So now contest prizes can be bought?

[Sakuraluna]

Of course I can't see all the subscribers in my time playing this game.

However, I've been playing on Balmung (the most populated server by a large margin) since around 2.1. I'd find it hard to believe that no one on Balmung managed to win any of the contests over the past years.

Not on balmung, but I actually have used the scarf regularly on a character I have on Excalibur. I’ve actually been wanting it for my main for a while.

[AngelCheese77]

So I saw this news and I'm kind of cheesed that there's at least one item that was/is a contest prize that you can just buy with an insignificant amount of gil. Doesn't that kind of ruin the point of having it be a prize altogether?

No .... /10char

[Skivvy]

Of course I can't see all the subscribers in my time playing this game.

However, I've been playing on Balmung (the most populated server by a large margin) since around 2.1. I'd find it hard to believe that no one on Balmung managed to win any of the contests over the past years.

I actually won a contest. :3

Link to the picture:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post1703924

Link to contest winners:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...%29-Winners%21

All I got was a crummy necklace that I'm pretty sure I tossed out. lol I'm not one for accessories.

[Fawkes]

I actually won a contest. I believe it was one of the contests held around christmas time. Give me some time and I can find the post

Here it is.

[Skivvy]

Here it is.

Dang, you're fast! You beat my edit Those were simpler times.

[Amiral_Benson]

I won the Scarf of Wondrous Wit at the end of 1.0, when GMs would come to you personally to give it to you, while having a little chat with you about the contest and the game. It was something.

I've been using it since 6 years primarily on Miner glamour, it fits the job perfectly, and despite what some said here, it's a very nice good looking scarf, on par with original Tanaka medieval-fantastic artistic direction of the game.
Every time I see someone wearing it, it's the start of a conversation about which contest they won, what kind of work they did and the efforts they put into it. I made some artists friends in the game thanks to that, and I'm since following their work.

It's a prize from competition contests outside the game, and to me, from the country I come from, from its meritocracy model culture I've been raised in, it makes no sense to hand over prizes like this, but then again, I might come from a different culture.

At best, to please people who can't participate to those contests for reasons outside of their reach, handing over Replicas would have been again the right move.

This marks the end of those random encounters and their stories sharing I've been praising from this game. This was a very pleasant way to interact and met new people, just like it was with the White Raven.

I've been doing those community contests for many pleasurable reasons, but when you remove any one of those reasons, it's not engaging enough any more.
Knowing prizes will be handed over like this from now on, kills the motivation. The same way it kills the motivation of people right now about tackling Ultimate, because they have the legit feeling they'll get defraud in the end.

FFXIV needs more incentives to pull people up, to motivate players into engaging themselves in challenging contents, and this works against that, this only comfort people into their torpidity attitude of "I'll wait for the nerf, unsync, echo, or events to get those prizes for free, etc.".

So much potential wasted.

[Iscah]

I've been doing those community contests for many pleasurable reasons, but when you remove any one of those reasons, it's not engaging enough any more.
Knowing prizes will be handed over like this from now on, kills the motivation. The same way it kills the motivation of people right now about tackling Ultimate, because they have the legit feeling they'll get defraud in the end.

I feel like that will depend on the person. I've never actually got around to entering any of the competitions, but I've intended to, and the prize wasn't a motivator at all. Maybe if there was a prize I actually wanted it would remind me to get around to it, but as it was, I'd be entering just because I had a good idea for an entry and wanted to show it off.

[OurMom]

Of course I can't see all the subscribers in my time playing this game.

However, I've been playing on Balmung (the most populated server by a large margin) since around 2.1. I'd find it hard to believe that no one on Balmung managed to win any of the contests over the past years.

That doesn't mean anything, we have 3 data centers and how many servers? You could be on the largest server but if people are wearing it on another server, what does being on the largest server really mean? Especially if the item was rare at the time.

[Coombah]

SE still hasn’t learned and this is just another example of it.The encentive and community is gone and now it’s become cash shop / everyone gets a participation trophy wow clone. Good job SE , I see a lot more players post about leaving the game in your future

[Theodric]

There's nothing for them to learn. Contest winners enjoyed a period of exclusivity and they still have their names preserved on the news pages devoted to revealing the winning entries. That should be more than enough.

I'm curious, though...is anyone really going to quit the game over this or is it a hollow threat?