Cash shop confirmed

[Nemhy]

There are a few concerns that I have regarding this new system. Not going to campaign against this decision since I'm fairly certain this will not be just scrapped. However, there is something that can be added that I (and many of my peers) would appreciate and be more accepting of this system.

Stuff like the Sleipnir Mount (hell ANY future mounts, really), minions not yet in the game, cosmetic clothing should NOT BE CASH SHOP EXCLUSIVE. Either make them rare drops/recipes in the game, or utilize the Veteran Rewards! As it stands, majority of the vet rewards past the Behemoth mount are pretty underwhelming! It's a great way to reward long time subscribers who may not have the disposable income to shell out cash in bursts. Would also fit the theme of the Vet rewards being cosmetic/visually nice goodies!

Now here is where things become mostly hypothetical! If you are not interested in such talk, then you don't need to read anything else. Lets say the Cash Shop comes out premium looking gear/mounts (they have more particle effect ect). Close to the same, or maybe even a bit better visually than something released via crating recipe or rare drop. Myself (and a few others I'm sure) find it very demotivating/disheartening to invest gil, (whether it be melds to get rare materials or what) and time spent grinding into items that can be easily one-upped by someone with a deeper IRL wallet. Yes, it's purely cosmetic items but there's no way I feel alone in thinking this! Please don't go down this route ever please, terrible way of doing things ESPECIALLY FOR THE P2P GAME.

Going to end this with a very well said quote. Awareness of such a potential practice needs to be known by all players spending their hard earned money to play this game.

From now on during the development process this will be a constant question. Do we make this item available in game, or shall we just sell it to the players?

[StrejdaTom]

Stuff like the Sleipnir Mount (hell ANY future mounts, really), minions not yet in the game, cosmetic clothing should NOT BE CASH SHOP EXCLUSIVE.

Sir if this happened, I woudlnt say a single thing against cash shop.

[Edellis]

[the cash shop] violates the spirit of this game and everything I've seen from it so far. When I see an exciting new item in a preview, you want my first reaction to be "I can't wait to get that!" not, "Wow, I hope it's not cash-only." And that's what I'm going to think from now on.

This, this is 100% my feeling on this matter, and the reason i'm now against it, because it happened to me yesterday. This sort of feeling is the main reason i pay the $15 subscription fee, and actually feel like i'm getting my monies worth regardless of how long i play. One of the main reasons i stuck with FFXIV is because of all the "useless" content in the game that's weaved into crafting, questing and otherwise just playing the game. It's the reason i'm able to enjoy FFXIV as if it were one of the PSX/SNES standalone titles. But now, one of the most aesthetically pleasing features of the game has been cracked wide open and the playerbase is under constant threat of exploitation. And already, I feel like my $15 subscription fee has lost its value.


Fantaisa and Server Exchange, i had no issue with. I'm also completely fine with seasonal and special event content, especially if they were obtainable through seasonal quests and they don't plan to run them again for years at at time. Veteran rewards? Cool, i was going to resub anyway, i'll take it.

But anything else is literally content i've already paid for, being sold to me at a premium. And that is bullshit. If i'm not (or never was) able to get it in-game, it shouldn't exist in a P2P title.

[Bluejay]

I am already paying $15/month and paying for the game and expansion packs. If they make a new mount or any kind of items they need to put it in game and put some game play around getting it to add additional content to the game. It's ridiculous they are expecting people to pay 3 times to get this stuff.

But people will lap it up like sheep so they will keep doing it.

[Lan_Mantear]

I am already paying $15/month and paying for the game and expansion packs. If they make a new mount or any kind of items they need to put it in game and put some game play around getting it to add additional content to the game. It's ridiculous they are expecting people to pay 3 times to get this stuff.

But people will lap it up like sheep so they will keep doing it.

They add a lot of stuff in game that are technically included with your subscription. Why not have fun with those? These additional items in the Mog Station? Pretend they don't exist. Because frankly, they aren't for you.

[Fayto]

Get over yourselves, just don't buy if you are against it. Doesn't harm anyone.

[Tsukino]

Doesn't harm anyone.

It's extremely naive to believe that.

Content that is sold in a cash shop is rarely "extra" content they would have not made, and much more often is content they would have put in the game anyway but decided to charge people for instead. The past seasonal items shown here are some of the most blatant examples of this - they currently sell at each repeated event for negligible gil amounts.

Beyond that, as more people buy into the whole idea, it encourages them to devote more resources to the cash shop and place more things in it they might have included in the game as time goes on. Why put more vanity in the standard game when people have proven they will pay extra for it?

It harms everyone.

[SpookyGhost]

Optional. Harms no one. It is no naive at all, it is the truth..

Since no one else is explaining it, I'll bother to do so. All the content created for the cash shop (or literally just ripped from the current game) COULD have just been put in the game for absolutely free of charge. You could've, very easily, had access to it through the game in 2.4 or 2.5. However, instead of doing that, they are selling those items in the cash shop. What people don't understand is that this game is not even budgeted nearly as high as the sub count is currently - they are making an INSANE amount of profit out of this game by using their initial set budget and the rest of it goes straight in SE's pockets. Not only that, they are SO incredibly cheap that they have the balls to sell things not available in game in a cash shop. Yes, it is vanity, good for you and your basic understanding of the English language - however, just because something is a cosmetic item doesn't mean that it should be paid for when you are already paying the company MONTHLY to produce this game AND the models they are putting on the cash shop. I have literally already bought all those items by paying my monthly sub, I should NOT have to pay for something AGAIN that I have literally funded. You are NOT paying for just access to the servers, you and all the other subscribers are funding this MMO. Our money is meant to make this game better, eliminate the NEED for a cash shop or to go F2P. I don't know if your parents pay this sub but some of us actually have grown up and realize the value of money. I am paying a 15$ sub every month and I expect that I get all the content in the game, not have some of it pulled out from it and thrown into a cash shop where I'll have to pay more money for it - that is greedy as hell and any defense of it is laughable.

Also, I know there are going to be many of them, so I'd just like to take a second to laugh at all the people who will inevitably say "Using a cash shop is good business practice, they'll make more money!". I'm sorry, friend, but do you work for SE? Are you an employee of SE? Would you donate all your money to SE and live on the streets to support the company because apparently your consumer rights aren't important and they can strip you of all your cash since it's "good business practice"? No? Then maybe you should consider thinking about how their business practices affect you and your wallet, not how rich you can make SE. Pretending like you have some sort of business degree and sitting up on your imaginary high horse isn't contributing anything to the discussion at all, and it's frankly pathetic to read those types of posts. Please just realize that you are a consumer, not an employee of SE.

[DefendPopPunk]

snip

Quit making so much sense! This isn't the place for that!

[ookamih2o]

I love your points. After reading all of the arguments, I started to think that some of these people are SE employees. I can't believe people care about what's best for SE.