White Raven earring given out at The Rising event 2018

[Vaer]

I do get what you're arguing for, but I do think it's a little... iffy... to say that an achievement for learning how to do a video game fight has the same depth/strength as something like a diploma (which has 2-8 years of somebody's life invested behind it) or a wedding band (which is hopefully the symbol of a deep and abiding emotional commitment between two people.)

I get the overall concept. Things have different meanings to different people, and people attach importance to different things. I'm somebody who cares passionately about video games (if you took the ability to play some of my favourite games away from me I'd probably go on a rampage)... but I cannot and will not accept that these things have equivalence, and it alarms me a little when people try to say that handing out a video game trophy is on the level of being married to someone who decides to take multiple spouses. You're not married to Square Enix, they're a company that takes your money.

I wasn't really saying they are equivalent, because they are not. I just used those examples as items that people might find meaning in that others might not. There was a post earlier about the Airman's Coin that summarized what the OP was trying to say rather well.

However, someone else did actually make that "trophy item" and "spouse handing out wedding bands" correlation. Maybe they're just bad at metaphors, but it's kind of scary if they really do equate the two.

Yeah I don't agree with that. It's not the same thing at all.

It sounds petty because it is. I'd actually have slightly more respect for their position if they were against the glamour being obtainable as well, but since that doesn't bother them, it makes it rather apparent that what they're really after is the game going out of its way to tell them how special they are because their sense of self-worth is apparently not internally sourced. It's not the game's job to manage people's emotions for them.

Real life mementos also tend to be valued irrespective of whether or not anyone else can get them. Many of them are mass produced items, but they're kept because of the significance to the individual, not because of their rarity. Nobody goes around expecting anyone else to be in awe of them for having a dead relative who liked baseball or whatever either. This breaks down in the MMORPG iteration because it's not for the same purpose at all. Instead, it's about prestige (that doesn't really exist) and an attempt to establish some sort of social hierarchy based on tenure and outdated accomplishments.

I get what you're saying, but even IRL there are collector's items and limited editions that are actually kept for their rarity and/or prestige. I mean I might not give a damn about a rare baseball card, it's just a piece of paper with a drawing right but others might. So really it seems the impasse is that it's a digital item.

[InkstainedGwyn]

I wasn't really saying they are equivalent, because they are not. I just used those examples as items that people find meaning in that others might not.

However, someone else did actually make that "trophy item" and "spouse handing out wedding bands" correlation. Maybe they're just bad at metaphors, but it's kind of scary if they really do equate the two.

[Nixxe]

I get what you're saying, but even IRL there are collector's items and limited editions that are actually kept for their rarity and/or prestige. I mean I might not give a damn about a rare baseball card, it's just a piece of paper with a drawing right but others might. So really it seems the impasse is that it's a digital item.

The point of the post was that your comparison was a bad one. You'll note it doesn't depend on the digital nature at all and merely points to the differing elements between the two things that were compared.

Frankly, people who collect real life rarities do so at their own risk as well. There's nothing stopping the original manufacturer or whoever ends up with the patent rights from resuming production of those items. However, their value tends to be preserved because time ages things and often there are ways to discriminate between an original and a modern reproduction and it rarely happens because it's much harder to reproduce items in precisely the same fashion as was done decades ago due to changes in regulations and industry practices. So no, there's no hangup. I'd be every bit as unsympathetic toward wailing and gnashing of teeth because Topps decided to start reproducing Babe Ruth rookie cards that were indistinguishable from the original run. It's just not a realistic concern due to differing aspects of physical and digital goods.

[Vaer]

The point of the post was that your comparison was a bad one. You'll note it doesn't depend on the digital nature at all and merely points to the differing elements between the two things that were compared.

Frankly, people who collect real life rarities do so at their own risk as well. There's nothing stopping the original manufacturer or whoever ends up with the patent rights from resuming production of those items. However, their value tends to be preserved because time ages things and often there are ways to discriminate between an original and a modern reproduction and it rarely happens because it's much harder to reproduce items in precisely the same fashion as was done decades ago due to changes in regulations and industry practices. So no, there's no hangup. I'd be every bit as unsympathetic toward wailing and gnashing of teeth because Topps decided to start reproducing Babe Ruth rookie cards that were indistinguishable from the original run. It's just not a realistic concern due to differing aspects of physical and digital goods.

Well yeah, you just don't care in general which is fair, which really has nothing to do with phy/digital really. In general most of the people posting here (not you apparently) are fixated on it being digital. The Adding replica to the item you would be able to distinguish even a digital item from something obtained before, just like something with a timestamp on physical goods or batch code.

Yes, but as I said, that makes it clear that it's about the game telling them how special they are, which is an unworthy consideration. It's time for them to grow up and find a more stable sense of self-worth.

That's really a game design issue. Perhaps the game shouldn't be set up where you literally get trophies or prestige items for competitive content and enabling the behavior in the first place.

[Nixxe]

Well yeah, you just don't care in general which is fair, which really has nothing to do with phy/digital really. In general most of the people posting here (not you apparently) are fixated on it being digital. The Adding replica to the item you would be able to distinguish even a digital item from something obtained before, just like something with a timestamp on physical goods or batch code.

Yes, but as I said, that makes it clear that it's about the game telling them how special they are, which is an unworthy consideration. It's time for them to grow up and find a more stable sense of self-worth.

[Fawkes]

Frankly, people who collect real life rarities do so at their own risk as well. There's nothing stopping the original manufacturer or whoever ends up with the patent rights from resuming production of those items.

I think if something was advertised as being limited then they could be sued for false advertising if they started to produce more. That might even be why things like the maid/butler outfits that you buy off the mog station are different items in game from the originals.

https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Housemaid_Attire
https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/L...id%27s_Uniform

[Nixxe]

I think if something was advertised as being limited then they could be sued for false advertising if they started to produce more. That might even be why things like the maid/butler outfits that you buy off the mog station are different items in game from the originals.

https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Housemaid_Attire
https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/L...id%27s_Uniform

While yes, that's possible depending on precisely what was said, what happened, and what laws are applicable, it's also sufficiently far removed from what we're discussing here, which definitely wouldn't fall under any of that, to not be worth bringing into the conversation. Likewise, most popular collectible items in real life wouldn't be subject to any of that because they are simply normal goods that were eventually no longer produced.

[hydralus]

Well, could be worse. Could be selling them for $9.99

[JunseiKei]

I think if something was advertised as being limited then they could be sued for false advertising if they started to produce more. That might even be why things like the maid/butler outfits that you buy off the mog station are different items in game from the originals.

https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Housemaid_Attire
https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/L...id%27s_Uniform

The company would first have to advertise the item being limited and promise to never produce more. Unfortunately, "limited" can simply mean producing less than other items, or leading others to believe this to be the case (making this distinction as there was a game whose "limited" edition was actually printed more than the normal version and it's the normal version with a higher value due to this).

EDIT:
Ah, I remember now. The game was Halo 2.

I wonder if those items, it has more to do with the promotional deal with the company more than anything else. Other than being time locked, I don't recall SE ever saying the housemaid/butler outfits were "limited" in any stretch of the matter.

[Lubu_Mykono]

I don't get why people are complaining over this. It's a pair of earrings you can barely see. I mean it's not like they are handing out Fat Mogs to everyone.