Why I started playing FFXIV

[adn]

That's an awful lot of words to say you don't like the cash shop.

They literally just announced the housing reclamation system. They probably haven't had any time to look at feedback for it yet, and they haven't even given it a try on live to see how well it works before they adjust it.

For all the complaining about the cash shop that people do, FFXIV has one of the least offensive cash shops I've ever seen. They deliberately stay away from things like level boosts or stuff like the WoW Token/Wildstar CREDD which has drastic and far-reaching effects on the in-game economy. All they do is sell a few totally optional items for people who might be interested in it.

When they start locking game features behind the cash shop then I'll understand if people want to complain. I do agree they need to do something about inventory space, because if you do crafting/gathering at all the extra retainers are almost mandatory.

[BreathlessTao]

FFXIV has one of the least offensive cash shops I've ever seen

The fact that it exists in a game with a monthly sub fee is offensive enough. The fact that they apparently plan to add even more exclusive items to it is even more offensive - especially on top of the whole rent-a-retainer system when indeed the game does have an admitted inventory issue. (They actually outright share numbers of how many new items HW brought in, and how many new items there are in a content patch - really should have kept quiet about that, in my opinion.) Honestly, down this road, keeping in mind that they don't want to restrict access to new areas/whatever in 4.0, level boosts and the like are really only a question of "when", not "if". :/