The Ethics of Optional Item Sales

[slml320]

but they have put a gate on content.. i hate EA more that anything but they will not make a game without a multi player aspect part with a micro transaction component included BUT if i want a skin or something i pay my micro transaction cost and i get it when do i ever pay a subscription then have content be it old content no longer in game new content ..content that cannot be accessed without paying first e.g. dyes extra retainers the best weddings..like we have here .. sure i can dig at world of war craft but a few mounts and minions in WOW before there slow decline in to pay 2 win etc..to what nearly all the old content that is no longer available in game stuff that was once event stuff thrown in there just to make a buck!! retainers for more space claiming server space blah blah instead of giving us bigger invents .. ask your self where does it stop!!

[Bluevann]

I prefer to pay SE money for an item than to pay millions of gil to a player for a clear or a minion anyway. At least the money I give to SE is going into something that in the future will benefit me (new datacenter, development work, w/e).

[DreadRabbit]

Only thing I'd like changed about the system is to have the optional item catalogue vastly expanded, then have the items freely tradable.
That will cut down a lot of the problems with RMT we have going on.

No, no it does not. You may not be whom I'm talking about, but I feel that most of the people that honestly believe this have never once played a F2P game long enough to watch what this does to a game economy. Which does have an effect on all players. Competition DRIVES business, it doesn't stamp it out. All this does is legalize it like the EB bracelets and puts an official price on gil, which RMT uses to their advantage and compete back against the players.

Cash shop vanity is fine, but DO NOT make it tradeable between players.

[Teuciont]

People really need to just stop with Cash Shop threads, they're tired and have been done to death. Just get over it. A subscription in 2015 is pretty much just an access pass and doesn't entitle you to unlimited everything.

Do you get free food at a NBA/NFL/MLB game?
Do you get HBO for free with your cable subscription?
Do you get all free apps/music/movies on your Android/iPhone?
Did your car come with all the options included?

Didn't think so.

This analogy implies that at one point in time all of those things did in fact come with those services.

[Kayokane]

[...] But FFXIV's optional items are assets created with subscriber money and then posted as completely stand alone items for the game [...]

Let's go in order of the dates each seasonal event item was officially available

{Sub Fees Canceled due to poor reception of 1.0 release, official apology and Yoshi's team being created}
December 15th-31st 2010, Starlight Celebration, Dream Outfit
December 31st 2010-January 17th 2011, Heavensturn, Usagi Kabuto
April 15th 2011-May 9th 2011, Hatching-tide, Egg Caps
September 6th 2011-September 20th 2011, Hunter's Moon, Moonlet Earring
October 18th 2011-November 1st 2011, All Saints' Wake, Pumpkin Heads
December 16th 2011-December 31st 2011, Starlight Celebration, Reindeer Suit
{January 2012 - Return of Sub Fees, $9.99/month}
December-31st 2011-January 16th 2012, Heavensturn, Dragon Kabuto
February 1st 2012-February 14th 2012, Valentione's Day, (Platinum) Paramour's Pendant, Band of Eternal Passion
March 13th 2012-March 26th 2012, Little Ladies' Day, Peach Blossom
March 28th 2012-April 10th 2012, Hatching-Tide, Egg Rings
{End of Legacy Events with Items in the Optional Items Store}
October 18th 2013-November 1st 2013, All Saints' Wake, (Returning: Pumpkin Hats), Howling/Wailing Spirit Costumes
December 18th 2013-December 31st 2013, Starlight Celebration, (Returning: Dream Outfit, Reindeer Suit), Snowman Suit
December 31st 2013-January 14th 2014, (Returning: Dragon/Usagi Kabuto), Uma Kabuto
February 4th 2014-February 17th 2014, Valentione's Day, Valentione Apron
February 28th 2014-March 13th 2014, Little Ladies' Day, (Returning: Peach Blossom), Wind-Up Edvya
{End of Seasonal Event Items on the Optional Items Store+1 Minion Item)

That Leaves the 4 Scion Minions, Sleipnir, Fantasia, Metallic Dyes(?), and Eternal Bonding Ceremony Suff as the only things that were not at one point available for being active in game

[Anneliese]

Doesn't bother me at all as long as it's purely aesthetics, has no effect on gameplay, and is reasonably priced.

[Adire]

I don't have a problem with past event items being in the shop.

Items, even vanity items, created for the sole purpose of being exclusively on the shop can open the floodgates to a plethora of problems though. I can name plenty of MMOs that had cool in game obtainable vanity items, then cash shop ones were introduced, followed by the future in game ones being made at a much slower rate and at a much lower level of quality compared to cash shop ones.

[Songi]

I don't have a problem with past event items being in the shop.

Items, even vanity items, created for the sole purpose of being exclusively on the shop can open the floodgates to a plethora of problems though. I can name plenty of MMOs that had cool in game obtainable vanity items, then cash shop ones were introduced, followed by the future in game ones being made at a much slower rate and at a much lower level of quality compared to cash shop ones.

This is what I have a big problem with when it comes to cash shops. I don't care if it's just for "vanity purposes." This is a significant part of the game for many players and forcing a pay-wall on those exclusive glamours will alienate certain players for sure.

[GenJoe]

No, no it does not. You may not be whom I'm talking about, but I feel that most of the people that honestly believe this have never once played a F2P game long enough to watch what this does to a game economy. Which does have an effect on all players. Competition DRIVES business, it doesn't stamp it out. All this does is legalize it like the EB bracelets and puts an official price on gil, which RMT uses to their advantage and compete back against the players.

Cash shop vanity is fine, but DO NOT make it tradeable between players.

I don't usually play f2p games (GW2 excluding), but I have played few games with the model I described, and RMT simply cannot compete against the user created economy of gold<->$ trading.. They simply cannot sustain it and RMT is almost non-existent in these games.

Specifically, I'm talking about Guild Wars 2 and Wildstar. Neither of those games had heavy RMT presence when I was playing it, it did have quite a bit of advertisement for powerleveling, but that was upon release, I assume the popularity for such services have dwindled by now.

[Dualblade]

I don't see the problem because, as many have said, its pure vanity.

That said I would like to see more things like minions and the like added to the Gold Saucer. Perfect place.