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

[TurnBased]

^per the devs, the bracelets were never intended to be sold for gil. It was just an unfortunate side effect with making the bracelets tradeable.

[Magis]

melded combat gear bought instead of earned = direct DISadvantage.

Sure if you magically get raid gear in your lap. However, you require a certain minimum stat pool to tackle Coil 3, so while others have to farm Coil2 or spend weeks getting piece by piece of the poetics grind, you can just buy and meld some crafted gear that can be equal to or better than Coil 2 items.

melded crafting gear bought instad of earned = direct DISadvantage.

Wat. http://www.ffxivguild.com/ff14-arr-d...materia-melds/

melded gathering gear bought instead of earned = neutral, the non main hand gear is the smallest part of the grind anyways.

Wat. http://www.ffxivguild.com/ff14-arr-d...materia-melds/

housing = out of range of bracelet sales (lol 1 mil per bracelet. lets pay 20*30=600 dollars for a large house.)

And small houses? Medium houses? People are going after those too grinding and selling, trying to make cash. Here comes you with your fancy credit card, ready to skip the line.

materials = at the same time crunch as regular players. material costs are horrible anyways, most tiered crafted items are net loss anyways.

Oh? Same time crunch? The players farming and playing the market have spent just as much time as you giving your credit card to SE and putting up a PF? Yeah, no advantage there.

minions = LOL who cares, zero gameplay benefit, I don't even see them.

Just cause you don't care about them, doesn't mean there aren't players who do spend their time grinding dungeons and/or saving up money to buy em (I know two in my FC). Stop being selfish.

relic = specifically designed so gil cannot buy even 10% of it. its time gated, not gil-gated.

Yeah, Savage Might/Aim IV isn't a gil grind... oh wait, they cost 500K on my server and from what I hear, are expensive on others. Let me guess, "But you don't have to get them", oh but you with your credit card should get an advantage right?

I can name 5 subscription based games with pure P2P (pay to progress) cash shops that have grown and prospered since adding the cash shop.

How many of those were free to play games or had complex economies that could sustain such programs? Also changing the word to something no one uses (or heard of?) doesn't make it any less P2W.

[Venos]

They did mention that if this continues to be a problem and if topics on the matter continue then they will take action. I'm just fulfilling the second part.

You know they can go in game and observer the problem, right? So if they're seeing otherwise in game, no changes will be needed. So clearly the huge problem you speak of, isn't there...

[TurnBased]

Whether it's a problem or not is their call. In the meantime, players who are concerned about this unfortunate side effect need to continue being vocal about it.

Personally, I think they need to rollback any accounts that made these transactions but that would mean that some marriages would need to be annulled so I don't see that happening.

[tocsin]

snip...

ugh, I don't care enough about this topic to take the time to separate all those into individual quotes, especially since I'm playing the game in the other window.

even though I said all of these before, ill reiterate here. this will be the last time.

1. combat gear - buying fully melded 1. lets people know you RMT, and will likely kick (I have seen it), or assume you are a VERY skilled player and attempt more than you can handle (aka full dungeon speedrun pulls). this puts you at a disadvantage to those who actually put in the work.

2. crafting gear - you bought all the best items. okay, now try to get the mastercraft books, only from a macro, because you don't know how crafting actually works (because you didn't earn it.) oh, you just got 20% hq rate? yep, you suck.

3. Gathering gear - oh, you just got a full set of gear? oh, you still need to spend days grinding 1 star token nodes, then 2 star token nodes.

4. housing - by now, either all the small and medium houses are gone, or there is enough supply that it makes no difference anyways. and unless you are on the same server as I am (where I just saw someone selling a platinum bracelet in pf for 250k) the small amount you get (1 mil is nothing lol) wont buy that.

5. materials - unless you are botting, as well as RMT (which isn't that far fetched) you are still playing the same market as regular crafters, and most of us crafters have more money than you will ever earn with those bracelets.

6. Minions - vanity. Yes, its endgame for some people, but they already confirmed that vanity would be the territory of the cash shop. this gives people an ability to get it for gil too. positive for them, in my book.

7. relic - by the time you go through entire atma farming, animus book farming, and alexandrite farming, if you don't have a couple mil saved up for your materia, you did something wrong.

8. subscription based games-
EVE
Wildstar
World of Warcraft
Ultima Online
Everquest

Now, I don't want to waste any more of my post limit on this nonsense, so please refer back to this post for my responses.

4. I will concede, I am slowly beginning to begrudgingly accept the Cash Shop as a necessary evil. I believe the P2W aspect still needs to go though.

Even if the bracelets cost 150k that person still made 150k more than the person who does not sell bracelets. An advantage is an advantage no matter how small.

I agree, it is an advantage. however, if that 150k (miniscule) advantage means more money for SE to continue adding and supporting the game that we all play, I'm 100% for them getting that advantage.

snip...

Even though I want to make a new post for these, ill refrain.

I'm not saying there isn't an advantage in any way. its exactly what I said, P4P. but it isn't this huge advantage that you are all making it out to be.

Also, I still play UO occasionally. They did housing better than any MMO since. Just like everquest did NPC questing better than any MMO since.

[TurnBased]

1. On gear. Whether you are able to effectively use the gear or not, you were still able to acquire it much faster than other players. In an F2P game, god like items are sold in the cash shop but players often still need to know builds+strategies.

2. Housing. And if there is like one house left, I would rather it went to the player who acquired the gil legitimately.

3. Relic - Bad RNG can often make the cost of Novus skyrocket. Players often have to make do with spiritbonding or some other money making method.

4. I will concede, I am slowly beginning to begrudgingly accept the Cash Shop as a necessary evil. It's just what keeps the game at an 8/10 instead of the 10/10 that the game used to be pre-Cash Shop. I believe the P2W aspect still needs to go though.

Even if the bracelets cost 150k that person still made 150k more than the person who does not sell bracelets. An advantage is an advantage no matter how small.

[Magis]

ugh, I don't care enough about this topic to take the time to separate all those into individual quotes, especially since I'm playing the game in the other window.

even though I said all of these before, ill reiterate here. this will be the last time.

1. combat gear - buying fully melded 1. lets people know you RMT, and will likely kick (I have seen it), or assume you are a VERY skilled player and attempt more than you can handle (aka full dungeon speedrun pulls). this puts you at a disadvantage to those who actually put in the work.

Unless you are already in a static and everyone trusts each other. You aren't really at a disadvantage, rather at the same position of a newbie (assuming again you never did raiding or are not in a static already) but wait, you got the gear to overcompensate giving you an advantage over Mr. Newbie.

2. crafting gear - you bought all the best items. okay, now try to get the mastercraft books, only from a macro, because you don't know how crafting actually works (because you didn't earn it.) oh, you just got 20% hq rate? yep, you suck.

Crafting isn't some complex activity. And you are avoiding the point, getting the materia and gear upfront is a big part of the process. Funny thing, since you can just "buy materials", you don't even have to care if you blow up the craft, just keep buying more!

3. Gathering gear - oh, you just got a full set of gear? oh, you still need to spend days grinding 1 star token nodes, then 2 star token nodes.

So does everyone else, but while people had to grind and farm to even get to that stage, you get to skip all that? Just because you have to still do part of the grind, doesn't mean you didn't get an advantage for the rest of it.

4. housing - by now, either all the small and medium houses are gone, or there is enough supply that it makes no difference anyways. and unless you are on the same server as I am (where I just saw someone selling a platinum bracelet in pf for 250k) the small amount you get (1 mil is nothing lol) wont buy that.

That doesn't disprove you are getting an advantage. Are you going to make excuses or point out where you aren't getting an advantage? Houses are in circulation all the time with land trades, and with the new districts there are still some open in not so wanted locations like The Goblet.

5. materials - unless you are botting, as well as RMT (which isn't that far fetched) you are still playing the same market as regular crafters, and most of us crafters have more money than you will ever earn with those bracelets.

And how did they get that money? By farming, by selling crafts, by playing the market. They had to put something in to get something out of it. You are getting an advantage by not playing the game and paying your way to the top. Those people with large amounts of cash didn't just happen to have it fall in their lap.

6. Minions - vanity. Yes, its endgame for some people, but they already confirmed that vanity would be the territory of the cash shop. this gives people an ability to get it for gil too. positive for them, in my book.

Two different issues. One is vanity locked in the cashshop, the other is accessible by all players, but some players who pay real cash can get to them easier than those who have to grind the money or the drop rng. Cause you know... an advantage.

7. relic - by the time you go through entire atma farming, animus book farming, and alexandrite farming, if you don't have a couple mil saved up for your materia, you did something wrong.

First, cool a couple mil get's you 4/15 of the materia barring you didn't spend it on any of the above things or other materia. Second, you still didn't say how this wasn't an advantage, just avoided answering it.

8. subscription based games-

EVE - Complex Economy that is regulated by economists and a council of players. The game's main focus and pull IS the economy.
Wildstar - Failed MMO that is pretty much dead, so much for prospering.
World of Warcraft - A MMO that got most of it's subs pre-cashshop and has been losing subs ever since. Dunno how the cash shop made it prosper.
Ultima Online - Uh... what? Does this MMO still even have any subscribers that you would consider "alive" pre-WoW? Dunno enough about this MMO to say anything.
Everquest - Reading it up, seems to have got one way past it's life time in 2008. Anyway, looking at MMOCharts, the game snuffed out in 06/07 and kept falling even past 08 so dunno where this prospering is coming from.

So I guess one of those "prospered", and maybe two if I take your word for it with Ultima. So much for five MMOs, the last two showed how much you are grasping at straws lol.

So basically, a bunch of excuses or off topic responses without saying HOW you are not at a advantage.

[dice137]

[Magis]

This is fun sadly I have to go to sleep since it's 2:30 here, can't wait to hear his/her response!

[tocsin]

This is worth the extra post. Upvote this, because this is in fact fun.

So, with that, and look upwards for my responses please, let me pose a question. for the amount of money they would have to pay for this advantage (assuming 1 mil or less for the bracelets), and assuming this goes towards keeping ffxiv alive, which was mentioned by Yoshi during the EU Fanfest, is the advantage really worth it? if someone pays for 500 mil (100 mil for each set of win gear plus 100 mil for materia plus 100 mil for housing, materials, minions, and such) to "win" all these things (keep in mind, that is Ten Thousand Dollars USD (or, subs for a year for 84 people)), are they worth enough to the continued running of the game that they would deserve it?
Also, you cannot use the answer "on principal", or "the morals of it". An MMO is a business, morals and principals have no dominion here.