Best MMO

[HakuroDK]

Yeah, optional...for now. With Eternal Bond having cash shop tethered to it, you already know Gold Saucer will have cash shop components as well. So pretty much any new system being implemented will be supplemented by cash shop. It's the lazy development, focused on real money that's causing me to stop subbing once my time runs out next week.

It's not lazy development. It's looking at demand and making supply to meet demand. If players didn't want a cash shop, they would not use the cash shop. Plain and simple. It's purely business.

A standard eternal bonding ceremony is free. There is no pay wall. To get some additional cosmetic perks, a fee is given to Mog Station. But like I said before, it's cosmetic. It's cosmetic. There is no gameplay advantage to getting the Gold package vs. the standard. There is no gameplay advantage to getting Sleipnir over Magitek Armor (and actually the Magitek Armor has more features to it anyhow), there is no gameplay advantage to getting the Wind-Up Yda and Papalymo over the Wind-Up Thancred and Minfilia. There is definitely no gameplay advantage to getting the Wailing Spirit over the other Halloween event gear.

So thank goodness your sub time runs out next week so you can go elsewhere and find an MMO that clearly suits your interests better.

[Alukah]

Iut like I said before, it's cosmetic. It's cosmetic.

That has been argued to death if you even care a bit to check out other threads, what you call cosmetic is the main aspect of the game most people enjoy, adding a price tag to this would affect way more people than (for example) adding a price tag to gear or coil.

I'm sorry you can't accept that other people enjoy different parts of the game that differ from what you enjoy.

[Yshnal]

It's not lazy development. It's looking at demand and making supply to meet demand. If players didn't want a cash shop, they would not use the cash shop. Plain and simple. It's purely business.

A standard eternal bonding ceremony is free. There is no pay wall. To get some additional cosmetic perks, a fee is given to Mog Station. But like I said before, it's cosmetic. It's cosmetic. There is no gameplay advantage to getting the Gold package vs. the standard. There is no gameplay advantage to getting Sleipnir over Magitek Armor (and actually the Magitek Armor has more features to it anyhow), there is no gameplay advantage to getting the Wind-Up Yda and Papalymo over the Wind-Up Thancred and Minfilia. There is definitely no gameplay advantage to getting the Wailing Spirit over the other Halloween event gear.

So thank goodness your sub time runs out next week so you can go elsewhere and find an MMO that clearly suits your interests better.

Ok, so tell us where can we find a two seat mount in-game, please.

And could you care to explain, too, why cosmetic stuff doesn't matter? And I mean in a logical manner, not "in my opinion" or "that's not what I play the game for". It's not part of the game? Isn't it developed with the money provided by our subs? Are we freeloaders on a F2P MMO and we didn't notice until now?

[Roris]

The cash shop is optional, though. It is not required to play. It has options in it if you want that content.

Good thing our votes and subs are optional too.

[HakuroDK]

Ok, so tell us where can we find a two seat mount in-game, please.

And could you care to explain, too, why cosmetic stuff doesn't matter? And I mean in a logical manner, not "in my opinion" or "that's not what I play the game for". It's not part of the game? Isn't it developed with the money provided by our subs? Are we freeloaders on a F2P MMO and we didn't notice until now?

So glad you asked about the two-person mounts! There are actually two methods to get it for free:

1.) Invite your friends to play. The longer they sub, the more benefits you get. One of those benefits is a two-person mount. I don't have friends I can invite to play this game with me, does that make this option fair?

2.) Get the standard eternal bonding package. Boom. two-person mount. For free. The gold package (the one that actually costs money) probably has a prettier two-person mount than the standard package, but that's an aesthetic choice.

The fact of the matter is that it does not affect gameplay. It's okay because it does not allow players to spend thousands of dollars to get endgame raid-level gear, personal housing, every Nexus and Supra in the game, and all of the achievements. That is why it's allowed. Because this is a game first and foremost and if the integrity of gameplay is compromised by paying money to bypass hard work, then the game itself collapses. Paying for extra aesthetic pieces doesn't disrupt the status quo.

snip

Seriously, what is your problem with the cash shop? Have you even seen the items on there right now? Other than Fantasias and Sleipnir, there is literally nothing good on there. It's all old holiday gear and a handful of minions. So f**king what?

There is a local chinese resturant I go to every so often called Oriental Jade. They have some very decent chinese food and they also have a gift shop for chinese nick-knacks. How much of an asshole would I appear to be if I had a meal, walked into the gift shop, grabbed a nick-knack from the gift shop, and then got appalled if they decided to charge me for it? "I ate here! How dare you charge me extra money for this!? That's unacceptable!"

The day that this game's cash shop introduces gameplay-enhancing items is the day I take your side on the issue. But that is not today and I don't see it ever happening. Because Yoshi-P knows that, if he did, over half of his playerbase would abandon ship. That's why he made a point during Fanfest to say "The cash shop will only have cosmetic items in it." That was a reassurance with the knowledge that it wouldn't happen.

Now if you want to be jaded and continue to whine about the cash shop, that's your prerogative. Just know that the cash shop isn't leaving, so if it bothers you that much, your two options are to either leave yourself or to grin and bear it, because I'm sorry. You are in a very vocal, very small minority of players that are still around and there are many more people here who are more than fine with a cosmetic-only cash shop.

[Alexander_Dragonfang]

I would, but with content behind paywalls. I preffer to vote P2W F2P, at least they are honest.

[Roris]

2.) Get the standard eternal bonding package.

That one doesn't come with a mount.

[Yshnal]

So glad you asked about the two-person mounts! There are actually two methods to get it for free.

1.) Invite your friends to play. The longer they sub, the more benefits you get. One of those benefits is a two-person mount. I don't have friends I can invite to play this game with me, does that make this option fair?

2.) Get the standard eternal bonding package. Boom. two-person mount. For free. The gold package (the one that actually costs money) probably has a prettier two-person mount than the standard package, but that's an aesthetic choice.

The fact of the matter is that it does not affect gameplay. It's okay because it does not allow players to spend thousands of dollars to get endgame raid-level gear, personal housing, every Nexus and Supra in the game, and all of the achievements. That is why it's allowed. Because this is a game first and foremost and if the integrity of gameplay is compromised by paying money to bypass hard work, then the game itself collapses. Paying for extra aesthetic pieces doesn't disrupt the status quo.

When I said "in-game" I meant by playing the game. It was said back when the draught chocobo was introduced that it was okay because we could earn another one via eternal bonding. Tell me, really, how we can get said chocobo. I'm still waiting.

It was you the one that brought up that the magitek armor has more features than then Slepinir mount as a reason as of why it's more than okay to have said mount after a pay wall, because we had better ones in-game. But it seems that it doesn't work for the two seat chocobo and so you dismiss it as "not affecting gameplay".

Seriously, what is your problem with the cash shop? Have you even seen the items on there right now? Other than Fantasias and Sleipnir, there is literally nothing good on there. It's all old holiday gear and a handful of minions. So f**king what?

There is a local chinese resturant I go to every so often called Oriental Jade. They have some very decent chinese food and they also have a gift shop for chinese nick-knacks. How much of an asshole would I appear to be if I had a meal, walked into the gift shop, grabbed a nick-knack from the gift shop, and then got appalled if they decided to charge me for it? "I ate here! How dare you charge me extra money for this!? That's unacceptable!"

The day that this game's cash shop introduces gameplay-enhancing items is the day I take your side on the issue. But that is not today and I don't see it ever happening. Because Yoshi-P knows that, if he did, over half of his playerbase would abandon ship. That's why he made a point during Fanfest to say "The cash shop will only have cosmetic items in it." That was a reassurance with the knowledge that it wouldn't happen.

Now if you want to be jaded and continue to whine about the cash shop, that's your prerogative. Just know that the cash shop isn't leaving, so if it bothers you that much, your two options are to either leave yourself or to grin and bear it, because I'm sorry. You are in a very vocal, very small minority of players that are still around and there are many more people here who are more than fine with a cosmetic-only cash shop.

My problem with the cash shop is that it's an obvious double-dipping feature. Past year's stuff that we could still get in-game during event? Nay, not anymore, now you have to open your wallet. Eternal bond? Okay, we got this peasant version for you unless you pay us the super awesome price of only 39.99€ (promotion!) for the normal one that we've showing you in the previews until now.

If you see that as whinning, I don't know what to tell you. Congrats? I don't know. But I know for sure that if you go to that chinese restaurant you would be mad if your ordered X meal as shown in the menu and then it lacked half of the stuff that was shown there, or if you went the next day and they tried to charge you extra for the bread that you got the day before under the same price that you're paying today for the dish that you've ordered. I know I would, and I wouldn't come back to that restaurant. Ever.

[AzakaTonnerre]

If players didn't want a cash shop, they would not use the cash shop.

This is a case of taking the demand people had for content and placing it in a cash shop to take advantage of that demand. Pure and simple, and what most business do to generate income in a situation such as this. This "demand" as you put it was for the items themselves not the "cash shop".

If you honestly think a majority of players in this game believe that they should have to pay for something on top of their monthly fee to access content in the first place, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

As for the rest of what you had to say regarding cosmetics and such, I completely agree.

Lastly on this "So thank goodness your sub time runs out next week so you can go elsewhere and find an MMO that clearly suits your interests better" comment. They have as much right to express themselves as you, whether you agree with it or not. To borrow your childish retort, If you don't like it go find a forum that clearly suits your interests better.

[Ashkendor]

(when they were even gifting us things like the fat chocobo)

But Fat Chocobo was from the Collector's Edition, which is gated behind RL cash just like the cash shop. >.>