Why do Vanity items / Player housing / Pets exist?

[BoomerOU]

I know what you were getting at but teams aren't working in isolation 100% of the time.

Agreed, though the principle of division of labor is the same.

[Bufkus]

I see that only three people in this thread really 'get it'.

EDIT: and what 'IT' is, that you all seem to be missing.... The op isn't saying take all of those things out, not at all. He is saying the resources, at this point and time, would be better spent elsewhere. The thing is, you guys will defend your vanity items tooth and nail, yet you will go into another thread, and say the responsiveness is killing the game, and that they need more instance servers, blah blah blah.

The OP is absolutely right. At this current time, the resources need to be focused elsewhere. Disagreeing is pure hypocrisy.

No, the OP and you are absolutely wrong. You have no idea what their resource allocation is like. They could easily work on both vanity content and fixing bugs. Please, stop trying to dictate to Square Enix what they should do. You have absolutely no idea what their development process is like.

You are in the overwhelming minority here.

[BlazeChronic]

You are in the overwhelming minority here.

So since we are the minority, we aren't allowed to like or dislike something. Nice to see the how much the WoW community has permeated my precious FF community

[Welsper59]

So since we are the minority, we aren't allowed to like or dislike something. Nice to see the how much the WoW community has permeated my precious FF community

I think it's more along the lines that you're not right to think your perspectives are how the game should be. The devs/Yoshi clearly want there to be a lot of immersion/imaginative content included into the game... an MMORPG game (significantly immersion based genre). Be it companions, mounts, housing, gold saucer, chat methods, social functions, "fun" equips/items, etc; they're all immersion related content. But just because there's a lot of it, doesn't mean that equal or greater time isn't spent on the endgame-related content itself.

The prevailing philosophy for the FFXIV team is to have a fun time in GENERAL. This does not mean exclusively focusing on the fun of one area of the game (in your case, endgame). To feel like there's something fun to be found that doesn't deal with number crunching or being in an endgame-only progressive stance. Because despite what some think, the memories that people retain from these games RARELY has anything truly positive to do with the endgame content itself. It's typically something to do with the company you keep, and that is something that can be experienced in more ways than just killing the bosses of the hardest raids.

[ZephyrK]

I see that only three people in this thread really 'get it'.

EDIT: and what 'IT' is, that you all seem to be missing.... The op isn't saying take all of those things out, not at all. He is saying the resources, at this point and time, would be better spent elsewhere. The thing is, you guys will defend your vanity items tooth and nail, yet you will go into another thread, and say the responsiveness is killing the game, and that they need more instance servers, blah blah blah.

The OP is absolutely right. At this current time, the resources need to be focused elsewhere. Disagreeing is pure hypocrisy.

If you think the same guys designing vanity items and housing are the same guys working on responsiveness, you are just wrong. You can't refocus those resources because laying off the art designers to hire more coders or network analysts would absolutely tear the heart and identity right out of this game.

[shadowrell_d-_-b]

If you ask me, all the time on a Final Fantasy should be spent on story driven content. Because everything else is probably available in a better version outside the game.

I agree having more story based content would be enjoyable for everyone, however that doesn't make these other things any less viable to some players! Its like you guys want to take the Massively out of MMORPG this game caters to everyone, and such Dev's will create content that Hardcore and casual players want to enjoy (not remove X% of player base from the equation) because the other X% would rather more of this or that content.

their goal is to please everyone honestly if you don't like that part of the game just don't play it, but its not pointless as it helps to add to the feel of the world as a whole and to some players that is a BIG part of their MMO gaming experience.

[Tupsi]

Most stuff for MMOs are mind boggling that they even spend time on development.

PvP? Always fails in games that use class systems.

Mini games? So I am supposed to start up Final Fantasy 14 to play tetris? To play pokemon? Just pointless.

If you ask me, all the time on a Final Fantasy should be spent on story driven content. Because everything else is probably available in a better version outside the game.

Lol. If Monstrosity from XI was in XIV or even came in XI's prime I would sub just to play that, screw the rest of the game xD. For those that don't know, Monstrosity allows you to play as certain monsters for PvE and later PvP - basically an elaborate pet system.

[Talec]

I do not care about pets or mounts or player housing. But I like vanity Items because they make my character look better and more individual. In a game like these were everybody runs around in the same cloths (i.e. Clone-wars) it's really awfull for my eyes.

[Keres]

Those things are fun.

This is a video game; ostensibly, something that people do for fun.

[MStowastiqVahlshdeh]

Those things are fun.

This is a video game; ostensibly, something that people do for fun.

Well said.

And to OP, I prefer content to be challenging I like the "EM,"Tough","ITG" /check system of measuring mob difficulty, I don't like fail once you get a buff next try game mechanics, I prefer trying to complete content real time until I get it right and prefer not to use strat guides unless I have absolutely no choice/nolonger enjoying the content frustrated.

I like open world grinding of free roaming mobs and the ability to skill up abilities/talents gradually. I like non globalcooldowns and elaborate abilities that are customizable. Essentially I like to take my time getting to end game without easy mode.

However, I also love vanity slots, barber shop, pets, seasonal events, confetti, fireworks, love chocolate, in game weddings, RP, path companions, adventurer assistants, elaborate storyline dialog, lore, minions, gear & pet dye,mog bonanza, mini games, gardening,choco raising/racing and YES housing that you can actually USE for more than a log out of game zone. I like it all as long as amazing graphics and character design is included.

tl/dr
I don't think you need to be casual to like extra goodies in a game.