Mogstation and New Content

[Laerune]

I think both of you are wrong to compare a restaurant with FFXIV. With FFXIV, you pay a monthly fee and if you want extra stuff, you pay extra. When you go to a restaurant you only pay for the stuff that you have ordered (maybe some tips for the waiter/ress). I think a better way is to compare a restaurant to a F2P game, there you only pay for the stuff you want extra. So entering the game = entering the building and buying extra stuff = ordering food/drinks.

Personal opinion about the Mog Station is that since Heavensward was released, they have been adding alot of stuff to the Mog Station, while I can understand exclusive mounts, the past event items could have been added in the game (most events are very short, adding the previous event items for event currency, would make event last longer for newcomers and those that missed it), the emotes should also have stayed a quest reward, instead of being sold for half amount that you need to pay for a subscription.

Those items are not necessary, but lets not forget that hairstyles are also not necessary, minions are also not necessary, vanity items outside dungeon gear and tome gear are also not necessary, for majority the raid content and PvP is also not necessary. Using the not necessary argument can backfire. SE used to release 4 hairstyles each patch , now they went to 3 hairstyles and 1 hairstyle was sold via the Mog Station, next they might only release 2 hairstyles for free and sell 2 more via Mog Station and who knows in patch 4.3, they might aswell just only introduce new hairstyles via Mog Station, because lets be honest its not necessary, right?

[Zojha]

Why not go full course with the DLC mentality?

Make a couple of checkboxes when you subscribe what kind of content you want to subscribe to. If you don't want to participate in raids anyway, you tick off the box and it reduces your fee proportionally to the development cost. Why should you pay extra for the development of something you don't intend to do anyway? If you want access to all glamour options however, you can tick that box and have your subscription raised accordingly. If you never felt like crafting, you can tick off the box and again reduce your fee a bit.

And then we develop based on the budget gained from these content subscriptions. I'd be the first to sacrifice Savage and ranked PvP to more glamour.

[Alien_Gamer]

The cash shop isn't purely cosmetic. Extra retainers aren't vanity, jump potions aren't vanity.

Incorrect. The game plays perfectly well without extra retainers; they are in no way necessary to play the game, they are a convenience. Jump potions are the same, you don't need to buy one to play, it just makes getting to SB more convenient.

I don't for one second believe that our subs aren't enough to cover everything

This is only partially true. Subs can be enough to run a game but that doesn't mean they're enough to run a game well or to the standards that their players expect. There is a reason most subscription MMOs also have a cash shop, game development is expensive; while the costs of game development don't require a cash shop but they are very attractive to the business. For a company like SE I can very easily see how the subs wouldn't be enough to pay for everything and implementing the cash shop could be a necessary part of their business model to keep the game going.

[Alien_Gamer]

I don't understand, can you explain what you mean as if we are going to a restaurant please?

What bit of the dining out experience is the subscription?

Will there be a £5 price sticker on the salt shaker?

Try going to a restaurant at a private club. You need to pay the club membership (subscription) just to get in the door then you need to pay for that really good cheese cake for desert (cash shop)...damn it, now I'm hungry.

[Jandor]

Incorrect. The game plays perfectly well without extra retainers; they are in no way necessary to play the game, they are a convenience. Jump potions are the same, you don't need to buy one to play, it just makes getting to SB more convenient.

No, I'm correct. Retainers and jump potions aren't cosmetics. I never mentioned their effect on gameplay.
When people say the optional extras are just cosmetic they are 100% wrong.

This is only partially true. Subs can be enough to run a game but that doesn't mean they're enough to run a game well or to the standards that their players expect.

For a company like SE I can very easily see how the subs wouldn't be enough to pay for everything and implementing the cash shop could be a necessary part of their business model to keep the game going.

They ran this very game to the same standards they do now before it had a cash shop. In fact, they wouldn't shut up about how amazing it was financially.

Try going to a restaurant at a private club. You need to pay the club membership (subscription) just to get in the door then you need to pay for that really good cheese cake for desert (cash shop)...damn it, now I'm hungry.

Yeah, think I'm going to go and get some lunch.
Also, that sounds pretty expensive, does the club do other things besides food?

[Aronys]

I think both of you are wrong to compare a restaurant with FFXIV. With FFXIV, you pay a monthly fee and if you want extra stuff, you pay extra. When you go to a restaurant you only pay for the stuff that you have ordered (maybe some tips for the waiter/ress). I think a better way is to compare a restaurant to a F2P game, there you only pay for the stuff you want extra. So entering the game = entering the building and buying extra stuff = ordering food/drinks.

Maybe entering the lobby of the building would be akin to entering the lobby of the game. You can't go into the world if you don't pay. And you can't sit at a table if you're not ready to foot the bill, because there are other customers who are. This is when it comes to FFXIV. F2P system is different and is not comparable to this, as it would be more akin to a charity organisation, or a public kitchen. You get what you get. Ofc. it's a unique situation as you do have a paid dessert with their cash shops.

No, I'm correct. Retainers and jump potions aren't cosmetics. I never mentioned their effect on gameplay.
When people say the optional extras are just cosmetic they are 100% wrong.

We don't have jump potions yet, so I can't say anything on them. But retainers aren't available in the mog station. They are an extra service and are lumped into a separate section, alongside name change and server transfer. The mog station stuff so far is 100% cosmetics.

They ran this very game to the same standards they do now before it had a cash shop. In fact, they wouldn't shut up about how amazing it was financially.

No, they didn't. Before the mog station, there wasn't a EU data centre, and EU players had higher ping when playing the same game as their NA counterparts. So, the standards weren't the same.

[Uhm]

I didn't care really until they added emotes. Exclusive cash shop emotes. I can live with not having some glamour items even though they look really nice if getting them means I'd have to pay extra and not get it myself in game. I like playing the game and actually get stuff that way, that's why I wanted to play a sub game, that and having content updated.
I feel like Odin's horse shoud drop from the Odin FATE or trial since that would make sense, but not having it doesn't hinder my gameplay. Emotes are a bit different I think, at least emotes that are not /dance rather than standart things I have for free in other MMOs.
I don't like the cash shop but I know it will stay, I just wish they'd dial it down a little.

[Aronys]

How are cash shop emotes hindering your gameplay? The only emotes that are necessary in the game are given to us for free when we make our characters. The quests that require them don't tell you to buy them in the mog store to actually complete the quest. If they would, then it would hinder your gameplay because you couldn't finish a quest in game without them.

[Driavna]

Incorrect. The game plays perfectly well without extra retainers; they are in no way necessary to play the game, they are a convenience. Jump potions are the same, you don't need to buy one to play, it just makes getting to SB more convenient.

No, inventory is a big problem right now and two retainers are not enough.

[Laerune]

How are cash shop emotes hindering your gameplay? The only emotes that are necessary in the game are given to us for free when we make our characters. The quests that require them don't tell you to buy them in the mog store to actually complete the quest. If they would, then it would hinder your gameplay because you couldn't finish a quest in game without them.

That argument can also be used for hairstyles, outfit outside dungeon gear and quest rewards, minions and mounts. One could say that the hairstyle that we start with in 2.0 is enough, that only the Chocobo mount is necessary and for armour, only the stuff that can be obtained from tomes and dungeons. What is or is not necessary depends on the player, we all value stuff differently. Uhm might like the emotes alot, so he/she values it differently then you and me.

One person can not label what is or not necessary for the whole community.