So now contest prizes can be bought?

[Dzian]

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

Over this exactly? who knows?

But it is a part of a bigger problem and I do believe that it is one that many players do in fact leave the game over even if many don't actually say it on the forums. That problem is the general lack of reward or satisfaction from playing the game. It has a trend of destroying the significance of any trophy's and achievements players do earn by essentially handing them out to everyone and that in turn destroys any sense of value they have. You start giving trophies out to everyone and they become worthless junk in a game where everything else is already worthless junk and that all adds up to an overall unrewarding experience and ultimately pushes players away.

It's also bad for the game because as has been said before it does not entince players into improving themselves (and as a result improving the community as a whole) in an effort to earn whatever rewards they may desire when they know they'll basically get handed them at a later date for basically nothing.... So instead of helping players rise up and overcome challenges this game basically says "don't worry here you go.." and it destroys the satisfaction or the sense of accomplishment that comes from earning them. I genuinely believe that's a big reason why the games has so many issues keeping players subscribed.

It's been said so many times on the forums and elsewhere that one of the big reasons players don't take on the challenges in the game is because the rewards aren't worth the effort and they know they'll be nerfed to hell and the rewards will be significantly easier to get in a couple of patches... Players might want a mount but why bother with the ex primal? we can wait a month they'll add echo or even another month and we can over power it. or even unsync it...

I also think its a big part of why no matter what the devs try to do to reduce the huge skill gap they're always trying to close it only gets wider and wider, because the devs do it the worng way.. What they try and do is instead of bring the bottom players up through content they try and bring the top players down.

But the top players just smash the roof literally and continue to climb up. It's what they did with savage. You can argue participaion is up but that's because rather than help players improve they instead made savage easier and by making it easier they also made it feel less rewarding to clear. Which in turn makes the game less satisfying and again if players don't find it rewarding or satisfying they simply don't stick around for the most part...

4.4 isn't far away and you can bet that when it lands players will have roflstomped there way through all its content in a single day cleared alphascape effortlessly and generally be left feeling is that all we got..... wow this patch sucks...

They really not to stop with the handout policy and actually let trophies and rewards actually mean something. Rather than just basically hand em out to everyone.

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."

QFT if people want the rewards or trophies they should go out and get them instead of waiting to be handed them for basically nothing

[Nariel]

People acting like others really care about their "exclusive" items.

[Rowde]

Once again... I'm going to quote the Yoshida post from the White Raven thread...

-snip-

- Plans for the Future
Although some players were of the opinion that the reward was not an issue, many others voiced their disappointment. And the fact that these players came forth is evidence that we failed to give the matter due consideration.

Our legacy players have memories that are tied to that earlier time─I was reminded that the excitement and pride they experienced in acquiring the White Ravens is bound up in the item itself, regardless of its stats or appearance. I, myself, am the sort of person who separates the experience from the physical reward, but that doesn't excuse the failure to consider those who feel otherwise. I intend to learn from this lesson moving forward, and continue to develop FFXIV as a game that everyone can enjoy.

-snip-

FINAL FANTASY XIV Producer and Director, Naoki Yoshida

To re-iterate...
I have won multiple in-game contests and I am not offended, disappointed, disapproving (or any other negative word) of the inclusion of the Scarf of Wondrous wit in the inventory of the Itinerant Moogles.

These contests are meant to be fun, and they help to break up the monotonous schedules that many players (including myself) can sometimes fall in. I can look back at each of my winning entries and distinctly remember the scenarios involved in setting each of them up.


Memories of Eorzea Screenshot Contest (NA) | Winners | My Entry
** This was the first Screenshot contest I participated in. The Gold Saucer GATEs were the first experience I had with jump puzzles in FFXIV... and I was really bad at them at the time. I've gotten way better at them since then (I finished all the current sightseeing log entries and got most of the way up the recent Moonfire Faire tower).

Cartographers and Seekers Contest (NA) | Winners | My Entry | My Answer | My Seeker
** I had a lot of fun with the set up for this contest. First with coming up with location, and then seeing the result. The person that deciphered my map also won a prize. I have never met or communicated with this player in game, our sole interaction was through this contest. However, through some bizarre osmosis they also featured the exact same emote I used when taking my answer photos (which I had taken at the same time that I took the photos for my map).

Airship Components: Research and Development Contest (NA) | Winners | My Entry
** Another contest I had a lot of fun with despite my initial hesitance about the "creative writing" aspect of it. It also took a deceptive amount of time since I was using the Unending Journey to get some of my pictures. Theres no way to fast forward or rewind within cutscenes, so I had to repeat each of them many times to get the exact frames I wanted to use (plus extra options jic...).


I have also failed to win just as many contests as I have won, yet I can even look back at those failed entries and recall the process fondly. In fact, many of my "failed entries" are bit more memorable to me as many of my friends were involved in those, some of which have retired from FFXIV since (one friend has even passed away).

"Do You Even /Pose?" Showdown! (NA) | My Entry
** This was a spur of the moment idea that came to me while pondering what I would do for my entry. Wulgaru just happened to spawn, and since the contest allowed for multiple players to win prizes on each entry I thought I would try to include some of my close S Rank hunting allies in my entry for fun. Lek forgot to unselect Wulgaru before emoting and Kata hadn't completed the event yet... Lek also called it so I had a limited amount of time to take pics before the horde descended upon the position and killed tree...

Bright-Eyed Superstars Contest (NA) | My Entry
** Another entry where multiple people could have won a prize. I decided to make this into an FC affair and included my sister and Ark in my entry. I don't know Ark in real life, only in game, but he was typically more serious and had a "macho" persona. He got our FC's Workshop up to date (crafted mats for 3/4 airships all by himself) back in HW. Then suddenly he just disappeared... to this day I have no idea what became of him. Hopefully he just decided to set the game aside to focus on school/work... That is why I'll always remember this time I made him put on a foofoo outfit so I could take "pehtures for contest!"

And... Action! Screenshot Contest (NA) | My Entry
** If there was one contest that I was actually "bitter" about losing it would have been this one. Most of my screenshots would probably considered gravure... but I attributed that to difficulty involved with taking clean screenshots of battle abilities. I often requested this feature before it was finally added to /gpose... so this was supposed to be my moment to show off... However this loss inspired me to keep at it and to push my action shot ideas even further...


Thus...
Other players having access to the items can never devalue the experiences I had when participating in these contests. I am absolutely fine with a period of exclusivity of in-game items. My hope is that this will mean that the scarf is retired from the prize pool after this and some new shiny is added to chase after in the future.

[Sakuraluna]

People acting like others really care about their "exclusive" items.

It’s not exclusive though. It was always available. If you entered any contest here on the forums you literally could have won it.

I doubt the people who care about this care as much about exclusivity as you make out. It’s like what was said above; if you can eventually get the item you want by just waiting until it’s handed to you, why put in the effort. It’s a larger problem with the game’s current direction as a whole.

[Mizunoko]

As someone who has a few item's that are supposed to be exclusive i would agree with the OP it would kinda piss me off if they just started reselling things that shouldn't be resold. They already rereleased a moogle hat (i wasn't too upset about that one since they changed the pom color to yellow while the pre-order one like i have has a red pom), but i will say if they rerelease the cait sith minion i have, or the mandragora necklace i got from a contest i would probably be pretty pissed off and i would guess there would be at least a little backlash at SE over it. Regardless SE does what it wants so all we can really do is hope they don't do what we each don't want them to do. At the end of the day i will keep playing because i love how cute my lala looks and i love glamouring and relic grinding and those are things that will always be a part of the game.

[Mizunoko]

You could no longer obtain the earrings through any means. The contest prizes can be won through occasional contests. It's not really the same case. But if gloating makes you feel better, go ahead.
Unless they make all contest prizes available and show new prizes items for next contests, this feels like an error they made. But still as someone who had won contests before, I honestly don't care as much. I don't think it's right but I won't throw a fit cause someone bought a fancy item for 50 gil that I've had for over a year. I had my thrill for winning, I had my fun by participating and I enjoyed and still enjoy the item I won.

I both agree and dissagree with you. I think they need to leave it in a way that the people who actually worked or won their item can still prove that it was obtained that way. Kind of like how the reselling of the pre-order moogle hats had different color poms. It allows people who werent there to get it finally obtain it now, but at the same time it didnt entirely ruin it for the people who liked the feeling of being an owner of an exclusive item. there's no reason they can't do things like that to keep both sides happy and there is no reason what that shouldn't make both sides happy simply because the color is different or something.

[Mizunoko]

Yeah, the Itinerant Moogles have shown up periodically, previously selling the Bomb, Slime, and Cactuar earrings. And I think maybe something else.

Greater point, tho, is nothing is guaranteed permanently exclusive. And, frankly, if you're putting such a huge amount of significance on having a game item that other people don't, maybe you're taking the game a little too seriously. Other people having items that you have does not have any impact on the game for you. Play the game. Enjoy the game. Quit worrying so much about what other players do or have.

Not that i don't agree with what your trying to say or that i care extremely about the rarity of my items to the point that i would ragequit, however i think the part where you say "does not have any impact on the game for you" is incorrect as you cannot determine for other people what impacts the game for them. Everyone plays games for different reasons and have fun in said game for different content or reasons. Meaning if someone does actually have fun or like the game alot because of rare item collecting than that in itself impacts the fun and gameplay for them. That in itself can mean everything to someone. As i said, you cannot dictate what is and isn't for other people. Only yourself.

[Mizunoko]

It's funny that you say "play the game, enjoy the game" when what's fun for me is having an item that I earned with a skill that I have outside of playing the game that shows that I was able to win something. It's not about them not having it, it's about it not having the same worth and having someone look at my character with it and go "oh wow they must've won a contest". Now it's just another item. Rarity and uniqueness has value.

The same would apply if my real life accomplishments were given to everyone as well. I was chosen to have one of my real life photos on a soda label recently, which only less than 1% of submissions ever get. Over a million photos have been submitted in the past, and mine was one of the ~1,000 or so ever chosen. That's a big deal to me because it means my entry must've been noteworthy, which is a reflection of my skill. If every entry was used it wouldn't be an accomplishment. The same applies to the prizes I win for screenshot (and creative writing) contests.

Taking prizes and making them purchasable by anyone defeats the purpose of entering at all, if you can just buy it in a few months or a year anyway.

I 110% agree with you on this, The guy you are quoting (Hasrat) seems to me like one of those people who think everyone should get a participation trophy and no one should get a trophy for actually winning because they worked harder than others and practiced or had skill. Nothing has meaning in this world anymore if everyone is handed the exact same things in life, and it amazes me that people cannot understand this as it should be common sense. Not everyone plays for the same reasons as they do. I play mostly for glamour, relic grinding, and rare item collecting, and because i love that aspect about the game and put in the extra effort to do that kind of thing i have something to show for it. When SE starts taking that away from me and giving it to everyone at basically no work or cost to them, then how would people or SE expect me and people like me to feel? The answer should be obvious really.

[Mizunoko]

I am of the thought that everyone should be able to enjoy all things in the game at some point or another. Digital exclusivity doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me but I am from a different era of folks. This happened before and will continue to happen.

Even if i didn't care, which i do. I still think what is mostly wrong here is that they SAY something is exclusive and then go back on that later. That in itself is wrong in principle. It's like false advertising just to get customers in the door in a way. I play game's mostly because i like rare items, and looking shiny. When SE advertises the possibility of that to me in their game and i play their game, then they go back on that. I believe that is called a bait and switch or something along those lines. I don't believe it's right for everyone to be handed the same exact thing in life regardless of how much more or less they worked. Just because you and/or others don't have issues with this kind of thing, does not mean that people who think on the oposite side of the spectrum from you are invalid or unjustified in their own opinions as well.

[Mizunoko]

It's all digital anyway, no point putting in any sort of work. No point paying $30 for that mount, $18 for that outfit, spending $13 a month on that dress-up simulator.

Right? Right?

This argument is old, it's tired and it's dumb. If everything from community contests to the highest echelons of raids mean nothing, where's the carrot that makes people stay?

You sir, hit the nail on the head! ^_^