Real Money to Get In-Game Currency: Eternal Bond Edition

[KagatoAC]

to be quite honest, I'd pay 3-4 million for the full dyeable wedding package and mount. I however will not spend 20-40$ for it. I can find a dozen RL things I'd rather spend that 20-40$ on.

I dont understand why they didn't just give us the option in game to either buy the weeding package with Gil or go to the mogstation.

[Tupsi]

to be quite honest, I'd pay 3-4 million for the full dyeable wedding package and mount. I however will not spend 20-40$ for it. I can find a dozen RL things I'd rather spend that 20-40$ on.

I dont understand why they didn't just give us the option in game to either buy the weeding package with Gil or go to the mogstation.

Because they know, unlike you personally, there are plenty of people who would be willing to drop $10-$40 on an MMO's cash shop they like just like there's millions who will spend $1-$10+ on FB/Mobile in-app purchases.

[BigPapaSmurf]

Because they know, unlike you personally, there are plenty of people who would be willing to drop $10-$40 on an MMO's cash shop they like just like there's millions who will spend $1-$10+ on FB/Mobile in-app purchases.

Her point wasn't don't offer it for irl cash, just additionally offer it for in-game purchase.

Nothing about her post assumed there aren't people who are willing to drop money into a cash shop, yet your reply acts as if she implied that.

Please check for context when replying in the future. I notice you ignore context a lot.

[Kazumac]

Her point wasn't don't offer it for irl cash, just additionally offer it for in-game purchase.

If they offered it from in game means it would devalue their cash shop. It would be a bad business decision to do what KogatoAC suggested and reduce potential cash shop sales by offering an equivalent in game option while not offering any additional monetary benefit to SE.

[Nephera]

If they offered it from in game means it would devalue their cash shop. It would be a bad business decision to do what KogatoAC suggested and reduce potential cash shop sales by offering an equivalent in game option while not offering any additional monetary benefit to SE.

while ostensibly true, many games offer a free option for a lot of things that can be purchased out of the cash shop. Making it a time saved vs money saved choice for the player.


though i have often seen this used to justify really outrageous cash shop prices while the developers tout that "you can get it for free anyway so we're going to keep charging these prices nobody will pay" in a strange tacit admission that they are exclusively whaling with their cash shop..

[Kazumac]

while ostensibly true, many games offer a free option for a lot of things that can be purchased out of the cash shop. Making it a time saved vs money saved choice for the player.

Yes but those games are typically in my experience F2P games (or at least non sub based). This is how they fill up their player base by getting both people willing to pay for content and those not willing to pay in the same game. It's basically a marketing tactic to get people to play their game. Where as FFXIV doesn't have to do this because you are already here paying to play their game. Your motivation for playing isn't trying to find a free game to play. So they don't need to offer multiple options to this content they have decided is optional.

If SE offered it through in game means they would lose out on a percentage of potential cash shop customers who are equally willing to grind it out in game. F2P games accept this loss in potential income to up numbers of total players even more since the larger the player base the more likely cash shop players will continue to play. SE doesn't need to do this.

Btw this is just me attempting to look through the eyes of a company on the subject and not my personal opinion on whether or not I agree with a cash shop in FFXIV.

[Tupsi]

If they offered it from in game means it would devalue their cash shop. It would be a bad business decision to do what KogatoAC suggested and reduce potential cash shop sales by offering an equivalent in game option while not offering any additional monetary benefit to SE.

This. SE knows people would buy it (just like they bought the other items), therefore if you personally don't want to buy it in the cash shop (as I stated) SE knows there's plenty more that will and that drove their decision. If you offer an in-game version, there's no purpose to the cash shop version. It's like offering a 90k gil/month sub with the same benefits as the standard $14 sub option and expect people to go with the $14 one.

while ostensibly true, many games offer a free option for a lot of things that can be purchased out of the cash shop. Making it a time saved vs money saved choice for the player.

While true, the free version is usually severely gimped, not as pretty or flatout lacking features/benefits. Much like in XIV's cash shop you can get a Free Eternal Bond option vs Paid options.

[Squintina]

While true, the free version is usually severely gimped, not as pretty or flatout lacking features/benefits. Much like in XIV's cash shop you can get a Free Eternal Bond option vs Paid options.

Actually I've played games with cash shops where the same (non-gimped) items were available in game and people would still buy from the cash shop. Sometimes it's because they could get more (ex: if the item drops from dungeons, one can buy more than one can farm in X hours). Other times it's because the way to get it in game required doing a long quest or some other long experience and impatient/busy people preferred to just buy it.

Like if the dyes were untradable and required a 4 * craft, a lot of people would still buy from cash shop, while people who really want to not pay would try to make it (Not that I'm saying that's what it should be, just giving a quick example)

[Atomnium]

I dont understand why they didn't just give us the option in game to either buy the weeding package with Gil or go to the mogstation.

At least players would have both choices while following their own judgements about the whole ethical question, that's what Arenanet actually do with gw2, you can either bank with real money or trade ingame golds for cash-shop currencies, where it start to not be ok with GW2 is the fact that you can directly convert real money into ingame golds :x which is pay to win.......... does it sound like something familar to anyone? Meanwhile GW2 is a F2P game, FFXIV isn't.