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

[Shadex]

WoW is doing it? Then of course Yoshi has to do it. Guy hasn't had an original thought in regards to this game that didn't come from WoW since the relaunch. If WoW decided to replace all its weapon models with fish you can guarantee we would be slapping around mobs with trout within a month. Monkey see, monkey do.

[nuyu11]

Some player have a talent to do business, the know about the demand, how to speculate the market, to control the market price, doing sales and having a large network.

Some player don't, they just enjoy game like normal..... Just look at EVE online.

Not the best solution to prevent gold seller, example:
SE sell 12.99 € = Token 1 month sub = 100k Gil
Gold seller can sell more cheaper with 10 € = for 100k Gil

[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.

[Nicobo]

...The back and forth discussion in the prior thread got heated until the inestimable Yoshi-P chimed in with the following (on November 6, 2012)...

I agree with YoshiP, this is an interesting idea.
Btw, I heard that China version of FFXIV is paid by logon time, something like 1USD for 3000min, should I consider it as P2W?

add comment:
Forget to mention that I agree with OP's points as well.
But I believe after their re-evaluatiion, it still would not happen.
One of the reasons is that SE has increased GIL given from the system previously and it did not comply with this suggestion ^^;

[nuyu11]

This solution is most likely for player who desperately need Gil (I mean legally buy Gil) or player who do not have Real Money to pay subs.
But still fail if that player don't know how to make Money/Gil.

[Interstella]

By replacing monthly subscription with tokens that can be purchased with in-game currency, you are in effect reducing RMT costs, which they can then use to buy new game versions to bot with.

More bots = more in-game currency = reduction in real-money price = more people buying illegally generated in-game currency = more money for RMT = more game version being bought = more bots...

SE charges: 130,000gil = 1 token = 1 month of subscription
But due to the above scenario, RMT can charge: $10 = 130,000gil = 1 token = 1 month subscription (Nice, legacy prices!)

And SE will see none of this money...
= less money for game development
= more items in the cash shop to try and generate real-world money (because let's face it, it makes the world go round)

With this system, you are in effect putting SE in direct competition with RMTs, who do you think is going to come out on top here?!

Also, pay-to-win: isn't just buying gear, it's buying a spot on a raid team that will clear content for you.


Le edit...

In contrast to what you think, this system isn't putting SE in competition with RMT, it's putting players in competition with RMT.

Anyone can buy a token, players who buy tokens are indirectly selling gil if you think about it ... More competition = cheaper goods (gil is the good in this case). Throw in the existence of a legal route, players will feel safer taking the legal route, token selling will have a competitive advantage v.s. buying from a shady spammer.

The end result is that it screws over RMT because they no longer have a monopoly on RL money to gil conversion.

Thank you, I think I see how this works now.

So, $13 is 1 token from SE which can be sold on the MB for price dictated by the player, say 130,000gil
- It's secure
- Not against TOS

But for those who don't want to pay real-world money for a subscription, or those who can't, wouldn't they have to take up a currency generating style of play (130,000gil is really little, it'll probably more expensive I think)

So for example, say $13 will get me 130,000gil
But what if an RMT says $10 = 200,000gil?

Wouldn't I be getting more gil for less real-world money?

So some people might buy $20 worth of gil from an RMT = 2 months game time and a little extra, I can spend on a house, so no money goes back into the economy or I spend it on items on the MB I wouldn't have purchased otherwise
- so circulating more money into the economy causing inflation (am I right?)

Wouldn't that be detrimental to other players?

What if the RMT bought tokens off the MB and resold them for higher prices?
- Wouldn't those who rely on the tokens for game time either leave the game or be forced into a currency generating style of play?
- Wouldn't this encourage botting by actual players to keep up with RMT?

[Kikosho]

So... according to some arguments made in this thread, people will spend their money to buy RMT gil to buy a subscription (that they could have bought with their money). Legit.

[Interstella]

So... according to some arguments made in this thread, people will spend their money to buy RMT gil to buy a subscription (that they could have bought with their money). Legit.

Why not? It's cheaper...

And while you're at it, you can buy extra gil for that nice swimsuit set you saw on the MB earlier, or that crafted ilvl110 set...

[Violyre]

By replacing monthly subscription with tokens that can be purchased with in-game currency, you are in effect reducing RMT costs, which they can then use to buy new game versions to bot with.

More bots = more in-game currency = reduction in real-money price = more people buying illegally generated in-game currency = more money for RMT = more game version being bought = more bots...

SE charges: 130,000gil = 1 token = 1 month of subscription
But due to the above scenario, RMT can charge: $10 = 130,000gil = 1 token = 1 month subscription (Nice, legacy prices!)

And SE will see none of this money...
= less money for game development
= more items in the cash shop to try and generate real-world money (because let's face it, it makes the world go round)

With this system, you are in effect putting SE in direct competition with RMTs, who do you think is going to come out on top here?!



Also, pay-to-win: isn't just buying gear, it's buying a spot on a raid team that will clear content for you.

Except it's not like how you described at all. Players would buy the monthly sub tokens with actual money and receive an in-game item, and sell to people in-game as trade. RMT? Yes. Is it bad? No.

Now, the people saying "this is pay to win because people can just buy raid clears with gil they got from real money." Okay. What's stopping them now? Oh right, a little thing called the TOS. The one that is blatantly ignored by people who go out and buy gil so that they can buy raid clears with gil they got from real money. And even those that don't, there's a clear demand for them so people must have the gil somehow. How is either scenario different?

And to others, ruin the economy? Think about it for a minute. You're trading an item for gil that's currently circulating on your server. This adds no extra gil to the economy. What happens when that guy who's all like "haha I have credit cards with no limits" goes and buys gil from the RMT? Let's say they buy 30M. That's 30M instantly introduced to the economy that wasn't there before, because you can be sure as hell the RMT aren't buying anything with it, and most likely the person that bought the 30M already has plans for that same 30M and buys things, spreading the gil around. The more money in an economy, the less the value. When more money is circulating throughout, that's what we call "inflation." RMT could not win with this. Most likely, if a legal form of RMT were available, the players who would much rather have the safety of keeping within the TOS, and RMT would see a lot less as the people who buy these tokens would lean away from the current RMT. What happens when the RMT find out it's not worth it to stay? They leave. Their piles and piles of swimming gil in their vaults would go *poof!* And that neither adds or takes away from the economy, because it was never circulating.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a video to record in which I'll probably be complaining about how much this thread makes my head hurt.

[Bishop81]

By replacing monthly subscription with tokens that can be purchased with in-game currency, you are in effect reducing RMT costs, which they can then use to buy new game versions to bot with.

More bots = more in-game currency = reduction in real-money price = more people buying illegally generated in-game currency = more money for RMT = more game version being bought = more bots...

SE charges: 130,000gil = 1 token = 1 month of subscription
But due to the above scenario, RMT can charge: $10 = 130,000gil = 1 token = 1 month subscription (Nice, legacy prices!)

And SE will see none of this money...
= less money for game development
= more items in the cash shop to try and generate real-world money (because let's face it, it makes the world go round)

With this system, you are in effect putting SE in direct competition with RMTs, who do you think is going to come out on top here?!



Also, pay-to-win: isn't just buying gear, it's buying a spot on a raid team that will clear content for you.

In contrast to what you think, this system isn't putting SE in competition with RMT, it's putting players in competition with RMT.

Anyone can buy a token, players who buy tokens are indirectly selling gil if you think about it ... More competition = cheaper goods (gil is the good in this case). Throw in the existence of a legal route, players will feel safer taking the legal route, token selling will have a competitive advantage v.s. buying from a shady spammer.

The end result is that it screws over RMT because they no longer have a monopoly on RL money to gil conversion.