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

[Cid_Grim]

I'm surprised they didn't patch this. I'm sure people will still abuse it, which will only cause another maintenance in a couple days.

[Neira]

I'm honestly happy that some cash shop items can be traded for gil. It means I have a chance of owning them without spending my limited funds while SE still makes a profit. I don't think it's as big of a deal as people make it out to be. I think this is a positive step in the direction of the cash shop, and while I'm still astonished it happened, I'm quite grateful as well.

If you were pleased with the cash shop, bought anything off of it, then upset to learn that others can now get some of the exclusive benefits without spending the real money, I think you need to take a long and hard look at yourself in the mirror and try to figure out how to become a better person. If you were against the cash shop all along and are even more displeased now, I understand and still agree. BUT, if we're going to have a cash shop no matter what, I'd rather have one that I can access with gil.

We're not all upset over this Square Enix, please consider making more items tradable in the future.

[chrillix]

Alright Nyaruko I will concede the fact that by definition this is not RMT. What I should have been arguing was that being able to spend real money, and turn it into gil pushes this game towards P2W. I cannot stand and sort of P2W aspect in any game, and I believe this is the first step down a terribly slippery slope that pushes this game into full blown P2W.

[NyarukoW]

... What I should have been arguing was that being able to spend real money, and turn it into gil pushes this game towards P2W. I cannot stand and sort of P2W aspect in any game, and I believe this is the first step down a terribly slippery slope that pushes this game into full blown P2W.

I don't think SE wanted people to be trading the bands for gil either, and I am very much against P2W. I don't think SE wants to take that first step to P2W either. Nonetheless, spending $20 to get 3 mil or less and dropping, consider that the more bands there are the less they are worth in gil, it is more like pay-to-lose which is mildly amusing to me. The people that have so much gil but do not want to spend real money for the wedding are a very limited set, and in all likelihood they all bought the bands they wanted by now and the opportunity to easily convert real life money to gil will dry up very quickly. This is a momentary error on SE's part, failing to take into account human nature of its player, but it is just a time limited shift of in-game gil from one set of players to another that will quickly dissipate.

...I honestly wouldn't want that to happen to 14. :/

I do NOT want to see that happen to SE either, and I do NOT think it is happening or will happen. The market for these wedding bands is very limited and their prices are already dropping fast and pretty soon it will be very silly to pay $20 to get 500K gil or less.

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...
The effect is the same, so it's RMT.

Umm.. that is broken logic. I am not sure you should be so proud of that. Millions of people die from car crashes and millions of people die nuclear weapons, so lets ban both because the effect is the same... right on.

[Tyla_Esmeraude]

I do NOT want to see that happen to SE either, and I do NOT think it is happening or will happen. The market for these wedding bands is very limited and their prices are already dropping fast and pretty soon it will be very silly to pay $20 to get 500K gil or less.

I hope you are right...

snip

Well the only way to make money is if you were decked out in gear to be able to solo bosses so all the loots would go to you in order to be worth it (because you had to pay for items or a fee in order to enter dungeons). Yes you could make money but for that you needed better weapons and gear, like I said, you needed some billions to invest, first. Because while stuff to sell kept getting undercut, weapons and armor remained expensive, as well as cash shop items. So... yeah. I tried, farming all kinds of things, but that game is full with bots too, and they have advantage on maps. Same with end game raids, it's like, you needed to spend money in order to have a chance at making money, which sometimes didn't happen. lol That game is so unbalanced it's sad.

[ManweSulimo]

Darn maybe I got your game wrong. But yeah the game I played was also filled with bots and spam bots too but I was still able to overcome all of that and buy cash shop items with in game currency so I never had to spend any real money on anything it was great

[Tyla_Esmeraude]

Would that game you're referring to have outrageously priced atlas which has to be bought via a Cash shop then sold for equally outrageous price on the MB? Because that game was great until then. And this one could face that same fate.

Well the game I refer to is called Granado Espada or Sword of the New World (old NA version). It's an old game from 2007?I think. Anyways I played this game's open beta and I fell in love (except for the freaking bots o well). I created my character in a Singaporean server because at the time I don't think they had a NA one yet. At first they had announced it was going to be pay to play, which made me happy. They stayed like that for a bit. Apparently that didn't turn out well... and they decided to go F2P. When it was pay to play it was more balanced and there were less bots. Once it went to F2P all hell broke loose. lol Ofc, they make more money now I bet, "milking the whales" (it's a saying in that community that means getting all the money they can from people who spend lots of cash in that game) but the community is kind of dead, same as servers.The game has no life anymore. The only ones who keep it barely afloat are the "whales", funny term. lol I'm only awaiting sadly, the game's death, anytime soon. :/

Darn maybe I got your game wrong. But yeah the game I played was also filled with bots and spam bots too but I was still able to overcome all of that and buy cash shop items with in game currency so I never had to spend any real money on anything it was great

Haha, well aren't most F2P Korean games like that anyways? XD I think it could've applied to any.

[Renik]

Umm.. that is broken logic. I am not sure you should be so proud of that. Millions of people die from car crashes and millions of people die nuclear weapons, so lets ban both because the effect is the same... right on.

Logic needs to take variables into consideration, you can't do that, that's why you used this atrocious example, and that's why your logic is the broken one, try to leave personal attacks out, because that's the fast way to make your point false.

Anyway, the damage is done, no matter how you name it, people just use what they have, the thing is this kind of transaction is known as legal RMT in other games, but it's usually justified because, well, you don't pay a monthly fee to play those

[NyarukoW]

Logic needs to take variables into consideration, ...

Correct, but you did NOT that, that is why you make false statements like the "The effect is the same, so it's RMT", because failed to take into account the variables. That is logically false, and to top it all off you can not prove the that effect is same either to start with.

....The REAL ISSUE with this is it is HORRIBLY INEQUITABLE TO PLAYERS...

In simpler terms, "it is not fair", that is the cash shop can potentially provide unfair in-game advantage. But how do you define fair. Should players with more game time have an advantage over those that do NOT? Why is that fair or equitable? Is it fair that players that have more RL friends who join them in game have a natural advantage over all the other players, or the solo player? What is so unfair about a player that can use RL funds to buy vanity items? BTW I think they are really silly wasting their money, but I am glad SE can get their donations and we are better for it if it pays for better server and more content. I am not so certain this all that cut and dry.

... but the IRL wealthy can become wealthy in-game without having to do any in-game work besides trading the item.

It should be a game for fun and not work, yes? Are you upset at flippers who are good at playing the market and buy low and sell high on the MB? RL wealth can come in many forms, for some it could be that they can get all the time to play because they have dividends and interests income that pay for everything, or their parents do and they can live the basement without problems. The exchange of time and money flows both ways.

[Neira]

I believe this is the first step down a terribly slippery slope that pushes this game into full blown P2W.

The first step was the original introduction of the extra retainers or the cash shop.

The REAL ISSUE with this is it is HORRIBLY INEQUITABLE TO PLAYERS.

That issue arose with the extra retainers and cash shop in the first place. Were you one of the ones speaking up against it? This is a mmoRPg, and not all of us play to try and be the best, some of us just enjoy the novelty and the characterization. Not being able to access vanity gear, which is the largest factor for my enjoyment, due to limited funds was already unfair to myself and others like me. This update has just given people who enjoy the aesthetics of the game a chance to obtain things they otherwise could not, and that sounds to me to be very similar to what you're describing so emphatically.