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

[Linadae]

I'll quote myself for you


THIS is what would end up happening, could promise it.

Unless (and I am on neither side of the fence) SE goes with WoW's method where THEY decide how much their version of Plex goes for in gil. Players will supply it and reap the in game rewards but they have no direct control over the pricing.

[AlexionSkylark]

I didn't insult anybody. It was just a humorous response aimed at your behaviour.

Anyhow, your point against ISK still fails to comply to reality. Not a single ISK was created in EVE online with the advent of PLEX.

I'm gonna try to explain PLEX to you, how it would work in FFXIV in a very clear manner:

1-) Bill is a lawyer IRL, and he likes to play FFXIV with his character "Loaded Rich", a Hyur White Mage. He'd like to have more gil to buy a house and materias for his DoH classes, but he's burning the midnight oil at work many more times than he'd like to.

2-) Little Timmy is 16 years old, and he had to quit school for a year to treat a very bad kidney infection. He also likes to play FFXIV and has all classes @ 50, plus a net worth of 60 million gil. Little Timmy has just so much time in his hands, being bedside and all. His family is kinda poor, tho, and they could use those $15 spent on Timmy's subscription to buy medicine. But the game just makes him so happy, it's doing wonders for him not to sink into depression.

Now, PLEX is the answer to BOTH Bill and Timmy. Timmy can now play for FREE, thanks to all the gil he's amassed, and Bill can buy his dreamhouse by the lake with TIMMY'S money. Not money created out of thin air, like a real money fountain (like a levequest or a duty roulette run) would do, but money that ALREADY EXISTED on the system, IN TIMMY'S CHARACTER, which will DISAPPEAR from the world the minute Bill buys his house. Money that would otherwise be kept in Timmy's account.

And, as I said before, a number of times, balancing out fountains and sinks is what's really the secret of a healthy MMO economy.

NOW, did you FINALLY get it?

[Tiggy]

I understand how it works just fine and your sob story changes nothing about a single thing I said. Keep assuming I don't get it though. I disagree with you. Deal with it.

[Intaki]

Reading this thread, it's pretty sad to see all the silly strawmen being propped up by people utterly horrified by the notion of change. The PLEX system works and it works well. And a lot of the industry giants are beginning to take serious note. And if Blizzard really does go through with making their own equivalent system like they have said they are, expect it to show up here soon enough.

And Tiggy clearly has zero understanding of how the system works, even though it's been explained in extremely simple terms repeatedly. If you believe that something that literally creates zero in-game money can cause in-game inflation, then I am entirely able to understand why you're incapable of making in-game money in the first place.

[chrillix]

I didn't insult anybody. It was just a humorous response aimed at your behaviour.

Anyhow, your point against ISK still fails to comply to reality. Not a single ISK was created in EVE online with the advent of PLEX.

I'm gonna try to explain PLEX to you, how it would work in FFXIV in a very clear manner:

1-) Bill is a lawyer IRL, and he likes to play FFXIV with his character "Loaded Rich", a Hyur White Mage. He'd like to have more gil to buy a house and materias for his DoH classes, but he's burning the midnight oil at work many more times than he'd like to.

2-) Little Timmy is 16 years old, and he had to quit school for a year to treat a very bad kidney infection. He also likes to play FFXIV and has all classes @ 50, plus a net worth of 60 million gil. Little Timmy has just so much time in his hands, being bedside and all. His family is kinda poor, tho, and they could use those $15 spent on Timmy's subscription to buy medicine. But the game just makes him so happy, it's doing wonders for him not to sink into depression.

Now, PLEX is the answer to BOTH Bill and Timmy. Timmy can now play for FREE, thanks to all the gil he's amassed, and Bill can buy his dreamhouse by the lake with TIMMY'S money. Not money created out of thin air, like a real money fountain (like a levequest or a duty roulette run) would do, but money that ALREADY EXISTED on the system, IN TIMMY'S CHARACTER, which will DISAPPEAR from the world the minute Bill buys his house. Money that would otherwise be kept in Timmy's account.

And, as I said before, a number of times, balancing out fountains and sinks is what's really the secret of a healthy MMO economy.

NOW, did you FINALLY get it?

Now we have Jon. Jon and his friends have been playing ffxiv semi-regularly. They decide to band together and spend their in-game time raising gil so they can buy a house for their FC. After a month of saving, they finally have enough for their house!! Oh wait, what's this? Bill used his real life money to buy up the last plot?!

Yeah, I'll pass on that kind of a situation being brought into this game. People with time to play the game shouldn't be screwed over by people who don't.

[Tiggy]

I understand how it works just fine and your sob story changes nothing about a single thing I said. Keep assuming I don't get it though. I disagree with you. Deal with it.

Nice try attempting to appeal to my emotions with that sob story instead of making an actual point about how it won't effect the economy. I'll just leave this here. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Emotional_appeal

Now, PLEX is the answer to BOTH Bill and Timmy. Timmy can now play for FREE, thanks to all the gil he's amassed, and Bill can buy his dreamhouse by the lake with TIMMY'S money. Not money created out of thin air, like a real money fountain (like a levequest or a duty roulette run) would do, but money that ALREADY EXISTED on the system, IN TIMMY'S CHARACTER, which will DISAPPEAR from the world the minute Bill buys his house. Money that would otherwise be kept in Timmy's account.

You DO realize money has to actually move around and be spent to have an economy right? Right? In your above scenario those two players aren't doing a thing to stimulate the games economy and you think that's a good thing? Really?

by people utterly horrified by the notion of change.

Best assumption in the whole thread by far.

The PLEX system works and it works well.

By all means show a different game other than Eve where such a system works. Eve's economy is very different from normal MMOs after all. So far only Tera and Wildstar have been presented as normal MMOs and quite honestly both of those games aren't doing so well and so they don't make very good examples since we can't separate out the specific effect the RMT system had on player satisfaction.

[AlexionSkylark]

I disagree with you. Deal with it.

You are welcome to disagree all you want. What you can't do, however, is use this forum to spread false information. Willingly or unwillingly.
PLEX/Chronoscroll/C.R.E.D.D/WoW Tokens are NOT money fountains, in the sense that they create money into the system. They simply are not.
This is not a matter of opinion, it's a matter of hard facts.

[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.

[Tiggy]

You are welcome to disagree all you want. What you can't do, however, is use this forum to spread false information. Willingly or unwillingly.
PLEX/Chronoscroll/C.R.E.D.D/WoW Tokens are NOT money fountains, in the sense that they create money into the system. They simply are not.
This is not a matter of opinion, it's a matter of hard facts.

Like all those factual statements you made that myself and others debunked and you haven't taken a shred of personal responsibility for? Right right. You're a saint. Lol.

[Intaki]

By all means show a different game other than Eve where such a system works. Eve's economy is very different from normal MMOs after all. So far only Tera and Wildstar have been presented as normal MMOs and quite honestly both of those games aren't doing so well and so they don't make very good examples since we can't separate out the specific effect the RMT system had on player satisfaction.

It absolutely worked in Wildstar. Whatever you think of the game or its lack of commercial success, the in-game economy was vibrant and fairly booming. Luxuries were expensive, but never out of reach. And a CREDD could be easily bought by simply doing your dailies for not even a whole month. Sometimes the price went up, sometimes it went down, but it was never the horrific dystopia you seem to think it would be.