2.2 Retainers via Microtransactions

[Valendred]

In an interview with Dengenki Online, Yoshi P explain that they are going to be introducing more retainers as a 'paid' service.

There are so many problems with this, it's hard to choose one to start with.

1) Microtransactions in general, in a Pay 2 Play game

Apparently, gone is the days where your subscription fee pays for the game and all gameplay related things. Retainers should be purchased via in-game currencies or earned via questing. Microtransactions are unacceptable in a subscription based MMO, if players wanted to deal with them, they would play F2P games that are usually riddled and extremely hurt by these transactions.

2) The Pay 2 Win Aspect

It has been confirmed in 2.2 that retainers will be able to go out on missions and gather materials and more. The person who spends their real life money on more retainers will have more access to materials and be able to obtain them much quicker than someone who does not. This is literally the definition of Pay 2 Win if these purchased retainers are able to perform these gathering ventures.

There is much more to be said about this topic but I feel as though I've presented the most important information. I know if this change goes live, I'll be talking with my wallet and cancelling my subscription immediately.

What do you all think?



EDIT: Link to source interview

http://dengekionline.com/elem/000/000/824/824505/

[Nekodar]

In an interview with Dengenki Online, Yoshi P explain that they are going to be introducing more retainers as a 'paid' service.

In FFXI you had to pay an extra monthly fee for additional characters.
Not much different here.

And from what we know of the ventures so far is that it costs some sort of credit each time you send them out. As this is a limited resource, you can't just get additional retainers and send them all out to farm.

[Adrian74]

Well. I honestly hope that FFXIV won't touch the P2W stigma and get corrupted by it, because, seriously, when I joined this game, I only needed to know TWO THINGS for decide come playing:

1- It is monthly fee. (No Pay 2 Win)
2- It's a Final Fantasy Online (And has catgirls)

And those two things seem rather simple, I know, but at the same time, are not. Because, onle the first of them means A LOT of things, differences between the ideologies of the game change almost everything and all aspects of the game, even the community you are going to have there changes depending of that.

The ideologies between P2W and Monthly Fee ones are different, way different, and I'm sure that many people would leave if this starts to change their ideology... It's just... Sad.

PS: Having additional characters doesn't really affect that much the game... Am I right..?

Everything shall be obtainable in game, pay every hour with gil for the retainers would be a good way for spending gil.

[Valendred]

In FFXI you had to pay an extra monthly fee for additional characters.
And from what we know of the ventures so far is that it costs some sort of credit each time you send them out. As this is a limited resource, you can't just get additional retainers and send them all out to farm.

Characters and benefits for a character are entirely different as a concept.

Characters are separated and unaffected by one another in general. The retainers are entirely related to each individual character.

What if, for example, you receive 4 of these credits per day, and each retainer uses them one at a time, and when the retainer returns, you receive your rewards.

Assuming the retainer cannot sell things on the market boards during a venture, this leads to several issues.

The players with the ideal amount of retainers, that being amount of credits+1, will receive their materials faster, be able to sell them more easily, and be able to get a higher price most likely.

[SendohJin]

What if, for example, you receive 4 of these credits per day, and each retainer uses them one at a time, and when the retainer returns, you receive your rewards.

Assuming the retainer cannot sell things on the market boards during a venture, this leads to several issues.

The players with the ideal amount of retainers, that being amount of credits+1, will receive their materials faster, be able to sell them more easily, and be able to get a higher price most likely.

those are all terrible design choices that may or may not happen and you can deal with them if they come up.

that's not an inherent problem with charging for extra retainers.

[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.

[TheUltimate3]

I expected as much to be perfectly honest.

I'm more interested in the Fantasia potion and hope that's out for 2.2.

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?

Also, character customization has always been a premium feature, if it was available at all. /PullsUpSuspenders Back in my day, you made your character once you you were stuck with em! /shakesCane

[Valendred]

those are all terrible design choices that may or may not happen and you can deal with them if they come up.

that's not an inherent problem with charging for extra retainers.

The biggest issue here is that charging for the retainers in the first place is the terrible design choice.

[Doo]

So they going to make it so you need more inventory, then charge you more .

[Valendred]

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.

It's a travesty that this is the current state of the gaming industry, to be frank.