Eternal Bond - Standard Plan and Gold Plan

[Zooters]

Putting a Big feature like Marriage behind a paywall isn't what I call Cosmetic. Please don't give me the "it's free" deal because they are most likely putting the biggest things that every couple in-game would probably want behind a paywall. When it should be in game. Minions? Fine Holiday items? sure Mounts? pushing it a little A Big feature like Marriage.. That's where I cross the line.

Funny thing is, you say minions and mounts are fine it, yet the paid version is the basic wedding with the addition of minion, a mount and clothes. Doesn't jive man, doesn't jive.

[Applesnap]

Well, my last post was deleted. So either the devs are taking a vested (and reactionary) interest, or it just mysteriously vanished into the aether. Ironic, since it mentioned how much I care for the game and didn't want it to end up in a bad place.

No reports from the Japanese forums about this particular topic at all? Have they received anything additional that we've not had translated yet? Are they as disappointed / confused? We don't know anything other that there are three plans, two are paid for (gil or real money) and that it's done via the MogStation. Everything else is speculation. Guess all we can do is wait and see.

[LunaHoshino]

Skimming over the Japanese General Discussion, most people do not seem fussed about the cash shop at all. Their thread about the cash shop degenerated into people talking about how cool Sleipnir is and how they want to see stuff like Cloud's bike and beast tribe cosplay available and hoping for minion sets instead of just having them available individually. There are people who don't like it, but it tends to be more of a "aww I was hoping it would be free but oh well" or "Sleipnir is kind of expensive" sort of thing.

The one thread about the Eternal Bond system on the most recent two pages is people asking questions about it, like whether you'll be able to invite friends from other servers. No mention about the different plans or money or anything of that sort whatsoever.

EDIT: Going back a little further, there is one thread with people who are upset over the fact that there will be paid plans, but that's it. All of the outcry is contained in that single thread. 99% of General Discussion at the moment is about things like favorite NPCs, a fanart contest, the Starlight Celebration, and changes and improvements people want to see in Heavensward.

[Cynric]

Be that as it may, it's like that now.

With all 100 players left.
A dead game with a bad developer that had no other choice isn't exactly the same as a successful game with a huge player base that actually listens to its players for the most part. Most games that have gone for cash grab schemes like that are dying. That's why I said it wasn't like that before. They screwed up so they tried to make as much money as they could before they have to trash it.

You're comparing apples and oranges.

Not even close to the same situation / reason for going full on into the cash shop.

[Zumi]

With all 100 players left.
A dead game with a bad developer that had no other choice isn't exactly the same as a successful game with a huge player base that actually listens to its players for the most part. Most games that have gone for cash grab schemes like that are dying. That's why I said it wasn't like that before. They screwed up so they tried to make as much money as they could before they have to trash it.

You're comparing apples and oranges.

Not even close to the same situation / reason for going full on into the cash shop.

Its really only a few vocal people on the English forums that make a huge fuss over microtransactions. For example out of 70 people or so in my FC nobody even cares about it. Most of the people that play the game don't care about it. Most of the JP players do not care about it.

[Cynric]

snip

I've seen plenty of people fussing but we all pretty much said the same thing in my fc. As long as there's no pay to win stuff then no real reason to care much.

The only thing I personally think weird about this situation is that the extra plans didn't really seem necessary, especially if it's just for mount/minion/slightly more detailed clothes. Me and my friend already decided that we were gonna go ahead and pay for it, so i'm not really in the camp of caring much about it being a money thing. I just find it a little odd to even make separate plans in the first place.

However like I said to the person I responded to in the first place. I was pretty much just responding to the comment about GC, I also didn't mean to go as off topic about it as I did so I apologize.


The only thing I would think is a little bad for this is how much they over hyped that double mount. People seem pretty upset at the chance of that costing money.

[Anatha]

I don't like this move in their business practices.

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.

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.

[Anatha]

Difference being that F2P tend to lock key game progression behind cash shop. Let's take Grand Chase, for example. You get 4 free character slots, and have to pay to unlock any subsequent character after that. you have to pay to unlock skill trees for the characters, pay to be able to upgrade your armor.


Don't like that example? How about this one:

Grand Fantasia. Inventory expansion, items to increase the success of your crafting/upgrading, all vanity options, pets.

There is a world of difference between optional cosmetic options and a F2P's MMO's cash shop locking QoL and inventory space behind their cash shops.

You do realize that they paywall inventory expansion in this game too right?

[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.