Criticism of Shadowbringers and the hostility there in

[SturmChurro]

It's a matter of semantics anyway. Whether you want to say a subscription is for server access, and the purchase price of the expansion is for all the content therein, money changed hands. It is not entitled to have set expectations for content patches, and the quality of the product sold.

[linayar]

It's a matter of semantics anyway. Whether you want to say a subscription is for server access, and the purchase price of the expansion is for all the content therein, money changed hands. It is not entitled to have set expectations for content patches, and the quality of the product sold.

You're right about money having changed hands. So apparently enough people have voted with their wallet that the game is meeting their expectations for content patches, enough to continue paying a subscription. Those who disagree have also voted with their wallet to (temporarily or permanently) unsubscribe.

Having the mere possibility to participate in the entire category of content known as housing is an incentive to keep people subbed at least 1 month out of 2 regardless of how interested they are in the game at the moment.
I'd much rather have cosmetics than this.

And I never tried to save people from their spending choices, I'm merely pointing out that buying without giving much thought into what we're buying is very common and it's especially true when it comes to subscriptions.

Just because I'm paying doesn't mean I should not criticize the monetization system of the game, and that's exactly what I'm doing, because it's without the shadow of a doubt the greediest I have personally partaken in.

With the continuous flow of content kept in mind, if I'm paying a sub, I don't want cash shop items I have no way of earning through gameplay.
If there's a cash shop with items I can't earn through gameplay, I don't want a mandatory subscription.
For the content we're getting, I think it should be either one or the other, but as the system is right now, I'll feel like I'll truly be getting my money worth of content once they'll quit cutting content out of the game.

You're free to like or dislike it, but personally, FFXIV has given me the best content overall at a very good pace out of all the MMORPGs that I've tried. It's also one of the few that has both a mandatory subscription and a cash shop that are essentially cosmetics in nature. It makes me think whether the two are related, and if so, I'd rather more games copy FFXIV's monetization scheme.

[kaynide]

It's a matter of semantics anyway. Whether you want to say a subscription is for server access, and the purchase price of the expansion is for all the content therein, money changed hands. It is not entitled to have set expectations for content patches, and the quality of the product sold.

I'm generally inclined to agree if this were a mass produced product with a standard bar of quality, like a Starbucks coffee or a McDonald's hamburger. But...each of these expansions is very much a piecemeal thing with each iteration attempting to improve upon the last.

This is just my opinion, but for what I enjoy out of the game, it has done nothing but improve upon the things I want expansion to expansion (namely the story). In addition, the patch cycle is extremely predictable when compared to other MMOs I have played. Some of the gameplay changes I might not particularly agree with, but overall the quality of game has done nothing but increase for my needs.

I'm just not really sure what further expectations I should have; when I compare the quality of ARR with ShB, it's on a totally different level for me. Again, imho!