Cash shop confirmed

[Tyos]

Those who are not willing to pay more for it will be left behind in some way, because some of them care a lot about vanity here and they shouldnt need to pay more to have it.

Step by step this game is getting closer to the Guild Wars model. But there we dont pay 15 dollars monthly and we knew additional content would be sold for real money since beggining.

There is no excuse for a sucess game like FFXIV introducing a cash shop but being greedy with their loyal fans. Instead of adding that cash shop from beggining (they would lose lots of players there) they made you get loyal to the game after spending hundreds of hours here. And now that you wont leave the game because you spend plenty of your real life time here they introduce this new shop. In my opinion its a very cheap and smart way to get easy money.

Addict first then make more money on them later. SE new business model.

[KirakunAUS]

I see
Vanity items = content...
I think we should start bitching now cause when expansion gets released...
THEY EXPECT US TO PAY FOR IT or else we can't access new contents!

[Moqi]

Vanity items = content...

They don't magically appear out of thin air. Vanity items in master recipe books are a DoH's endgame just like Coil is to DoM and DoW.

[saeedaisspecial]

I see
Vanity items = content...
I think we should start bitching now cause when expansion gets released...
THEY EXPECT US TO PAY FOR IT or else we can't access new contents!

The two are not equal.
An expansion features new zones, new storyline, new jobs, pretty much a huge chunk of content is added.
Where as a cash shop is charging you potentially 1/3 (some will probably be less, some will be more, but let's go with an average of 1/3) of what you'd pay for an expansion for a single minion/mount.
We would usually get minions and mounts with patches, we would not get all new zones, storylines, jobs, and huge content releases (to the scale that an expansion does) in a regular patch.
They are not the same.

[Sho86]

I see
Vanity items = content...
I think we should start bitching now cause when expansion gets released...
THEY EXPECT US TO PAY FOR IT or else we can't access new contents!

Expansions are not cash shops.

Expansions - next chapter in a story/game/arc that could be standalone if need be that has a massive content dump on its own for a set price.

Cash Shop - nickle and diming you for small pieces of the game that should of been included with set price of expansion or included based off sub fees alone if the next chapter wasn't ready yet.

[Sammich]

Cash Shop - nickle and diming you for small pieces of the game that should of been included with set price of expansion or included based off sub fees alone if the next chapter wasn't ready yet.

Yup. Can't help but feel sceptical...

[SirEdeonX]

I think we should start bitching now cause when expansion gets released...
THEY EXPECT US TO PAY FOR IT or else we can't access new contents!

Well yeah. If you think about it, there's really no need for an expansion, cuz all the content could be put into patches.
Haven't you ever wondered why they release expansions that are basically like the major patches we're already getting?
But they do it for the money - like every other company yeah. Maybe that's why people blindly accept it.

However, from a business standpoint, I - kinda - get the need for an expansion.
It's both a way to:
- get new people into the game since they can market it pretty much like it was all new (although they already do this for the patches, but the word expansion has another connotation)
- get people to return since it's a "bigger" thing (cuz they've been holding content from patches to put there, even if by delaying certain features)
Also, expansions help drive the sales up again to pay for the maintenance of the service that keeps increasing as the player base does (however in a perfect world the subscription fee should cover this).

But I digress. Let me continue on topic:
CASH SHOPS ARE BAD! RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!

[KirakunAUS]

Do you not understand that we pay a monthly subscription for the content in the game already? There is NO reason to pay $15 a month if they are going to hold back content in favor of selling it for extra cash.

Haha...
My response was in relation to this.

Well yeah. If you think about it, there's really no need for an expansion, cuz all the content could be put into patches.
Haven't you ever wondered why they release expansions that are basically like the major patches we're already getting?
But they do it for the money - like every other company yeah. Maybe that's why people blindly accept it.

However, from a business standpoint, I - kinda - get the need for an expansion.
It's both a way to:
- get new people into the game since they can market it pretty much like it was all new (although they already do this for the patches, but the word expansion has another connotation)
- get people to return since it's a "bigger" thing (cuz they've been holding content from patches to put there, even if by delaying certain features)
Also, expansions help drive the sales up again to pay for the maintenance of the service that keeps increasing as the player base does (however in a perfect world the subscription fee should cover this).

But I digress. Let me continue on topic:
CASH SHOPS ARE BAD! RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!

Good that you can distinguish actual content and collection (luxury item).
Right now I classify cash shop items as collection/luxury items.

They are not a necessity.
Those who want to collect. Go ahead.
Those who don't want. Fine.
I am not the one who is to judge on how you spend your money.

You don't need these items to progress in game.
I got my free chocobo as mount. I don't need to pay Sleipnir to go around the area.

When the time comes where you need to buy an item from cash shop for power up to clear something, I will be long gone.

Since you like to refer to business point of view.
As a business, where there is potential demand, businessmen are not foolish enough to ignore this and not maximize profit.

Don't like cash shop. Don't submit and buy. Let the wallet do the talking.

[Moqi]

Don't like cash shop. Don't submit and buy. Let the wallet do the talking.

The problem is this doesn't work because we're already giving them money to make these items with our sub... even if no one were to buy them, they'd just sit at the cash shop accumulating virtual dust, it's not like SE would lose anything. They have no reason to get rid of the cash shop and put them in the game even if it turned out to be a total bust, because they win either way, they just win a little more if people buy them.

There is nothing in it that will give anyone a huge advantage.

It depends on your definition of advantage. Role players who buy vanity items are at an advantage, people who love to do contests have more outfits to pick from... not everything is about stats. And this is assuming they won't be tradeable/sellable, I'm not sure if they've specified it.

[KirakunAUS]

The problem is this doesn't work because we're already giving them money to make these items with our sub... even if no one were to buy them, they'd just sit at the cash shop accumulating virtual dust, it's not like SE would lose anything. They have no reason to get rid of the cash shop and put them in the game even if it turned out to be a total bust, because they win either way, they just win a little more if people buy them.


It depends on your definition of advantage. Role players who buy vanity items are at an advantage, people who love to do contests have more outfits to pick from... not everything is about stats. And this is assuming they won't be tradeable/sellable, I'm not sure if they've specified it.

I don't see the problem. Let it collect virtual dust.
This is not some pokemon game where you need to collect them all and be a master pokemon trainer.

This is not about P2W.
This is not about "just not buying it"
This is about content which would have had an avenue to being obtained in game being removed and sold in the cash shop, like the Odin mount.

Sorry. Was this written in stone that this can be obtained in game.