The virtual currency "Moogle Coins" in the FFXIV Companion app must be removed

[alimdia]

Even if you don't care about portions of the app needing a new cash currency, you should care that they already announced they have plans to extend it

[DreadRabbit]

I see, and I can understand that concern. However, I can't complain about something that hasn't happened yet. The Mogstation has been running for several years and, as promised, it hasn't become pay to win, and it hasn't replaced the influx of ingame glamours either. So I personally have no reasons to be angry for now.

(Note: I avoid mobile games like a plague because I dislike their money-grabbing systems >_<)

And I can respect that I honestly do.

But that last part in parenthesis is exactly why folks are coming forward now before the app is released. Because how the app has been explained to work is identical to the tactics mobile games use:

- Set up a daily limit of what you can do in the app (in this case you can only use the market board once or twice a day).
- Have a cash shop conveniently priced around those limitations
- Let human impatience do the rest. Mobile expenditures are almost entirely reliant on impulse purchase marketing.

What many people defending the app (not you, just trying to explain) don't realize is that the people who care enough about the market board to use this feature of the app are the people who would need to put up more than one or two items a day. These people sells dozens of items at a time. That's where the Moogle Coin idea becomes predatory: they know exactly who would use the feature and limited it behind a paywall on purpose.

Now I understand limiting the feature would actually be a good idea. However if they simply wanted to prevent abuse, then the option to pay real money to bypass those limits wouldn't exist. It does. That alone says everything about what the real intent of this app is.

A lot of people also think that just because FFXIV isn't a mobile game that, by default, SE won't use mobile practices. But the fact of the matter is they very easily could and may want to. As early as the PS3 era SE has time and again tried to use mobile industry tactics even on their single player RPGs. But because it's not a mobile game, a lot of people give it a pass (many being people who don't bother with mobile games, and therefore don't know the signs to watch for). SE has absolutely relied on its reputation to pull this off. That's why many of us aren't optimistic and are speaking up now: the signs are there.

Even if you don't care about portions of the app needing a new cash currency, you should care that they already announced they have plans to extend it

Alimida's post says it all: they're already looking towards other ways to use Moogle Coin.

[Sapphire_Dianta]

Even if you don't care about portions of the app needing a new cash currency, you should care that they already announced they have plans to extend it

Indeed. This is how it always starts. It happened in PSO2 with Star Gems, it'll happen here too. People are all too willing to forget that SE is just as capable of shady money-grubbing as much as Electronic Arts, Activision, or any mobile developer. Remember Final Fantasy: All The Bravest?

[alimdia]

I see, and I can understand that concern. However, I can't complain about something that hasn't happened yet. The Mogstation has been running for several years and, as promised, it hasn't become pay to win, and it hasn't replaced the influx of ingame glamours either. So I personally have no reasons to be angry for now.

(Note: I avoid mobile games like a plague because I dislike their money-grabbing systems >_<)

They broke their promise before the mog station was out.

According to the people in this thread http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ame-Time-Token and this thread http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-WOW-Tokens%29 getting more gil = pay to win.

8 additional retainers means you get far more selling slots than someone who doesn't, also means you get 4 times the amount of mats from 1hr ventures than someone with only 2 retainers. 10 retainers can generate millions of gil during the start of an expansion, so anyone with extra retainer has very well defined advantage against anyone else with 2.

[Darkshade]

The mog station was the slippery slope. Now we're approaching the bottom quickly.

Sigh... it's sad watching something you love that has so much potential just be destroyed by cowardice and greed.

[Aerlana]

Indeed. This is how it always starts. It happened in PSO2 with Star Gems, it'll happen here too. People are all too willing to forget that SE is just as capable of shady money-grubbing as much as Electronic Arts, Activision, or any mobile developer. Remember Final Fantasy: All The Bravest?

People are always thinking Square Enix is there friend, "oh no, they did mistake, but they love us" ... stockholm syndrom i think

Ty for the nice reminder from deadrabbit :

Going to have to agree with the majority here: this is a downright low, insulting move. And people can't say Square Enix doesn't know what they're doing. They know exactly what they're doing.

- They tried to turn Deus Ex's pre-order campaign into a mobile-esque cash crab (Augment your Pre-order).
- You needed a dang chart to figure out FFXV's pre-order campaign (and that one isn't even fully accurate, there's still stuff missing. )
- Final Fantasy Dissidia NT has completely gutted the content the spin off franchise is known for supposedly to make room for the online PvP component. Yet despite offering less content, they still charge a $60 USD price tag.
- Wanting to turn the FFVII remake into an episodic game to save on resources yet still charge a premium.
- Deemed their 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider an absolute failure despite selling nearly 4 million copies, because they spent so much on marketing that their target was nearly 15 million copies.

This is not the first time Square Enix's strategy as a company has been to squeeze out as much cash out of their customers as they can with as little effort as possible, and it certainly won't be the last. The company has a horrible history when it comes to budgeting and what they consider worth the money. Promotions and graphics are always on their radar, but actual QoL features and gameplay content tend to be hit or miss because of it.

And since they're using F2P mobile game strategies for this app (free and premium currency), I think it's only fair to take a look at how Square Enix handles their F2P mobile games:

Kingdom Hearts Unchained X: there have been multiple times where if you wanted to guarantee yourself even one copy of a set of medals, you would need large sums of money for that. In one case it was $2,000 USD (Kairi EX and Foretellers fiasco). Not to mention they outright still strip of players in NA of certain features (like voice acting and certain banner types) when other countries (like Taiwan) gets them. For no explanation whatsoever.

Final Fantasy Dissidia Opera Omnia: While by far one of the most generous mobile app games currently on the market by guaranteeing a 5-star relic/weapon with each draw, which one you get is still left up to chance. Because of their pricing for currency you would need the equivalent of $148 USD to fully limit break the weapon of one character. For a team of three that's a minimum of $369.90 USD. If you're a collector? Well at the time I first wrote about the game (not gonna link because I don't want to self promote, not sure what the rules are on that here) there were 27 characters. That's $3,329.10 USD. And more characters have been added since then, so that price continues to grow.

Guardian Codex: Oh this one had a slew of issues, and they didn't bother fixing most of these (as far as I'm aware). Aside from typical F2P currency BS they made it so that the two versions (despite being launched globally on the exact same day) were different in terms of quality and the Japanese one showed in writing what the terms and chances of certain things were. They deliberately hid those details in the NA version. This was before the big Battlefront fiasco that made the app stores make this a requirement.

Mobius Final Fantasy: This one is in some ways far friendlier than most, however you can pay a monthly fee for a premium VIP package on top of spending money for premium currency for the gacha roulette stuff. So basically a F2P game with a lower monthly sub. This isn't a new concept in the mobile F2P space, and it is absolutely not a new concept for Square Enix. This sounds closest to what this companion app is aiming for.

And that's all just the tip of the iceberg. Now you look at those numbers and tell me with a straight face they're not testing the waters to see what they might be able to rake in with premium currency for FFXIV.

Because frankly, with SE's history in terms how they treat microtransactions, I'm not optimistic of how they handle this feature. You can say it's optional all you want, but so were all of the above cases I just described.

The bottom line is if they didn't think people would use it (and therefore give them money), they wouldn't make it. People will use this to manipulate the market board at all times (Fashion Report says hello. Now all you have to do is pay attention to Reddit, then open the app and pop your items up there without even opening the game). If they truly, sincerely only wanted a chat app then that's all this would have been: a free chat app. It's not.

People also forget one thing
Yoshida is dev director
Producer
Part of the group to validate the FF quality
and now... one of the most important people in SE direction...

Yoshida is just a dev director and producer, not our friend...

[Akava]

Yoshida, stop trying to nickel and dime us at every turn. EA isn't a company you should be trying to copy.

[MilanFrozen]

Indeed. This is how it always starts. It happened in PSO2 with Star Gems, it'll happen here too. People are all too willing to forget that SE is just as capable of shady money-grubbing as much as Electronic Arts, Activision, or any mobile developer. Remember Final Fantasy: All The Bravest?

This makes me cry because I super duper liked the way PSO2 looked and played, but I waited too long and then episode 4 came out and then this type of stuff and I just had no will to bother playing after that >_<.

[Sakuraluna]

People also forget one thing
Yoshida is dev director
Producer
Part of the group to validate the FF quality
and now... one of the most important people in SE direction...

Yep. Wasn’t he recently promoted to board of directors or something? Something to think about. He doesn’t have too many people breathing down his neck on this cash-grab stuff, even if he used to. He’s one of the higher-ups giving the orders.

[Lalarrific]

I sense a lot of houses will be opening up in 45 days.