Real Money to Get In-Game Currency: Eternal Bond Edition

[Lior]

Trading Gil for cash shop purchased items does not create the $$ incentives that drive gil farmers to flood the economy with gil that leads to hyperinflation. I don't have a problem with it. It also gives access to cash shop items to those players that do not want to spend their own RL $$ on "optional" items (whatever their reasons may be).

I'll concede that I would be less averse to this if all cash shop items were tradeable. I think in that case the circulation of gil would even out more than it can with a limited item like wedding bands. It drives business away from gil farmers, and gives more options to players on both sides of the fence. It would also allow for scenarios in which, for example, someone can't afford a $40 wedding nor the in-game cost, but might be able to supplement the gil they do have by selling a lower cost cash shop item in-game in order to then buy the wedding bands in-game. It's still all a bit too much like what is seen in f2p titles for my liking, but if we're going to go this route I'd rather open up the entire cash shop to this sort of trade than have it be limited to this particular instance.

That said, such a system still inevitably favors the wealthy in real-life. The terms of generating money are a little more fair in-game, whereas I might be able to spend what amounts to 15 minutes of RL work for 4-5 million gil, and that same amount is equivalent to 3 hours of RL work for another player.

[Xenor]

Ahahaha. The official dev response is "We won't punish you, but please don't so we don't have to write more code to prevent this?"

This really highlights the naivety of the design team.

They are probably writing a fix as I type. This stuff takes time and has to be fully tested before it can be implemented.

[MiniTofu]

As you know, the promise wristlets were designed to be tradable so that one person would be able to purchase a pair of wristlets and gift one to their partner.

...

System needs to be changed. The bracelet is tethered or linked whoever purchased it. The given bracelet will have no other choices but to marry the giver. Another term, bracelet cannot let loose in the wild. Much like a craft system with crafted by whom. Whoever got that bracelet with that name on it, you can only Eternal Bind that person.

This way, it will put stop on selling it.

[Intaki]

If S-E isn't going to take official action against people exchanging $ for Gil using their own system, I'm going to make the game (and their jobs) that much more miserable by making my next paycheck's fun money portion go toward 3-5 million gil in my pocket.

So, can we just walk through this for a second?

You want gil. Someone else wants cash shop goodies. You have money. They don't. You buy cash shop goodies and sell it to them for gil. You now have gil, they now have cash shop goodies.

Who, in this equation, is miserable?

As for "upsetting the economy": if you're worried about this happening then you don't actually understand how the in-game economy works.

[Riepah]

Who, in this equation, is miserable?

Me, because I'll have to shake my head at money undeservedly being thrown at SE again for no reason.

[Krr]

So, can we just walk through this for a second?

You want gil. Someone else wants cash shop goodies. You have money. They don't. You buy cash shop goodies and sell it to them for gil. You now have gil, they now have cash shop goodies.

Who, in this equation, is miserable?

Square Enix, who apparently claims they do not want me doing this for the sake of their long-run profits and public respectability, the rest of the playerbase posting here, who claims they do not want me doing this.
People using Party Finder to find actual parties, and not illicitly exchanged supposedly un-marketable goods like wedding bracelets for sale.
Also, anyone in the playerbase who cannot afford to directly convert their real-life money (used for rent, food, medicine, or other necessities) into gil (which I should stress is a form of player power, in the form of market power,) on top of a $15/mo subscription fee.

Anyone playing the game who has neither real-life income to spare on virtual bracelets nor five million gil in their pocket ingame but wants to feel like they have a fair chance at either.

[Intaki]

Me, because I'll have to shake my head at money undeservedly being thrown at SE again for no reason.

So you prefer that only people with real money have access to cash shop items and no one else?

Because "no cash shop" is no longer an option and hasn't been for years, speaking from a strictly business perspective.

[Airget]

This thought came to mind in light of this ability to sell the bonds for in game currency.

Maybe the best way to counter this it to reward loyal subscribers with funds to purchase items from the cash shop. By this I mean something as simple as a 10 dollar fund that can only be used in the cash shop and you obtain as a loyalty reward for every 6 months subscribed.

So basically you get 20 a year, 5 short of buying mount, enough to buy 1 plat bond or 2 gold bonds, enough to buy 2 phials or purchase 20 dyes.

Heck it even be just the right number to purchase all 4 minions.

I think it could be a potential happy compromise, leave the bonds sellable as is but allowing a loyalty benefit for time subbed would add incentive to stay subbed and feel like they aren't having to spend extra cash to obtain the cash shop items.

[Wildsprite]

As you know, the promise wristlets were designed to be tradable so that one person would be able to purchase a pair of wristlets and gift one to their partner.

While the trading and selling of these items for gil is not against the terms of service, in the event this type of trend continues and topics continue to arise regarding whether or not this is considered real-money trading, we will have no choice but to change the design of this system. Therefore we would like players to stop selling and trading the bracelets for gil so that they can continue to be used for their intended purpose.

I have a solution.
first make it so only 1 set of 2 wristlets can be bought from each premium tree(this should be incase the person changes their mind later and wants a better package)
second make the wristlets unique/untradable.
third make it so you have to select your partner from a list of friends on the mogstation
forth make is so should you lose said item for whatever reason they can be bought chealy from the calamity salvager

the first 3 would kill the whole idea of people buying the wristlets and selling them.
don't bother making the free ones untradable, they are free afterall.

[Riepah]

So you prefer that only people with real money have access to cash shop items and no one else?

Because "no cash shop" is no longer an option and hasn't been for years, speaking from a strictly business perspective.

"No cash shop" worked fine for FFXIV's first year. It would still work fine if there weren't some people who're all too happy to throw their money at SE for stuff that should be included in the monthly subscription.