Why no "Plexx" system?

[BlaiseArath]

How are y'all calling this pay to win? Its more like pay for convenience.

The player using this system is not going to be better than anyone else playing this game. No special in game items are being bought here that would change game play mechanics for those using it.


It is already easier to earn better gear that can not be bought. If they were to pay a group of people to carry them through runs they are still behind the curve cause they had to rely on others already capable of 7 manning the content.

Even if you say that using the gil to earn it faster while not being better is "pay to win" how does that effect us? They can't do anything with that gear they earned quickly.

As for PvP, which this game barely offers, everyone's ilvl has been synced which would cancel out the person who "paid to win" and decked themselves out quickly.

Honestly it seems like you're forgetting crafting as classes. Someone who RMT's these items and sells them for the large amount of gil they'd be worth would have a much easier time leveling a craft from 1-60 than any one who does not just by the sheer amount of material they would be able to afford. Same for those rare minions which people so often claim hunting is "Content"(I don't). I'm not saying that alone means we shouldn't have a plexx system, just that there are cases where it would be pay-to-win. Though perhaps your definition of such is just a little different.

Though Crafting is basically a large useless circle-jerk with Fieldcraft now because SE went full retard with how useful their gear should be compared to raid gear... but you know, whatever... trying to have their cake and eat it too.

[Bodicca]

This post made me laugh. There's so much irony here.

Coming from an old gamer who played the Ultima Online when it first launched, played EQ when it was relevant, Ascheron's Call, ect.. Timesinks were never enjoyable. Convenience is not as equally bad as Pay to Win unless that convenience is pay to win. Which generally means you buy your gear, you buy you high level you buy stuff to augment your character. It's never usually associated with buying playtime, which is really all this is designed to do. Plex systems are no more than additional revenue for a game that is stolen by RMT companies.

This post made me laugh. There's so much . . . something here.

By definition MMO's are time sinks, in and of themselves. What aspects of the game and which time sinks you find enjoyable are entirely subjective. That includes accumulating in game currency. A lot of players put a ton of time into crafting for the sole purpose of amassing gil. This is just one aspect of the game that buying gil would trivialize. This doesn't even begin to address opening the door to buying runs and essentially top tier weapons and gear with actual money.

This isnt a system that destroys or ruins games. It doesn't take away from the journey or take the point away. It works very well for a game that is accurately designed for it to work.

Actually, it doesn't work at all. It happened in RIFT. It happened in WS. It's happening in WoW and every other game that has this feature. Anytime that a game allows you to buy in game currency it allows you to bypass content. If anything, this feature would be less devastating to FFXIV than other games due to content being gated behind content. But a horrible idea nonetheless.

Why would any game designer think it's a great idea to let players bypass playing their game? Even if that means you need to play in order to acquire in game currency? That's the way it's supposed to work. Selling tokens only serves to bring in more money for the company and allow cyclical players their quick fix before they move on.

There are better ways to deal with RMT spam.

[Havenae]

Actually, it doesn't work at all.

Works perfectly fine in EvE.

[Darkova]

Honestly it seems like you're forgetting crafting as classes. Someone who RMT's these items and sells them for the large amount of gil they'd be worth would have a much easier time leveling a craft from 1-60 than any one who does not just by the sheer amount of material they would be able to afford. Same for those rare minions which people so often claim hunting is "Content"(I don't). I'm not saying that alone means we shouldn't have a plexx system, just that there are cases where it would be pay-to-win.

I see your point with the crafting. Though at the same time they are not buying the materials itself, they are using the gil to buy materials already farmed by players. Even though this would fall under pay to win in the sense they can level up crafting quicker, they are pretty much "paying to catch up" since they relied on the market already being in place. However, I'm not saying this shouldn't be an issue taken into consideration.

[Darkova]

This is just one aspect of the game that buying gil would trivialize. This doesn't even begin to address opening the door to buying runs and essentially top tier weapons and gear with actual money.

How would buying this plex trivialize the amassing of gil by the players who already do it? If anything this gives them the incentive to do it more since they would use the earned gil to play the game for free. The players who do not want to take the time to farm the gil themselves will be giving Square money as well.

As to what content can gil bypass? None. Even if you payed a group of people to carry you, you didn't bypass the content. Also, they can't do anything with their bought top tier gear. It doesn't hurt you or anyone else since this game doesn't have open world PvP where buying gear would create such effects. They can't use it to clear additional content either since they had to pay others to carry them in the first place. They also would probably get bored and leave the game failing to earn it themselves since they were willing enough to pay others to carry them should the option exist.

I can't speak for the other MMOs, but WoW has not used the plex system we are talking about.

[Riinata]

<snip> Actually, it doesn't work at all. It happened in RIFT. It happened in WS. It's happening in WoW and every other game that has this feature. Anytime that a game allows you to buy in game currency it allows you to bypass content. If anything, this feature would be less devastating to FFXIV than other games due to content being gated behind content. But a horrible idea nonetheless.

Why would any game designer think it's a great idea to let players bypass playing their game? Even if that means you need to play in order to acquire in game currency? That's the way it's supposed to work. Selling tokens only serves to bring in more money for the company and allow cyclical players their quick fix before they move on.

There are better ways to deal with RMT spam.

Ummmm.... EVE does it perfectly fine. Quit being ignorant.

[Fendred]

A question to all the detractors:

Wouldn't you rather have all that real life cash being spent on gil to go towards developing FFXIV:ARR instead of funding organized crime?

I mean, this isn't a hard thing to understand. The market for digital currency is never going away, so it can either be harnessed for the good of the game or by criminals.

Also, Guild Wars 2 does perfectly fine with selling its in game currency on its item store.

[DarkLiriel]

For the love of the Twelve, why would someone suggest plexx at all? This is.. the worst system that has EVER been invented on the net. You're basically wanting this to turn into wow 2.0 based on your bullets 1 and 2.

They've already stated that they will never do this, because it goes against some countries' laws that the game is available in, thus they would have to discontinue the game and shut those servers down in order to do it. They wont. Ever. Do this.