FF14 Companion app Premium Service

[KarstenS]

Pretty sure that was just a mistranslation, as are a lot of things people get riled up over.

No. It wasn't. But the shitstorm about this did change their minds.

[LineageRazor]

2 Retainers ($4) > 1 Retainer + Extra Saddlebag ($5)

Well, it does offer a bit more than that: If you're already sitting at the maximum of six paid retainers, the premium service will let you go one more BEYOND the max. I have little doubt that there are folks out there with a full set of retainers and are STILL struggling to find inventory space.

Not to burst your bubble, but that was the same thing when they introduced the mogshop and people said: "if you don't like the stuff, don't buy them!". And a few years later look at the situation of the cash shop...

What are you referring to, specifically? The cash shop hasn't changed a bit, as far as I can tell. It was all glamour then, and it's all glamour now. I doubt that many of the folks who were saying, "It's glamour; it's fine to sell it for cash" then are singing a different tune, now.

[Beckett]

hAvInG mOrE iNvEnTORy SpAcE iS p2w!

man, I can't wait for my new extra retainer to bring me back an ultimate clear and for my chocobo to rank top 3 in the current feast season!

gil are incredibly useless in this game. Having lots of it is an amenity at best for being able to jump the latest glam bandwagon a bit faster

It's been said before, but I'll say it again; The ability to pay to use the market board from outside of the game is a very limited form of pay-to-win, but it's pay-to-win none the less.

If you have two people that are selling things on the marketboard, but are both away from their computers, the person who is willing to pay real life money to use the premium services of the companion app has a clear and undeniable advantage over the person who is not spending real money.

"Gil is useless" or "This doesn't directly effect me" is not a good reason to support what is unquestionably a pay-to-win scenario.

[Voltyblast]

What are you referring to, specifically? The cash shop hasn't changed a bit, as far as I can tell. It was all glamour then, and it's all glamour now. I doubt that many of the folks who were saying, "It's glamour; it's fine to sell it for cash" then are singing a different tune, now.

Initially the cash shop was supposed to sell items that WERE OBTAINABLE in the game but you could no longer get - like old event emotes, costumes, etcetera - and at the beginning that was it, but then they slowly started to add exclusive items that WERE NOT OBTAINABLE in the game, like new mounts, emotes and special costumes, and eventually it turned where almost all items that you could potentially get inside the game are just cash shop exclusives.
For example, the Odin Ex had a perfect chance to give the Sleipnir mount but nope, only cash shop...
Wanted the costume from Edda in POTD? Nope, cash shop.
We wanted a /lie emote for ages...and we got /playdead from the cash shop.

There are a few exceptions that are okay, like the Chinese dress and the maid outfit that were exclusives to promotional events, but you can see them adding new items that could've been easily in the game but nope, gotta cash in that dime!

And while we are at it, they could just allow us to gain those old items from the new events instead but they clearly want us to buy that 2 buck costume...on a single toon as it's not even account bound! So lazy!

PS: also, how could I forget the addition of the story jump and level jump potions?

[Kirsten_Rev]

PS: also, how could I forget the addition of the story jump and level jump potions?

I'd also point out that these are especially egregious. Not only are they the closest XIV has come to P2W, but the story jump potion in particular was also built as a solution to design problems that SE neglected to properly fix. Newcomers to FFXIV right now have to navigate literally hundreds of quests before they can access one iota of current content. It'll be even worse come 5.0 if they don't change tactics. They're implicitly compelling newcomers and returning players to spend significant sums of money in order to return in a relatively painless fashion.

[SigmaOZ]

Well, it does offer a bit more than that: If you're already sitting at the maximum of six paid retainers, the premium service will let you go one more BEYOND the max. I have little doubt that there are folks out there with a full set of retainers and are STILL struggling to find inventory space.

I happen to have 6 extra retainers for a total of 8 and I have been cleaning up the mess in my inventories, as it turns out I can easily fire 2 to 4 retainers without much struggling!...

[Marxam]

Mmm the slippery slopes are delicious today

Sometimes I swear between pagos, content stretching and heavy rng, this game has more slippery slopes and downhill curves than an Initial D Arcade game.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Not to burst your bubble, but that was the same thing when they introduced the mogshop and people said: "if you don't like the stuff, don't buy them!". And a few years later look at the situation of the cash shop...

Bottom line, we might not like it NOW, but in a few years, they might add additional unlocks that will make us wanna buy them...I mean it did happen with the cash shop, why not with the app?

You mean... nothing changed? Mogstation has remained cosmetic only since its inception. And even the items added have mostly been ported from the Chinese/Korean version or past events. The one exception are jump potions, but those aren't p2w by any stretch.

So yes, the whole "Don't like it. Don't buy it" still applies.

[Hasrat]

I happen to have 6 extra retainers for a total of 8 and I have been cleaning up the mess in my inventories, as it turns out I can easily fire 2 to 4 retainers without much struggling!...

My only real gripe with the app, and what could get me to actually use it, is how it doesn't actually maintain inventory organization. If the inventory tabs on the app were sorted the same as I have in game, it wouldn't be so bad dinking around with items.

[LineageRazor]

Initially the cash shop was supposed to sell items that WERE OBTAINABLE in the game but you could no longer get - like old event emotes, costumes, etcetera - and at the beginning that was it, but then they slowly started to add exclusive items that WERE NOT OBTAINABLE in the game, like new mounts, emotes and special costumes, and eventually it turned where almost all items that you could potentially get inside the game are just cash shop exclusives.
For example, the Odin Ex had a perfect chance to give the Sleipnir mount but nope, only cash shop...
Wanted the costume from Edda in POTD? Nope, cash shop.
We wanted a /lie emote for ages...and we got /playdead from the cash shop.

There are a few exceptions that are okay, like the Chinese dress and the maid outfit that were exclusives to promotional events, but you can see them adding new items that could've been easily in the game but nope, gotta cash in that dime!

And while we are at it, they could just allow us to gain those old items from the new events instead but they clearly want us to buy that 2 buck costume...on a single toon as it's not even account bound! So lazy!

PS: also, how could I forget the addition of the story jump and level jump potions?

I'm not sure where you got the impression that the cash shop was only for previously-acquireable-in-game stuff. That promise was never made, and Scion gear and Sleipnir were among the VERY FIRST things added to the cash shop. In fact, folks WEREN'T expecting in-game emotes and stuff to be there - there was quite an uproar when the previous year's event gear wound up in the cash shop instead of in the in-game event shops. No, it was always well-known that the cash shop would be a venue for EXCLUSIVE glamours, unobtainable any other way. It was the retreads that were a surprise.

As for story- and level-jump potions, it is true that those are not glamour. They are opportunities to pay SE to power-level you. Is this pay-to-win? Not sure... but I've played with people who have progressed by this method, and they didn't really feel like "winners" to me. XD