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

[Tiggy]

Denial of what? I just hope FFXIV makes as much money as possible. I want KH3 to be polished.

Every little one of your "if they" lines where you seem to suppose to know what they are thinking just to somehow keep the door open on this idea. It's denial. They said 80% of the players are happy "So, we don’t believe that FFXIV needs to shift in that direction." To them it doesn't appear to be solely about making money. Honestly this game is doing nothing but selling and making headlines so I don't know why you think this is a problem to begin with ESPECIALLY since this game brought them into the black within months of launch.

Using KH3 is a serious distraction and irrelevant to the overall discussion in this thread. We all want square to succeed. This thread was never about them succeeding or not in their other endeavors. It was solely about "It's time to reevaluate the idea of adding a PLEX/Chronoscroll-like system to FFXIV." Square has clearly evaluated their model and the level of satisfaction customers get from it. So quite honestly they did reevaluate these ideas internally already. They decided not to change the model. That's all there is to it.

Just because they don't take up a plex system does not mean they won't make enough money to make a killer KH game or any other great game. It's a fallacy to assume the quality of KH3 solely rides on the success of FFXIV or that it's solely riding on the profits from FFXIV. Disney has quite a bit riding on the game too and they help fund it quite nicely. Do you really think Disney wouldn't be throwing money at the single best Disney video game series ever released?

So please. Don't drop KH3 into this thread like it somehow justifies a Plex like system. It doesn't. It's a completely different conversation.

To be fair, PLEX isn't really free 2 play like Elder Scrolls is (the comparison made in the article), somebody is paying for the subscriptions.

The point was that they've clearly done the research and evaluated systems in other games. They've determined players are happy and no change is needed. Do you really think Plex like systems weren't in that internal discussion? 80% of players are happy with the way things are now. That happiness includes the lack of a plex system. Not just that it's not a f2p game. Every poster here saying they don't want a plex model is an example of how such a system would make people unhappy and would decrease that 80% satisfaction level.

This isn't rocket science.

While you are correct that player satisfaction is important, I wouldn't think for a second that if they could get away with making more money at the expense of our satisfaction, they would pass up the opportunity.

Have you not been paying attention to Square in the last few years?
1. 1.0 bombed so they made it free.
2. They remade the entire game solely to win back disappointed fans at a great financial cost.
3. They included the ps3 version despite it's limitations just because they once promised it would come to ps3.
4. The servers at launch were woefully inadequate and their specific reason was they thought they would have to win fans back.

It's very clear that from the moment 1.0 came out that Square was doing everything in it's power to make people happy, to win fans back, and to fulfill past promises. It's clearly been their priority to make their fans happy. Your assertion that they would go money hungry at the first opportunity flies completely in the face of their behavior so far for FFXIV and in the face of that interview response. You're making assumptions because you're cynical about companies as money hungry organizations. That's a stereotype that doesn't for any reason appear to fit to Square in this context.

[Giantbane]

The point was that they've clearly done the research and evaluated systems in other games. They've determined players are happy and no change is needed. Do you really think Plex like systems weren't in that internal discussion? 80% of players are happy with the way things are now. That happiness includes the lack of a plex system. Not just that it's not a f2p game. Every poster here saying they don't want a plex model is an example of how such a system would make people unhappy and would decrease that 80% satisfaction level.

This isn't rocket science.

The answer was in response to Elder Scrolls, which is going completely free. And they said they'd consider completely free only if WoW did it. Neither of those things have anything to do with a PLEX system.

Doesn't mean they'll change it. But if you're taking that specific article to back up your argument that "SE SEZ NO PLEX EVAR", I don't think it holds a lot of water.

Especially because they said they'd only change their model "If WoW did". WoW is introducing a PLEX system. I think it's very likely SE will see how PLEX works for WoW and evaluate it based on that.

[Tiggy]

Especially because they said they'd only change their model "If WoW did". WoW is introducing a PLEX system. I think it's very likely SE will see how PLEX works for WoW and evaluate it based on that.

Did you miss the laugh after he said that? It was a joke. Like, "IF they ever go free, lol."

[KisaiTenshi]

Did you miss the laugh after he said that? It was a joke. Like, "IF they ever go free, lol."

PLEX-type of system isn't the same as "going free" either. It turns the game into a "real" job if anything. If you want to play the game, you need to spend X hours to earn Y gold to give it to the protection racket, or you lose your ability to play the game. We wouldn't want this to happen now would we? One needs to evaluate if it's better to pay 15$/mo with a "real job" that pays real money instead, PLEX costs 15$, but it costs 2 million gold, and the RMT's are selling it below cost, then you may have to spend an entire week to make that much gold. One needs to get their priorities in order.

"Freemium" games start out free and remain free, and the "PLEX" or whatever premium currency is in the system winds up being a way for players to feed gachapon/gambling addicts. Sure, I'll buy 100$ worth of PLEX stuff and sell it to the biggest gachapon hoarder in the game easily, but what happens is I end up with rapidly depreciating asset either way, I'd be better off holding on to my real cash. Maybe the gachapon hoarder will get that rare item they can then turn around and sell for more than the amount they paid in gold to buy the premium currency. If the plex system only works to buy game time, it's not quite as destructive to the game environment as straight illegal RMT is. But it creates fraud risk.

[Tiggy]

PLEX-type of system isn't the same as "going free" either.

You seem to be ignoring all the posts blatantly saying tokens can be purchased with in game money to pay for their membership. A plex system is intrinsically linked to the subscription system for this reason making what he said very relevant to the topic.

The denial is strong.

[Giantbane]

Did you miss the laugh after he said that? It was a joke. Like, "IF they ever go free, lol."

Don't be obtuse. It's no secret that SE pays very close attention to what WoW does, with good reason. I think it's more of a joke to think that WoW would actually consider going f2p in the semi near future.

You seem to be ignoring all the posts blatantly saying tokens can be purchased with in game money to pay for their membership. A plex system is intrinsically linked to the subscription system for this reason making what he said very relevant to the topic.

The denial is strong.

Posts? That's the very definition of what a PLEX system is. Nobody's denying anything.

Full free 2 play means anybody can play the game and nobody is paying for that time. In order to make money, the game's creators will often degrade the normal game in some way, either with in game ads, limiting game time, creating massive grinds, obscene difficulty or by limiting access to peripheral content like glamours or housing. How problematic this is depends on the developer's need or willingness to encourage/pressure its players to use the in game shop. Many people don't like this model because they would rather just pay for a good game without the incentives for the developers to degrade their own product.

The difference with PLEX is that the developers don't get any extra money when its purchased. For every PLEX purchased (well, almost, there will be unspent PLEX), that represents a subscription that's not paid. This is really just a transfer of the fee from one player to the other. This is important, because since SE doesn't stand to make any appreciable amount of extra money, it creates no incentives for the developers to degrade their own game (unlike the existing cash shop...).

So, yes, technically somebody could play the game without paying any money. However, in each and every instance of this, somebody else IS paying for them to play. Thus it's not really Free 2 Play. And most importantly, PLEX doesn't create incentives for devs to purposely degrade their own game, as there exists little to no monetary incentive for them to do so.

[Giantbane]

But it creates fraud risk.

Fraud risk is due to the fact that there's no sanctioned exchange for gil > $$ and back. This means there needs to be trust between parties in terms of getting goods for money paid. This creates the fraud risk. There would be no fraud risk with a PLEX market at all since you would get what you pay for via the in game market.