Thread: 2.2 Retainers via Microtransactions

Originally Posted by Musashidon

p2p is p2w since you have to pay to even play it's p2w because i can't even play without paying for it so if someone pays they can play all they want and i can't.

LOL, so true. If you don't pay, you can't win in a P2P game.

Originally Posted by Razzle

When I first saw the Mog Station website I knew it was going downhill, behind that cute little moogle logo stands a marketing plan to get more cash on top of a sub fee. Under services there is "coming soon", am I the only one not wishing to find out what is "coming soon"? lol

Give fantasia as a quest reward? As a seal exchange? As a rare drop? As a treasure hunt? Why pay on top of a monthly fee for that?

Sadly the days of paying 100% p2p are gone or close to that. These days we have developers develop 100% of a game, but only realeasing 50% of it and then after some weeks release the other X2 25% as a "DLC" for more money, with the rest "coming soon".

You can't buy a 100% game and be done with it these days.

Half of it is the issue where they haven't been accounting for inflation over the past ten years or so. People paying $15 per month back in, say, 2004, was much nicer than people paying $15 per month nearly a decade later. I'm waiting for P2P MMOs to switch to something like $17.99 a month or $20 and remove all microtransactions, but the problem with that is it's incredibly risky to assume people would rather pay an extra $5 a month to play your game than have to deal with benign microtransactions. If I was developing an MMO that was costing millions if not tens of millions of dollars, I would want to choose as safe of a pricing model as possible.

They should add something like the gobbie bag quests from XI but instead for your retainer space and max items for sale.

Until we have more information about how the Ventures work it is difficult to determine whether this could be P2W or not. If for example the gear the retainers wear increases in spirit bonding this would be a big problem, and allowing extra income in gil absolutely provides an endgame advantage early on. Many players which ignore gil as a factor may see this as having no advantage, but until you have full gear from T6-9 or new tomes (both being limited) it will matter.

Assuming ilvl90 crafted gear can be penta-melded (think level V materia), if I have fully melded ilvl90 gear I will (initially) have a CLEAR gear advantage in endgame content over your full myth/allagan gear. All my tank gear could have max parry and accuracy capped, better than current BiS etc. Any boost in gil by paying real life dollars is paying to win, in this case, since materia prices will (probably) be very high. Once more info is revealed, it will become more clear whether there will be much of an advantage at all, but discounting the fact that this could in no way be pay (with rl dollars) to win (have an advantage over others with all else being equal) is just ignorant bliss. More facts are needed to make a true judgment of course, but this is just an example.

Originally Posted by Starlord

Not going to stop comparing because it is essentially the same thing. Sorry.

LOL ... well I guess I cant argue with such great points like those! You heard it here first folks deliberately selling extra bank space like a full fledged F2P game while alt mail is prohibited is "ESSENTIALLY" the same as making an entire other alt you can play and level separately while being allowed to exchange items.

If you can manage the 2 retainers you have just fine I don't see the issue.

This is an optional service if you want more than 2 of them. Something that was planned and even ready at launch of 1.0.

If you wanna be super cheap, make 7 alts on your server and abuse your FC chest.

Originally Posted by Finuve

I would prefer that over a pay option yes, either way im not getting it and at least the one way it isnt getting dangled in front of me in an unfair way

You are entitle to your opinion, however, majority of the population would love to disagree and many people were willing to pay for appear change. AS many said SE is a business and its purpose to made as much money as possible for the stockholder without pissing off the player too much while proving a good gaming experience. If there is a way to get more money without unbalancing the game and people were begging for it.... why not?

I didn't read all the posts here.. While I don't quite know how I feel about the microtransaction aspect of MMO gaming, SE has said (a lot, unfortunately) that server space is what prevents us from having more storage in game.. If people, by buying an additional retainer, help fund increased server space - that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I don't like the sound of "pay 2 win", though I'm not sure paying for "additional storage" falls into that category, I guess it really depends on what retainers will be capable of and what kind of limit will be established (1 extra or 5?)

Originally Posted by SpookyGhost

The question, then, is what are you going to DO with all that gil?

The real question is... What you gon' do with all that junk? All that junk inside your trunk?