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

[Silversnow]

The only opinion I have on this is how much of a joke they made the mechanics of this. What *should* have happened is the single wristlet option gets auto bound to the selected character with an option to pair to another once only. If you get the two wristlet option then one of them gets auto bound to you and the second one remains transferable yet is paired ONLY to the buyers by default. A window can pop up with a giant warning about accepting the proposal binds the wristlet to you.

I honestly don't think they counted on their players being so scummy as to turn a fun thing into an rmt option. The system IS going to change though as I can see the rmt people using their stolen CC's to open an account, buy wristlets, and sell them off as fast as possible before the cards are reported stolen. Legit players are going to end up with lost gil and revoked wristlets with the current system.

[HeroSamson]

Bayohne just gave a response and says its fine to sell it for Gil but people are still going on about it.

It is not like you cannot do it yourself unless you are under age and parents wont let you use their credit card for cash shop.

makes me wonder.

[Gaelu]

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.

if this was the case, i'd be happy and keep on playing. i really like this idea.

EDIT: OR, we could just remove the cash shop... *hush* let a man dream....

[Intaki]

"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.

Sure, it worked "fine". But bottom line-examining business execs don't like "fine", and when they can point to other competitors in the market doing better than "fine" with both a sub and a cash shop (hello WoW), they don't wind up very pleased when a developer starts talking about morals and unquantifiable respectability.

Who is right and who is wrong is debatable and varies on a case by case basis. But until the devs come up with an argument better than "We could make even more money with the cash shop, but we'd really rather not", you can expect the shop to stick around. Because until it is demonstrably unprofitable it's not going anywhere. For better or worse.

[Ophie-Mio]

Bayohne just gave a response and says its fine to sell it for Gil but people are still going on about it.

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.

Huh? Did he now...? Seems like someone has some selective reading.

[Zumi]

Basically its not against the TOS to sell the bracelets for gil but they prefer people not to do it.

[314159265358979323846264338327]

SE has always had a stance that people cannot profit via the use of real money.

There shouldn't be a sub fee then, because I make millions per day by paying about $15 a month to play the game. Buying the bracelet for real money and then selling said bracelet in game for in game gil isn't RMT because of that middle step that people always forget about. It's kind of important.

The majority of RMT botting in FFXIV is accomplished through covert marketboard use, though, because generating raw gil in FFXIV is inhumanly inefficient and time consuming even for them.

Which is genius really. It's basically an endless cycle of selling players gil back to them at the end of the day.

[Ophie-Mio]

There shouldn't be a sub fee then, because I make millions per day by paying about $15 a month to play the game. Buying the bracelet for real money and then selling said bracelet in game for in game gil isn't RMT because of that middle step that people always forget about. It's kind of important.

What a way to twist the entire meaning. Go you. The sub fee has nothing to do with us as players in the context of the current debate in this thread.

[MaethusXion]

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.

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 reminds me of the BLM "Exploit" in 1.x for Garuda... "Hey guys, we know this is an issue so please stop while we try to figure out how to fix it"

[MomomiMomi]

Buying the bracelet for real money and then selling said bracelet in game for in game gil isn't RMT because of that middle step that people always forget about. It's kind of important.

Cash shop alone is by definition RMT. You spend real money, you get in-game item.

RMT is defined as the selling and buying of virtual assets for real-world money. Virtual assets can include, but is not limited to:
•Accounts
•Characters
•In-game Currency (Gil)
•In-game Service
•In-game item