Cash shop and the situation with the game.

[LandricFrey]

I just don't understand why people think that $15 per month alone is going to support a game today when the same sub price was being used 15 years ago.

[SakuraMidori]

snip.

Yes but to some you come off as :P don't like this word a white knight or trying to be one by saying your standing up for this game and the ppl and the cash shop is bad lala. Yet a lot of the cash shop haters were saying it be the end of this game a year ago and yet the cash shops still around and SE kep there word as they only add fluff so?

[Yshnal]

I just don't understand why people think that $15 per month alone is going to support a game today when the same sub price was being used 15 years ago.

Because, even if some costs have gone up, some others have gone down too. Not to mention that there's way more players now than 15 years ago, and that in a subscription based MMO means a significant amount of steady income each and every month.

FFXIV is funding other projects from SE, so I don't think that the game not making enough money is the issue here. Subs have gone up (more than they expected pre-2.0) while costs seem to stay the same, as they don't seem to increase the amount of money reinvested here. The team is the same since 2.0, with consequences such as them having to work more than they should and, even then, not having enought time and resources to actually implement things, servers unable to be improved to accomodate the needs, etc. And I doubt that the EU datacenter costed that much (after 2 years) to even justify all this.

Yes but to some you come off as :P don't like this word a white knight or trying to be one by saying your standing up for this game and the ppl and the cash shop is bad lala. Yet a lot of the cash shop haters were saying it be the end of this game a year ago and yet the cash shops still around and SE kep there word as they only add fluff so?

A lot? What most of us told you a year ago when the Sleipnir fiasco happened was that they were trying the waters. Guess what happened after that? Rented retainers (that alone should be a no-no), tiered weddings, exclusive dyes, etc. And I'm pretty damn sure that if things are not worse right now is just because of the amount of complaints and the potential bad press and lost subs that they saw coming if they had done anything extreme before. Instead, they're doing it slowly, and most people don't seem to even notice it. It all adds up, and eventually there will be something that will annoy you enough to make you say something about it. But maybe then it will be too late already, as the people that would have supported you would be gone from the game.

[Delily]

To Delily: You clearly have no idea how big corporate governance works, do you? The relaunch of this game was clearly a method to recover part of the losses caused from the 1.0 nothing much. And they didnt rebuild nothing, the game has the terribly jobs system present in the first version, which is in my opinion the worst, poor and disgusting class system design ever seen in a MMO.

Yeah, no. If it was pure short-term financials, taking a loss on the game and shutting it down would have been the best decision. I'm not sure you realize the extent of what was done to the game with ARR. They basically rebuilt it in a completely new game engine. They may have reused existing assets (which, by the way, come from FFXI), but they essentially rebuilt the game from the ground up.

Final Fantasy is probably Square's most prominent franchise. It's the series that got them on the map. To release a main title game that was as disastrous as FFXIV has far-reaching ramifications to the expectations of the customers. In this case, Square decided taking a loss and rebuilding was more important to ensure the long-term survival of the franchise, rather than dump and run.

[Jynx]

I just don't understand why people think that $15 per month alone is going to support a game today.

Because its far more than enough?

Hell SE themselves have reported the game is highly profitable we don't even need to "Think" it just is.

fiasco?

It was a fiasco because it's the first and most potent example of the dev team actually REMOVING content from the game to put into the cash shop as the mount was allready mostly fully functional due to how Odin himself works (Scales to size and race of the player who defeated him). It's a good case study on how little some people value the worth of their subscription dollars.

[SakuraMidori]

snip

fiasco? that mount the Sleipnir did not hurt anything hes not faster or anything so? and weddings are free unless you want more fluff so? and last retainers are not in the cash shop they in under your account and such if you really want them and they are not a must. Nothing about the cash shop hurts anyone since everything in it is fluff and not needed just like buying a CD for a pet or a plush is not needed or a must same as recruiting a friend. Nothing is a must or need but only a want and if you really don't want any of it then?

It was a fiasco because it's the first and most potent example of the dev team actually REMOVING content from the game to put into the cash shop as the mount was allready mostly fully functional due to how Odin himself works (Scales to size and race of the player who defeated him). It's a good case study on how little some people value the worth of their subscription dollars.

Hmmm so the mount was going to be a in game drop? proof plz

[NovaLevossida]

fiasco? that mount the Sleipnir did not hurt anything hes not faster or anything so? and weddings are free unless you want more fluff so? and last retainers are not in the cash shop they in under your account and such if you really want them and they are not a must. Nothing about the cash shop hurts anyone since everything in it is fluff and not needed just like buying a CD for a pet or a plush is not needed or a must same as recruiting a friend. Nothing is a must or need but only a want and if you really don't want any of it then?

I think the most disturbing thing about posts like this is how happy some people are to pay for things we used to get for free. Or, more technically, being happy enough to pay a second time for things we have already paid the labor for with our subscription fees.

[FoxyAreku]

I'm sorry but that is a hilarious opening post.

Did you ever think that maybe they don't have the time or resources to add in-game ways to achieve every little cosmetic item that people want? It basically stands that this stuff would go in the shop, or you wouldn't get it at all. There is not going to be a silly quest to get it ever because they do not have the time to add something so pointless.

More ways to support the game also isn't a bad thing. Good on them for wanting to get paid for this extra work. It'll probably only be like $5 anyway, who cares.

[Kuwagami]

It was a fiasco because it's the first and most potent example of the dev team actually REMOVING content from the game to put into the cash shop

once again, baseless accusations. Yeah the mount itself was functional. But nothing says that you would have been able to ever mount it. The only reason it was functional in the first place was because they needed it to be for the FATE.

Sleipnir hasn't been removed. You can't remove something that isn't here. People just felt entitled. They thought they had to get Sleipnir in game, that it was a given. But it wasn't. Devs never said it was.

you can't blame them when the community made baseless assumptions are deceived itself in the end

[FallenArisen0990]

I think the most disturbing thing about posts like this is how happy some people are to pay for things we used to get for free. Or, more technically, being happy enough to pay a second time for things we have already paid the labor for with our subscription fees.

Free? Please enlightenment me on what did we get for free that's in the cash shop, that wasn't an Seasonal Item? I can't think of anything. :/