So, Mog station here we are

[Vidu]

So a few pages back I expressed my worry that they are tuning down in game gear to push us to buy from the mogstation.

I've been reassured that no, it's just because the tome gear is crystarium themed. fair, fair.

Today I check my email and see this:



Really SE? You're going to full on call out your OWN designs in game mundane?

This is literally what I was talking about. They're not even hiding it.

...thats... thats how advertising works. They're trying to sell you something by claming it will make your life better, so they tell you that your life without this product is bad. This isnt the dev-team nor is it even the people who designed those robes, its some PR-person needing to come up with a catchphrase to sell you this item - and trust me: They didnt check all the gear in the game to come up with a truthful statment.

Advertising has very little to do with actual truths - which reminds me of a story I once heard told in a podcast: A former games journalist talks about how his little daughter (maybe 7 or so at the time?) asks him about his former job by describing the magazine he wrote for as "Its like a newspaper, but everything in it is fake, right?" First her dad is irritated by that ("Our scores werent bought! We reported honestly!") but trough some conversation he manages to figure out that she isnt thinking of a magazine but of a catalogue (to order things from, those paper-things we had before amazon if anyone still remembers) - so... a 7 year old was manage to graps the concept that advertising isnt true.

[Sabrenn]

...thats... thats how advertising works. They're trying to seel you something by claming it will make your life better, so they tell you that your life without this product is bad. This isnt the dev-team nor is it even the people who designed those robes, its some PR-person needing to come up with a catchphrase to sell you this item -snip-

That's not how "advertising works" I've done some advertisment, you want to show your customers that you are a trustworth brand so they come back. This is just bad, why would you put down your own product? Do you see McDonalds telling their customers that the simple cheeseburger that costs £1 is bad? No, they promote it because they know that any profit is good profit. More profit is better profit but it's still all profit. This is just demeaning their other staff's work. Imagine being on the in game design team and seeing this add? This is just disrespectful.

And no, someone had to approve this ad to go out, they didn't just give someone free reign, that's not how it works. All advertisments have to be approved before they get sent out.

[Vidu]

That's not how "advertising works" I've done some advertisment, you want to show your customers that you are a trustworth brand so they come back. This is just bad, why would you put down your own product? Do you see McDonalds telling their customers that the simple cheeseburger that costs £1 is bad? No, they promote it because they know that any profit is good profit. More profit is better profit but it's still all profit. This is just demeaning their other staff's work. Imagine being on the in game design team and seeing this add? This is just disrespectful.

And no, someone had to approve this ad to go out, they didn't just give someone free reign, that's not how it works. All advertisments have to be approved before they get sent out.

But they're not doing what you're describing they're doing. They're not putting this outfit next to the Crystarium one with a big red cross over it. There are quite clearly some intentionally "mundane" outfits in the game (most of the low level gear, for example), they're by no means saying that everything in the game is mundane by claiming that this one outfit is marvelous - and "mundane" doesnt equal "bad" either. I've seen a lot of posts over the years from people asking for more "mundane" outfits like simple shirts and pants without all the frills and embroidery.
They're not even clearly comparing this to any other gear in the game, thats just your interpretation

And to stick with your McDonalds example: This would be more a long the lines of them telling you "Well, the cheeseburger is certainly good, but why dont you make it a combo and get some fries and a drink with it because that would be even better!" - I havent been to any kind of fastfood-place in a long time, but isnt "upselling" still a thing? Which is basically them saying "Well, yeah, you made a good choice with this product, but you could make an even better choice and give us more money!"
This is more like this: You made a good choice buying and playing the game BUT you could make an even better choice and buy this outfit that will turn your sad, depressing and mundane life into a fairy miracle!

I could see your point if there was another outfit from the game next to this ad showing the ingame-outfit in a negative light (red cross, character wearing it having a sad face etc.) but... there isnt.

[Avidria]

Maybe I'm just tired but I'm actually genuinely confused how you took the leap from an advertisement catch phrase to SE somehow bashing their own outfits in game???
"Go from mundane to fabulous!!" == "Everything else in game is mundane by comparison!!!" ???????

[Sabrenn]

-snip-

And to stick with your McDonalds example: This would be more a long the lines of them telling you "Well, the cheeseburger is certainly good, but why dont you make it a combo and get some fries and a drink with it because that would be even better!" - I havent been to any kind of fastfood-place in a long time, but isnt "upselling" still a thing? Which is basically them saying "Well, yeah, you made a good choice with this product, but you could make an even better choice and give us more money!" -snip-

Except they didn't do that, they basically said: go from uninspired burger to amazing burger! wheras upselling is upgrade your experience that you already have with our original burger with extras!

It's very different wording. You would lose a lot of sales on the uninspired burger and people with the amazing burger would look down on the other "peasants" who only have the uninspired burger.

You honestly don't see the issue here at all?

[Iscah]

This is just bad, why would you put down your own product? Do you see McDonalds telling their customers that the simple cheeseburger that costs £1 is bad? No, they promote it because they know that any profit is good profit.

Yes, and what profit are they directly getting from in-game items?

This isn't McDonald's insulting their cheeseburger to sell you a Big Mac, it's telling you to come buy their food instead of eating the sandwich you brought from home.

Or possibly trying to sell you the upsized fries and Coke when you were only planning on getting the cheeseburger.

[Sabrenn]

Yes, and what profit are they directly getting from in-game items?

This isn't McDonald's insulting their cheeseburger to sell you a Big Mac, it's telling you to come buy their food instead of eating the sandwich you brought from home.

Or possibly trying to sell you the upsized fries and Coke when you were only planning on getting the cheeseburger.

Um hello, we paid for the expansion, aka - the in game gear, aka -profit.

And it's not the sandwich from home, at all! It's their own sandwich, it's all SE / Final Fantasy branded.

[Vidu]

Except they didn't do that, they basically said: go from uninspired burger to amazing burger! wheras upselling is upgrade your experience that you already have with our original burger with extras!

It's very different wording. You would lose a lot of sales on the uninspired burger and people with the amazing burger would look down on the other "peasants" who only have the uninspired burger.

You honestly don't see the issue here at all?

No, I dont because I'm not trying to see things that arent there.

Again: I dont consider "Mundane" an insult per se and this feels a lot more like "Enhance your current experience with this item" - in FFXIV case this item are the fairy robes, in McDonalds case that would, as I explained, the employee saying "Oh, just the cheeseburger then? Are you sure you dont want to get some deliciouse fries and a cool drink with it? I mean, just the cheeseburger is fine, but your experience could go from 'good' to 'fantastic' if you bought this combo!"

[Sabrenn]

I can't anymore with this discussion. I think it's not correct, you can all disagree with me, but I'm going to stay of this opinion.

If you think it's fine for brands to bash their own products in order to sell new stuff then I can't argue with you because we fundamentally don't agree on that kind of business practice beyond this mogstation and SE.

And mundane is an insult. They sold us on this expac where we can be the epic warrior of darkness who saves the world with epic purple shadows and stuff, now apparently all of that was mundane and we need fairy wings.

I'm done.

[Iscah]

Um hello, we paid for the expansion, aka - the in game gear, aka -profit.

And it's not the sandwich from home, at all! It's their own sandwich, it's all SE / Final Fantasy branded.

The burger is the game, the combo is the Mog Station extras, and you are simply looking to be offended at this point.

If I saw that poster I wouldn't even take it as insulting the other gear - a glorious embroidered robe is unarguably "marvellous" and if anything, it's going to catch the eye of someone who already thinks in-game gear is boring and wants something fancier, rather than convince anyone who's happy with in-game gear that it's actually terrible.