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

[Teryaani]

Well that's the whole thing.. The cash shop has now cast a dark cloud over the game.. Now everything that comes out people are going to wonder if it is going in the cash shop.. Look at the missing Christmas tree for the starlight celebration and a whole thread on if it is going in the cash shop since it is missing. It has split the user base and created so much negativity it is going to scare new players from joining.

Only on the forums. I don't think it's going to affect new subs. If that was true, whenever Blizzard added a new pet to their cash store, their sub counts would drop (they have forum flame ups over it too) and they don't.

[Nashred]

Only on the forums. I don't think it's going to affect new subs. If that was true, whenever Blizzard added a new pet to their cash store, their sub counts would drop (they have forum flame ups over it too) and they don't.

But you really dont know that and how could you or anyone. Someone is researching a game and goes to the forums and sees all the negativity and decides not to join. No one knows what could be.. Doesn't means subs would necessarily drop but they may have rose less than they could have and it would not just be when something was added.. People make choices everyday what games they are going to play. Lots of people research games now before jumping in.

[Teryaani]

But you really dont know that and how could you or anyone.. Someone is researching a game and goes to the forums and sees all the negativity and decides not to join.. No one knows what could be.. Doesn't means subs would necessarily drop but they may have rose less than they could have and it would not just be when something was added.. People make choices everyday what games they are going to play.. Lots of people research games now before jumping in..

The forums are a tiny percentage of the player base as it is. Most people don't touch the lodestone or the forums at all. These have way less impact that we'd like them to.

[Kuolema]

But you really dont know that and how could you or anyone. Someone is researching a game and goes to the forums and sees all the negativity and decides not to join. No one knows what could be.. Doesn't means subs would necessarily drop but they may have rose less than they could have and it would not just be when something was added.. People make choices everyday what games they are going to play. Lots of people research games now before jumping in.

Through my own experience, I didn't research the forums to get a feeling of this game. I bought it because its Final Fantasy.

[tocsin]

Snip...

Glad to see you back, Magis. this had become stagnant, which is boring.

first, over a million players? hardly. look at the investor reports. FFXIV has less than 300k active subs, and that is a FACT. I have already proven it 4 times on these forums, so ill just link a thread over.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ousing-and-gil

(off topic:you know you are an insufferable white knight, when you reference other white knight posts that you made in a white knight post lol.)

Secondly, these bracelets are selling at nearly nothing right now, just because there isnt an infinite demand for them. with everyone trying to be their own RMT, bracelets have dropped to the sub-500k range on most servers, which means that if more people want to make meaningful money, the supply of them has to increase, which will drive the cost down even further until they are completely worthless.

If you want "entitlement" (not really, but the words is thrown around here like nothing), how about paying pennies to have an item instantly appear in your inventory with no work involved at all. Why even play the game at that point? Just print out some 3d model screenshots of the item lol

this is something I have been wondering myself. honestly, cheats make me stop playing a game, because there isnt anything to acheive anymore. I have alway felt like RMT for gil would eliminate the fun of the game, and I would leave anyways. so are they really winning, even a little? they just ruined their experience.

[Nashred]

The forums are a tiny percentage of the player base as it is. Most people don't touch the lodestone or the forums at all. These have way less impact that we'd like them to.

I disagree that its a tiny bit nowadays and this has spread way beyond the forums.. I see it on the Facebook pages, and on gaming sites etc. I know a few people who have left because of all the negativity in this game. I also know a few who wont come over.. I have a few friends from FFXI I have been trying to convince to come and play and they all know about the cash shop etc. But it is opinion and without those stepping forward who didn't join we wont know..

[Nashred]

Through my own experience, I didn't research the forums to get a feeling of this game. I bought it because its Final Fantasy.

So did I but that aint everyone.. Actually I did because I loved FFXI but was looking for something that required a little less time..

[EricCartmenez]

I want to play the devil's advocate only for a second. This might have been brought up already, but let's just take this. So someone really wants the platinum wedding, but they can barely afford to play the game. They have gil, but not real money. They trade their gil for a platinum band. While that could technically be construed as money for gil, I'm not so sure that the market is going to get flooded with these things. It's really kind of niche. I certainly wouldn't use it as a way to make real money. Too much chance that I'd be left holding a whole lot of unsold bands.

But to my devil's advocate point, if one makes a purchase and gift it through the Mog station, what's to say that the persons can't make a gil exchange in game? Isn't that how gil sales work now?

Here's a possible fix - sell them in pairs! This should have been done from day one anyway, as you can't marry Platinum to gold or standard anyway. So why not sell them in pairs? Make one unique/untradeable and the other is a promise item that becomes a unique/untradeable band when gifted AND it is somehow attached to the first item. Even if they are not attached, now someone would be left with a single, unique/untradeable item. Lastly, build into the Mog station that an account can only buy a pair of bands every X # of days. Like a real bad wedding decision, 90 days until you can get another license. Something like that.

I didn't really think the whole "pair" thing through. Not everyone has the ability to purchase both bands for themselves and their partner. I did, but others don't or can't.

I just got back from a 10 day band for voicing my opinions on people who think there is an abundance of bots, so I'll stay relatively neutral, but this doesn't seem like a big cash cow to me. Prices on stuff get nerf'd so fast, I don't see this being any different.

I only ask "How is this play to win?" You can get a free wedding. You can get all the benefits of the wedding for $0.0. So what if it costs a little extra money to have the hall blue and different background music? That's not winning. Paying someone gil to get you through FCoB... That's paying to win, and I don't care if real money exchanged hands at any point or not. There was something of value that traded hands for one individual to win while the other provided a service that led to the win. Oooh, look at me, I have a baby Opo Opo. But that doesn't do anything in the game. I can ride Odin's mount. Yeah, but you don't ride any faster. So how is it paying to win? Big deal, you can have a snowman head. I don't know, maybe the definition of winning and paying the privilege means something different to me.

[Kuolema]

Here's a possible fix - sell them in pairs! This should have been done from day one anyway, as you can't marry Platinum to gold or standard anyway. So why not sell them in pairs? Make one unique/untradeable and the other is a promise item that becomes a unique/untradeable band when gifted AND it is somehow attached to the first item. Even if they are not attached, now someone would be left with a single, unique/untradeable item. Lastly, build into the Mog station that an account can only buy a pair of bands every X # of days. Like a real bad wedding decision, 90 days until you can get another license. Something like that.

There really isn't a point in limiting them as we have seen the novelty of them have worn off. I knew it wouldn't last very long, I gave it a month from the release to die down and it didn't last that long. In the end a few people managed a few million gil in the game which is a drop in the ocean. It didn't break the game like all the doom and gloomers said it will. Who knows what will be put into the cash shop in the future and I'm not going to wildly speculate like all the gloomers have in other threads.

[Magis]

Glad to see you back, Magis. this had become stagnant, which is boring.

first, over a million players? hardly. look at the investor reports. FFXIV has less than 300k active subs, and that is a FACT. I have already proven it 4 times on these forums, so ill just link a thread over.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ousing-and-gil

(off topic:you know you are an insufferable white knight, when you reference other white knight posts that you made in a white knight post lol.)

Interesting, and good job on delving deeper into the reports to try and find the "true" subscription amount. TBH it's much lower than I expected even with my most cynical guesses. If that's the cast, then this game isn't doing much better than FFXI did back when it first came out (peaking at 500k a year or two later for a few years). I guess my arguments of "going for cheap grinds and wow-like quick satisfaction will lead to unsustainable sub numbers" was correct. That and people predicting it would lead to a cash shop is also correct. I wonder if their guess that F2P is next will come true? This actually disappoints me greatly, but who knows, maybe the game will get better in 3.0, but I am not really looking forward to it no matter how much Yoshi says to.

This is of course if someone can prove your analysis wrong. Have you updated the numbers for the latest report? Does this factor in expenses or is this pure revenue?

Secondly, these bracelets are selling at nearly nothing right now, just because there isnt an infinite demand for them. with everyone trying to be their own RMT, bracelets have dropped to the sub-500k range on most servers, which means that if more people want to make meaningful money, the supply of them has to increase, which will drive the cost down even further until they are completely worthless.

True. I guess my fault here is that the rings don't have inherent value like mats or combat equipment. They just exist. I think the fact that people actually come in and say "please make over of these kind of things" ticks me off more than SE's mistake. It's encouraging them to proceed with more of things like this.

this is something I have been wondering myself. honestly, cheats make me stop playing a game, because there isnt anything to achieve anymore. I have alway felt like RMT for gil would eliminate the fun of the game, and I would leave anyways. so are they really winning, even a little? they just ruined their experience.

This is where we are coming from and probably what makes the topic so rage enducing for some. You've taken content which we could have worked for, to play the game for, and basically made them worthless. Anyone can afford a minion or a mount, it's only $5, but they are missing the point. The fun of items is getting them and knowing you received them from the work you did. Instead it's asking more money from players while giving very little in return. At least with the merchandise SE sold you not only got a minion, but physical things you can always enjoy (and not have to keep paying a sub to see). On top of that, if the subscription rate is so low, then teams that would have been working on the game are now working on cash shop items, or things that were slated for the game end up in the cash shop instead (like most point to Slepnir).