Cash Shop: Where do you draw the line?

[Ultimatecalibur]

And when it becomes unprofitable for the RMT, the number of buyers will dry up (because far fewer people have 20 mill gil than 5 mill gil) which brings the price down again, which makes it profitable for RMT again.

And then SE introduces a new cash shop item that can be traded and the market spikes again.

All the while, more gil is entering the market, raising prices again.

That sounds true until you realize that the cash shop item sellers are those that would normally be RMT buyers. The system ends up killing RMTs because they end up competing with their own customer base. Every player selling cash shop items is someone who might have purchased gil from an RMT.

[Orochimaru]

I wonder how many people here who apparently "unsubbed" actually unsubbed.

I don't recall getting married mandatory in this game, nor having to buy this stuff to do it. People being over dramatic for nothing.

Some people were looking forward to that content and are blindsided that they have to shell out extra money in order to make the experience their own (since you can also customize the venue by paying up). No need to call people out, we all play the game for different reasons and no "content" is more important than another.

To stay on topic, where would you draw the line on the cash shop?

[Velhart]

Hell what's mandatory?? Care to explain please? Or is it that what's not mandatory for you can't be it for the others?

Its not mandatory to progress in the game. Not getting married or purchasing anything from the store will not halt progression for anyone in any form. You don't even have to get the premium items to get married. You are the one deciding if you want the bells and whistles added to it.

Its not mandatory, get over yourself. You can pretend in your head it is, but it doesn't make it so.

Just to add on. The question of where the line is drawn? It certainly isn't extra bells and whistles to a marriage feature that is free in the game if you don't buy the extra stuff. Its when they put actual literal pay to win items in there. You can complain that the wedding related items shouldn't be in the cash shop, but saying it crosses -the line- is being over dramatic.

[Ultimatecalibur]

These are my cash shop "line" items:

• Superior Equipment
• Stat Boosters
• Faster Mounts
• Lotto Chest Keys
• Cash Locked Dungeons
• Equipment Boosters
• Weekly Limit Removers

These are my warning sign items:

• Exp boosters
• Level Boosts
• Weekly Token Multipliers

[Ghishlain]

For me, the line will be drawn when they introduce the ability to "weaken" a boss to basically scrub levels by using a cash shop item, or something to that effect (similar to Phase Displacers against Voidwatch mobs in FFXI).

The line has been blurred for myself a little when they introduced tradable goods from cash shop, but to be honest, I was planning to make a post about the pros and cons of allowing tradable cash shop items and, welp, no need to make that anymore, lol...

I personally like the idea of tradable cash shop items because it does three things:

(1) Removes all the complaints about paywalls - now you can grind Gil to get the item someone may want [Good]
(2) Moderates illegal RMT by providing a legitimate way to RMT - now every player in the entire game is a potential (albeit minor) competitor to the RMT transactions [Whether this is good or not, we'll see]
(3) It now allows people to buy something a bit more special for their online friends who may not want to spend the real money to get the minion / mount / wedding they wanted [Good]

The ability to convert real money into Gil, however, is certainly a concern and indirectly opens the door to many pay2win scenarios. As many have rightfully pointed out, now if you have a little bit of cash and patience, a player will be able to instantly get penta melded i110 gear after selling a few bracelets online. By definition, this is pay-to-win.

Does it bug me?

After some thought and thinking about the mechanics of XIV, if this game WASN'T FFXIV, it would bug me.

In FFXIV, it doesn't bug me. As a casual raider, this is my thought process:

Having penta-melded i110s on a whim won't suddenly allow for an individual to trample over Final Coil. FFXIV as a whole is built around mechanics and team jump-ropes. A player can have i150 gear for all I care but they won't be able to beat coil if they don't have the right aptitude or skill to get around the mechanics of the fight. This is explicitly so in T10 where a single death not only causes the boss to AoE the raid (minor), it also makes the next set of mechanics more difficult to deal with if you don't raise said person quickly, thus will most likely cause ANOTHER death, and slowly wipe the raid. The teethers in T11 will instantly wipe half your group if you don't do the dance properly. etc etc

For anything else in the game - why would you need to have penta melded i110s? Sure, it's shiny, but, do you really need it? Nope, not really. This thought process would change some if there was more mid-core content available, but for now, it is what it is.

However, as I mentioned before, the line has begun to blur - so I'm holding any real complaints or praise until I personally see where S-E goes with the cash shop. I've participated in several MMOs that use cash shops and so far, this feels light compared to some MMOs, but I also understand that the cash shop is in its infancy stage for this game.

In the end, if they can maintain a good status quo with the cash shop by having it stay at its current level with little sway above and below the current line, they don't lose too many subs from the cash shop, and the cash shop continues to generate additional revenue stream for the company that compensates for the lost revenue from the lost subs - then S-E will continue to support the current trend.

/endwalloftext

[Codek]

My line was drawn at the point where every new and interesting feature going forward has a plug for the cash shop to go along with it. It's like reading an advertisement with every patch note that AdBlock will never detect.

This seems to have already been met but I'm waiting to get a feel of just how bad things really are with the expansion (if I make it that far). It's almost a given that the gold saucer will include this in some way...

[Zooters]

Vanity is content, its like buying a pepperoni pizza and only getting the cheese pizza, pepperoni its extra 5 $

Actually toppings cost about $1 extra per topping when ordering pizza. Source - I order a lot of pizza. So you get your pizza for $7.99, but the same size with pepperoni is $8.99. This would be analog with paying for the game, but if you want that one metallic dye that's $1 extra. Right or wrong, that's how it is. The cash shop stuff is extra.

[DeceptionsWrath]

For me, the line has passed. Unsubbed.

For SE? I imagine the line is the point where the value of sales they make in cash shop monthly no longer exceeds the value of the subs they have lost. It may be that they lose relatively few subs, or even have no net loss at all, in which case the number and variety of items and services will keep increasing. I think we can safely say that there aren't any specific features which would be 'out of bounds' to some form of monetization.

I'm currently unsubbed as well. Luckily my sub ended on the 9th anyways and this cash shop patch is unacceptable to me. Sadly I didn't get to say goodbye to my friends, so if you're reading this, love ya all and wish you all the best.

[Kaeda_Valentyne]

I wonder how many people here who apparently "unsubbed" actually unsubbed.

I don't recall getting married mandatory in this game, nor having to buy this stuff to do it. People being over dramatic for nothing.

Here's all the proof you need from me that I unsubbed.

I'm currently unsubbed as well. Luckily my sub ended on the 9th anyways and this cash shop patch is unacceptable to me. Sadly I didn't get to say goodbye to my friends, so if you're reading this, love ya all and wish you all the best.

Mine ended on the 9th as well.

[Aegis]

I wonder how many people here who apparently "unsubbed" actually unsubbed.

I don't recall getting married mandatory in this game, nor having to buy this stuff to do it. People being over dramatic for nothing.

"If it bothers you so much, why don't you unsub?"

*Everyone responds they have unsubbed*

"Yeah, well I bet you haven't really unsubbed"

*Logs onto server next month, server is a ghost town but the PF is packed: WTS Metallic Dyes: 100k/each*

"Where is everyone?!?"