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

[Intaki]

And as fun as it is to argue with a bunch of hopelessly lost people, the most hilarious fact of the matter is that I don't even need to! If SE wasn't already seriously considering implementing this model already, the fact that Blizzard is taking the plunge is going to turn a lot of heads. Especially heads above Yoshi P.'s.

If you really, truly don't want this system to make it's way to FFXIV then you better find your favorite deity and pray real hard that it fails astronomically in WoW (it won't, by the way), because if it doesn't then you can be pretty sure that it's going to become industry standard.

It's out of a legitimate, and actually educated sense of understanding economic principles as well as how money flows through a system with all its complex variables.

I absolutely believe you believe this when you say this. The problem is that you clearly are possessed of zero understanding of how in-game economies actually work.

[Ceodore]

If you really, truly don't want this system to make it's way to FFXIV then you better find your favorite deity and pray real hard that it fails astronomically in WoW (it won't, by the way), because if it doesn't then you can be pretty sure that it's going to become industry standard.

I absolutely believe you when you say this. The problem is that you clearly are possessed of zero understanding of how in-game economies actually work.

First, just because WoW implements a system that is cancerous to a game doesn't mean that everyone else will follow in their foot steps. Further, I have already laid out in absolute and sound detail how and why this system won't work. Your lack of understanding, while baffling, does not trouble me in the slightest. Further, you have failed to point out where I fail to understand the in game economy, and as someone who is in such support of a system that has time and again ruined a game into oblivion, the burden of proof as to how it won't this time as well as to how I am wrong lies on your shoulders.

[Intaki]

a system that has time and again ruined a game into oblivion

I bet you can't prove a single instance of this happening (because it never has).

I think I speak for a lot of us when I say: "If it ain't broken, don't fix it."

Scenario: You have a fully functional 2013 Toyota Camry. You are given the option to trade it in for a 2016 Ferrari. What do you do?

I say, if it ain't broke, make it even better.

[Duuude007]

Scenario: You have a fully functional 2013 Toyota Camry. You are given the option to trade it in for a 2016 Ferrari. What do you do?

I say, if it ain't broke, make it even better.

Worst analogy ever.

A game is either designed around the freemium plan, or freemium features occur because of the failing state of a game. The third, far less rewarding option is as a so-called upgrade to a popular game. THAT has been what has been blamed for the cause of many game downfalls.

He was wrong to say 'to oblivion'. Even the crappiest games that went f2p still can be seen to have a couple dozen players on their servers.

[Pandastirfry]

Scenario: You have a fully functional 2013 Toyota Camry. You are given the option to trade it in for a 2016 Ferrari. What do you do?

I say, if it ain't broke, make it even better.

Well to stretch that anology.

You have a Camry, the insurance is affordable, you are given the option to get a 2016 Ferrari, your insurance goes through the roof and uour're forced to sell that Ferrari and buy a beater as a direct result.

What people are saying is the market inflation is the same as your car insurance I your analogy. While the car might be astheically better the financial fallout is not worth it.


In short, I'd keep the Camry because I can actually afford it in the long run.

[MageBlack]

^^

/End Thread

[QiLymePye]

OK preypacer. Nice post, but here's the thing. Im gonna play devils advocate here. Lets use your example of 10 hr gametime split into 5 2hr sessions. Now that would be nice to do, except that alot of the end game stuff has you going back to do previous content, which takes longer and longer to wait just to play for. So person doing 5- 2hr sessions spends half of each session just waiting to play.

Now this is what I want alot of you all to know, especially you preypacer, how long do you think this game will last if all of the players that can't sit for 10hrs at a time said "screw this game"? What percentage of the "entire" player base would SE lose? I will say at least half. Once again, SE is a company in the business of making games "for Profit". If half of the players left this game, what are SE's options? increase remaining players subs by 25 to 50 percent? Then some of those players will leave? Or maybe downsize, so you get expansions maybe 1 every 3 years or patches 1 to 2 times a year? What you all need to understand is that money talks. And SE and all of us players that like this game need this game to survive. So telling people that if they can't afford the sub to quit, or if they can't afford the time to play to quit is not healthy for a business, which SE is. When you are in the business of making money, you want to ensure profits. SE wants to continue to be profitable, so guess what? They will keep listening to people, not just the ones that feel like the game is ok how it is and feel entitled to keep it that way, but they are also gonna listen to the people that are not happy as well.

Everybody pays the same basic sub price, no one has more pull than the other, but there is one group that is bigger than the other in this game, and if I had to decide between alienating half of my profit margin or a smaller percentage, best believe im gonna go with the one making me the most money. And right now, SE is trying to get even more casuals in this game, via free login weekends, etc. Remember who is keeping this game afloat people.

[QiLymePye]

And can someone please tell me...What is p2w in "this" game? Im confused. You can't buy an uber-powerful weapon that slays any primal in one hit. You can't buy armor that blocks 100 percent damage. What would people be buying to win? Explain? A house? Ok. Lets say said person buys a house. They win? Do they watch credits roll and quit game and end sub? What do you win in this game? If you play for vanity, ok? Is there a top prize only given to one person who has all vanity items? You buy coil runs. Who wins in that situation? Does the person doing the coil wins? Does that mean everyone else can't do same coil? Does that mean I lost because someone bought a coil run? Many of you don't understand what P2W means. It means you "must pay" in order to win or beat the game or to advance in the game. That's what the term means.

Ask yourself this question: "I don't pay, can I win and succeed in this game?" If the answer is yes, then "ITS NOT P2W". Come on people. This game is far from p2w. You don't have to spend RL money in this game to be successful, so no, its not P2W. Now if watching someone buy a coil run hurts your ego, then that's all it is, an ego buster.

[Fyce]

-Snip-

You have to ask yourself why you are playing the game.
For the vast majority, the final answer will be "for progression".

This is not a competitive game, so there is nothing to win "against" another player per se. But this is still a massively multiplayer game where people play and progress at a set pace.

By having the possibility to buy gils with real money, you can then afford some skip in the "progress... process". Some parts of the game become bound to the amount of gils you can buy, instead of being linked to a set number of average hours of play.

This create inequalities between the players who buy gils and the players who don't.

Since this MMORPG is very much a "theme park" with a lot of aspects to it, not everything use gils as a "source of progress". But you still have the housing, the relic (hi materia IV!), or even buying coil runs (with loot), etc. The most important being crafting and buying mats.

So, by allowing the purchase of gils with real money, you give some players, not everyone, the power to skip what can be cosidered the core of the game: progression, thus, creating inequalities inside your playerbase.
Since this is not a competitive game, progression is the only way a player can relate to another and compare himself with. It doesn't matter if these inequalities directly affect other players or not by influancing a straight "win" status. It's just more subtle than that in MMORPG, FFXIV in this particular case.