Token System/Subscription

[Baci]

If you cant afford the Game, you have other problem you should solve in your real life first.

[Vandril]

I understand that, but I strongly disagree with the fact that the people who have tons and tons of gil will be playing the game for months and months and even years without paying a single cent for the game. I simply don't like that. This is a sub based mmo and you should have to pay that sub fee to play, that's how I feel about this.

Praytell, why would it even matter if someone actually payed the sub directly or not? You're literally saying that it's a bad idea because you don't like it for no apparent reason. I don't agree or disagree with the idea of these items, as I'd probably never use them, but your argument is ridiculous. At least give an actual reason for why the idea is bad if you want to imply so strongly that it's a factually bad idea.

Kind of like the below...

Just gonna put this out there. Runescape does this and it's cheaper to buy gold and spend it on your membership than it is to actually buy the membership.

No support

This is a good reason to not implement the system. In fact, unless a solution is found, it would turn what could be the biggest boon of the system - reduction in RMT sales and activity - into its biggest bane - an actual increase in RMT sales and activity.

I know World of Warcraft implemented this shortly after I quit the game. I wonder how it worked out for them.

[Gumbercules]

Someone always pays. Every subscription, someone paid the $$$ for it. You don't generate tokens out of thin air (or gil, as it were).

this, in wow the ppl playing with token are actually a +5 dllr sub price boost for blizz since the token is more expensive than the monthly sub.

It is a pretty interesting system for the whole time vs money dilemma for players while taking a big bite back at RMT activity. As to whether it would work for FF 14, i honestly don't know since we also have to keep other cultures in mind. Even within wow the market for said tokens is apparently drastically different between regions, which may of may not be a negative....I honestly don't know.

[Aldora]

Similar to another famous MMO. These tokens will be purchased via Mog Station for a full months game time $14.99 or equal to of other countries currencies. Allowing people with real life financial issues to support their game time by playing the game or those having extra money to help support their in game currency issues.

These tokens will be sold or bought from the MB to add game time to a players subscription time using in game currency.
This would cut down on the active RMT system we are currently having issues with.

I'm sure this may have been brought up already but i do not see a Suggestions post on the forum so i figured this would be a good place to put it.

This subject has been discussed several times in the past and every single one of them became quite heated at that. The main issue people have with this is the mindset behind it.

One person says that that people will be able to buy game time with an in-game currency, so that they don't have to pay the subscription fee due to real life financial issues. Another person says that (s)he has so much in-game money, that they save spend it on buying game time through the market boards and save money. And finally another person says it's to battle RMT, by "legalizing" it through a token system like "Chronosphere/Plex/WoWTokens/etc".

If you want to read more about these discussions, i'd suggest reading what people had to say about it in this thread (545 posts long):

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

I've said all i wanted to say about a Token system like this within that thread, but what i would like to highlight from that discussion is this:

I’m all for the opportunity to gift game time to friends or family, but not like this [buying it with real money and then selling it on a market board for in-game currency]. If you want to gift game time, either buy a game time card for them, or have the ability to purchase game time through the Mog station, which then can be sent directly to the SE account of person you want it to be sent. The person would then receive either a real life e-mail saying that their game time has been extended for the amount which has been paid for, or the person would receive an untradeable and unsellable item in the Moogle Mail box which will extend their game time upon use.

[Rawrz]

Offering surveys would be helpful. Just not the traditional scam ones or something like a 3 min ad a day for 20 or so days a month to earn a basic sub. Offering tradable crysta would just cause inflation, because the market would be distorted with real world prices over virtual items and RMT would become less about bots and more about "S>1 month sub for 5 mil or Fat Cat minion"

[xXRaineXx]

This may work on JP servers where RMT is almost non-existent (I leave my pc on about 24/5, not a single RMT tell here). But this may directly cause more RMT activities.

For example, while I was playing on Gilgamesh (RMT tells are pretty blatant over there), I noticed people were selling the Premium Wedding packages for like 3m a pop. Which was about $20 give or take. A monthly sub for FFXIV, averaging on all currencies, I would is around $14. In-game value would be around 2m for a MB sub. Now let's consider the economy. People have been complaining that they cannot even afford to buy a house. Can these people really coup up 2m ever month for a sub? Probably not.
That's where RMT will step in. I do not know how much RMT is these days, but from what I saw from the tells, I assume 1m is around $2.5. That's $5 for 2m. You will be saving $9 every month. But most likely you will be caught and slapped on the back with a ban.

This could and most likely deal a huge blow on the sub base. Right as of now, this idea is really bad.

[Defias]

@OP
So how is server upkeep, patches, & etc funded?

WOW actually has millions of active players subbed to pay for content development.
FFXIV is not on that lvl of income.

If they added not "Gametime Gifts" Tokens. Then theycwould need to significantly change the Cash Shop in order to offset the loss of income by players who are now playing for free.

Alot of people forget that server fuel, and paying the devs is extremely costly.

[Brannigan]

@OP
So how is server upkeep, patches, & etc funded?

You misunderstand the OP.

It'd be someone buys the token for $15 (sub price) -> sells it to someone for in-game gil. Basically it's "safe" gil buying. I oppose it because attaching a RL price tag to in-game items is a fast way to make a game feel like crap (hi diablo 3)

[Defias]

You misunderstand the OP.

It'd be someone buys the token for $15 (sub price) -> sells it to someone for in-game gil. Basically it's "safe" gil buying. I oppose it because attaching a RL price tag to in-game items is a fast way to make a game feel like crap (hi diablo 3)

Ah. Ok. Thanks for the clarification.
Hmm...I'm not for it. Might as well just get a gamecard or pay the sub. Considering how inflated most server markets are I'd hate to imagine the price on a token.

[Zumi]

I wouldn't mind it would help me save money. But they would have to do something about sub prices. Cause right now I pay $7.99 a month for my legacy sub. Meaning any kind of sub token wouldn't be a good deal for legacy players.