Stop Making Should-Be Achievement Gear.."Optional Gear"

[Bourne_Endeavor]

First, how does Yoshi not having a say matter at all? Are these people from management not part of SE? We're complaining about SE here. And again, there is no transparency with the money here, and of course they don't need to be. But you assume that the money is going into this game, when for all you know it could be going into making some next mobile game.

I don't intend to change anything by complaining on the forums. They rarely listen to forum posts, and anyone who has a negative opinion has already left the game or is banned from the forum. It's just an echo chamber here.

I also clearly don't intend to change anything with microtransactions, as I'm obviously still paying for stuff and still playing the game here. I'm not strapped for cash or anything. But the triple dipping principle and how you and others seem to think this is not only the future of gaming, but that it's necessary, is very disappointing.

Because financial matters are not handled by development teams. They are allocated a specific amount and told to produce content. Nevertheless, we have an example from Square Enix themselves in Deus Ex-- whose devs were told to include micro-transactions two weeks before the game's release. Another such example comes from EA's notorious time constraints and micromanagement of their development branches. Whomever designs gear is likely told to set aside something for the Mogstation or to make something specifically appealing to entice people into buying it. And no, I make no assumptions. I know what we pay doesn't go directly into the game. FFXIV more or less paid for FFXV and FFVII: Remake. That is simply how large corporations work. Frankly, so long as they continue to provide quality content to FFXIV, I don't particularly care. On the other hand, if it ever becomes clear they aren't focusing on XIV, I have the choice to stop supporting it.

While I have issues with how the forums are moderated. It's far from an echo chamber. We've had threads asking if Yoshi should be fired which spanned 30+ pages.

I never said it's necessary. I merely offered a pragmatic perspective. It's no different than in real world politics when people demand corporations be taxed higher. Why aren't they? Because those same corporations would simply up their prices. Micro-transactions are publishing companies looking to offset the increased costs of game development onto the customer in a manner with the least potential backlash.

[DaikiKiyoshi]

I agree with you OP but sadly most of the community at this point does not. Many people that are playing this game are used to microtranactions in games and don't remember the days when paying for a game got you everything. And since the sheep continue to pay for these items and insult those of use that complain about them there is no reason for SE to stop.

Oh we remember. But this game isn't those games and the business has changed. This is hardly something exclusive to MMOs or even multiplayer games. Even single player games today (and back then) tac on DLC later for added cost. Honestly I think the people calling the cash shop here pay to win are absolutely insane and misinformed. They obviously haven't played some of the free to play MMOs I have where if one wanted to stay competitive at all they have to shell out THOUSANDS if not TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars to do so. We have it good. People need to quit complaining about COSMETIC items costing extra.

[Belhi]

This is extremely simple and people don't seem to get it.

YOU ARE GETTING WHAT YOUR SUB PAYED FOR.

Almost all cosmetic items were developed outside the budget your subscription earns. They are developed on the bases of INCREASED returns to cover their expense. If those expenses weren't factored the item would have never been approved for development.

The only place an argument might apply is with old seasonal stuff and honestly it wouldn't bother me one way or another. I tend to get what I want from seasonal events for by actually playing them. However if you really wanted to nitpick, it can be argued that a current subscription never payed for the development since you weren't subbed at the time. Do remember, they weren't going to reoffer those items at all originally. People literally had threads asking for them to be added to the cash shop.

[Beckett]

This additional money has helped justify the moving of the US servers to a better location and the overall upgrade to all the servers we get in SB, as well as apparently a tripling of the budget they had in HW to make SB with. The cash shop also help finance the establishment of the EU servers in EU.

While I believe SE made a statement saying that the cash shop helped facilitate the upgraded EU severs, no such statement was made for the NA servers. We also have no proof that the new NA location will be better. The cash shop may have funded the new NA servers, and the new NA servers may improve things, but we can't say yet that either of those things is true.

[Belhi]

While I believe SE made a statement saying that the cash shop helped facilitate the upgraded EU severs, no such statement was made for the NA servers. We also have no proof that the new NA location will be better. The cash shop may have funded the new NA servers, and the new NA servers may improve things, but we can't say yet that either of those things is true.

They tripled FF14's budget for SB. For that to happen, the development teams had sufficient financial data to convince the corporate side of things that the investment was worth it. We are getting a lot system wise. I seriously doubt FF14's sub numbers have increased to the point that would justify it otherwise. Upgrades and moves like that aren't cheap and they are on top of the usual development costs.

This is the reality. If we want more for FF14, the games earnings have to be high enough to justify it. That means either A) a lot more players, B) a higher sub fee or C) additional revenue streams.

[Beckett]

They tripled FF14's budget for SB. For that to happen, the development teams had sufficient financial data to convince the corporate side of things that the investment was worth it. We are getting a lot system wise. I seriously doubt FF14's sub numbers have increased to the point that would justify it otherwise. Upgrades and moves like that aren't cheap and they are on top of the usual development costs.

Yes, but did they triple the budget for Stormblood because FFXIV was making triple the profit, or simply because they stopped taking 2/3 of the profit away from XIV's development?

Just remember that those extra dollars people spend on the store are benfitting you directly by increasing the available budget for future FFXIV content.

That would be nice, but as you said...

It's about expanding your business as a whole, not just one specific IP.

We have no proof that (all) the money made from mog station is being used to make the game better, or even that (all of) our sub money is being used to make the game better. I believe it was outright stated that SE was stripping funding from XIV in order to make XV.

[Naunet]

We have it good.

I'd love you and others to take a look at WildStar's cash shop model.

[JunseiKei]

No, a subscription model should only have a cash shop that doesn't affect gameplay (no, I don't consider "jump" potion or story skip potions to be affecting of gameplay, only time/grind savers).

I find it pointless to grind for a vanity item.

Of course, income from the Mogstation doesn't all go directly back into the game. Just like FFXIV wasn't funded by itself from scratch, or when it was brought down to remake it and be re-released as ARR.

[Belhi]

Yes, but did they triple the budget for Stormblood because FFXIV was making triple the profit, or simply because they stopped taking 2/3 of the profit away from XIV's development?

I seriously doubt that the budget boost was suddenly because they decided to give FF14 'what it earned'. There are a lot of conspiracy theories but it wouldn't make financial sense to strip 2/3ds of a successful IP's budget away to invest in other areas. Certainly a portion but not 2/3rds. SE works a lot on looking at metrics and stats and setting up prediction models on how things are going to go. Its partially how the prioritise what content they develop. Content has a value based on how much people are actually going to play it. Things like budget allocation aren't done randomly. They are done based of earnings forecasts and predicted returns on investment.

When asking for a bigger budget, the primary consideration for the corporate side of things would be wether the net earnings justified additional investment. In that regard you can be sure that the additional revenue from the cash shop would have factored into the decision.

Saying the Cash Shop funded the new server moves and upgrades would be wrong. However they very much played a substancial role in justifying the authorisation of funds to make those investments.

[JunseiKei]

~snip~

To tack onto your statement, people are so tunnel visioned. They see the game and think funds go only into the game, or they "should only go into the game." They don't consider the cost of doing business, like advertisement. PAX, E3, Tokyo Game Show, Fan Fest- all these take quite a substantial amount of funds to make happen that many people appreciate what the outcome is from those endeavors (how many MMOs actually show at those places, let alone a subscription based one?). Then when you take into account for expansions, what amounts to another game, I'm highly doubtful subscription costs alone could fund it. While they might, the amount of time needed to develop these things would certainly be longer.