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

[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.