SE, you underestimate your power with the cash shop

[Adire]

I'm aware. I don't think my post was alarmist, that's exaggerating a teeny bit. It's only a factual observation that I have made with other MMOs I have played (many, many. I could list them all if you wanted, and you could check on my claim if you don't believe it to be true.) And it's assuming that they increase the frequency of the cash shop updates as the OP is suggesting, not saying that it will happen at the current rate.

And I also did say that updates to the cash shop have been minor and slow, therefore I said that I'm aware most of what they're adding that is new IS to the game.

And you're right! People will complain no matter what.

The cash shop is still not the answer to that problem though.

I mean think about it. What will keep people striving to get things and give a feeling of accomplishment? Working towards a goal and feeling accomplishment at achieving it are big parts of an MMO. A cash shop where people can drop some money for instant satisfaction nullifies both, and adds no incentive to play the game for the particular item/items in question. Less reason to play = less time logged in = less chance of subscription renewal = less money for SE from that source. And as mentioned before, this isn't going to cause a problem on a small scale, if it's done a lot though, it will add up.

It's also unrealistic to expect SE to cater to every single person's complaints. A cash shop is basically saying "we'll just try to please these players, forget the rest" however.

All of the other things in your list have something in common: You're playing the MMO you're already paying for to get them. The cash shop option stands out as the only way to get something inside the game via outside means. It doesn't "fit in" so to speak.

And while I suppose it is fair to include it as an option sometimes, there should at least always be reasonable ways to obtain the same things in game.

I really don't understand why more MMOs don't adopt this practice if they HAVE to have cash shops.