Naoki Yoshida's Comment in Regard to Jump Potions/Boost Potions

[Zojha]

Is it a token for non-tradeable gear (like silver chocobo feathers) or is it a token to obtain 300,000 gil?

It doesn't make sense to be a token for gil directly, otherwise they wouldn't say "roughly", unless they do so solely because they haven't set the number in stone yet. It might be that it's a token for trade-able gear that simply goes for around 300k total on the JP servers.

Who knows? Either way, I'd say 20 dollar to 300k gil is a crappy money to gil conversion rate.

[Nestama]

The only REAL complaint that I have seen against these potions that has any real weight, is that if they don't do something to fix the MSQ for future expansions, these potions will end up becoming mandatory for people trying to actually get somewhere in the game without having to go back through years worth of old content no one will remember how to do in 5 years...

That's the problem with a storyline that takes priority over everything else in an MMO. I believe the storyline will continue to take priority until we actually get the Garlemald expansion (and then finally from there, we can get a completely new storyline unrelated to ARR-HW-SB-ETC. Maybe. Though by then it's too late).

Regarding the 300k gil thing, I feel SE should probably put that on top of the Story Skip potion (that's roughly the amount of gil you get from 2.0-2.55 MSQ, right?). Though that's under the assumption that the cleared Job Quests still drop the i90 Mythic gear into your inventory as well.

[Aviars]

So by skipping content, and making yourself look bad, while getting to the end but still not able to complete the content and quit anyways-- you not only:
1)lost money
2)you lost time you could've spent playing a game you ENJOY
3) you start a community who will easily judge players who buy jump potions like we already do drg's ingame
(drgs die often, and if a drg dies, it's normal).

What you said doesn't make sense.

1) Lost money: Ok, what about people who play the game the 'right' way and still end up not liking it. It's not like paying the subscription fee is any different.
2) If anything these potions with allow people to see whether or not they like the game faster rather than spending a month or two getting through the main story quest. So no you are just wrong.
3) Seems like the community already has that issue. Sorry champ but the community already hates on the 'bads'

[Reinha]

Sounds more like a voucher for gear. Seems like they are trying to get around the fact that gil sellers will have access to this same potion, so they don't want to give straight up gil.

Well as long as the boost doesn't offer gil it's fine I guess.

My main worry about this is that new players will falsely think that the story in this game is irrelevant, and the result is that the demographic shifts to one that demands less story focus (or gating). I happen to like the linear story and unlocking of game play elements and I think the story skipping potion goes against what makes this game unique in relation to other MMOs on the market. On the other hand I have no issue with people having access to story skip on alt characters, or having access to level boost, as long as the price is set high enough to discourage buying these products. Skipping content should not be the norm.

[Nyghtmarerobu]

It doesn't, but its crappy that one person got to pay for it, and another that didn't have money gets screwed

And yet both partys are paying for the games sub, so I fail to see how one person doesn't have money.

[aesteval]

I have a feeling it won't even be i130 gear. When you go through the 2.1-2.55 storyline, at some point you start getting the old i110 Soldiery gear, weapon included. If you wanted Poetic gear, you still needed to spend Poetic tomes.

I think silver chocobo feathers were mentioned in the statement and I'm 99% certain that silver chocobo feathers can be exchanged for Ironworks gear at the Calamity Salvager or nearby NPC.

[AlphaFox]

I honestly don't get why people throw this Pay to win phrase around when it really isn't. Its a skip to let people skip to current content that we had 3 years to do and not burn themselves out. They won't have better gear than you, they won't have more gil than you they are going to be a fresh 60 like we were at the start of the expansion. As already mentioned P2W is for buying stronger gear or even breaking limits (Say no caps on tomes) but as it is now, I think those who throw it around are just trying to scare people.

[Nyghtmarerobu]

Snip

I don't want to get to much into the speculation portion of how the game will be in 2-5 years, but what I metioned is a very valid concern, and if we continue down the same trend we are with expansions and quests, new players will be in for some trouble and a hit to their wallets..

None of what I have said means I am against the sell of skip/jump potions. I feel like this is a great way to get some new blood into the game, and I'm totally on board with having them. I just feel like we shouldn't ignore what is coming up down the road, just because its a few miles away...

[DrStiles]

And yet both partys are paying for the games sub, so I fail to see how one person doesn't have money.

How much disposable income a person does or doesn't have doesn't matter. It's the principle of the thing.

The way things are now, using these potions will be near mandatory for any new player wanting to enter the game. But, they have to pay extra to do so. This is the only MMO that has this problem. If you wanted to start playing WoW today, you could start enjoying Legion immediately. At no extra cost to you. So how can SE justify this? Yes, MSQ restrictions need to be addressed, but if anyone thinks that this actually "fixes" the problem, then they're an idiot. It doesn't fix anything. It only twists new players' arms into spending more money.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Whats your evidence that the game is dying? Subs went up drastically on HW launch, and go up and down naturally over the course of the expansion. When a patch hits, subs peak then decline, with each patch bringing in less and less people (because patch content is the same stuff), then the expansion brings in another drastic wave of subs (perhaps even higher than HW), and the cycle starts again. Level potions don't fix this problem, a smooth and positive reception to the expansion from the start does, which HW didn't have (and it lost a good number of subs during the dark days of 3.1).

The unofficial census done by Lucky Bancho has shown a steady decline in character count since January-- with the game losing nearly 50% of its active character total from then to present day. While those are by no means perfect numbers, it doesn't exactly paint a good picture. Regardless, perhaps the most common complaint cited by people looking to get into this game is the enormous quest grind. Expecting people to slog through two full games worth of quests simply to unlock Stormblood isn't reasonable, especially in a heavily competitive genre. If Square Enix did sit around and wait, the game would stagnate because attracting new subs will become increasingly difficult the larger that quest grind grows.

I like to think of it more as a final straw thing... People complained about the cash shop, people complained about things being dumbed down and nerfed, people complained about catering to the lowest common denominator, and finally after everything that they have put up with, the game is seemingly becoming pay-to-win (Yoshi P didn't even counter that point in the main post, he just said "we want feedback"), it's not an excuse, it's an exhausting battle that people are fed up with.

A jump potion doesn't appeal to the lowest common denominator. Although they do benefit, it potentially improves the midcore aspect as the devs do not have to focus on adjustments to old content. Another excellent point brought up by Ethys is they don't need to make any concessions with the story. No need to worry about the length of quests when there's an option to skip following the next expansion. Whereas now, they have to be mindful a good portion of their audience isn't going to want to slog through them all. Pay to win also remains a fallacy since you don't actually win anything.