Online store prices are outrageously high!

[Krotoan]

But it isn't just me. I'm not the one who started the thread. Nor am I one of the many other people who have all pointed out how over-priced these items are. Plenty of people have pointed this out. So that's not true.

A small number of people being prepared to overpay for something doesn't make a market nor define how the majority think.

But you aren't the majority. If you were the shop would have died. It's evident by just walking around the game that plenty of people pay for these things. Not a minority.

"you have a problem" meaning you are one of the few who sits there and complains that things cost to much while everyone else either buys the items or leaves them be.

The reasons being used to try and defend the prices make no sense. People are saying things like 'I usually buy a Starbucks drink for $6 so paying $6 for an emote (or whatever) is fine. I'll just go without my Starbucks drink for a day.'

But Starbucks is literally the go-to example when people talk about how over-priced street shop drinks are. Defending over-paying for one thing because you usually over-pay for another thing doesn't make it okay.

And the argument that the drinks aren't over-priced as Starbucks is a successful company so the market is happy to pay their prices isn't valid either. There are 7.6 billion people on the planet. Only a tiny minority of those think paying exorbitant prices for a drink is okay. But enough do to keep the company in business. Doesn't stop Starbucks having their deserved reputation for over-priced drinks no matter what the 'market' says.

Fine. lets detach this from starbucks since you fixated on it. Take the bus one day. There you saved 5-10 dollars in gas. Skip eating fast food for a day or two and eat something homemade. There you saved 8-15 dollars. Much of the population that plays these games pays for convenience and luxury daily. It is a budget and you could manage it if you paid attention to where your money was going.

Also it's provable that the items are over-priced. Many, many games give you much more for less money or at least comparable items for less.

Such.. as? Remember some of those games the character/job/server systems are much less robust. One character in FFXIV is enough to experience everything the game has to offer as far as content.

The retainer situation alone isn't something optional or vanity. It's literally influencing game design. Every serious crafter can attest to that. It is not optional. lol

It is a convenience. It can be worked around with large amounts of gil to buy mats (earnable in game and quite easy to do) and gathering specific mats as you need them (god forbid you play the game instead of just hoard stuff).

On a related note, it's true that demand and availability dictate the price (duh) but I'm
a firm believer in educating people in hopes
it changes how they perceive something. You can't look at the state of the industry now and how it used to be and tell me that shit hasn't hit the fan so hard these last years that the fan stopped working a long time ago.

While there are several companies out there pushing the boundaries of what is a game and what is a slot machine. FFXIV right now is not there. Or even close. It has a set market with no RNG and a pretty consistent price point.
Pushing back against ANY change because other companies are doing worse things is senseless. I do remember games from the beginning and honestly the options and quality of games have progressed so much.

And then I see people not just going along with that incessant greed but actively defending it. Are you all shareholders? lol And the tired ol' excuse of 'it's a business!'. Because earning earning unfathomable amounts of money isn't enough, they must earn all the money in the universe (and monthly).

Just because someone points out that something is a reasonable pricepoint and explains how markets work.. doesn't mean they're shills. Has SE done some questionable things? Sure. Would I trust them to make the best decision for MY interests every time? Hell no. Are they currently running a absolute money sink of a game? Nope.

On an unrelated note, Starbucks' coffee is disgusting. There, I said it. lol

People who drink starbucks don't actually like coffee. They like starbucks drinks. Like drinking candy bars. They haven't run a business on black or simple cream and sugar drinks for a while.

Let's be real here. The prices could double overnight and we'd still have plenty of people here defending it, because that defines a fanboy. Fair enough. To each their own. But don't expect other people to not rattle that cage of yours every time that happens.

Rattle the cage? Sure. Whine that you cannot afford something that is currently a reasonable and market accepted price? Nah, you're getting backlash.