Quote Originally Posted by Jynx View Post
In practice this is far from the case, ventures have proven to be a very lucrative market allowing players to amass astounding ammounts of gil in a short period of time due to the extra services they receive with multiple retainers.

Retainers make earning gil easier than without them, it can be construed as paying real money for more spending power ingame.
None of which is a reliable alternative. It also requires a minimum of one hour or upwards of eighteen. You can clear dungeons in less time, which then boils down to who gets luckier. That said, I don't particularly like how they're handling retainers. The fact we have yet to get another one or see them improve the armoire despite a wealth of new items sucks. But I wouldn't associate it with a pay to win model. To me, that is a system that would allow players to buy experience or Relic weapons.