Please make cash-shop stuff earn-able in game

[Gemina]

I do get the frustration. You see something really neat like the new carbuncle mount, you want it; then you take a look at the price tag and coupled with no way to obtain it in-game, and it's just #fml. Not everyone has the pockets to buy expensive items like that mount as your money is already being dumped into the game just to play. And I totally get how something like the Carby mount could be used to make both old and new content relevant.

I also get the why such items are put into the cash shop, and see nothing wrong with drawing from a cash well that people are more than willing to fill up. It isn't up to us to determine where this money goes, or how best to allocate it. If it all goes towards something not even XIV related, then so be it. Even though SE has made questionable decisions in the past, none of it has to do with what they decide to put in the cash shop, and I have a little more faith in them than what is commonly expressed that they care about giving us an awesome MMO experience.

I would be on board with putting something like a cash shop exclusive mount into the game, but I have one issue: And that is I believe that achievement related mounts and other rewards, and those purchased from the mogstation need to remain separate so that the distinction in how it is obtained remains intact. The air of animosity from, "Did you earn that mount? or did you just BUY it?" is quite thick, and something we don't need in this game.

[spagthetapdancer]

I think a more appropriate request is just more frequent sidequests that give out mounts. just throw some more love our way outside of the cash shop.

increase the volume. don't convert those items that are made to be sold into non-purchasables.

[Gemina]

Would volume increase, decrease the desire for the carbuncle mount though? I doubt it.

We just got an adorable bear mount that took maybe 15 minutes max to obtain, and days later a Carby mount is tossed into the cash shop. If I was a dev reading this thread, I'd be thinking, "eff man, I just can't do anything right!"

I totally get that cash shop is governed by others who are not Yoshi-P, but if I was them, I'd be thinking that players just got a quest obtainable mount, so at the same time, I am going to toss a mount every bit as desirable into the cash shop. It really isn't as unfair as the OP is making it. It makes cents from a dollar's point of view. Would it make better sense to immediately put the bear mount up for sale, and introduce another event/quest series to obtain the Carby mount?

The funny thing, is the answer to that is yes when it comes to injecting some life into the game. You toss the carby mount reward into something like Aquapolis, Diadem, 24-man raids, and also make it marketable, guess what happens? You get players running the living schit out of those instances. Dragonskin maps go from 20k-120k in a matter of hours, but no actual money is made for the cash shop. But who knows, perhaps sustained subs as a result of rejuvenated content brings in more money over time. But ultimately, what is decided is by throwing the Carby mount into the mogstation is taking lesser immediate payout over greater annuity payout. This tells me they need cash. Like now.

I'm not sure if people know this or not, but SE isn't anywhere near the top of the totem pole when it comes to yearly revenue in this field of gaming. The majority of their success is from the FF franchise on console formats, and this transition from single player to MMO has been difficult to say the least. Yet we question why they are investing so much into the FFVII remake? Then take into account that at the very top of all forums, are the complaints and gripes players have with the game.

[Squintina]

Then take into account that at the very top of all forums, are the complaints and gripes players have with the game.

That's not an accurate measurement.

At the top of any forum for any online game is complaints. While positive feedback can and does happen, forums are generally skewed negative. It's just human nature to want to speak out about negative things more than positive things. I used to be a volunteer moderator on a few game forums and the player feedback in the forums was always quite different than what I experienced from my fellow gamers in the game itself.

Also people can complain about things but still generally be happy with the game.

Take me: I'm not particularly happy about the cash shop, nor about the various obvious missing QOL things (seriously why is so much stuff not doable while mounted grr...),
but overall I enjoy the majority of the game. I like the dungeons, and the trials, MSQ got really interesting in HW and SB, all of the jobs I've tried so far felt really balanced, I love how many ways there are to earn tomestones while leveling, I could go on with a variety of other things I love about this game...

But yet I won't. I'm far more likely to make or reply to a topic about something that annoys me, or for a suggestion on something to be added/modified.

So I hope SE is aware of that while forum feedback should be taken in account, it's not necessarily an accurate depiction of how people feel in general about the game.

[Sakuraluna]

IMO it would be nice to have such a system tied with playtime, the same way that veteran rewards used to both reward players for sticking with the game and give incentives to do so. That way those of us who have been around since ARR could still get a bit of a thank you from SE ever so often.

Outside of that, and sadly - most likely including that, I doubt it'll ever happen.

[Vanitas]

You know what isn't in the cash shop or in game? My chances of getting a girlfriend.

[SokiYagami]

You know what isn't in the cash shop or in game? My chances of getting a girlfriend.

./comfort
./handover a plate of HQ Lala Stew

[Squintina]

You know what isn't in the cash shop or in game? My chances of getting a girlfriend.

You could find someone in-game who lives nearby.

I met my husband of 8 years in an online game. It could happen to you too!

[Belhi]

I have a feeling that most people who take major issue with the cash shop and consider it greedy tend to not understand the planning, budgeting and management that goes into arranging the financing and greenlighting development. Cash shop content is created with the assumption that its revenue will pay for the cost of its development. Making it so that stuff was just available in game would just remove the revenue aspect. Simply put, with it being in excess of the established budget for the games development, they simply wouldn't greenlight the creation of the cash shop items.

Now that said, it is likely that the Mogstation does justify the budget of FF14. As the Mogstation's customer base is the same as those who play the game, having profits from the Mogstation factored in to the total profits FF14 generates is reasonable and almost certainly contributes to assessing the viability of reinvestment into development, hiring of new staff and infrastructure upgrades, all things SE has done with FF14 recently. As a result, for those not buying from the Mogstation, the Mogstation itself likely does contribute to the content that is being received.

Now profits from FF14 will almost certainly be used to develop other games, including FF7 remake. This will be true of profits from all of SE's games just as it is true the FF14's development was paid for by SE's past games. That is just how business works. Profits previous earnings pay for new investments. That doesn't automatically mean that the profit margin for FF14 is unreasonably high. Frankly we really have no solid answer to that and anything we say is just assumptions. It is worth noting that at best FF14 probably accounts for a maximum of 10% of SE's total revenue sources, and I mean at best, so it's not like SE would be leaning entirely on FF14 to fund the development of any project. Do remember SE forked out a lot of money to pay for the moving of their NA server infrastructure and upgrading of their servers, a thing which has lead to increased inventory, better cross server communication and the first steps of a Glamour log coming in 4.2.

As for the quality of the content, that is very subjective. Honestly I think Stormblood has had some fantastic sets and glamour pieces as well as a number of nice mounts, minions and emotes. Obviously this is down to taste but I liked the Samurei theme of the Genji armour, the Tao stuff and the more recent Thavenarian stuff. I absolutely love the lvl 68 crafted gear and while it wasn't my cup of tea, the ilvl 300 and 315 sets are both very nice quality sets. We get a lot of stuff for a 3.5 month cadence.

Anyway the primary point is that they aren't going to make Mogstation stuff earnable in game without finding a way to monetise it because it would just be a net loss of revenue and make the Mogstation pointless. While not necessarily being able to afford Mogstation stuff, it doesn't negatively impact gameplay and almost certainly helps contribute to the money the devs get to spend on the game everyone has access to. As long as SE continues to provide a reasonable amount of content in game for the sub fee the game shop is not a great evil, but simply a way SE can generate additional income from players willing to spend extra money that both helps keeps SE's bottom line health and helps justify reinvestment into the game.

Others games (WoW, BnS or GW2) offer a fair system for this and they still make money out of it. The option is there.

I cant speak for BnS but both WoW and GW2's system are dependent on having another system in game which sells gold for real life money. Since many of those who object to the cash shop, also object to the idea of SE selling in game currency its likely this option wouldn't be a fix most people upset would be happy with.

I might add people still complain on how much ingame currency it costs to afford those cash shop items due to the fact that inflation has naturally driven the in game currency price up very high.

[Lelila38]

They should add a system to obtain Mog Shop items in game. Maybe not immediately, but after a year? Event items originally obtained ingame go to the cash shop after a year (without any means to reobtain them otherwise), so why not be "fair" and do it the other way around too.

I'm bring sarcastic here btw, SE will not do any of it while they can get away with milking the players on their cash shop for event items that every f2p game would make available in subsequent years to players that just started or missed the event and while people paying more than a month's worth of sub for their overpriced mounts. Honestly, I wouldn't have such a big issue with this cash shop thing, if prices were reasonable, but a month sub for a mount??? And before people start bashing at me, I'm more than able to afford them, I just refuse to throw any more money at them as long as they have these outrageous prices, while at the same time having one of the most expensive subs out there.