It's time to reevaluate the idea of adding a PLEX/Chronoscroll-like system to FFXIV

[Anesjka]

a bunch of stuff

You left out the part of Wildstar where....

1. Game mechanics broken.
2. Repeatable quests trapping you in same zones for over 10 levels.
3. Mundane gameplay
4. Broken Pvp
5. Rampant exploits
6. Rampant hacking and abusing a broke pvp mechanic.
7. Unfinished endgame ( Does a handful of events count as end game ? )
8. Pisspoor customer service similar to how Trion deals with exploiters ( ban the reporters, not the exploiters )

[AlexionSkylark]

You left out the part of Wildstar where....

<list>

Oh yeah, that too.

[Anesjka]

The game was doing fairly well at the time. Your point is completely and utterly moot.

1. At no time was Tera ever doing fairly well. It never broke any top 20 in subscriber numbers, and was borderline porn...and dont even get me started on Elin.
People stayed away from Tera because unlike most 15 year old boys, people like playing a MMO with MMO elements to it, not a MMO with porn elements to it.
Not to mention, the game just wasnt done very good.
A half nude Elin riding a ostrich with a rainbow afro listening to headphones... Free Realms much ?

Tera was all over the place and couldnt carve out its own identity. I still have Tera installed and when you log in, you see the same 300 or so people in chat that you seen 4 months ago, no new names, and 200 of them standing in the city BSing...

[MageBlack]

No thanks.

[Kosmos992k]

This seems like a terrible idea and definitely more than a nod to pay to win. If this game ever goes pay to win along these lines, me, my wife and our son will all be out of here as quickly as we can lapse our subs. I can name a dozen more players who'd be right behind us too.


All this does is create a way to funnel real money into game items through the indirect means of purchasing and exchanging 'PLEX' cards for some in-game compensation from another player. So someone with a lot of money available can buy tons of these 'PLEX' cards and exchange them for items or services from players in-game. Hence allowing players to buy progress with cash - albeit indirectly. That is straight up pay to win.

As for the idea that this somehow kills off RMT, it does nothing of the sort, all it does is alter the economics of gill farming/selling for RMTs. In fact as someone else pointed out, it also provides a way for RMTs to keep their accounts alive without the use of cash.

In a way, (because of their botting capability) this system would make RMT a self sustaining proposition which requires little initial outlay. The RMT could fund their subscription time using 'PLEX' cards bought with their 'bot farmed gil. But, because they are 'botting the living crap out of the game, they still have plenty of gil left over to sell for real hard cash to other players as well.

The most that this system would do to RMT is lower the price point they could sell gil at, but then it also reduces their costs of operating, so their return on investment is actually maintained thanks to the 'PLEX' system being advocated.

[DemonFury]

the fact that SE already has a small version of an item mall scares me. tells me that the idea of pay to win might actually have a future here in a pay to play game where it should never be.
your inviting a disaster such as giving gold sellers a means to make even more money and be more annoying than they already are.

[Shougun]

I really don't want to repeat that linked thread of 1.0, I've learned how I want to approach these forums and less keyboard warrioring feels better . . .lol

So in a non quoting non insulting response to some posts. In a game like, say Diablo 3, where you can literally buy items with cash - what is the difference between one more step(s) where cash is dungeons which is to items.

Something like:

Cash -> Gil -> Dungeon -> Item(?), where ? is a random item of a set loot table (end game dungeons included, since at least on Balmung there are groups who can run you through it - and sell the items to you)
Cash -> Item

Transitive property we have Cash -> Item(?) and Cash -> Item. So is the distinction for people is that you can't control the (?). So something like those random chests, or lottery items, that you can buy with real money that have a chance for big items is not actually P2W? I mean you can say no it is not, I would disagree but thats fine lol.

Imo, if you can use cash to pay for items that are considered winning (pay, to, win) and you can trade money for in game money (real, money, trade), then it should be against TOS and not supported. Supporting it would then be to support RMT and p2w. Of course I've seen varying definitions for both of these, some more used by players, some more used by developers, and new definitions growing from time. I think it is not fair to say it is not p2w or rmt //IF// you consider buying items or trading money for in game money as negatives. Sometimes seen RMT is strictly third party and nothing sanctioned within game (also dislike, since say in Diablo 3 you can trade real money as a player and it was sanctioned - but that definition would also change the approach to conversation).

I've seen one definition of p2w was "exclusive" benefits - I suppose in that scenario it is not p2w, but I don't like or agree with that definition as it opens up many opportunities for cash shop. "You can earn that in game with a .00001% chance drop, best item in the game, or you can pay $10". It is true that FCOB has a lockout, but is not true that you can't pay for a group of players to run you through the dungeon and can buy the items rights too - at least on my server I've seen the opportunity nearly daily from different groups of players. And, SE is going away with the lockout so it will be interesting to see how it changes the scenario.

[Amenian]

Oh god no. Total pay to win. I hated it in EVE. It'd probably actually lead me to looking for greener pastures if they implemented it.

[Anesjka]

We love FFXIV the way it is. We do not want to see a in game option added, the doors be let open and Bots and Hackers manage to buy their way to subs with in game items and down goes the economy.
No thank you....

End of story.

/thread

[Anesjka]

Look,

I am really trying not to be mean here. But if you think this game has any RMT or Bot problems right now. You havent seen anything yet. Neverwinter, Tera, Archeage.... the list goes on.

You give the RMT Kids ( Yes its 18-24 yr olds running these sites and programs usually ) .... You give these RMT kids a in game way to subscribe, and they will spam your chat with tells for Gil sites 40 times an hour, maybe more.
Multiple sites, multiple bots...bots warping all around by the hundreds doing quest lines to keep their gil coffers filled.... warping..hacking..exploiting

Which means now you must designate GM and Customer service to handling these, which takes time away from development and customer issues...

It's a stack of dominoes....

You open the door on something like this...and everything falls in a matter of time.