sigh...

I'm looking forward to 4.0; Final Fantasy XIV: All the Bravest. Anyone with some photoshop skills feel like making that, actually? It'd make a great signature, the splash art behind the logo could just be a dollar sign or something.

[Seoulstar]

this part is the trouble.... definite me advantage? for each person it will varie... because of this more and more step in the wrong sense are taken by SE, because until player can prove that it an advantage, they can virtually add anything they want in the cash shop.
just a reminder we are in a video game... everything is virtual and by this it can be take as...everything is... optional!

I think you failed to understand that post. Advantage as in giving the best possible raid gear which will make your character quite OP. Nothing in the cash shop does such a thing. Yet people are overreacting to the cash shop..which in all honesty is no surprise to me on this forum. People overreact to almost everything here.

[Sholah]

So, now you're the arbiter of what is good and right?

Are you going to refute my point or just call names and try and paint me as the bad guy?

[Aegis]

Not at all. Minions, mounts, and dyes are reskins of existing items, the development time on them, as compared to new armor sets, quests, and stories is negligible.

That's sort of what I was getting at. Would you as a director set aside a half-dozen people to make a new raid, with a new dungeon, new mob types and bosses to introduce 5-6 new item designs for those playing the sub, or would you set aside those same six people to churn out 30+ new items for the cash shop. Unless you think that new raid will bring in more revenue than the vanity items the best business case is to make teh vanity items.