Square-Enix's "How the Mog Station Stole Christmas!"

[Ultimatecalibur]

But surely you and Ultimatecalibur have to admit that it's easier to be creative with more options? I certainly can't think of any reasonable argument to the contrary, so if you have one, please enlighten me.

Not really. More options can actually lead to less creativity as using the new options take priority over using older options.

Consider what happens when a new piece of glamour gear gets added. There is a massive wave of players wearing the same or similar hot new glamour.

Those that are the most creative are those that do unusual/unexpected things with whatever they have access to, not those with the most options.

Restrictions are well known for enhancing creativity when properly used in circles related to things that require creativity.

[Pintsized]

The Starlight Pillar kinda replaced the tree for the 2016 season. Which is a good thing for people who already got the trees so they can extend their Starlight decoration collection. Getting a tree instead each year would be kind of boring for existing players.

Yeah, let's ignore new players shall we, after all it's only due to them replacing those who no longer play that SE continue to actually make money to run the game.

[SnugglesD]

Sometimes I have to wonder if the feedback SE takes has become detrimental to the community. The entitlement and the histrionics over something as small and dumb as a Christmas tree is unbelievable.

SE is a business. Their entire purpose is the make money, not to make you individually happy. They're going to keep putting things in the cash shop.

[Dustytome]

I wouldn't have as much of a problem with it (I will never like cash shops in sub games, that's etched in forever for me), if the housing system wasn't such a mess all this time. During some of these events people had no access to housing or what they could feasibly see as no chance at it. Some time later adjustments are made to make housing more affordable and apartments are added increasing housing access, but a lot of people weren't going to use up what precious storage space they have on items they didn't have a use for at the time. Now they can use the items, but instead of being able to acquire them in game, it's slid behind a pay wall. Even with apartments, Balmung apparently (going by what people say, I have no characters there) has been out for quite some time and Square still hasn't increased the limits on it that they said they easily could, so the situation is still dragging on at least one server. I'd like to see the old items available (though untradable as new ones are) through the in-game events at least until they've gotten housing availability fully under control, after which one round of events before they begin turning things over to the cash shop.

[Sigiria]

Sometimes I have to wonder if the feedback SE takes has become detrimental to the community. The entitlement and the histrionics over something as small and dumb as a Christmas tree is unbelievable.

SE is a business. Their entire purpose is the make money, not to make you individually happy. They're going to keep putting things in the cash shop.

Well they are a game company, their purpose is to make games.

Before money was a mean to make games, nowadays games are just a mean to make money. That's a pretty big difference, it's the reason why we see stupid things like this happen.

They make a theme event, should be a good time to just enjoy the celebration. But instead on getting a bigger list of rewards each years for the events and making it potentially more fun they go for the opportunity of making a cheap buck using stupid things like decorations which are not worth anything to begin with beside getting in the event's mood, since the housing is what it is and you probably won't use them afterward. Yeah yeah, I know, "If you think they're not worth it, why do you even care?" because the "anything for a dollar" mentality of SE at this point really is borderline disgusting.

Would be nice to see them more interested by the game they're making and its community rather than the money they can manage to force out of them at every turn.

[Zojha]

Consider what happens when a new piece of glamour gear gets added. There is a massive wave of players wearing the same or similar hot new glamour.

That's not addressing the point.

What you're stating here is uncreative people being uncreative. That of course happens, but that has nothing to do with restrictions helping or hindering creativity, that's simply people not using their potential for creativity, regardless of how small or large that might be. A person with the potential to become a top sprinter doesn't necessarily become one and neither does a person with a higher potential for creativity necessarily be more creative. These people won't get any more or less creative if one restricts their options, they'll show the exact same uncreative behaviour with the options that ARE available to them - making some unavailable can change what they wear, but not their behaviour. They'll remain uncreative, they simply are uncreative with a different item. Biiig whoop.

That said, you can create diversity with restrictions, yes, just as you can create diversity by forcing characters to be randomly generated without you having the option to make changes. But that has nothing to do with creativity. We humans are very diverse in appearance and genetical composition, but we are not "creative" for that. We are creative with the things we CAN change - hair color, clothing etc. But that's because those are options to us. If clothing was restricted like genes, we wouldn't be able to be creative with them either.

[ErikMynhier]

Every time someone makes a complaint thread about the Mog Station, a Sony executive gets his/her wings.

[SnugglesD]

Well they are a game company, their purpose is to make games.

Before money was a mean to make games, nowadays games are just a mean to make money.

I don't know what bizarre world you live in, but no publicly traded company makes a product out of altruism. SE is a corporation. Their main goal is to make money. It always has been and always will be. The only interest they have in making people happy is because happy people means open wallets.

Asking them to forgo their livelihoods to make you happy is more selfish than you're accusing them of being.

[Naunet]

I wished they went back to selling past years items in game during these event...

This, please.

Unfortunately, once you go Cash Shop, there usually is no "going back".

From what I remember what they did in the past was just leave stuff inaccessible if you missed the relevant gear. The only reason it started appearing in the Mogstation was because people kept asking for old event stuff including through the Mogstation. There were long threads asking for it.

Nope. Up until the second summer event, old holiday stuff was available on vendors.

[guse1321]

From what I remember what they did in the past was just leave stuff inaccessible if you missed the relevant gear. The only reason it started appearing in the Mogstation was because people kept asking for old event stuff including through the Mogstation. There were long threads asking for it.

Even longer threads asking not for it.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-the-cash-shop..