Cash shop confirmed

[StrejdaTom]

Actually, for awhile they sold item codes for the Barret and Shirt (Vanadiel Collection bonus items) for about $4 each, it went over quite well because some people wanted them for other characters they had and didn't meet the requirements for (as they've been playing for 9 years at that point.)

So selling 2 vanity items in FFXI = permanent cash shop with past event items, account services, vanity items, mounts and minions? Weird logic.

[Tupsi]

So selling 2 vanity items in FFXI = permanent cash shop with past event items, account services, vanity items, mounts and minions? Weird logic.

Pretty sure if they're looking at anything it's the sales of the Retainers and Fantasias, since you know how adamant people love to state "FFXIV is not FFXI."

P.S You seem to have forgotten how Yoshida looks up to Blizzard and using WoW as the 'role model' for FFXIV.

[Lethorian]

I'm not sure if this was brought up yet or not, and honestly I'd be shocked if it hasn't, but here is goes...

What do people generally spend gil on? Vanity items, minions, housing items? Aside from carries, housing plots, and materia I don't see much else to spend it on. When I look at the MB some of these items are going for millions of gil. Baby opo-opo? Farm mythflox for weeks if you want a shot at this little puppy. Xande's Throne? An equal amount of time in ST if you want to be the proud owner of this bad boy. Otherwise you are off to the MB to obtain these items. I hope you have 3 million gil to toss away for one of these items. You don't? No big deal! Off to the RMT you go!

I'm sorry playerbase, but you have already voted for a cash shop. That time you threw your cash away for a few million gil in order to show off your new minion or housing item was a vote for SE to impliment their own cash shop. Now that SE has their net out to catch the beautiful butterflies flapping from your wallets it is far too late to change your vote. Could SE have thought of a better way to fight RMT? Sure, but you have already proved that you will spend your hard earned money on in game items and now they want a piece of the pie. No amount of QQing is going to change that. Not your boycott, not your abscence of a subscription, nothing. The next time you, or know someone who is, thinking about buying gil to fund themselves in game think long and hard on it, because SE is going to look for a way to cash in on it. Need materia for your Novus? That will be the next thing you see in the cash shop. Need to clear content and can't afford the gil to purchase a carry? SE will find a way for you to pay them for it. Need that housing plot? $25 my little friend. There is no turning back from what we have started, don't let it go further than this, THAT is how you vote.

[Phe]

what I read here is hilarious.

best part:
"SE doesn't need the money."

IT IS AN ENTERPRISE.
ENTERPRISES GOAL: MAKING MONEY.
THEY WILL MAKE AS MUCH MONEY AS THEY CAN POSSIBLY GET.
DEAL WITH IT.

[Yshnal]

what I read here is hilarious.

best part:
"SE doesn't need the money."

IT IS AN ENTERPRISE.
ENTERPRISES GOAL: MAKING MONEY.
THEY WILL MAKE AS MUCH MONEY AS THEY CAN POSSIBLY GET.
DEAL WITH IT.

They want it, but they don't need it. What we mean with this is that the game is not in danger and is/was very profitable for them (if we believe what they told us, anyway). Why is that important? Because they changed how things work and devalued our subs just because they want more money, and we're not happy about it.

And yes, they can do it as an enterprise, but we as customers have EVERY right to not accept it and send them our feedback.

As it has been stated, Calamity Salvager.

We aren't talking about the calamity salvager, but about those NPCs that appeared during each event and sold the old event items for a gil fee, even if you didn't take part on them. That has been taken away from the game, period.

The development team is not a single entity. People who design instances are not the same people who design the items and these people are not the same who do animation and these people don't design world content, etc. So while it might add some slight workload for the people who do items, it's not going to be something drastic. You're speaking like you have for a guarantee that they will be doing multiple sets of gear every week for the shop and left with minimal time for the game itself when that's just pure conjecture.

Nope, the development team is not a single entity, but the guys that make minions, the guys that make mounts, the guys that make gear sets, etc. are all the same. They will obviously produce less of those because they'll have to make things for the cash shop too.

Again, pure conjecture. If anything, the new Koenig and Aries recipes coming in 2.4 are a point against you.

So you know that they don't have better looking items on the work that will go to the cash shop. Talk about conjectures...

Logic dictates that the best looking and more desired items will go to the cash shop. Otherwise they won't be sold.

I never saw those threads but then again, I wasn't as active back then so I really can't say anything here on this point.

It was exactly the same situation and counter-arguments that we're having now. And I've yet to see anyone of those that defended SE back them come here and apologize.

(Bolded part)I assumed that after posting the link to their financial records at least 3 times in this thread that people would stop spreading this lie:

http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/ne...q4earnings.pdf
http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/pdf/ar_2013_01en.pdf

Read what I said above.

And nothing prevents you from getting other vanity items in game but you're not entitled to all the other content they create. It states as much in the User Agreement you agreed to. If you want to look it up:

http://support.na.square-enix.com/ru...2&tag=users_en

Section 4.1

To be honest, we're not entitled to ANYTHING besides being able to access the game until SE wants. That doesn't mean that we can't let them know our discontent with any changes to the game (be it PvE, PvP, services...), nor does it mean that they have out wallets hostage until the end of time. Hint: they don't, so they might want to keep their customers happy or... well, 1.0.

Actually, it's the same concept. Vanity attached to a price. The 3 people I know who got the CD all did so for the minion attached to it and most minion collector perfectionist will have bought the CD because else, their collection would remain incomplete.

Yes, some people buy them for the minion, but they aren't doing it right. The minion is a GIFT, not what you're buying. And, as I said, as it's linked to a physical item it means that they can't go overboard with it either.

Well the thing is that you have no choice to buy the expansion else you're stuck in past content without any means to progress so using the expansion pack in a cash shop argument is stupid on both side of this argument as it's a necessity and it always has been.

You lost the point.

I still can't understand how a cash shop that you're not forced to buy from can be a deal breaker on a game you supposedly enjoy playing.

Because some people enjoy playing with vanity. Different people, different tastes. And they have been able to do that for over 4 years now, so it's understandable that this change has got many of them (us) a bit mad with SE.

[Dwill]

snip

Sorry to disappoint you but I haven't lost anything. My stance is "A company has every right to want money so let's wait to see how it turns out". Yours however is fear mongering and pure conjecture and don't say that I'm making conjecture either as I clearly stated that there is no way to know as of now what will and will not be in there in the future.

By the way, you have yet to explain how they don't need the money. You keep claiming that they don't yet the annual report for the fiscal year of 2013 claims otherwise.

[Vhailor]

By the way, you have yet to explain how they don't need the money. You keep claiming that they don't yet the annual report for the fiscal year of 2013 claims otherwise.

Two things here.

Firstly, given that the expansion is just around the corner, the timing seems odd. If they need cash so badly, certainly implementing this a year later would have made more sense; announcing its presence at a Fan Festival designed to promote Heavensward seems an odd choice. They had to know this announcement was going to get a massive backlash from a significant chunk of the player base. It's going to cost them some expansion sales in the process, whereas an announcement a year from now would not have had that issue.

Secondly, exploiting your new flagship MMO when it's been out for barely a year (in 2.0 form) is not a good long-term plan for improving the company's bottom line. It's akin to raising your company's stock price by laying people off; eventually, you can't do it anymore, and it also has the side effect of limiting your options down the road.

In short, if SE needs cash so badly, then they need to improve their game design. It is the one and only thing that will provide them with sustainable long-term growth. The cash shop won't make up for lackluster development, and if development returns to a AAA level, then the cash shop would be unnecessary in the first place. So your argument here has some serious flaws in it.

[Codek]

Firstly, given that the expansion is just around the corner, the timing seems odd. If they need cash so badly, certainly implementing this a year later would have made more sense; announcing its presence at a Fan Festival designed to promote Heavensward seems an odd choice. They had to know this announcement was going to get a massive backlash from a significant chunk of the player base. It's going to cost them some expansion sales in the process, whereas an announcement a year from now would not have had that issue.

They were probably forced to push this out before the expansion as they have it in mind with some of the new features coming down the road (here's looking at you Gold Sauce and Air Ships...).
At least now they have 6+ months to convince everyone to cover their eyes and ears before the expansion is released.

[Dwill]

snip

Actually, the timing is perfect for now because people that do not like it can vent their discontent for the time being and when new actual information comes out on the expansion, people will be all over it. I seriously doubt that people will quit en masse just over this. People threaten to quit all the time over the pettiest things in MMO, it's nothing new to the genre.


They aren't actually exploiting it. Exploiting it would be putting items and stuff needed to actually play the game to its fullest in there, which is obviously not the case with this vanity stuff. The only thing they are doing is providing an optional service for people that are willing to pay for it.

The game design so far, while it has its flaws, has been easily competing against the best MMO out there and with other key features in the future coming out AND the expansion, the game will keep on growing just fine.

I hope they add some unique items to the cash shop and then I hope to see the community ridicule any person seen with these unique items so that buying anything from it becomes a negative stigma in the community.

Easiest way to make this stuff go away after it is implemented is not use it or encourage its use.

Yes, harassing and ridiculing people who don't share the same point of view as you is such an awesome way to raise a point in a mature and adult-like manner

[Yshnal]

Sorry to disappoint you but I haven't lost anything. My stance is "A company has every right to want money so let's wait to see how it turns out". Yours however is fear mongering and pure conjecture and don't say that I'm making conjecture either as I clearly stated that there is no way to know as of now what will and will not be in there in the future.

By the way, you have yet to explain how they don't need the money. You keep claiming that they don't yet the annual report for the fiscal year of 2013 claims otherwise.

Yes, you lost the point of what I was saying. I was talking there about how a whole expansion is way more valuable than a single digital item and how their respectives prices don't match each other, while you were talking about the necessity of paying any of them. Two completely different things. But if it makes you happier, well, considering their prices and the respective resources that each one requires to get made, if there's the "necessity" of paying for an expansion at their usual price, considering that they have to get back their investment and make some profit, then the price of a minion in the cash shop (which would be what, a 0.00001% of an expac?) is just crazy and unneeded. So I guess that that gives me the reason too...

And regarding the annual report of 2013, I suggest that you look it better.