Should players be able to sell Mogstation items?

[Awha]

My true ideal situation would be a copy and paste version of WoW tokens. Where one could buy $15 worth of crysta for $20 and the value is not regulated by the players posting.

In TOR you can sell items on the GTN and to a degree at the very least within my circle of friends it did encourage RMT since when I was playing it was possible to get 1 billion credits for under 30 bucks from certain sellers. Due to the numerous infinite credit exploits that went unchecked and was easily able to avoid the removal of said credits when they went to punish. Though as you said I think it will only be an issue if prices drop to absurd ranges.

[Seraphor]

*IF* you are able to buy the amount of gil needed for an item for less than the actual mogstation price, some people may consider that a decent option. As it is, people already risk their accounts to buy gil, that's not going to suddenly stop just because you can now sell mogstation items.


If RMT prices are still just super crazy and high (again, I really have no idea here..), then I don't think they would be much of a factor. And if that's the case, I'd actually be OK to have the mogstation items sold in-game.

My only concern ATM is that selling mogstation items will create a huge 'need' for in-game gil --> could lead to more bots --> could lead to possible inflation

The peole who currently employ bots, are the people who need gil to sell for real money.
This would eliminate a lot of their market.

The other people who who need gil, buy gil with real money, and would now have a legitimate avenue to do so.

The mogstation items themselves would be luxuries like any other expensive item in the game, and those with disposable income would buy them like they currently buy rare drops of high end crafts.
Does crafting and rare drops current cause botting?

I cant imagine people employ bots for their own personal gil generation, it's too risky, and takes a degree of knowhow that most people wouldnt kbow where to begin.
Players who need gil would either gain it normally, or buy it (in this case via mogstation items), rather that start botting.

[Skivvy]

The mogstation items themselves would be luxuries like any other expensive item in the game, and those with disposable income would buy them like they currently buy rare drops of high end crafts.
Does crafting and rare drops current cause botting?

We'll never know the actual statistics behind who bots, who buys gil, where the money goes, etc., so all of this is just speculation.

So with that said, seems like gil is mostly useful for housing, glamours, expensive/rare drops, and some gear. Some of these carry a pretty high price-tag (like that 40M emote on Balmung), so I would definitely say that crafted items and/or rare drops are something that people may very well buy gil for. And if there is a demand for gil, you can bet the RMT bots will be there.

This is why I have the concern that if you introduce some highly-sought after mogstation items, that demand for gil will probably increase, which could signal to RMT to double-down on their efforts. And when you see a lot of gil coming into a game, inflation follows.

So yeah, there's a lot of "if's and maybes" mixed in there, but I think they are somewhat valid concerns. Again, only SE really knows the bot/RMT situation and how it looks, so all we can do is toss out ideas and thoughts.

[Seddrinth]

Hey, was wondering how people felt behind allowing players to buy and sell cash shop items.

Personally I would like something to spend Gil on. Just a general question, hope it does not turn into a shit storm.

This is so interesting to see this topic brought up here. So the reason I started playing Final Fantasy XIV not long ago was because my favorite mmorpg, Rift, died a horrible death. Rift was initially a subscription game with no cash shops whatsoever. The company decided to make the game free to play and one of the features was REX which is a currency purchasable with real money. REX can then be sold in the game to other players with in game money (plat, for Rift). So players who don't want to spend real money but want to obtain cash shop items can use their in game plat to buy REX from other players. Players who are new or who have very little plat and whip out their credit card and buy a few REX then instantly have a lot of plat in game. This was exactly what killed the game and ultimately the company Trion. The devs stopped making playable content and instead focused all on REX/cashshop sales. Instead of fixing the problems with the different class/specs, they would keep coming out with new player classes that you can buy with money or REX. It increased the botters because people wanted to save money and buy REX from whales. You suggestion is exactly what killed Rift and Trion. I hope that doesn't happen here in FFXIV.

Don't feel like running roulette? Drop $10 on mogstation and sell it for gil. Don't feel like leveling a crafter? Sell another piece of mogstation item. You want the biggest mansion but have no gil? Spend $200 on mogstation and sell it for 30 million gil. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

[Seraphor]

This is so interesting to see this topic brought up here. So the reason I started playing Final Fantasy XIV not long ago was because my favorite mmorpg, Rift, died a horrible death. Rift was initially a subscription game with no cash shops whatsoever. The company decided to make the game free to play and one of the features was REX which is a currency purchasable with real money. REX can then be sold in the game to other players with in game money (plat, for Rift). So players who don't want to spend real money but want to obtain cash shop items can use their in game plat to buy REX from other players. Players who are new or who have very little plat and whip out their credit card and buy a few REX then instantly have a lot of plat in game. This was exactly what killed the game and ultimately the company Trion. The devs stopped making playable content and instead focused all on REX/cashshop sales. Instead of fixing the problems with the different class/specs, they would keep coming out with new player classes that you can buy with money or REX. It increased the botters because people wanted to save money and buy REX from whales. You suggestion is exactly what killed Rift and Trion. I hope that doesn't happen here in FFXIV.

But it's also exactly what keeps WoW going.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

But it's also exactly what keeps WoW going.

I would argue that it is not keeping wow going. Would need some statistics on this.

[Seddrinth]

The peole who currently employ bots, are the people who need gil to sell for real money.
This would eliminate a lot of their market.

Except the exact opposite happened with Rift when they started allowing players to buy REX with real money. Many more people started botting so that they won't have to spend real money to play the game and buy gear/items. The whales bought all the REX and people who don't want to spend money either grinded or botted to create a market for REX.

The other people who who need gil, buy gil with real money, and would now have a legitimate avenue to do so.

The mogstation items themselves would be luxuries like any other expensive item in the game, and those with disposable income would buy them like they currently buy rare drops of high end crafts.
Does crafting and rare drops current cause botting?

I cant imagine people employ bots for their own personal gil generation, it's too risky, and takes a degree of knowhow that most people wouldnt kbow where to begin.
Players who need gil would either gain it normally, or buy it (in this case via mogstation items), rather that start botting.

The people who were afraid to engage in RMT can now freely buy/sell REX. Before players would have to take a chance when they sell credits because there is always a chance that the seller could scam the buyer. Now, with REX, people can buy/sell risk free and the transactions increased a lot. You think it's hard to bot? If you have youtube or google you can learn how to do that. Difficulty will not stop players.

You think this will only apply to luxury items? Rif'ts motto was "No trials. No tricks. No traps" regarding REX and f2p and it turned out to be the complete opposite. I suffered through all these ordeals in Rift first hand. I read and heard the naive optimistic arguments similar to the ones you offered, but the fact is once a game goes down this path, it is the beginning of the death spiral.

[Rokke]

I loved that I could buy cash shop items off the player market back in TERA. Buy outfit boxes at their lows when they'd go on sale in the cash shop -> flip when they inflated. Most of my extra character slots and lootbox prizes were bought from making my gold off the costume market.

On Balmung theres not much to spend gil on once you manage to get a house. I'd love to be able to buy things like fantas off other players here.