Can Cash Shop be a bit more reasonable

[Kohta]

Doesn't seem like anyone has pointed out the big issue, you're paying X amount of money for an item, but to use that item, you have to also pay a subscription, so if you don't pay the sub, the item you bought doesn't really belong to you anymore, until you pay again to access it.

[Kerii]

Doesn't seem like anyone has pointed out the big issue, you're paying X amount of money for an item, but to use that item, you have to also pay a subscription, so if you don't pay the sub, the item you bought doesn't really belong to you anymore, until you pay again to access it.

This is only true because of a technicality. You have to pay the subscription fee to access to the game regardless of whether or not you buy these items. The same could be considered true of a movie theater's concession stand. You can't simply go in, buy concessions, and leave. You have to buy a ticket before you can enter and buy concessions.

[Kohta]

This is only true because of a technicality. You have to pay the subscription fee to access to the game regardless of whether or not you buy these items. The same could be considered true of a movie theater's concession stand. You can't simply go in, buy concessions, and leave. You have to buy a ticket before you can enter and buy concessions.

Then you buy the item at the place that's free to enter with an objectively equally entertaining experience. I'm not saying this is better than that, but simply comparing the value of Cash shop to Cash shop on a Free vs Premium platform, the difference is unfortunately minimal, but that's really just my opinion I guess?

I suppose what I am saying is; there is too much MMO competition and even non-MMO's like Overwatch, that will consume people time and make them drift away, over something like this. Overwatch you pay for, and for PC users, it's free, loot boxes are given every level or roughly 4-5 matches that contain skins, sprays etc, just for playing.

A little closer to home comparison is Black Desert Online, A rather interesting Story, you buy it, you play for free and the community was smart enough to come together when they started trying to sell player enhancement items (Pay to Win) and thus it was reworked.

Beyond that, you have The Elder Scrolls Online, which now also allows you to level sync with friends anywhere in the world as of recently- and I won't even argue about how incredible the Elder Scrolls story is. it's fully voice acted and it's hundreds of hours of content.

I can go on and on with TERA, Blade and Soul and I'm sure you can come up with a laundry list of games you can literally install right now and pay nothing to play it. The state of the market is that it is a players market, and while I like some aspects of Final Fantasy, I don't think I am alone when I say I am tired of paying the monthly fee to get Tomestone's of [Insert Bibliography Name] and presented constantly with a Cash Shop feeding the fire of disdain.

Is this you? "Oh cool how do I get that?" | ALT+TAB | Google | "How to get cool hairstyle/mount/weapon skin FFXIV" | Cash Shop Link | "What!?" | [Item you wanted] $5 ~$30 | Email reminder of Upcoming Payment to Square Enix | rip

Regardless of how much money someone does or doesn't have, nobody want's to give it all away either, especially when they're already giving it to them.

[SessionZero]

-snip-

Yet most of the games you listed don't even have half the playerbase of games like WoW and FFXIV. Why? Back when TESO was sub based it was an utterly unplayable garbage mess. Now it's at least playable, but still boring. Blade and Soul and BDO are garbage KMMO grindfests. TERA is a patch simulator. WildStar is In-Game Advertisements... In Space!

Six in one hand, half a dozen in the other. Either you sub for a good gaming experience + optional cash shop, or you don't sub for what basically amounts to a polished up browser game.

[Naunet]

WildStar is In-Game Advertisements... In Space!

Kind of off-topic but I'm trying to figure out what you mean by this and failing. As far as f2p games go, WS has the best model of the bunch to be honest. With how you earn Omnibits from playing, you rarely have to actually spend money in the cash shop for a costume or whatever that you might want - and they're all account-wide unlike in this game.

That and I've never seen an in-game advertisement in WildStar outside of the Welcome Window when you first log in...

[SessionZero]

-snip-

I may be mis-remembering because it's been awhile since I played WS but I remember the F2P version being clunky and intrusive. Either way, my point was that free to play does not entertainment make. I don't have to pay anything to watch paint dry either but that doesn't make it quality entertainment.

[Kohta]

Yet most of the games you listed don't even have half the playerbase of games like WoW and FFXIV. Why? Back when TESO was sub based it was an utterly unplayable garbage mess. Now it's at least playable, but still boring. Blade and Soul and BDO are garbage KMMO grindfests. TERA is a patch simulator. WildStar is In-Game Advertisements... In Space!

Six in one hand, half a dozen in the other. Either you sub for a good gaming experience + optional cash shop, or you don't sub for what basically amounts to a polished up browser game.

Except I find FFXIV incredibly boring lately, more so with more tomestones and more relic work in the garbage. Yet, somehow I am still enjoying Tera and exploring the classes. That's kind of how opinions work, though. You have yours and I have mine, doesn't mean either of us is wrong for it.

I guess my point is, I don't feel guilty that I haven't played Tera in 3 or 4 days because it's not running my bank every month.

[SessionZero]

Except I find FFXIV incredibly boring lately, more so with more tomestones and more relic work in the garbage. Yet, somehow I am still enjoying Tera and exploring the classes. That's kind of how opinions work, though. You have yours and I have mine, doesn't mean either of us is wrong for it.

I guess my point is, I don't feel guilty that I haven't played Tera in 3 or 4 days because it's not running my bank every month.

You're welcome to have your own opinion of what game is fun and what game isn't, I'm not saying you're wrong for liking those games. I was just pointing out that FFXIV still has an impressive player base when compared to those other free to play titles, and numbers pretty much speak for themselves.