Cash Shop: Stifling development.

[Dyvid]

Because the development team, localization team, community team etc all work for FREE! Right? Right?

15/month x 2,000,000/subs x 12/months = 360,000,000 yearly. Yea, I think they are getting well paid for their work without a cash shop.

Umm no, I'd rather buy a full outfit for $5 from the CS, than bust my ass to make 12mil for a full outfit in game, because this community think it's fine to over price Level1 vanity gear. That's why all 3 wedding options are on the CS, including the free one. They knew players would over price these items if they were made by crafts. The way I see it, they dealt with a problem before it started.

These are the statements that annoy me the most. You have no idea how much of a time sink crafting is yet you want difficult items for nothing. Do you know how much it time and cost it takes to get mats for the night gown? If you don't like blame SE, not the crafters.

[Jynx]

Where did anyone say they wouldn't work for anything in game?

Where did I say you wouldn't work for anything. I merely pointed out your willing to pay above and beyond your subscription for other things, nothing wrong with it, it's just not something I find to be condusive to the developement cycle.

As for you previous statement you would rather pay $5.00 than buy a 12m outfit I have a fun fact if you would like me to share it with you.

Fyi, the term stifling is usually akin with doom and gloom. Look it up sometime.

I do believe they are stifling development because as in my original post, everything that comes into the game now seems to go through the marketing team to see what content can be siphoned off for the cash shop. Do I think it's the developers themselves who want to do this? I doubt it but the higher ups want the extra cash on the bottom line. Personally I would bet that the community divide on this on the forums is something he doesn't want to see. No game developer wants to put his content behind a paywall.

I don't need internal SE documentation to make assumptions (It's all that they are just like anything you spout as well) But without documentation it's pretty hard for you to state that they haven't allready cut content from the game (Pro tip they have) with the intention of moving it into the cash shop.

My concern isn't that the game will fail hard because it has a cash shop, hell it will probably flourish for a few years if it went free to play (or for all time). My concern is that the so far the pipeline we have been seeing is that content that was normally developed into the main game experience is being pushed off to rake in extra cash from consumers (Dyes, mounts, weddings) were all advertised long before the cash shop even became something more than server transfers, retainers, and fantasia potions.

My concern is that the development team is in many ways shackled into what content they are allowed to introduce into the game and what gets regulated to the cash shop, it's a perfectly valid concern even if you support the cash shop. They are many variations of that support and they are all as valid as they people who would rather it not exist at all. I think all of us however deserve some transparancy from the developers to know what is in store for the cash shop in the future.

[Nel_Celestine]

15/month x 2,000,000/subs x 12/months = 360,000,000 yearly. Yea, I think they are getting well paid for their work without a cash shop.

that's gross, not net. Factor in the cost of other projects being developed by SE, building costs, power costs for servers, business taxes, international fund conversion, etc etc.

Is the company making money? Yes. But are they making 360 million net profit a year just from FFXIV? Not on your life. If extra funds from stuff on the mogstation goes to getting more talent for XIV and other SE titles and vise versa I have no issues with it.

[Dyvid]

that's gross, not net. Factor in the cost of other projects being developed by SE, building costs, power costs for servers, business taxes, international fund conversion, etc etc.

Is the company making money? Yes. But are they making 360 million net profit a year just from FFXIV? Not on your life. If extra funds from stuff on the mogstation goes to getting more talent for XIV and other SE titles and vise versa I have no issues with it.

Money is money no matter where its going or how it's spent. Any profit made by SE goes back to SE to be spent on whatever projects and programs they wish to develop. Your right that it's income vs expenditure but it is true that FFXIV has made SE profitable again for 2014. Also I'm not against the cash shop as a method to sell services or unique items that aren't related to a games feature. If SE wants to sell a Morbol mount for 15, they can go nuts. It's only when its premium access to game content where I draw the line.

[Nel_Celestine]

Money is money no matter where its going or how it's spent. Any profit made by SE goes back to SE to be spent on whatever projects and programs they wish to develop. Your right that it's income vs expenditure but it is true that FFXIV has made SE profitable again for 2014. Also I'm not against the cash shop as a method to sell services or unique items that aren't related to a games feature. If SE wants to sell a Morbol mount for 15, they can go nuts. It's only when its premium access to game content where I draw the line.

No content access has been restricted to Mog station, unless you count color options for content that's freely available in game.

[ChibiChan_Hyperion]

No content access has been restricted to Mog station, unless you count color options for content that's freely available in game.

This points out an interesting trend; it used to be "unless you count unique mounts and minions as content." Now, it seems we've progressed to "unless you count unique color options as content." I'm mildly curious if/how this may change in the future.

Simply pointing out an observation.

[Tupsi]

Simply pointing out an observation.

It's the same thing - the latest addition to the mog station included colors, which is the latest thing that upset people. Prior to that it was the mounts and minions. SE didn't directly add any other mount. Since in all actuality, the same options are available in game, just not the 'metallic' version. So in reality, if you count colors as content, then yeah. That random rock you run by is technically content too, but realistically, most people consider content as actual things you're doing, like raids/dungeons/primals.

Which is why 99% of the time when you read a review/watch a review you'll see people say: "X hours of gameplay and content"..chances are they're not talking about things like colors, pebbles and pieces of armor specifically.

[Jynx]

when you read a review/watch a review you'll see people say: "X hours of gameplay and content"..chances are they're not talking about things like colors, pebbles and pieces of armor specifically.

Yeah not specifically but as a whole they entirely do...

[Dyvid]

No content access has been restricted to Mog station, unless you count color options for content that's freely available in game.

Let me elaborate then on how I consider content access.

Scions Minion = Not related to one specific piece of a games feature like Hunts, Dungeon, Binding Coil, Crystal Tower, Housing, etc...
Gold/Platnium Plan = Specifically related to enhance a players experience for the Eternal Bonding content.

This is what I mean when I say premium access to a specific piece of content. You get standard access to content but to get the full rewards and experience of the feature it requires cash payment.

[Felessan]

Please list other P2P MMOs other than WoW that has the same sort of cash shop ARR does because I'm curious too.

You should start with list of *successfull* P2P MMO in last five years to understand why this type of cashshop are only in those two games. As there was no other mass-market P2P MMO that can be considered successfull (i.e. that have a big stable population and could cover it's costs) an recent times.

I do believe they are stifling development because as in my original post, everything that comes into the game now seems to go through the marketing team to see what content can be siphoned off for the cash shop.

But we are still getting core content for free, so impact is much lesser than stated. Yes, some options were added on top of free content but the core experience remains unaffected and free.

Do I think it's the developers themselves who want to do this? I doubt it but the higher ups want the extra cash on the bottom line. Personally I would bet that the community divide on this on the forums is something he doesn't want to see. No game developer wants to put his content behind a paywall.

Everyone loves money, and developers are no exception to this.

Scions Minion = Not related to one specific piece of a games feature like Hunts, Dungeon, Binding Coil, Crystal Tower, Housing, etc...
Gold/Platnium Plan = Specifically related to enhance a players experience for the Eternal Bonding content.

It doesn't really enhance experience as you don't get bigger wedding or anything. Paid options are very similar to free ones and if you want to just marry and have a nice ceremony - free one is as good as paid ones.
And the only real difference (besides mount and minion gifts after ceremony ends) is for people who thinks that "cost more money = better"