Fat Cat Coat & Pagaga’s Emote.

[Iyrnthota]

*looks at Office365*
*sensible chuckle*

I mean, arguably a good example of a worse practice.

[Illmaeran]

That sort of money is trivial for a lot of people. Why would they object?

Still better than sinking a couple of hundred dollars each month into a gacha game like many people do without complaining. $15 a month for near unlimited play time plus an additional $30 a month for vanity sundries to make the experience more fun is a bargain compared to a lot of the entertainment options out there.

If you don't want to pay extra for something, then don't. Your game experience isn't going to suffer for the lack of a few cash shop items.

What others choose to do with their money is their business, whether it's the morning Starbucks on the way to work (there goes over $100 a month), the bi-weekly lunch out at their favorite fast food/casual dining spot ($80-$160 a month), $20 a hour for laser tag (or more if you're buying a bundle), etc.

Can you honestly say you don't spend at least $25 a month on frivolous items you don't need to have just because they add a little extra enjoyment to your life?

Exactly this.

I understand why people look askance at a company offering things for sale in addition to the purchase and subscription price for a game like this, but in the end it comes down to two things:

1. Businesses are there to make a profit.
2. Completely optional items are available based on the discretion of the purchaser.

Number 1's pretty self explanatory and number 2, as Jojoya said, is up to the person deciding to spend the money. As far as entertainment costs or other uses of discretionary income go, a $22 glamour that I'll get hours of use out of is a better dollar/unit time value than a movie or a meal and drink out. It's all about perceived value. I went eight years playing this game before I bought anything from the Mogstation because I didn't find it to be of value given my financial responsibilities. Now that I have greater discretionary income, dropping $15-20 once a month is nothing so I perceive greater value in the purchase as the cost is a lower percent of my total income and I can afford to buy it in addition to spend my normal entertainment budget. Hell, one less meal from McDonald's for me and my wife is probably a good thing!

At $13.00 per month, plus a bi-annual expansion cost of $60, XIV costs 51 cents per day; that's just over 2 cents per hour when spread across 365 days. If you average one (1) hour of play time per day, that's 51 cents per hour ($13 x 12 + $30 = $186; divided by 365 = $0.509). If you average two hours per day, that's 25.5 cents per hour. These days you'll be hard pressed to find a not-free hobby that provides the amount of entertainment time per unit cost than this game.



{Edit addition}

but regardless of someones financial standing, we're free to have opinions about them and their spending habbits.

this example is quiet literally our business because people shilling and whaling are the ones helping promote awful business practices.

You're welcome to hold your opinion on peoples' spending habits, but should think twice about expressing them in public. It's unkind and generally impolite to get down on people based on harmless actions that have no direct bearing on you. How others want to spend their money is up to them, not you, and it's not your place to publicly comment on their decisions.

Segueing into; no, it is not quite literally your business. Companies offering items for sale that are purely discretionary and have no direct bearing on game play is not an awful practice; it's opening up another revenue stream. At this point there's no turning back and we have to accept that additional monetization from the Mogstation isn't going away. People purchasing Mogstation items aren't promoting it any longer as it no longer needs promotion; they're just spending their money in the way they see fit.


TL/DR: Mogstation isn't going away so people buying from it aren't promoting it or causing SE business people to consider it as a potential revenue stream: it's good money to them and is here to stay. Businesses exist to make a profit and opening up multiple revenue streams is smart business. What people spend their money on is their decision and while you're free to have whatever opinion of them you want, it's not a good idea to express it in public.

[Raoabolic]

I mean, arguably a good example of a worse practice.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I had a good laugh when I heard that Word/Powerpoint/ect. was going to be a monthly subscription. Though if we are to go back on topic, I doubt much will change. Plenty will whale out and SE will keep doubling down on this situation. It happened to a number of MMOs in the past like EQ2 and WoW and history loves to repeat itself in an era where history would rather be forgotten. It would be silly to think that XIV wouldn't follow considering they are the new poster child of MMOs similar to how EQ2 was before WoW took over.

[Iyrnthota]

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I had a good laugh when I heard that Word/Powerpoint/ect. was going to be a monthly subscription. Though if we are to go back on topic, I doubt much will change. Plenty will whale out and SE will keep doubling down on this situation. It happened to a number of MMOs in the past like EQ2 and WoW and history loves to repeat itself in an era where history would rather be forgotten. It would be silly to think that XIV wouldn't follow considering they are the new poster child of MMOs similar to how EQ2 was before WoW took over.

True, I don't expect it to change. In fact I expect it to get far worse as time goes on.
Still gonna moan about it though. Nothing like a bit of complaining.

[SentioftheHoukai]

I'm pretty sure that other games don't ask you for an active subscription to play the game or to pay an additional fee to rent additional "bank slots" and so forth. Even B2P at least let you play the game without additional fee.

At least in those games I can understand why they have a lot of monetization and whether you like it or not, at least you can play freely. They suck, but they suck for free.

These outfits cost more than my subscription fee for crying out loud, and while the usual excuse is "bUt It'S oPtIoNaL", it's only a matter of time until the optional becomes the "recommended".

If anything I do sincerely hope this happens. It will be interesting how people will defend that.

I agree with Voltyblast here. I wanna see Square Enix continue to make shitty financial decisions, to the point it becomes untenable. $25 outfits with 4 pieces. $30 with 3 pieces. Watch people defend that. WATCH THEM. Yes, my motive is spite. How could you tell?

One of the worst cash shops out of any non-P2W MMO and yet people defend it, sad.

A sad day and a sad community. Yet, this community will defend anything and the evidence bears it out. May as well grit your teeth and get used to it~

[Raoabolic]

I agree with Voltyblast here. I wanna see Square Enix continue to make shitty financial decisions, to the point it becomes untenable. $25 outfits with 4 pieces. $30 with 3 pieces. Watch people defend that. WATCH THEM. Yes, my motive is spite. How could you tell?



A sad day and a sad community. Yet, this community will defend anything and the evidence bears it out. May as well grit your teeth and get used to it~

Oh come on, no need to go full Sasuke. During ARR and HW the devs/SE had to prove themselves. Meanwhile many called SE the EA of Japan due to the SE's money hungry ways and questionable decisions. Once XIV became top dog, what did you expect? Let me tell you the secret that will make you laugh at all of this...

It's a video game, don't sweat it. There will be more video games and there are plenty of video games already made that might be better! Have you played all of them? I bet there are some pretty good ones out there!

[SturmChurro]

...

I think their logic here is that they made the male and female variants of the bottoms available to both, as I said in a different thread. Hence the price hike. I definitely do not think some halfslops are worth $4 extra though. They did this previously with male and female variants of the top for the street attire.

I don't know if that has already been discussed in this thread, I haven't read it.

[Catwho]

I made fun of my friends who went SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY over the Shiba mount.

And here I am sorely, sorely tempted to do exactly the same for a vanity glam I'll wear for a week.

[hobostew]

Oh come on, no need to go full Sasuke. During ARR and HW the devs/SE had to prove themselves. Meanwhile many called SE the EA of Japan due to the SE's money hungry ways and questionable decisions.

Feels like SE is always gets ultra greedy and inevitably s**ts on themselves every decade or so. Can't wait for the NFTman to shift blame around to anyone but themselves.

[Vahlnir]

I miss the times when mogstation items were only for older event items. And people were adamant about defending the shop for that reason, and saying that they will never sell unique items on it.
All I can say, as I said years ago, "you guys asked for this". Because I doubt my occasional Fantasia purchases were one of the reasons for this

Even back then, I think it was inevitable that they would start selling unique items. Everyone should have seen it coming. Like it or not, that is exactly what happened.