Why no Plex system?

[frostmagemari]

There are some fundamental issues with being able to purchase gil with real money through any system. It means changing some pretty substancial reward systems, most notably the crafting gear. Crafting gear is currently the best gear available the moment of a raid launch. Further, the best gear a crafter can get is also often purchasable with gil. In both cases someone would, at least for a limited amount of time, be able to get the best available gear by buying it indirectly with RMT which effectively would make FF14 dangerously close Pay-to-Win. While one solution would be simply to nerf crafted gear that is sellable, that seriously impacts the reward to time investment that crafting takes which is rather unfair to crafters.

Personally, although such a system would effectively allow me to play for free, I don't think it would be good for the game.

It would hardly be akin to pay to win.
If someone gathered the gil through selling off materials and bought all that gear? Isn't that pay to win?
If selling one commodity is a legitimate way to get gil from another player, why isn't a time-token valid? Both need to be gathered in one way or another, both are available to players (some having more RL cash than time, some having more time than RL cash), and both need to be placed onto the market board for another player to buy...

The more people put up the tokens, the less the demand would be and one player may end up selling their token for less, which means they can't buy all of the gear they want. All an SQE Game-token system would mean is that a legitimate player gets game time out of the sale instead of a gil seller fattening their wallet.

[Belhi]

It would hardly be akin to pay to win. Is it pay to win if someone who gathered the gil through leves and selling off materials bought all that gear? Isn't that pay to win?
If selling one commodity is a legitimate way to get gil from another player, why isn't a time-token valid? Both need to be gathered in one way or another, both are available to players (some having more RL cash than time, some having more time than RL cash), and both need to be placed onto the market board for another player to buy...
The more people put up the tokens, the less the demand would be and one player may end up selling their token for less, which means they can't buy all of the gear they want.

It isn't pay-to-win if someone purchases those item by doing in game because they literally had to play the game to get the items. Pay-to-win means buying power in the game using real money. It would be the equivalent if they added high ilvl gear sets to the Mogstation. You could right now get a full 320 set of HQ and melded gear with real money if a PLEX like system existed in game right now. That is close to what the power of Creation tomestone gear.

[frostmagemari]

It isn't pay-to-win if someone purchases those item by doing in game because they literally had to play the game to get the items. Pay-to-win means buying power in the game using real money. It would be the equivalent if they added high ilvl gear sets to the Mogstation. You could right now get a full 320 set of HQ and melded gear with real money if a PLEX like system existed in game right now. That is close to what the power of Creation tomestone gear.

It's no different. If you can achieve the end result by paying gil into it, then it's the same between selling one commodity vs selling another.
The gear you're buying with your gil doesn't care WHERE you got the gil, only that you have it.
You're not throwing real money around to get an advantage in the game, you are putting up an item which is subject to the whims of the market. You might never sell your token because you're trying to get too much from it, or it could sell right away but you get near nothing out of it because you undervalued it.
It is the same as selling any other item on the market.

[Belhi]

It's no different. If you can achieve the end result by paying gil into it, then it's the same between selling one commodity vs selling another.
The gear you're buying with your gil doesn't care WHERE you got the gil, only that you have it.
You're not throwing real money around to get an advantage in the game, you are putting up an item which is subject to the whims of the market. You might never sell your token because you're trying to get too much from it, or it could sell right away but you get near nothing out of it because you undervalued it.
It is the same as selling any other item on the market.

No it really isn't because to get any other item of worth on the market you need to PLAY THE GAME. You cant just buy that stuff with real money without breaking the Terms of Service which risks you getting permabanned. A Plex system in the current version of the game would mean that people could buy gear just short of the best available in the game currently with real money. That is Pay-to-Win. Such a system completely destroys the reward system in games.

Tokens will always sell for plenty of gil because people like to play for free. The more likely outcome is that it will cause inflation in such gear because people selling tokens will be able to buy gear for more which will make it more difficult for players who aren't crafters but are playing the game for rewards to afford that gear.

[frostmagemari]

No it really isn't because to get any other item of worth on the market you need to PLAY THE GAME.

The 'How' on how people get the gil is irrelevant. The person selling the items doesn't care if you got a windfall from selling a lucky break item, or if you spent the money on tokens, or if you bought it from a gil seller. He only cares that you now currently have it and want to buy his item.

You cant just buy that stuff with real money without breaking the Terms of Service which risks you getting permabanned.

No one is buying anything WITH real money. Once it is in the game, it is a commodity that people will buy, or not buy. You are not handing the crafter a fistful of cash and getting items from them.

A Plex system in the current version of the game would mean that people could buy gear just short of the best available in the game currently with real money. That is Pay-to-Win. Such a system completely destroys the reward system in games.

No, it would mean that individuals who buy the token would have the opportunity to spend the gil on whatever they wanted. They could put it to a house fund, they could put it to buying gear, they could put it to upping a craft or simply making sure a minor class they're leveling has adequate gear, or it could all go to teleports and buying mounts; or it could go to someone gifting the game time to a friend and no gil is transferred anywhere. You don't know, you're using the worst case scenario as the basis for what everyone will be doing.

Tokens will always sell for plenty of gil because people like to play for free.

Tokens would be at the whim of the market. If one person decides to sell their token for 1mil gil, but the person that comes in afterwards decides they want to sell theirs first, so they put it up for 900,000gil.. and then the third... That's how a market works. You would have people competing to sell these tokens; but you assume that they will stay high and people won't fight to sell theirs first, as if they all agreed on the price before hand.

The more likely outcome is that it will cause inflation in such gear because people selling tokens will be able to buy gear for more which will make it more difficult for players who aren't crafters but are playing the game for rewards to afford that gear.

And then they'd see that they won't have nearly the sales they'd like, as more gil per item means less purchases. Less purchases means less net gil for the seller.. and prices will fall back to a comfortable level because selling two items at 150,000gil is better than selling a single item 250,000gil. Markets stabilize based around reliable sales, not hopeful windfall purchases.
I can tell you one thing, most people who buy the tokens won't just waste their money on frivolous purchases, because they are spending their hard earned money to buy these tokens.

[Brannigan]

It's no different. If you can achieve the end result by paying gil into it, then it's the same between selling one commodity vs selling another.

I just stopped in to say that this is the worst argument I've ever seen on this topic. Congratulations.
Also PLEX is just sanctioned gil buying and should be avoided because it explicitly attaches a real money value to in-game items and makes things less fun. See: Diablo 3 on launch.