The FFXIV Cash Shop is greedy

[Halivel]

Though I do wonder if you were to purchase additional retainers, does that retainer limit increase across all alts?

As somebody with additional retainers and an alt: yes.

They aren't character specific, they are account-wide, so if you buy let's say 2 additional retainers, and have 1 main character and 1 alt, it means that you can have access to 8 retainers in amount (2 free and 2 paid for each).

[Melichoir]

With the WoW token system, the gold is already in the economy; To gather that much money as to afford a token, you would have to actively play the market board (either adding new items or relisting items) and the money that is already in the system simply is gathered in one place before being used to purchase the token from a player, who will then use that same gold to purchase more things from that market board.

Adding more gold to the econ doesn't inherently mean anything other than straight inflation, which sucks for newer players as they got a higher price point to deal with without the means to overcome it. Gold additions only matter when gold is tied to in game power. Which it is more so in WoW. So Blizzard being the middle man to facilitate gold trades between a player where the trade value is cash for Gold, its softly assisting in P2W. As a point - If Im a new player, and I can buy those month sub tokens and sell them for 1000 gold a pop (I dunno what its value is so Im just throwing a number out), Im gonna have a much easier time in the game than a guy who doesnt spend cash on that. I can buy gear, bags, etc and have a lot more ease than the guy who doesnt. Doesnt matter if Blizzard is doing it or a Gold Seller, Im getting an advantage over the guy who doesnt spend cash. It's not a straight exchange of course. Blizzard isnt selling me an epic for money thats BIS, but theyre making it easier to have rares and decent gear if I got the money.

That being said, their method will slow down inflation though. But to fix the inflation issue, they need to pull money out of the economy - meaning they need to have players buy things from NPCs, or be taxed in some capacity that is meaningful.

As somebody with additional retainers and an alt: yes.

They aren't character specific, they are account-wide, so if you buy let's say 2 additional retainers, and have 1 main character and 1 alt, it means that you can have access to 8 retainers in amount (2 free and 2 paid for each).

Hmm didnt know this. That means the more alts, the bigger bang for your buck you get for additional retainers so long as you a means to transfer items effectively.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

It is greedy to have an "optional shop" selling shop unique items in a p2p mmo. There is literally no other way to say it. Instead of adding them items to the game in events free of cost, they sell them for additional profits instead.

You are aware those "Profits" go to the company right? Which funds these games to begin with.
So I guess, stop looking at it as Greed like this all goes into SE's pocket, and consider that the extra bit of revenue that they get from these extra side sales goes into both funding Current & Future Projects, as well as paying their employees.

Maybe it would it look less greedy if people actually consider or knew how a business runs.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

the more alts, the bigger bang for your buck you get for additional retainers so long as you a means to transfer items effectively.

If your in an FC, put your ALTs in that FC, transfer the items via the Company Chest.
But of course make sure you set Permissions and Ranks so stuff doesn't get stolen

[SamRF]

You are aware those "Profits" go to the company right? Which funds these games to begin with.
So I guess, stop looking at it as Greed like this all goes into SE's pocket, and consider that the extra bit of revenue that they get from these extra side sales goes into both funding Current & Future Projects, as well as paying their employees.

Maybe it would it look less greedy if people actually consider or knew how a business runs.

Player satisfaction is why people play the game to begin with and is likely most important factor to consider, especially when you have a subscription business model. Even Activision/Blizzard seems to understand this with how they are relatively conservative with amount of Cash Shop items, however I'm sure that even they are stretching with what they can get away with and have the Cash Shop as a contributing factor of WoW player dissatisfaction.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Player satisfaction is why people play the game to begin with and is likely most important factor to consider, especially when you have a subscription business model. Even Activision/Blizzard seems to understand this with how they are relatively conservative with amount of Cash Shop items, however I'm sure that even they are stretching with what they can get away with and have the Cash Shop as a contributing factor of WoW player dissatisfaction.

Whens the last time you played a COD game? You KNOW Activision will/has pushed it. And people will argue about Overwatch Lootboxes.
But Im sure there is more to Player/Customer Satisfaction then a Cash Shop

[ErryK]

Seeing high-quality stuff getting added to the cash-shop

What's high-quality about some bath robes and Clifford as a mount, and also a pair of slippers?

They delayed 5.3 patch, but of course mogstation garbage still has to come in a proper date and time.

You're really comparing a few outfits to an entire patch full of content from various teams requiring an entire back and forth between teams and not to mention the director? Ok.

What isn't optional?

Well, pack it up boys. Mog Station products are the only things that matter. Everything we have access to in game? Literally worthless.

[SamRF]

Whens the last time you played a COD game? You KNOW Activision will/has pushed it. And people will argue about Overwatch Lootboxes.
But Im sure there is more to Player/Customer Satisfaction then a Cash Shop

I was talking about WoW, which is the only B2P subscription based game Activision/Blizzard has.

[QingNiao]

If Square Enix is defined as greedy for running and operating a business and not a charity, then you too are greedy for expecting all content released in the Mogstation be made free in game because you're paying the entry fee to in-game content.

They are not and never will be the revolutionary face of how MMOs will change the cash shop market; it's there to stay, scheduled mogstation content will be released, patches will be delayed, the game will shit itself because of errors and RMT will thrive because that's the nature of MMOs and it's not anything new. Doesn't mean it's acceptable but what can you do to vastly change it other the point your finger, wagging, that SE is rolling up your money and setting it on fire?

This isn't good guy Square Enix, you're all, myself included, small fish in a big pond. None of this is going away, money and capitalism supersedes and if they remove the mogstation or fail to update it then they will have to find another source of income, probably at the cost of a higher subscription.

[Xatsh]

You are aware those "Profits" go to the company right? Which funds these games to begin with.
So I guess, stop looking at it as Greed like this all goes into SE's pocket, and consider that the extra bit of revenue that they get from these extra side sales goes into both funding Current & Future Projects, as well as paying their employees.

Maybe it would it look less greedy if people actually consider or knew how a business runs.

Business are inherently greedy. They have a cashshop because WoW has warped people minds into believing it is 100% normal and ok to do it.

Your sub fee is what pays for continued development. And with the sub count in ffxiv it pays for it probably 8-10 times over at least. They make what 11-14 million in sub fees a month at least. You are literally paying them to develop content to turn around and have them resell stuff to you that they developed. That is where the greed is in SE and Blizzard and other mmos. In a Buy-to-Play game cashshop support development, in a f2p it is their only income, in a p2p game your SUB pays the development cost.

They want less greed give a voucher to the cashshop for each month you pay a sub. Say 4 months sub = 1 free costume or mount. That way you can cash in a part of your development cost you already paid to get content that should be incorporated into the game to begin with.