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?

[silentwindfr]

same it was a big factor for me to come to the game.
i hate the fact that some content are gated behind a paywall, when we pay every month a subs, for me it's bad in too many way. sadly too many new player are supporting it. certainly because most of them have probably only know free to play, then for them it's normal to have content gated behind a cash shop.

do i think the game did get better? no and every patch since the cash shop have show bad sign of a direction really greedy.

[Sho86]

My sub ends on the 19th. Not gonna renew till I see what they pull with Choco racing and TT. If it ends up being Eternal Bond hit-n-run 2.0, I'll be moving on to another game permanently. So yeah, its worse in my eyes.

[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.

[Shadray]

As long as there is nothing in the shop that gives someone an advantage over other people I don't see the problem.

Ok maybe the fact that when I get drunk I seem to think its a good idea to buy a new pet is a bit of a problem... But that's my fault for getting drunk.

[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.

[silentwindfr]

As long as there is nothing in the shop that gives someone an advantage over other people I don't see the problem.

Ok maybe the fact that when I get drunk I seem to think its a good idea to buy a new pet is a bit of a problem... But that's my fault for getting drunk.

this part is the trouble.... definite me advantage? for each person it will varie... because of this more and more step in the wrong sense are taken by SE, because until player can prove that it an advantage, they can virtually add anything they want in the cash shop.
just a reminder we are in a video game... everything is virtual and by this it can be take as...everything is... optional!