Cash Shop: Stifling development.

[Dyvid]

Every single recently released SE game has dlc its how games work now they want supplemental income from them to make more money because they are a business.

yea, except those don't carry a monthly fee to play it either....

[Zumi]

yea, except those don't carry a monthly fee to play it either....

Doesn't matter if a game has a monthly fee or not they still want more money by selling what is essentially dlc.

[Cynric]

I'd like to post some food for thought. Yoshida said we wont be going F2P ever, We now have a Cash shop, Yoshida also said he'd like to make FF14 available to as many players as possible and P2P/F2P aren't the only models for MMO's available nor the best ones.
Is it possible we may be seeing FF14 go B2P in the future? With a subscription service available for certain bonuses such as continued Veteran rewards, more characters per server, and certain vanity exclusives? etc.

B2P/Premium/Cash Shop - Available to all, Exclusives offering no extreme P2W advantage for Premium, Cash Shop to gain income from Subscribers of premium as well as non subscribers while keeping the game hugely accessible to increase the ability to make more income and appeal to F2P/P2P players.

Not saying this is a model I would personally enjoy or not, But it seems like where we are headed.

[Gramul]

Every single recently released SE game has dlc its how games work now they want supplemental income from them to make more money because they are a business.

And you're fine with it literally coming at your expense?
And I'm not using the word literal for cheap groundless emphasis; I mean it is literally at your own expense.
You could have the content in game though a standard system, but not only are you expected to pay even more for it, but the way to get it is totally divorced from actual gameplay.

I'd probably be better with it if you could buy it with disgustingly large amounts of in game gold, but as it is, it's just looking for ways for the customer to pay more than they need to. Double dipping is an anti-consumer practice only justified by the assumption that the extra income goes directly to making the game better.

[Laraul]

Just read Blizzard is considering allowing players to sell game time purchased from cash shop for gold similar to EVE. Is this another "standard" you would like to see added to the game?

To clarify:

We’re exploring the possibility of giving players a way to buy tradable game-time tokens for the purpose of exchanging them in-game with other players for gold. Our current thought on this is that it would give players a way to use their surplus gold to cover some of their subscription cost, while giving players who might have less play time an option for acquiring gold from other players through a legit and secure system. A few other online games offer a similar option, and players have suggested that they’d be interested in seeing something along those lines in WoW. We agree it could be a good fit for the game, and we look forward to any feedback you have as we continue to look into this feature.

Since time = money, this makes logical sense. I like the idea... It would allow people to pay for their subscriptions via the in-game currency, which they've spent time earning. And it would allow players who have less time to play to earn gold they simply don't have the time to play. It's legit and secure, and would take business away from RMT.

[Zumi]

I saw Bllizzard thinking about doing that for their patch 6.1. Eve and Wildstar already do it and it is successful. I wish SE would consider something similar. It pretty much gets rid of rmt and be legit. If you have a lot of time to play you can save RL money. If you don't have a lot of time to play you can catch up by buying game time tokens for people.

[BreathlessTao]

Yoshida said we wont be going F2P ever

Actually, Yoshi said they "could consider free-to-play". Mind you, he seems to have said a few other things as well and look where we are now... /shrug

[Felis]

I'd like to post some food for thought. Yoshida said we wont be going F2P ever, We now have a Cash shop, Yoshida also said he'd like to make FF14 available to as many players as possible and P2P/F2P aren't the only models for MMO's available nor the best ones.
Is it possible we may be seeing FF14 go B2P in the future? With a subscription service available for certain bonuses such as continued Veteran rewards, more characters per server, and certain vanity exclusives? etc.

Hmm

Premium = what we have now with entry/standard/legacy sub (with no extra costs)
free = with enough (anti-rmt) restrictions that the player pay the sub if he want to play it seriously. Also no access to cash shop without a sub

[Cynric]

Actually, Yoshi said they "could consider free-to-play". Mind you, he seems to have said a few other things as well and look where we are now... /shrug

Seemed more like he was saying "if our players want f2p we may consider it" but I don't think anyone really wants to see ff14 be F2P. The answer was a pretty generic "we will try to do what our players want" answer.

That's not to say it will or wont happen just that I didn't quite get the vibe that they were considering it at this very moment as a model. Just that he wants people to play.

Hmm

Premium = what we have now with standard sub
free = with enough (anti-rmt) restrictions that the player pay the sub if he want to play it seriously. Also no access to cash shop without a sub

Yeah something like that. I don't know if I'd necessarily want to see that kind of payment model myself. But it seems like where the design of recent content is headed.

[Adrian74]

They are always the same three or four desperately trying to find reasons for protecting the cash shop...

At least... The good part when we will have armors and a super mega big full cash shop and a lot of stuff of it.... Is that I'll laugh a lot remembering these days.... Of course it won't be worth of fixing the bad part of it, leaving the game... Let's pray the cash shop won't advance as these three or four would want.

PS: I know some of them will start now with their pathetic argument nº3* (Oh! Now you go with personal attacks?! So loooow!). I'm not, it's just what I see, always the same three or four showing in the threads of people concerned about what's happening... In somehow, it feels like if I'd be dealing with street merchants. ("But don't you need a new TV?!", "No", "It is last technology!", "No, I have one", "But this one is ecological, and it has smart tv, and it has internet, and it can prepare coffe for you and tell you good morning, you'll regret your entire life for not buying it, it is the future of TVs, the revolution. ")

And remember, SADLY, F2P games are nowadays a dying breed. We must fully enjoy the remaining ones, and even protect them if we can, not helping in their destruction. I fear that in probably 10 years in the future I won't be able to play a decent mmorpg anymore because there won't be any remaining game without the ideology of play with the kid's (And not so kids) minds to extract all their money.