Mogstation taking another step to the darkside

[Kohdo]

This isn't new they've been doing it for quite some time. I would have less of an issue with many of their items (emotes, outfits etc) if they were account wide but pricing on mounts is pretty high in my view even though many are in fact account wide.

This isn't true at all. Brand-new seasonal mounts were gained through an in-game event and were put into the store a year later. Chocobo egg mount, Christmas bear mount, etc. They didn't go straight into the store with no opportunity to earn them in-game.

[linay]

This isn't true at all. Brand-new seasonal mounts were gained through an in-game event and were put into the store a year later. Chocobo egg mount, Christmas bear mount, etc. They didn't go straight into the store with no opportunity to earn them in-game.

Indeed, hence why this isn't a seasonal event mount.

[Skivvy]

Indeed, hence why this isn't a seasonal event mount.

Not every seasonal event gets a mount.

[linay]

Not every seasonal event gets a mount.

That's right.

[Skivvy]

That's right.

lol, sorry. I probably should have quoted the person you were responding to with my reply. Can I blame it being only 6 something when I typed that? D:

[Melichoir]

This has been brushed off into the server limitations. Is it reasonable..... for improvement.

It is reasonable to say that there is room for improvement. I agree. Everything could be better. But the question isnt whether there is room for improvement, but rather is the model so disproportionately bad and purely greed driven, or if there is some level of reasoning behind it.

I dont know enough about Fortnite myself, so ill just go on what youre saying and what Im gonna assume. Anyone is free to correct me of course, and Id welcome it. But a more apt comparison isnt to compare the mount to an emote, but emote to emote. If you compare an FFXIV emote, it is typically (not always) 7 or 8 bucks, which is the same pricing it appears as Fortnites. Wouldnt this than pretty much be a point that FFXIV is pricing the same as market value in this regards? Now you could argue that "Well, its not account wide." and that would be true but then we have two questions to ask regarding this. First is, do you always need it account wide? FFXIV is an interesting MMO in the fact that you can play every class/role from a single character, so the necessity of leveling an alt is a lot less important. Pair this with the fact that the game is built around this concept and helps you achieve this in a variety of ways (leveling gear, Being able to buy poetic gear to keep on top of things, Roulettes, etc) from a basic perspective, having it only go to one character makes sense because most players are only going to have the one that really would use it. Does it shaft people with alts? Sure. Should emotes be account wide, I dont see why not at the moment. But is this totally unexpected or out of place given FFXIV's set up? No, not really.

The second issue then is this the only way to get emotes. Like I pointed out, the majority of flavor items (glamour, mounts, emotes, etc) are in game and achievable in game. How does this compare to games like Fortnite? We arent talking about default emotes or the like, but things that are added to the game after purchase that you can get yourself. Gold dance, Yol Dance, Bread Emote, Read Emote, petticoats emote , etc etc. Does Fortnite, or other online games offer this, or is there a system in place where a money transaction is the only way to get new emotes, or a super heavily tilted system that lends itself to promoting money transactions (Loot Boxes as an example)? I would hazard, cause I think fortnite is F2P, that the answer is they offer less in 'free' content, and a lot more micro transactions simply because it's how they generate profit. And you know what, I dont fault them for that. If as long as you the player can directly purchase the exact thing you want, then that is fine to me. Prices are whatever the market determines more or less and you should be allowed to buy things on an item by item basis. Seems fair to me personally.

But at face value based on what you mention regarding fortnite, and what I would assume their model is business wise for an FPS, I dont see FFXIV being super unreasonable with their pricing structure as we get a metric ton of goodies in game that could easily have been monetized and sold on mog station in bits and pieces. This is a consideration that isnt being pointed out typically by the outrage crowd regarding mogstation. Some of the very best mounts in the game that I personally feel are superior to 99% of the mogstation mounts are achievable in game. So as are the emotes. I effing love teh bread emote. I think its adorable. You can get that in game by doing gathering or crafting. FFXIV couldve sold that on mogstation and probably made a killing, but we have it in game for the price of time and a sub. The new dance emotes...theyre kinda meh to me. Id buy them on a sale, but Im not thinking "Gee, I need that in my life."

As for server limitations, I said thats one possibility, and that is a real possibility. It's probably a mix of all 3 of the factors Ive listed to some varying degree honestly. Server limitations are a tricky thing because that is a technical side issue with a lot of factors that go into it. Im no tech wiz myself, and only have very basic understanding of server related stuff, but from what I do know, it is a very expensive aspect of corporations as not only is there hardware limitations, but apparently 'architecture' and security limitations that need to be addressed to along with compatibility wiht what your doing with the servers and the programs that operate off of them. I have no doubt that Fortnite server costs are probably pretty nuts, and would guess that there server costs are probably more than that of FFXIV in regards to gameplay. But FFXIV is probably dealing more with information retention that fortnite doesnt have to deal with. As an example, dont htink fortnite has player housing, but ffxiv does and has to have that function correctly and consistently. But these are just some considerations for the issue.

Now the other thing that ...... doesn't drain resources from the main team.

I was informed that some of the cash shop stuff is contracted out, so it doesnt take away from the main development's team, which would make sense in that regards. Contractor work can be more efficient if you only need someone around part time to do one thing. However, it would not surprise me if they had some kind of 'flex' team on staff too. A team that can move between IPs or projects to complete tasks or help with workload when necessary. In either case, youre not draining time and money from FFXIVs primary dev teams to create mog station items typically. Then it comes down to cost analysis, which I went over. If it costs 25k to make spriggan mount, and they can get a 100k return, that is a better use of that 25k than to push it into ffxiv's development budget and not get that much out of it efficiently.As I said, sometimes mogstation items (and cash shop in general) is good for the game. Sometimes. The disconnect I see is people saying its either all good or all bad. Businesses dont operate that way. They diversify their revenue to hit niche markets or get the best bang for their buck. Why should we assume FFXIV is any different or that the cash shop is somehow a net drain on SE. Let me put it this way: If mogstation was a financial flop that lost SE money on the regular, Do you think SE would keep that thing up? And conversly, if it was substantially more profitable than anything done in game, do you think SE would keep feeding us goodies or move a bulk of the items over to cash shop. The simple truth is their walking a tight rope in this regard trying to maximize profit. SE I believe fully understands that going to heavy on cash shop is toxic to long term profits, and that for FFXIV to be profitable, people need to get a good satisfying experience out of playing it and staying subbed.

The "licking SEs boot" is amusing ..... when they see that?

While being a bit hyperbolic, the sentiment is that if you defend SE in any fashion regarding mogstation, youre just fanboy-ing or boot licking. It's an emotional knee jerk determination that ignores the points and positions of people countering their point. There isnt any need to go there. If we want to discuss poor planning on SE's fault, thats fine. As Ive said a few times already in this thread or various other ones, I have my gripes about SE and they range from personal nitpicks to failures on their part. As an example, I dont like how they handled Viera and Hrothgar. That is a shortsighted absolute mess they made by poor decision making. It needs to be corrected IMO. Sometimes the company get's things wrong. Its run by people after all and sometimes they over or under estimate something.

However, what I tend to see is entitlement regarding some of these things. It's not discussing fixing a problem we can measure objectively to some fair degree, but rather a "Gimme stuff cause I deserve it" attitude that is incredibly self serving. This Gimme stuff attitude is explained away as "I pay sub, therefore I deserve all the things" and refuses to see nuance in the situation and legitimate counter points. It also, on a more personal note, irks me to no end because legitimate criticism for SE and FFXIV gets drowned out or disregarded because of shenanigans like this. There is plenty to discuss and critique regarding FFXIV and SE, but IMO this is not one of them. Lastly, I typically do see people make comparisons in market. WoW is a frequent talking point. The "Have you seen what WoW charges for mounts" point. And based on your own point regarding Fortnite, it seems the pricing model isnt that far off when you compare emote to emote.

[MrPresident]

Indeed, hence why this isn't a seasonal event mount.

You’re either intentionally being obtuse or don’t follow the in game lore if you don’t think Spriggans aren’t heavily attached to hatching tide. They’re literally front and centre on the poster every year.

[Lathander81]

Trust me, OP. WoW is even worse.....( WoW = World of Warcraft)
FFXIV cash shop is on the light side compared to them.

Both are equally gross but this is not a contest. It should be a concern for anyone who pays a sub and then has to pay again to get access you just paid them to create.

[Lathander81]

We really don't need this post every time the mogstation gets an update. Either buy it or don't, gameplay won't change if you have this mount or don't.

Funny since you dont have to read then if it bothers you that much. Just like you are free to tell us not to make post, we are free to complain about something that we dont like. Also cosmetics items do affect people enjoyment. If they took out all the dyes, armor skins and mounts then put them in the cash shop you best believe that would make this unplayable for the majority of people. Lastly, I usually dont say much about the cashshop but this was crossing a line and its ok if you dont care just dont tell people what they can or cant post about please and thank you

[Lathander81]

Just like Chocobos, Spriggans are also used to represent Hatching Tide, but it doesn't mean all of them will be represented as such every time. People are really grasping at straws here.

There is literally a spriggan in thin the title of the event and we got a spriggan outfit last year. How is it grasping at straws??