$35, really SE?

[ForteNightshade]

This is a false equivalence. Dining at such restaurants has different meanings behind them, since people do it for a wholly different reason (mostly for social status). And why are you comparing buying people spending thousands on PC parts annually to a mount?
With the PC parts you get the immediate and price worthy benefits from it, I have not yet seen that this mount has anything more than what the Fat Moogle mount has (no, 2 extra seats is not enough).

No, it isn't. I purposely listed various luxuries items or activities people spend extra on while others will accuse them of wasting their money. Ironically, you defeated your own argument by justifying my restaurant example. How does spending money for a perceived social status differ from spending it on an in-game item? Both are luxuries you're indulging in because you (hopefully) have the disposable income to afford it. The same applies to Enthusiast PC Builds. You're spending money on a luxury. You not finding value in the chosen luxury is irrelevant, and frankly, none of your business. Plenty of people spend money to feel better. They're not doing it for social clout, bragging rights or anything beyond "this makes me happy." I'm guilty of doing precisely that myself.

I know about how economy work, those who have a higher salary are also those who spend more, but that is not what I am arguing. What I am arguing is that having 36 dollars for a mount, that does not do anything special or give special features, is completely ridiculous. I would sound completely different if this mount had more to it be it a storyline, garage-like thing (think GTA).

You do realize that 35,99 is 4 dollars short of 39,99, the price of a new expansion pack, filled with content and story.

Or do I need to remind you how price expectations work? I would suggest looking up No Man's Sky for that, since they were an indie game with a AAA price tag.

It does not matter.

You keep attaching your subjective value onto other people and their spending decisions. You feel $36 for mount is absurd because of x reason—an opinion you're certainly entitled to have. Someone else doesn't have to share your opinion. They are well aware 6.0 will likely cost only slightly more than the mount in question, or that various steam sales will offer games like Witcher 3, Total War or whatever at comparable or even lower prices. They don't care. Their hypothetical interest is in that mount. And it isn't any of your business how they choose to spend their money.

Just to hammer in this point further. Several people have pre-ordered the Omega M/F statue, myself included. At nearly $400 CAD, I could purchase Shadowbringers nearly eight times over. Cool. I want the statue. That's it. You can inform me a hundred different ways I could spend my money; telling me all this value I'll gain or that x game has story, customization and even makes me breakfast! I, with my own money, still want to purchase the statue.

Should I remind you? Price expectation essentially boils down to what you reasonably expect customers will be willing to pay. And how your prices compare to other retailers. We can throw out the latter immediately as SE is the only retailer. Which leaves us with "willingness to pay." Call me crazy but I think SE has a good idea on this already.

[NanaWiloh]

Just to make sure we are on the same page here. We are directing our Irk at SE and not the devs, the dev's have no control over thier own budget. If they did Yoshi would not come on live letters at times looking like he has not slept in a month.

[Boa-Noah]

I feel like a lot of people do not understand the cost of a subscription and what it goes towards, in a lot of these threads you see people complain that they pay a sub and still have to pay for store stuff... the sub covers the costs for you to play the game, the upkeep of the game, maintenance and server fees, and development for upcoming content. Optional content is pretty much entirely funded by the cash shop and the cash shop in turn further funds development because it goes directly to the developers and not SE, mainly because SE takes the sub money and just tosses it in a giant pile that keeps SE running, by extension this covers FFXIV but it sure as hell ain't paying overtime so you can have a chariot or a recolored mount or a tiny hat. Fantasia costs money not because re-editing your character is drain on the servers, it costs money because the dev team NEEDS money, in an ideal world fantasia would just be a feature of the game and not an item in the store, but this ain't an ideal world... it's a world where money keeps those gears turning and underpaid employees are milked for every ounce of motivation.

It's perfectly fine to be upset about a price SE might set on this stuff, it's perfectly fine to be upset if they locked dyes or something to the online store, it's perfectly fine to be upset if the next relic step required a mogstation purchase.

But to expect that your sub should cover any and all game related costs is just silly, is there ANY sub game that doesn't have an optional cash shop? World of Warcraft is making metric assloads of money hand over fist and their development time is really quick considering how their engine is optimized and they have a massive staff working on it, even they have a cash shop where you can buy mounts and glamor items, the single best selling MMO of all time has an optional cash shop and a sub fee. They're making nearly a billion dollars a year in nothing but sub fees and it's not enough that all content is free in game, there is just no way this unrealistic ideal can ever happen, to further show how powerful a cash shop is you can play games that survive SOLELY on cash shop sales, they're a key component to pretty much every MMO that exists on the market.

Whenever I see someone comment something like: "15$ for a dress in a game I already pay sub for" I die a little inside...

[Juicymama]

I feel like a lot of people do not understand the cost of a subscription and what it goes towards, in a lot of these threads you see people complain that they pay a sub and still have to pay for store stuff... the sub covers the costs for you to play the game, the upkeep of the game, maintenance and server fees, and development for upcoming content. Optional content is pretty much entirely funded by the cash shop and the cash shop in turn further funds development because it goes directly to the developers and not SE, mainly because SE takes the sub money and just tosses it in a giant pile that keeps SE running, by extension this covers FFXIV but it sure as hell ain't paying overtime so you can have a chariot or a recolored mount or a tiny hat. Fantasia costs money not because re-editing your character is drain on the servers, it costs money because the dev team NEEDS money, in an ideal world fantasia would just be a feature of the game and not an item in the store, but this ain't an ideal world... it's a world where money keeps those gears turning and underpaid employees are milked for every ounce of motivation.

It's perfectly fine to be upset about a price SE might set on this stuff, it's perfectly fine to be upset if they locked dyes or something to the online store, it's perfectly fine to be upset if the next relic step required a mogstation purchase.

But to expect that your sub should cover any and all game related costs is just silly, is there ANY sub game that doesn't have an optional cash shop? World of Warcraft is making metric assloads of money hand over fist and their development time is really quick considering how their engine is optimized and they have a massive staff working on it, even they have a cash shop where you can buy mounts and glamor items, the single best selling MMO of all time has an optional cash shop and a sub fee. They're making nearly a billion dollars a year in nothing but sub fees and it's not enough that all content is free in game, there is just no way this unrealistic ideal can ever happen, to further show how powerful a cash shop is you can play games that survive SOLELY on cash shop sales, they're a key component to pretty much every MMO that exists on the market.

Whenever I see someone comment something like: "15$ for a dress in a game I already pay sub for" I die a little inside...

Well said, thank you sir.
Take my upvote.

[Jandor]

Some of you guys need to dial it back a tad, you're not the second coming of Jesus Christ just because you splashed out £30 on the mogshop.

You bought what bought for yourself, you bought it because you wanted it. You didn't buy it to save the game, you didn't buy it as some kind of favour to us smelly poors, and you didn't buy it because the servers would shut down otherwise. Don't go parking your literal whales ass right in my face and getting upset that I don't wanna kiss it.

I mean, call me an untrusting soul if you like, but given the game was hugely profitable back when it had far fewer subscribers and no cash shop I somehow doubt the steady rise in popularity over the intervening years has left them in a massive financial black hole that they NEED cash shop sales to plug. They want the extra money, and you want the extra products, why pretend it's anything other than what it is?

[Batbrat]

The mount is very nice! I thought about getting it but a lot of my friends got it and it felt redundant to get it too, so I just hitch rides on theirs instead. Kind of a 'who's driving' and everyone whips out their keys situation. It's pricey but not urgently needed and it's not going anywhere so I don't mind! Somethings its okay to wait on/save for or ultimately decide against needing at all anyways.

[Zukkii]

I feel like a lot of people do not understand the cost of a subscription and what it goes towards, in a lot of these threads you see people complain that they pay a sub and still have to pay for store stuff... the sub covers the costs for you to play the game, the upkeep of the game, maintenance and server fees, and development for upcoming content. Optional content is pretty much entirely funded by the cash shop and the cash shop in turn further funds development because it goes directly to the developers and not SE, mainly because SE takes the sub money and just tosses it in a giant pile that keeps SE running, by extension this covers FFXIV but it sure as hell ain't paying overtime so you can have a chariot or a recolored mount or a tiny hat. Fantasia costs money not because re-editing your character is drain on the servers, it costs money because the dev team NEEDS money, in an ideal world fantasia would just be a feature of the game and not an item in the store, but this ain't an ideal world... it's a world where money keeps those gears turning and underpaid employees are milked for every ounce of motivation.

It's perfectly fine to be upset about a price SE might set on this stuff, it's perfectly fine to be upset if they locked dyes or something to the online store, it's perfectly fine to be upset if the next relic step required a mogstation purchase.

But to expect that your sub should cover any and all game related costs is just silly, is there ANY sub game that doesn't have an optional cash shop? World of Warcraft is making metric assloads of money hand over fist and their development time is really quick considering how their engine is optimized and they have a massive staff working on it, even they have a cash shop where you can buy mounts and glamor items, the single best selling MMO of all time has an optional cash shop and a sub fee. They're making nearly a billion dollars a year in nothing but sub fees and it's not enough that all content is free in game, there is just no way this unrealistic ideal can ever happen, to further show how powerful a cash shop is you can play games that survive SOLELY on cash shop sales, they're a key component to pretty much every MMO that exists on the market.

Whenever I see someone comment something like: "15$ for a dress in a game I already pay sub for" I die a little inside...

Why are you comparing a F2P game with a subscription based MMO?

F2P games need that cash shop to survive. A sub based MMO doesn't. Square Enix keeps making more and more money from subs each year, so I doubt they actually need the cashshop to break even.

Where did you hear that WoW has free content? Requiring you to pay sub so you can play is not free, it's still paid...

The argument is that 36 dollars for a mount that does little to nothing extra compared to literally ANY OTHER MOUNT, is too steep. And there is a reason why microtransactions are called microtranscations. There is nothing micro about an MTX 4 dollars short of an expansion pack.

[JohnSpawnVFX]

Some of you guys need to dial it back a tad, you're not the second coming of Jesus Christ just because you splashed out £30 on the mogshop.

You bought what bought for yourself, you bought it because you wanted it. You didn't buy it to save the game, you didn't buy it as some kind of favour to us smelly poors, and you didn't buy it because the servers would shut down otherwise. Don't go parking your literal whales ass right in my face and getting upset that I don't wanna kiss it.

I mean, call me an untrusting soul if you like, but given the game was hugely profitable back when it had far fewer subscribers and no cash shop I somehow doubt the steady rise in popularity over the intervening years has left them in a massive financial black hole that they NEED cash shop sales to plug. They want the extra money, and you want the extra products, why pretend it's anything other than what it is?

Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the shouts of people policing where I can spend or not my hard earned money. Can you repeat again?

Because it sounds those are the ones who need to dial it back a bit. Don't want the mount? Don't get it. Back tf off from berating others who got it.

[linayar]

The argument is that 36 dollars for a mount that does little to nothing extra compared to literally ANY OTHER MOUNT, is too steep.

That argument is irrelevant because it's up to individual player to decide that. If it's too steep, then the answer is not to buy. If not enough people buy it, then SE will have to reconsider its pricing. But if there is enough people who buy it, then it's not too steep. The market decides the prices.

And there is a reason why microtransactions are called microtranscations. There is nothing micro about an MTX 4 dollars short of an expansion pack.

This is not a microtransaction. It's an online store.

[Zukkii]

You're right. I was wrong. I shall no longer asks questions or voice my opinion.

I shall just consume product and get excited for next product.