Quote Originally Posted by Nalien View Post
That's the hope, though so far (and we've had this stuff for nearly two years now) progress has been... Slow?

We got EU servers, and fingers crossed 3.3 delivers on the Housing adjustments promised around 3.1, but so far we've seen nothing with regards to inventory issues. They've consistently compounded problems with new items and continue to waste potential storage space; Others have pointed out the potential to put more in the Key Item spaces, and I've mentioned how the Armoire potentially wastes space (stores AF but not Augmented AF).

With all that in mind, it has become increasingly hard for me to just give them the benefit of the doubt on this... They're out right profiting off the issue with the retainer service, which has never sat right with me. Nor has the cash shop in general, but that's vanity fluff I can ignore (for the most part, I still have some issues with it) and we've seen returns on that. They out right stated around its launch that they'd use profits from it to improve servers and provide more Wards for Housing, and we've got (and are getting more of) that. Retainers are, for some, a requirement at this point, and then there is the simple fact that they're not vanity fluff, Venturers give them actual in game value, be that increased chances at rare Venture rewards, or a simple break down of the 18h Venture profits you can bring in (which essentially has SE selling ~120k for $2 a month). Then you have to consider that retainers aren't a one time cost, it's an extra subscription (one which they likely can make projections on). I've always very much been against the retainer service because of that, and always figured they'd work better as veteran rewards. I can get past that if I see inventory issues being sorted out though, but I haven't. I've seen the issue worsen and practically nothing on SEs end about any long term (or short term) solutions...
That's actually something that I failed to imply/mention (just forgot to) when I brought up the cash shop, so it's good of you to have brought things like the EU servers up. Assuming a big part of it really does come from optional services/goods income (cash shop), then that's likely part of the reason why retainers are the way they are and have not changed... yet (hopefully lol). Maintaining servers is not a one-time expense, just like having additional retainers. It's also not a cheap venture to upkeep, especially if the hosting company knows you're a big name one... mark ups for temporary/monthly/annual services are very real (and unfortunately legal) in many parts of the corporate/business world. It's likely a risk they don't want to take right now to reduce the side income, as it could affect upkeep of those additional servers or other things that are a result of that profit.