The pull factor of Pay to Play

[Aegis]

I'm trying to condense the opinion of a lot of posts I see here about how important the concept of a purely P2P game is to this game's subscribers.

I have my own opinions on this matter, but for this thread I will set those aside.

The posts I am seeing are from people with relatively few post counts and are typically saying "I subscribed this game because I knew that I could get one hundred percent of the game with my sub fee. One payment a month and I have access to everything in this game."

With the introduction of the cash shop this is no longer true. However, there have been no raids or in game events that are cash-shop only (wedding tiers kinda blur the definition here) and no advantage-creating gear.

So, what do people think? Has the introduction of items behind a pay wall meant the game has lost its P2P pull factor to you? Was the fact that it was purely P2P never a factor in your purchase? Has the game gotten better because of the cash shop in your eyes?

To those of you for whom it is an issue, is it enough of an issue to cause you to cancel your sub?

To both sides: Do you see a difference in paying for Server Transfers compared to paying for Minions, how about paying for Fantasias?

[Fue]

It definately was a big factor. And introduction of cash shop has just made me hate patch days.

[Ashgarth]

I've always ran away from F2p games because of what's happening here. I felt like the experience i was having was just a dumbed down version of what there actually was.

Even though I didnt like it I didnt mind the minions, but the weddings are exactly what I descrived. The free one is a dumbed down version of the premium ones and there's no point in trying to ta achieve anything related to it ingame since there's not even a absurd amount of gil that would give me the same.
This is the first thing of what i expect to be a large list of things that will follow the same fate as it has always happened in every game that started meddling with cash shop.

Actually, at the rate they are adding things this P2P game might soon have a bigger cash shop than some Freemium games.

[rappa]

Paying for a vanity item or a mount is not a big factor. It's nothing, just glamour and a big mark "Hey i paid real money to get it".

Pay real money don't help you to clear Final Coil, get the last weapons or the best gear. So who cares if the shop is open?

[Ashgarth]

Paying for a vanity item or a mount is not a big factor. It's nothing, just glamour and a big mark "Hey i paid real money to get it".

Pay real money don't help you to clear Final Coil, get the last weapons or the best gear. So who cares if the shop is open?

Two things.

First: The wedding items are tradeable so you can now actually buy items in the cash shop and trade them for gil (And with such, buy runs/gear)
Second: Every cash shop update pushes the line a bit more, sooner or later they will push it to the point they say that some gear (Lower than the max cail ilvl but high enough) is "optional" since it's not the best and there's ingame alternatives.

You might think that will never happen, I've seen it happen too many times already.

[Nexxus]

Paying for a vanity item or a mount is not a big factor. It's nothing, just glamour and a big mark "Hey i paid real money to get it".

Pay real money don't help you to clear Final Coil, get the last weapons or the best gear. So who cares if the shop is open?

In fact it does. Selling wristband and item dyied give you money to buy the clear and get the last weapons or gears.

[rappa]

Then, the complaint is not about the shop. The complain is these items are tradeable and being sell in MB.

SE could fix that.

[Renik]

Paying for a vanity item or a mount is not a big factor. It's nothing, just glamour and a big mark "Hey i paid real money to get it".

Pay real money don't help you to clear Final Coil, get the last weapons or the best gear. So who cares if the shop is open?

Things like this happens because of ppl like you. this community makes me sick.

For the first time since the first day of 1.0 alpha, i want to see this game die, and then may be the industry will see at once where the problem is, but as long as there are stupid players who like to be exploited this will never happen...

Hope you enjoy paying extra in a pay to play game so a chairman can have a new house, because no content in the world will cost the money generated by a few paying content that only took a week at most to be made...

[Aegis]

Things like this happens because of ppl like you. this community makes me sick.

For the first time since the first day of 1.0 alpha, i want to see this game die, and then may be the industry will see at once where the problem is, but as long as there are stupid players who like to be exploited this will never happen...

Hope you enjoy paying extra in a pay to play game so a chairman can have a new house, because no content in the world will cost the money generated by a few paying content that only took a week at most to be made...

Renik, I sympathise with your position. I, too, was in first wave of alpha (got a whole 5 minutes of day 1 testing window... almost made it out of Limsa). And I imagine we feel the same way about the Cash Shop and the community, but please try avoid confrontational language. I would prefer this thread to be one big discussion, not one big argument.

Let's say it this way. It's yet another minor annoyance, added to the pile. Not enough to make me stop playing right now but everyone has their limit which can be reached. Eventually....

I think this is why these threads (not just this one, obviously) are important. If SE see a dip in their subs numbers they may have trouble working out what caused it. They may say "Well, we only added x feature, that must be what caused them to quit". When in reality that may not have been a major complaint, it was just the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

[rappa]

Wtf are you talking about?

Don't be silly.

Do you wanna play the game? do it. IF your partner has odin's mount or a wdding chocobo don't affect you in anything, These mounts run same velocity.
They have a cash shop minion, wohhh, i have a opo opo, bluebird, fat cat and other rare minions that i got farming myself and happy to do it.

If you can sell the bracelet in mb is a problem like RMT. Maybe SE put that items in shop to avoid RMT or just simply SE doesn't take into account that. Every law loophole