The Ethics of Optional Item Sales

[GenJoe]

Usually people who have issues with cash shops have never had a job in their lives and don't have the money to spend on in game items regardless, I find. Just ask your mom to let you use her card to buy dyes, OP.

As generalized as your statement is... I think you may be right.
I've never paid for any premium services nor participated in any RMT.. but I don't feel the least excluded because well, if I really wanted to, I could always just open up my wallet and pay a few bucks.. I simply don't feel it to be necessary so it's all optional to me.

I'm going to stop here and say this is where we agree to disagree. What you sell from the cash shop doesn't matter. F2P games allow this and have no subscription fee pay walls. They allow almost their entire premium item inventory to be traded/sold within the player base. Guess what? RMT bots still exist in those games too. Some they're quite rampant actually. So this entire argument I've seen lately that Plex/game time player trading reduces/chases away RMT is utter bologna. Again, you just want to pay $10 to get instant gil and not potentially be banned for it. I'm not saying it's wrong to want that, but that has never been nor will it ever be positive growth in a multiplayer game.

Did the cash-shop item trade in other games. Seen multiple times the long term effects of it. Many things changed. RMT was not one of those.

No, I would be on the purchasing end of things and actually open up my gil and put it back into the economy. But that's not important.

I don't know how RMTs would infiltrate the cash shop economy unless cash shop items have potential use in-game as gear, that would be a pay 2 win system and I'm not saying that's what SE should do.

What I am suggesting is that if SE keeps pumping out cash shop items that players trade for gil, there's no way RMT can do the same and make profit. They could still make SOME profit, but the structure/flow of gil would change from RMT <-> Player to: RMT <-> SE <-> Player. SE will be a middle man, cutting into RMT's profits.

[seida]

Usually people who have issues with cash shops have never had a job in their lives and don't have the money to spend on in game items regardless, I find. Just ask your mom to let you use her card to buy dyes, OP.

Uh... I doubt it. I would say the number of players young enough to need their parents to pay for them are in a tiny minority. I would be interested in the stats but the vast majority of people I come across are in their 20s and 30s and, yeah, have jobs.

[nuyu11]

All I want is minions and other items is for all character just like mounts, not just for specific character only.
It's kinda annoy me when I need to buy again the accessories and minions to my alt.

[DreadRabbit]

What I am suggesting is that if SE keeps pumping out cash shop items that players trade for gil, there's no way RMT can do the same and make profit. They could still make SOME profit, but the structure/flow of gil would change from RMT <-> Player to: RMT <-> SE <-> Player. SE will be a middle man, cutting into RMT's profits.

What do you think F2P games do? That's literally the only thing they tend to do: pump out cash shop items that players trade for gil. That is literally where all the hate for cash shops comes from (regardless if it's misguided or not). You're not suggesting anything new or inventive here. F2P games have done this since they were conceptualized and RMT is still very much a booming business in the majority of them.

Letting SE do the same thing isn't going to chase RMT away. Blocking their ability to spam us with ads will.

[Vespar]

I don't really mind the way things are headed as far as DLC and cash shops and what not. I've started comparing it to getting a service like a haircut.
You are charged let's say $20 for a haircut. But if you want extra things like a color or a perm, You expect to pay more. It really is no different.
My base subscription costs me $14 a month, but if I want extra things on top of that I expect it to cost a bit more.

I agree that it would be nice to have a purchased minion be available to all characters but I don't expect it. That's like getting a haircut and expecting my kids' haircuts to be free just because I paid for mine.

[Asierid]

This is unfortunately 100% not true. I can almost guarantee you after experiencing FFXI,

Stopped here. Welcome to 14, not 11.

The items in the cash shop are vanity, the majority of which are old content that was meant to be one time only. Missed the chance to get it for free? Too bad. Least you can buy it now.

I still don't get why complaining about access to "limited" items that would normally not be available to the people complaining is still a thing. Entitlement at its finest.

[Nadrojj]

Wait until the first exclusive flying mount comes to the cash shop, this place is going to be flooded with tears. Cash shop is there for those who want to spend money on unique items that do not provide any gameplay advantages. I'm all for the cash shop, I've only bought a friend a minion from there but I spend more on breakfast each day than a single item costs, no sweat.

[Avenger]

SE has kept their word on the Cash Shop. No Pay to Win, vanity only. I'm ok with it. The only item I ever had an issue with was the Odin mount, because it seemed like something that should have been able to be earned in-game. Then I bought an Odin mount, so shows what my conviction was worth, lol.

It's not Pay to Win unless by paying real money you can avoid completing a task in the game.

Fortunately FFXIV doesn't permit:

- paying real money for an item that you would otherwise would have to complete in-game tasks for (e.g. seasonal quest rewards)
- paying real money to gain an advantage while leveling (e.g. moogle hat or warrior of light helmet)
- paying real money for NPCs (e.g. extra retainers) to give you items that you would otherwise have to gather or purchase in game

[reillyblair]

i didnt have anything to do with the last event cause the only decent stuff was in the cash shop so why bother doing the event if this is whats going to keep happening events are gonna end up not even being done which is an effect from the cash shop

[Jynx]

I don't support the practice. I will tolerate it just because I know there is sadly a large enough market willing to shell out extra cash for no good reason.

I don't agree with the point of view of having "Premium" items in a game I allready pay for but it's just a sad fact that others don't agree with me. I can yell until I'm blue in the face that they are wasting their money on things that should have been included in their subscription fees, but then I get stonewalled by people refusing common sense and telling me that we only pay for the privilege of just being able to look at the log in screen. Then I'm told that I am entitled because I expect things to work a certain way.

So I don't bother with it anymore let people who don't value their dollars the same way I do waste them, I know I certainly waste my money on things other people may call me crazy for. I just have to accept the sad fact that eventually my way of thinking is not where the consumers dollars are. All I can do is try my best to convince people that there money should be worth more, and things like special dyes/mounts/minions should all be available in the game.

Such is life.