Eternal Bond - Standard Plan and Gold Plan

[Tintaglia]

When development was mentioned, cash shop was something not even known to us. When they told us plans 6 or so months ago, there was a chocobo involved. And a white dress. Now I'm being told have to PAY for the chocobo and the white dress I was promised, because SE wants extra money on top of my 15 bucks a month?

I want the damn chocobo and dress I was promised.

I will NOT pay for this crap. I'm pissed. So much I am considering canceling my subscription, because I hate games with micro transactions. I like earning things in game. It's why i became a crafter. Most all crafters saw what the cash shop would do: Take away our vanity options. Well here's another example of that.

I've been here since launch SE, and I do not want to stay in this game if this is going to become a common thing. You charge us 15 bucks a month for what? So you can get paid by my sub to develop things for this game, and then ask me to buy it? Last I checked this wasn't kickstarter.

[silentwindfr]

what amaze me, it's the fact that people defend this...
i means, the difference between this and the free to play is small.... a lot of good free to play will give cosmetic item only from them shop.... but behind they are free to play.
her we pay a subs... but for get acces to all the content inside the game, cosmetic included, we must pay via a shop? seriously?

i'm sorry but this greedy way is bad in soo many way. but people have take the habit to be milk dry and think is normal, when it's not normal! it's really bad. it did begin with the retainers, after they have added minion, mount and old seasonal event item in a shop.... now it's litterally a content that is different if you pay real money... what it will be next? some dungeon or part of the gold saucer that can't be play if you don't pay the right to acces one content?

the point it's not to allows this because it's only cosmetic, but to let them believe they can milk us like a cow and go farer! it's time to say stop! not because it's unfair, simply because, if we allows them this...what will be the next step?!?

seriously, we are paying a subs! and we had often said that we was against the cash shop! it's time to really become vocal!

[polyphonica]

When development was mentioned, cash shop was something not even known to us. When they told us plans 6 or so months ago, there was a chocobo involved. And a white dress. Now I'm being told have to PAY for the chocobo and the white dress I was promised, because SE wants extra money on top of my 15 bucks a month?

I think we have to at least wait to see what the various plans are first. They said on the stream that the Standard Plan would be fully-featured, and the Gold/Platinum plans would be just extra frills for people who want more. But at the moment, they haven't yet released the full details. For example, I don't think they ever implied that you'd have to pay cash for the dress.

i'm sorry but this greedy way is bad in soo many way. but people have take the habit to be milk dry and think is normal, when it's not normal! it's really bad. it did begin with the retainers, after they have added minion, mount and old seasonal event item in a shop.... now it's litterally a content that is different if you pay real money... what it will be next? some dungeon or part of the gold saucer that can't be play if you don't pay the right to acces one content?

the point it's not to allows this because it's only cosmetic, but to let them believe they can milk us like a cow and go farer! it's time to say stop! not because it's unfair, simply because, if we allows them this...what will be the next step?!?

I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but the developers have often compared the game to a theme park. When you go a theme park, you pay an admission that gets you in the door, and this gets you basic access to all the rides/attractions within. But they definitely have additional services inside the park for people who want extras, such as souvenirs, commemorative photos, and the like. It seems to me that this is how S-E is thinking of the game. Your admission gets you into the park and you get access to all the content, but if you want to spend extra, you can get extra frills that are not necessary to experience the content, but nice to have.

It probably is greedy to see it that way, but there's a fair bit of precedence for it when you think about the rest of the entertainment world (concert tickets + merch/souvenirs/food, movie theatres + 3D/Imax/concessions, etc.).

[Spellbinder]

I think we have to at least wait to see what the various plans are first.

Wait and see? Wait and see!? Nonsense! I demand more jumping to conclusions...and pancakes... (mostly pancakes)

[polyphonica]

Wait and see? Wait and see!? Nonsense! I demand more jumping to conclusions...and pancakes... (mostly pancakes)

Pancakes sound good.

There's also a whole other side of this issue that people may not want to talk about. What happens if you want to dissolve your "eternal bond"? Do you keep everything if you bought a gold/platinum plan the first time around?

(Someone was mentioning elsewhere that they suggested the Gold plan would be $10 per person and the Platinum would be $20 per person, and each of the two partners can choose different plans. So it implies that the extras are personal and not related to the ceremony itself. Also, incidentally, they suggested elsewhere in the presentation that they haven't yet fixed personal housing so that couples can share them, but it's something they intend to do.)

[lackofwords]

Each time they roll out with additional items onto their paid services, people complain then forget about it.

Remember retainers when ventures rolled out?
1 2

How about the removal of previous event items to cash shop?
1 2

If anything, I thought people would be more upset with the removal access to in-game content. That was previously content you can always have access to as long as the event rolls around.

But, if the consensus seems to be indifferent to removal of in-game vanity content, then I highly doubt there will be any changes to how they are rolling out the premiums for the Eternal Bond system. Because, it is just another vanity system.

A few argued that the chocobo serves some in-game purpose other than vanity, but you could just refer to the outcome of the additional paid retainers and ventures for the results of that.

In my perspective, it is still not a 'Pay-to-Win'. However, they are slowly cherry picking away all the vanity items onto the cash shop. They know how susceptible people are to pay for it. Remember at the Las Vegas Fanfest, around 4h56m on the Q&A panel, crowd cheered for the new exclusive vanity items.
http://www.twitch.tv/ffxiv_fanfestival_na/b/579807814

[silentwindfr]

jumping to conclusion? ok, let's check what they did so far:

- add retainer for another fee per month (not one time)
- add past seasonal item in the cash shop
- add mount and minion exclusive to the cash shop

and now... we do have a content that was divided, one part is free, and another needed to be payed with real cash... how saying that they will not stop at this is jumping to conclusion! they are gradually milking us more and more and more!
before it was really cosmetic item (exept the retainer one), here it's a content that was simply break down, while being developped with the sub fee of the people. it's not them money that have used for do it... it was planned for months... and suddenly a cash shop appear, when people was very vocal against it. and now, a content promise for age are simply gated partially behind a paywall.

the one that did wish for a cash shop for age are happy and get very vocal, because they are finally get what they want.

[polyphonica]

before it was really cosmetic item (exept the retainer one), here it's a content that was simply break down, while being developped with the sub fee of the people. it's not them money that have used for do it... it was planned for months... and suddenly a cash shop appear, when people was very vocal against it. and now, a content promise for age are simply gated partially behind a paywall.

It looks like the spent a lot of time and put in a lot of effort working on this system, with lots of little touches, options, and attention to detail. Part of this may have been because they knew they'd be able to recover part of the development costs for this project through the use of the optional service fees, so it'd be worth spending the extra time working on it. It's also being made available in the 2.x series rather than being thrown in as a feature of 3.0, which requires an additional fee. So... really it's all in how you look at it. We don't know how much effort they would have put into it if not for this way of monetizing it. Of course that's not going to make people feel better if they believe that their sub fee should include absolutely everything the game has to offer at no extra cost. That's basically a philosophical argument.

In the end, the "jumping to conclusions" is mostly about what is in the Standard Plan. If the gold/platinum plan are just extra frills that not everyone will want/need anyway, then I think most would have less of an issue with it. The problem right now is that we're waiting for details to be released.

[Adrian74]

oh, curses, so it is just more vanity stuff. I was getting scared when people said it will be cash shop stuff....

I don't mind as long the important mechanics such as (Perhaps) possibility to teleport to each other's place or share items are in game. That there's some minion-moount? I don't care at all, there are already a lot in shop and none I have bought because mounts and minions = useless.

[Zumi]

i means, the difference between this and the free to play is small.... a lot of good free to play will give cosmetic item only from them shop....

Have you played a f2p mmo they have restrictions on everything. An example being, F2P limits, races/classes you can use, limits inventory space and bank and storage space, locks you out of dungeons and raids must buy a pass, locks you out of vanity slots, even looks you out of the UI like having more hotbars, locks you out of most useful items must buy them, everything vanity gear related in general, ability to make/join a guild, limits the chat channels you can use. No mounts or fast travel either. The list goes on. Most f2p mmos offer you the basic questing and leveling but beyond that they try to make everything inconvenient so you will buy items and unlocks in their store.