SE, you underestimate your power with the cash shop

[TruebladeNuke]

...

Tch. Someone just lock and/or delete this thread already. This is turning into another "Lets all rant on people wanting to cosplay as their favorite FF characters from other series!" thread now. Along with... other un-needed things.

Different people, different tastes. Deal with it.

"Vanishes"

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Right? People apparently love being crappy cosplayers though, judging by how many people sport Lightning's stupid-looking hairstyle or Snow's "jobless tool" look.

What about the people with names that are some variant of names of characters in other FF games?

[Pinkie_Pie]

Why would they put all that shit in the cash shop when they could just make them achievement/event rewards or dungeon drops? You can actually play the game for items, you know. You don't have to play your credit card.

If you don't want to actually play the game and just want to spend a bunch of money to play dress up I recommend buying clothes in real life.

Making clouds buster sword a achievement/event reward? or squall's outfit? why waste the resources on making it a event to give out a single item or making a achievement most casuals can't get let alone worse them to raid to get an item that's only for cosmetic wise. I believe this would be a good way to make some money on the side as well make customers happy for new outfits.

[Rufalus]

I would be happy for them to make a selection of outfits and weapons taken from the history of the FF series, and sell those. I would very likely buy my favorites.

Costumes I would like include Shadow (VI), Vincent (VII), Holy Dragoon Kain (The After Years, Dissidia 012).

Weapons I would like include Buster Sword (VII), Ragnarok (VII), Ultima Weapon (VII), Lionheart (VIII).

[nuyu11]

I see many people disagree here, but not with the Plex/Creed/Token systems.

[kyuven]

Cause over the 12 year lifetime of FFXI, sub rates rose and cashshops introduced, oh wait no they didn't. Also this game definitely didn't do better than even SE anticipated putting a surplus... yet now the game is doing so bad that it needed a cash shop?

FFXI didn't need a cash shop since they charged an arm and a leg for characters.
You want 8 characters per server here? ~14 bucks a month (depending on payment choice)
8 characters on FFXI? that's about 20 bucks a month.
It's because of that model, being one of the most popular MMOs in the world behind WoW, and being all in-house that FFXI was able to last as long as it did. They also have far, FAR less overhead than FFXIV does.
Like it or not, FFXIV costs more to operate and develop than FFXI does, therefore they need more revenue to match the costs.
Players in this market are not the same as XI. there are things they just won't pay for anymore.
So think about that: FFXIV's development costs from the word "go" are more than FFXI's, and the player demands are higher. If they want to not just STAY profitable, but GROW, they need to have a means of getting more revenue to meet demands.
They can't charge per-character like XI did, and they can't raise subscription costs if they want to remain competitive. Again, they ARE profitable but there are degrees of profitable that come into play here.
So what's the answer? Even though they're all in-house, they still have investors and bosses to answer to. How do you respond to their need to grow the profit margins? "Don't be concerned about it" is not an answer. This is a business. Your answer must generate more revenue to sate the bosses.

[Shyluv]

I like the cash shop the way it is.

[OMEGA_HACK]

Cash shop should be previous seasonal event stuff (like it is now). I wouldn't be opposed to have the items in game as part of an event first then once the event is over, put on the cash shop for people who want it but missed out. But since we already pay for this game and there is no way to convert Gil into Cash Shop Currency, I'd rather have it event given items, achievement items, or Veteran Rewards.

[Magis]

snip

The majority of players in XIV play on maybe one or two characters, thanks to the armory system. While many in XI had alts, they were used as mules.... just like SE charges for extra retainers so don't see your point. What are you talking about with WoW? The subscription was similar to FFXI's, and actually gave even more stuff. I don't recall the sub rate ever changing. If anything we got even more than we payed for when comparing the two games.

We already know the "revenue needed" to match costs.... this was told by Yoshi to be at around 500K subscribers. Any more than that is surplus. A set budget is already allocated to the development of the game, planned 4 years out (according to Yoshi again during Fan Expo IIRC?). They wouldn't go into this blind without major planning.

The rest of your post is irrelevant to the customer. I don't care that the CEO of Comcast, BP Oil, or whatever evil company needs a new yacht, I care how they treat their customers (pretty shitty). Same way as I don't care if SE's investors want to get higher dividends, that is irrelevant to the customer, and you trying to excuse SE's double dipping is pretty appalling (unless you yourself own SE stock, then I can see a bias there).

[Elusana_Celah]

Or better yet remove the cash shop from a game I'm already paying monthly for and let me earn my content in the game instead.