The whale mount is up on Mogstation

[Stormfur]

You should've known that people will start to complain, as they always do, when something new is in the mogstation.

True.. I guess I thought that it had been done to death already!

[Theodric]

Only SE knows how many paying active players there are right now. Of course they won't tell us because the number is not so impressive, otherwise they wouldn't resort to PR spins like "14 mln players".
My linkshells and my fc are deserted though...

People come and go in MMO's all the time. Even at the height of WoW, during WOTLK, I'd have to spend some time networking to replace people who just fell off of the radar. In my experience, the people who take frequent breaks are flaky and generally aren't too invested in the game to begin with.

[347SPECTRE]

Speaking as a norwegian.
That is not a mount, that there is DINNER!

What makes this statement even more hilarious is that it's made by a miqo'te

[SendohJin]

Anyone else thing that mounts above $15 should give you a quest line on how you at least found things like this?

I think every major questline (like Scholasticate and each segment of Hildy) should reward a mount.

[Krokov]

Not sure why some are so bothered by this mount being put up and has roughly prices of the mog mount or odin mount. Don't forget is optional you don't need it I assume those that are upset want it but they don't want pay the price for it.

Just saying.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

If people want to waste their money that's their business. I hate the cash shop so I will never use it. And yes I'm annoyed to see yet another potential in-game incentive/reward aim for people who have no idea what digital goods are really worth. Very on the nose at least this time.

That said, when are we going to get more achievement/longevity rewards? I have tons and tons of points sitting around and nothing to spend them on since the claw mount was released (which hardly made a dent). Another mount- especially a two-seater- would be great to have.

This carries the assumption Cash Shop items were ever going to be rewards to begin with. They aren't. They are designed for one singular purpose: to make a profit.

Riddle me this. Everyone whining about the Cash Shop views it as a greedy tactic from SE, yes? Okay. What is a greedy company like SE more likely to do in the event people actually did boycott the Cash Shop?

- Decide to release all future exclusive mounts in the game for free
- Determinate the team who designs these Cash Shop exclusives are better utilized on another project, thus the exclusive mounts and etc simply stop being made

I'll give you a hint, it isn't the free option.

It's double dipping, and people are falling for it. In the past, a subscription meant that you would gain access to everything the game has to offer. That's not the case anymore, because companies have realized they can get people to double dip.

Name one industry in the entire world that has remained exactly the same spanning over decades. "In the past," games cost substantially less to make. FFX cost approximately $34 million whereas many triple A titles nowadays broach the $100 million mark. You can't look to ten ago and say, "well that's how it used to be. So it better never change!"

This is what triple A games looked like in 1999



And this is in 2013 and 2018, respectively



Hmm, I wonder what changed...

[SigmaOZ]

Naive players whom buy these things are just supporting cheap quality from Square Enix's side, it just nurtures their ambitions without making the game better!...


Where does all this money go to!?...

[Sigma-Astra]

Naive players whom buy these things are just supporting cheap quality from Square Enix's side, it just nurtures their ambitions without making the game better!...


Where does all this money go to!?...

Who's naive exactly? The person who has $30 dollars to spend and wants to spend it. Or, the person who doesn't want to spend $30, but is quick to call out and judge what others do with their money. And then, they think that the Mogstation holds the game back from a better quality when it's actually the server infrastructure, outdated game engine, and the CEO's who don't want to push a budget that would require the game designers to make an entirely new engine from scrap.

[Sigma-Astra]

It's a bit disingenuous to say that you're not affecting the market. This current market trend in games was only solidified because people kept buying into microtransactions for things that were already offered for no additional cost. If they add a lootbox tomorrow and no one buys it that would be the end of it, but if people started buying it then you're gonna see more and more items added to the lootbox, when before the lootbox said items would have been part of the sub price at no additional cost.

Not necessarily at all since market trends are a constantly revolving door and the people buying from the cash shop haven't influenced anything that already wasn't in place from the past, this isn't a completely new trend at all that has recently surfaced like you're making it out to be. It's just a more common placed one now since people who have the extra income voluntarily want to spend it on things they they like and see. No one would buy anything if they didn't like what they saw. Micro transactions have been a thing since Facebook's inception of Farmville from 2009 (maybe sooner than that), and before that lootboxes have been a thing since 2004 (maybe sooner than that). This trend has been going on for at least 14 years minimum.

And sorry to say, but the needs of many outweigh the few that don't want it. People need to let go of the past, we're not going back to it.

[Liam_Harper]

Riddle me this. Everyone whining about the Cash Shop views it as a greedy tactic from SE, yes? Okay. What is a greedy company like SE more likely to do in the event people actually did boycott the Cash Shop?

- Decide to release all future exclusive mounts in the game for free

No need to exaggerate. Few people expect Enix to release all future cash shop mounts ingame for free. Nor do we expect them not to have a cash shop. Some of us even prefer it, it's like donating to the company as a thank you for creating a game we enjoy. There's nothing wrong with buying the Whale.

The complaints source from the fact that Enix has a far bigger cash shop than other subscription MMO's and is one of the few large subscription MMO's to lock bank space, alts and their mobile app behind microtransactions. People start to feel annoyed when they continually stuff things into the inflated cash shop while throwing Pagos at us as content.

Overall it's excessive. In fact, that's a good question for those who feel it's fine, how much would Enix have to tie to microtransaction for you to view it as excessive? For example if all mounts besides your chocobo were cash shop exclusive, or glamour prisms, or the gold saucer? They're all optional after all.