The whale mount is up on Mogstation

[Stormfur]

I started this thread -- mainly as a notification but also a little twinge of disappointment that it wasn't ultimately retrievable from sub voyages -- I mean, it would have fit so well. Here we are diving into the deepest trenches where creatures like these might exist...so it made sense from that perspective.

But if they want to put it in the Mog Station, that's their prerogative. Buy it, or don't. Doesn't really matter what others do with their money.

[alimdia]

The point is they wouldn't be plans to make a moogle or whale mount to begin with. They just wouldn't exist. Micro-transactions and DLC are typically developed for the sole purpose of profit hence why it's either a separate team entirely working on it or they wait until a game is certified gold. Since SE takes the former approach, if the Cash Shop didn't exist, that team would be put on another project.

And there are plenty of people in this very thread who have outright said they think the mounts from the cash shop should be available in-game. Let's not get into semantics about "free" or "apart of the subscription." They mean the same given the provided context. What it boils down to is a lot of people seem to think these amounts would be available through other means if only the dastardly cash shop didn't exist. And it very rarely works out that way.

You can't claim "they wouldn't be plans to make a moogle or whale mount to begin with. They just wouldn't exist.", you don't know that, it's a big stretch to claim that if the cash shop didn't exist then it wouldn't even cross their mind considering all the types of mounts already available in the game. There's nothing inherently tied to the cash shop in the design of those items.

It's not semantics, they are 100% completely different things. Many of you seem to be relying on the idea that getting things as part of your monthly payment is freeloading, which is a ridiculous notion. Until our sub is free asking for things to be part of the monthly payment is not asking for them to be free, because the game is not and has never been free, you are paying for every single drop you get in the game. At this point this is the equivalent of insulting other people for not wanting to be double dipped.

Unpopular opinion: microtransactions are infinitely better than the ludicrous requirements they've put on some of the in-game mounts (Seasonal Feast exclusive mounts, Centurio Tiger, Astraphope(?), Gold feather mounts, 3000 commendation mount) and I'd prefer mogstation over those in-game requirements. I wouldn't be surprised if many thought similarly to me too. I'd be of the side that if they're gonna put stuff in-game that has ridiculous unlock requirements, just stick it in mogstation instead or have a mogstation option alongside it.

Beyond that, playing devil's advocate using a good friend of mine as an example, people who only have a few hours a day or even a week to play but still heavily enjoy the game they're playing can be fans of microtransactions. If it wasn't for the jump + story skip, I would have never been able to convince a friend to start playing. She also enjoys games where she can spend the cost of a single day's lunch to make significant progress during the times she does get to play, rather than feeling like she made no progress at all.

While they don't <need> it, there are people who love them because they make enough money that their time is more worth than their cash is.

If the problem is the unreasonable requirement for some mounts then the solution is to not have unreasonable requirements, not to require you to pay extra for them.

[Ilan]

I doubt it.

You can doubt it all you want but there are actually a lot of people with a understanding of what they pay for and for what they don't pay. Well here a lot of people don't have any form of understanding for that but thats not new.

[SendohJin]

The point is they wouldn't be plans to make a moogle or whale mount to begin with. They just wouldn't exist.

The Nezha Chariot, sure. a moogle and a whale mount, that's a real stretch. whales are not foreign to Final Fantasy. i'd be okay with a mini-Bismarck, we have mini-Behemoth/Alexander/Omega/Typhon mounts, that's a perfectly reasonable thing to ask for.

[ElHeggunte]

I have nothing to add to this thread other than the passing observation that the whale is kind of a little bit of entirely adorable.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

You can't claim "they wouldn't be plans to make a moogle or whale mount to begin with. They just wouldn't exist.", you don't know that, it's a big stretch to claim that if the cash shop didn't exist then it wouldn't even cross their mind considering all the types of mounts already available in the game. There's nothing inherently tied to the cash shop in the design of those items.

It's not semantics, they are 100% completely different things. Many of you seem to be relying on the idea that getting things as part of your monthly payment is freeloading, which is a ridiculous notion. Until our sub is free asking for things to be part of the monthly payment is not asking for them to be free, because the game is not and has never been free, you are paying for every single drop you get in the game. At this point this is the equivalent of insulting other people for not wanting to be double dipped.

Yes, I can because other companies do precisely that. There's a reason EA, Activision and Ubisoft have the reputation they do. In their case it's often rushed development or sneaky ways to incentivize their cash shops, but it's all along the same lines. Why do you think Yoshida has outright stated there's a separate team who handles the Mogstation; the "Queen of the Mogstation" if I recall? Now if SE is a greedy company, what makes you think they would keep that team around to work out mounts and outfits... when they're no longer going to sell them? The whole point of that team existing is to turn a profit through micro-transactions. Sure you may see say, the Carbuncle mount. But you'd be seeing mounts like appear exceedingly rarely, and behind extremely arduous grinds like Astrope. You can call it shitty gaming practices but... welcome to the gaming industry.

Hence why I said "given the provided context." When I say "free," I'm simply inferring the sub as something you'll pay anyway, thus there isn't an additional cost. The thing is, you do get things as part your monthly sub. Their have been two exclusive mounts compared to how many released with patches? This is why you have many people simply not care or have a general indifference to the cash shop.

If the problem is the unreasonable requirement for some mounts then the solution is to not have unreasonable requirements, not to require you to pay extra for them.

Welcome to MMOs 101. Dev teams constantly lock coveted items behind grinds or content a chunk of players wouldn't otherwise do in the hopes of incentivize the content or at least moving the queue. We're all pretty certain the hairstyle everyone wants will be in Pyros. Why? Because they want you to go into Eureka and they know how much people want that hairstyle. This isn't unique to FFXIV or even MMOs, really.

I don't think she's saying that moogles and whales wouldn't exist, or wouldn't be a "lore-worthy" thing to have in the game. She's saying they wouldn't put the time into developing the mounts if they weren't going to be getting money for them. They wouldn't just say "oh, nobody's buying so let's roll them into the sub price", they'd say "nobody's buying so let's nix all of the extra costumes and mounts and emotes".

Getting rid of the cash shop will never result in those items being rolled into the game. Not just past, because of course they're not going to make items some folks paid for now free, but anything in the future, either. We wouldn't get Krile's outfit or Tsukuyomi's dress or whatever rainbow flashing tiger mount they come up with next, they'd just never make them an option.

Exactly this.

And please don't mistake all this as me defending the Cash Shop. My personal stance is indifference, though I do somewhat like them if for no other reason then I suspect prices of games and sub fees would increase if they couldn't market micro-transaction. A while back Capcom's CEO even said he feels games should be $150 retail. At least with Cash Shops, we can opt out of any additional costs. Regardless, I merely aim to relay the cynical nature of game development because, yes, SE is just as greedy and shameless as the rest.

[InkstainedGwyn]

The Nezha Chariot, sure. a moogle and a whale mount, that's a real stretch. whales are not foreign to Final Fantasy. i'd be okay with a mini-Bismarck, we have mini-Behemoth/Alexander/Omega/Typhon mounts, that's a perfectly reasonable thing to ask for.

I don't think she's saying that moogles and whales wouldn't exist, or wouldn't be a "lore-worthy" thing to have in the game. She's saying they wouldn't put the time into developing the mounts if they weren't going to be getting money for them. They wouldn't just say "oh, nobody's buying so let's roll them into the sub price", they'd say "nobody's buying so let's nix all of the extra costumes and mounts and emotes".

Getting rid of the cash shop will never result in those items being rolled into the game. Not just past, because of course they're not going to make items some folks paid for now free, but anything in the future, either. We wouldn't get Krile's outfit or Tsukuyomi's dress or whatever rainbow flashing tiger mount they come up with next, they'd just never make them an option.

[DevonEllwood]

Yeah, I think I'm baleen on this one for now.

It may just be an average whale, but this thread has breached all expectations. I knew the backlash about the carbuncle mounts wasn't a fluke, but I didn't expect people to blubber on for twenty pages about this one.

[Rhus]

I'm sure t looks cool my only issue is the size of the thing. You get 4 or 5 people around a vendor in the reach or the summoning bell or in Eureka all jumping around and showing off (great btw) it takes up a large amount of my screen and can't see anything other than whale back. It seems unnecessarily large. Even Behemoth mount isn't that big and it's a mountable BEHEMOTH, it's in the name it should be massive but isn't.

[Vahlnir]

It may just be an average whale, but this thread has breached all expectations. I knew the backlash about the carbuncle mounts wasn't a fluke, but I didn't expect people to blubber on for twenty pages about this one.

Whale I'll be! Puns!