Eternal Bond - Standard Plan and Gold Plan

[polyphonica]

I don't think it's going to fly too well if it really IS only 10 dollars because then that means Sleipnir is supposed to be worth twice as much as a two seater?
Doesn't make much sense.

Nah Sleipnir is account-wide. The draught chocobo will surely only be for the character that's eternally-bonded and buys the plan. (And, that said, we don't know if it'll be in the Gold or Platinum plan.)

And then there's the hellish possibility that it's going to cost both real money AND gil, at that point it's just plain considering your customers as garbage. More has to be on offer if that ends up being the case.

The central part of the ceremony is in-game, so there will be some aspects that cost some gil. (They also mentioned one aspect requires crafting.) The real money payment doesn't let you bypass the in-game quests, just gets you bonus items. (Which is why, you can just choose to do the quests and get the in-game items (dress/ring/etc.) and not pay any cash.)

[Anatha]

They said in the past that it'd be crafting related, except in the live letter that was nowhere to be seen, along with quite a few radical changes.

We don't know the extent of the benefits conferred by paying money and should never err on the side of trust when it comes to multinational corporations. I'd rather assume worst case and be wrong than trust a corporation under the misguided belief that they give a shit about me.

As has been mentioned elsewhere, this isn't going to stop here, and they shouldn't have done it here either. It IS a cashgrab, and an unnecessary one, they don't need the money. It'll just go straight to cash shop items until there's a full range of hell to pay.

Their intent to monetize everything they can is clear, we're most definitely not getting a paywall free Golden Saucer, so I have no real idea what we really have to be excited about for the next 4 or so months.

[Drew_Moneroth]

After reading a good majority of the responses to this product (not a conflict, but a product), I have started to wonder whether the people so hell bent on fighting this are really doing it to protect the game from pay to win (stupid slogan I might add) or to keep a game completely leveled. If it is truly the first mark, you have worse things to fear then a couple of pets most outside a select few would even want considering we have Fat Cat and Nutkin now. This makes me believe this is a crusade against allowing people to flaunt purchased vanity items period.

[Drew_Moneroth]

Before you say this is missing the point of a "potential evil growing," look at most business and more so recent political motivations in recent months. Corporations exist to make money in order to continue providing a product. Politicians are voted in to represent and protect their nation's citizens and laws. Some do it good (warranties, protection plans, refunds and recalls with compensation) and others do it pretty bad (broken products without compensation, lousy customer service support, price fixing, political stalemating, proprietary practices). I state this because the development team behind this game are simply that: politicians overseeing their own nation and businessmen doing what they can to ensure it can remain stable and afloat. Remember this during my next points.

[Drew_Moneroth]

When looking at the cash shop now, we see three types of services: content, adjustments and improvements. The content is a series of minions, mounts and costumes. The adjustments are renaming, character changes and server transfers. The only real improvement is the introduction of the additional retainers, which you have two of in game. What does this service provide? Two additional venture opportunities, two more random names in the market place and 175 more inventory slots per character. Analyze each one of these:

Ventures are limited by a timer, so two more ventures gives you more opportunities not just for a specific class type but allows you to also have one of each. You can do the exact same thing by making an alternative character and leveling it high enough to unlock two retainers. This point pretty much fits all these issues now that I think about it.

[Drew_Moneroth]

Paying for more retainers for any of these reasons can be off set by making an alternative character, which based on your subscription type allows up to eight characters on a single server. Would you then say that paying the additional cost for the extra character spaces is just as bad as paying for more retainers? If you looked at it this way, then yes. What really then is the difference? There is none. A person has the option either way to spend his time leveling another character to offset the instant availability on one. How much worth do you see in it. This is basically my bottom line: how much you value something. I have a separate account with six characters on it, each with a crafter and gatherer to allow a maxed desynthesis and another map. By the logic of pay to win, I am in the wrong due to having another account. Am I though if I leveled it the exact same way, pay the same monthly fee as everyone else? No. I just worked to offset the limitations.

[Drew_Moneroth]

Which limitations? This game has a limit to coil accessibility per week, maps can only be gathered every 18 hours, retainers are only able to be one class for a venture and I am sure there are a few I am missing. Each one of these issues can be offset by one means only: making an alternative character. That is it. The previous point about more retainers: making an alternative character is the exact same thing as buying two extra based on the logic of pay to win, but it comes as an option with the subscription, so why not complain about that? (Also know that it is two per character per account so literally it is four for one, eight for two, but that is besides the point).

[Roris]

When looking at the cash shop now, we see three types of services: content, adjustments and improvements. The content is a series of minions, mounts and costumes. The adjustments are renaming, character changes and server transfers. The only real improvement is the introduction of the additional retainers, which you have two of in game. What does this service provide? Two additional venture opportunities, two more random names in the market place and 175 more inventory slots per character. Analyze each one of these:

Ventures are limited by a timer, so two more ventures gives you more opportunities not just for a specific class type but allows you to also have one of each.You can do the exact same thing by making an alternative character and leveling it high enough to unlock two retainers. This point pretty much fits all these issues now that I think about it.

120 more shards and 40 more crystals every 40 min and varying amounts of extra mats for crafters, 40 more Market Board slots to sell items, adding up to a listing of up to 80 items at once, not to mention the gambling chances of Quick Ventures. Sure, extra shards, crystal and mat quantities are arguably not that game breaking, but the convenience is still there especially for the rarer mats like say Pudding Flesh or Ochu Vines.

If you're a crafter, 80 total sale slots are pretty substantial allowing you to earn more profits, since you can buy decent gear with those profits, perhaps not the best of the best for PvE but it's still gear there's that borderline P2W aspect. Notice the borderline part, because Yoshida only considers selling Coil and tome tier gear P2W, anything below is fair game according to him, so let's give him that. For DoHs and DoLs though it's certainly is the best gear and there's no other way to get most of it unless you craft it and meld it yourself and that also requires buying the mats in the first place unless you also play around with RNG, and those extra profits from those extra retainer slots can certainly help.

You also can't mail items or money between alts, you can get around this with an FC chest and if a friend helps you for sure, but you don't have to if you rent the extra retainers. Thus more of that P2Convenience aspect that's part of most P2W cash shops.

[Zumi]

Anyone on Sargatanas want to marry me? I want the mount mostly.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Dude you don't need to reply to yourself several times. At least wait for someone to reply to you. Or post that you are going to edit and then put everything into the edit.