Cash shop confirmed

[NolLacnala]

Anyone who defends this EA Games maneuver probably also defends on-disc DLC

Shameful.

[RoninDarkchild]

Why all this hyper moaning about Vanity crap for sale that you dont even NEED?????? It boggles the Miiiiiiiiiiiiind!!

[Alukah]

Why all this hyper moaning about Vanity crap for sale that you dont even NEED?????? It boggles the Miiiiiiiiiiiiind!!

Because for many people vanity is as, if not more important than a piece of gear that gets outdated in 3 months. It boggles the Miiiiiiiiiiiiind!!

What's with the dissing on vanity when it's the only thing that never gets outdated and can be reused many times? Is it that hard to understand that everyone enjoys different aspects of the game? That not everyone gets their epeen hard with better gear and that a lot of people enjoy content outside the endless gear treadmill?

Anything that is not related to the end game raid can be added to the cash shop under the excuse that it doesn't affect progression, but progression hardly matters when the rest of the game can be moved behind a cash wall.

[Jynx]

That's a damn shame.

If they put all the vanity on it and focus on making actual gameplay with my subscription money then I'm all for it. The sad part is they wont do this, they will continue to use my subscription fee to fund this endeavor, and we will still only see a few dungeons and the same lockouts pushed out a month.

[Negotiator]

i've stated earlier that at 2.5mil subscriptions, they take in $250mil - 375mil a month. I can't understand how people want to spend more money on things, worthless or not to them, SHOULD be in the game that we are already paying a subscription for.

[Vhailor]

I would like to throw in my two cents, here.

I haven't read all of this thread, obviously, but the 10 or so pages of comments I have read (the first few, and random selections of others) highlight the fact that some people feel bothered for (generally vague) reasons, while other people are not because they hold the view that the cash shop doesn't affect us unless we choose to use it.

I am here to argue that it does, in fact, affect us. It affects all of us, as does every mechanism SE implements in the name of accessibility - from a Duty Finder to monsters not having a set claim, from the cash shop to the relatively simplistic combat system, from the Echo to the steady inflation of iLevels.

The push towards accessibility, and broad appeal, affects us all, not because it eats development time that might otherwise be spent on other types of content, but because it determines the community that will ultimately be playing FFXIV. We commonly forget that this is a vital aspect of MMOs. I chose to play FFXI for roughly 10 years because of the community, not the game. I chose it over World of Warcraft because the general player was smarter, more mature, more skilled, more pleasant to interact with. This isn't to say it was perfect, not by any means - but it was a vast improvement. FFXIV, unfortunately, does not feel this way.

So, yes, the cash shop, for me, is playing the role of the last straw - the straw that will prevent me from giving XIV another chance. Which is a shame, because I was getting excited for Heavensward. It's not the last straw because it affects me directly, or because it somehow diminishes my enjoyment of the game. It's not the last straw for me because I'm worried about what it will become.

It's the last straw for me because I don't want to spend my time within the community that SE has courted, and clearly is going to continue courting.

Note that I certainly don't begrudge SE for making a business decision - lord knows that Blizzard has made several fortunes by following a similar business plan. Appealing to the lowest common denominator can definitely broaden a customer base. That said, just as the state of the average customer is, on its own, sufficient to keep me out of a Walmart, so too the average player of XIV is sufficient to keep me unsubscribed.

Anyway, those are my feelings. I suspect most people uncomfortable with the idea of a cash shop are having similar views, though the various arguments that I've run across don't seem to get to the heart of the matter. To each their own, however - for those of you who continue to enjoy FFXIV, by all means, continue doing so.

[Tupsi]

I think the weirdest thing about this is people are pissed at a Business wanting to make money. Here's a popular argument:

"I should be able to obtain everything in game, I pay a sub fee."

Answer This: Where the hell is my Wind Up Bahamut? My Veteran Reward Minions and Mounts and Barding without needing to sub for a year (over $100 paid) and instead obtainable via quest? My Mog Cap? My Coeurl Mount? My Wind Up Dalamud? Where are these in-game without "using real money"?

The funny thig is? Someone will argue against that despite using that exact argument to argue against the cash shop.

[Negotiator]

I think the weirdest thing about this is people are pissed at a Business wanting to make money. Here's a popular argument:

"I should be able to obtain everything in game, I pay a sub fee."

Answer This: Where the hell is my Wind Up Bahamut? My Veteran Reward Minions and Mounts and Barding without needing to sub for a year (over $100 paid) and instead obtainable via quest? My Mog Cap? My Coeurl Mount? My Wind Up Dalamud? Where are these in-game without "using real money"?

The funny thig is? Someone will argue against that despite using that exact argument to argue against the cash shop.

I have some of those things from my sub fee. so it was essentially free. I never paid more than a sub fee.

[Tupsi]

I have some of those things from my sub fee. so it was essentially free. I never paid more than a sub fee.

You have some from pre-ordering and/or buying the Collectors Edition (1.0 or ARR)/digital upgrade. You didn't get it from your sub fee

[Jynx]

I think the weirdest thing about this is people are pissed at a Business wanting to make money.

We wouldn't pay a subscription if we cared about them making money. What I at least care about is how this will impact the creation of content outside the cash shop, let's not pretend it will magically be seperate.

Without a cash shop, people had hope for something like let's say a slepnir mount (While I honestly would rather them just focus on Chocobos). With the existence of the cash shop there is allready one case having been made by the developers themselves for watching game content be cut in favor of placing it into the cash shop.