Cash Shop: Stifling development.

[Jynx]

This thread isn't to point out what's allready been said but to point out something some people might be forgeting now that the cash shop is in the game, and rolling pretty heavilly with the content it's choosing to lock people out of.

I'm not saying that I'm the only opinion, and I respect that other people may have there own but I haven't really heard people talking about this in the recent cash shop debates. It's more about the long term implications the cash shop can have on the game.

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From this point onward every single development choice is going to have someone ask.

-Can we monitize this?

So going forward when you hear people "Complaining" or "Entitled"

Think about future content and just take a moment to think like the developers. How can we monitize this? If there is no way to monitize it there are chances it may never see the light of day. I personally wonder how many neat ideas for the game are going to be shelved because resources have been placed elsewhere to develope content for the cash shop.

I may be wrong and for the love of everything precious I hope I am, but they have seen and obviously been sucsessfull with turning a hefty profit from the cash shop. In the olden days updates were to keep your subscribers engaged and new systems were added to give your subscription justified. As it stands I'm not sure if the money I pay every month is worth a few new raids every month and a Ilvl upgrade, I wonder how everyone else feels.

Do you feel your subscription dollars are getting their worth? If you cut out all the content from the cash shop, are you getting enough bang for your buck?

I'm worried that new game systems like a ingame Bestiary, better textures, new animations or other neat ideas might be passed over because it's easier to keep the gear treadmill running and charging consumers for vanity items every single patch until subscribers start to fall away. Who knows if by that time if the developers will be happy having made whatever money they could out of us and move on to their next project instead of supporting the game for years to come.

[Nel_Celestine]

Reposting from other topic

The bracelet trading for gil was a really dumb oversight by SE but they can't change the past, only fix it and try to learn from this.

The Cash Shop is here to stay, no amount of complaining or ranting or starting new topics on the forums will change that. Only by voting with wallets will that matter. If you don't like the cash shop, that's fine. Vote with your wallet and don't buy anything. If you only like 1 or 2 things and think it's worth the money to you, go ahead. It's your money and you can do with it as you will.

Those going whole hog because it exists? Few and far between I imagine.

It just really irks me that most people posting lately about Cash Shop this and Cash Shop that and calling nothing but doom, gloom and end of days. This won't be the Gehenna for XIV.

[MrLeonheart]

Do you feel your subscription dollars are getting their worth? If you cut out all the content from the cash shop, are you getting enough bang for your buck?

Yes /10char

[FlareR]

I could care less if someone chooses to spend their money in the cash shop or not. That's their prerogative. Everything in the shop is just extra, not sure why people think it will doom the game.

I feel like I'm getting my worth out of my sub. SE gives just enough content to keep things going. 2.4 introduced the final coil and ilvl while 2.5 will be the standard catch up patch.

[OdinEon]

Totally worth it, I pay in 90 day increments autopayed from my account, I don't notice any decline in my bank account, and the money I save by not buying/playing other games is more than enough to make me feel its worth it. I did buy a sliepnir at the cash shop, but I only ride it on the weekends.

[ChibiChan_Hyperion]

From this point onward every single development choice is going to have someone ask. -Can we monitize this?

Not only are the developers going to be asking themselves that question, but now we have to guess which pieces of revealed content will get this treatment as well. For example, the Eternal Bonding content was hyped and advertised a long time before we found out that the full experience was going to cost real money. Now, whenever something is being revealed or hyped, instead of just wondering which patch it's going to come out in we basically have to ask ourselves: "Will I get this content for the price of my subscription, or am I going to find out later that I have to fork over extra cash for this to be part of my full experience?"

This could be another long term implication to think about.

But regardless, my friends alone make my subscription worth it. I won't be leaving anytime soon.

Reposting from other topic

And your answer to the question at hand is what...? Your quote poses a solution to a problem this thread doesn't even mention. It's very clear from the OP that the Cash Shop is here to stay; we are discussing the implications that this could have for the future and if you feel your subscription is still worth it in light of these.

[pinder2009]

I don't think I'll ever be asking these questions. I trust SE to not be stupid and I personally think the way they did Eternal Bond was acceptable. Standard gets you the marriage, and that is what it is really about. Regardless of what is in the cash shop, at this point, and probably for a long long time to come, I feel that I get more than enough for the my sub cost.

[Cynric]

If you play for vanity the game isn't worth your paying for anymore unless you don't mind paying those extra fees, because it's pretty obvious you will always have to now. As you could get the same experience from an F2P. However know this, even if you pay 14.99 /mo and buy everything in the cash shop once, you still paid less than you might wind up paying in an F2P game for vanity equipment, between the lottery systems and the way those games are designed FF14 is still a better value.

If you play the game to raid only, clearly the game needs to make a lot of improvements in that area as is. It's still more worth it than most games but I don't think it's worth a continued sub once content is exhausted.

If you play casually for an hour or two a day, it depends on how much you value money if this is really worth it. But that goes for any mmo.


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As for myself, do I feel like future content will be placed in the Cash shop? Of course I do, I'd have to be an idiot to think that we aren't losing things we could have gotten before inside the game to the cash shop.

Do I feel like I'm getting my moneys worth? Maybe if I only paid the legacy fee of 9.99, It might feel worth it. But for what we get per patch at entry fee 12.99 * 3 = 38.97 , every 3 months is a cycle, 2 HM, 1 new dungeon, 1 Primal 1 EX, 1 Raid update, and a few small updates throughout that time, as well as a small update to the story. I can't really say it's 100% worth the money, especially when you consider that in the future content or parts of content may be locked behind having to pay more money. An example is this month, if I wanted to get a Bond with all the bells and whistles the amount I would pay is 52.99, very close to the cost of a full game. Even thinking about it being a one time fee it doesn't feel worth the price when I could buy a full game and get 30 hours + of playtime from that game.


Of course having said all that I do still enjoy the game and continue to pay my sub because I enjoy the game. But no it doesn't feel as worth it as say the earlier 2.0 updates did.

[Nel_Celestine]

And your answer to the question at hand is what...? Your quote poses a solution to a problem this thread doesn't even mention. It's very clear from the OP that the Cash Shop is here to stay; we are discussing the implications that this could have for the future and if you feel your subscription is still worth it in light of these.

It's another moaning post about how the cash shop ~might ruin the game forever~ again. I've seen the same basic post from him before and others.

Do I think my sub is currently worth it? Yes.
Will this impact the future of the game negatively? Doubtful.

[Vondoomervil]

I think the FF14 forum community is a being a little over dramatic about the situation tbh.