You think our Cash shop is bad...take a look at THIS

[Kosmos992k]

So, you think the FFXIV cash shop is bad?

Consider the example of Destiny. This AAA action game has no subscription, sounds great Yes? Except that to finance the continued updates to the game and servers, Bungie is introducing microtransactions....

The First Microtransactions For Destiny

Recently an update added 18 new emote to the game, except they are locked out. But, if you...Want To Buy All The Emotes In Destiny? It'll Run You $38

Note that there is no way that these emotes can be obtained in Destiny through gameplay, they require a micro-transaction to purchase in-game currency with real world currency - gotta buy those diamonds, coins, hearts, stars, or in this case Silver to get your stuff.

This is an example of the kind of non-sense that subscription free games ultimately have no choice about doing since they have to pay for the servers and future development somehow. It's also an example that demonstrates the positive benefit of a monthly subscription.

Which brings me back to FFXIV and my hope that they continue with the subscription model and take care to only add retired seasonal items to the cash shop in future.