I dont understand after 44 pages of talking about retainers as pay to win, not one person has mentioned quick ventures. If you have 9 retainers ( 7 paid for ) and you send them out every hour and play 8 hours a day, thats 72 quick ventures a day. Maybe not pay to win per se, but unlimited gil supply yes. I have made about 800 million in the last 6 months and 75 % of that is because of quick ventures with the max amount of retainers. By the time I had all my crafts at 60, they had already brought me back full sets of 50 and 60 crafting and gathering, not one I had to earn. I get the best housing items in the game, I get everything all the time. Granted you have to keep your seals up in order to send them out but get this : Half the time they bring back MB prohibited gear that can be exchanged for seals, in what my experiences have shown is a 70-80% return rate on GC seals, making them almost self sustainable. Yes this isnt pay to win exactly, but I havent had to work for a single thing in this game other than some gear hear and there because retainers have given me an infinite gil supply.