So...about that white magitek mount

[Berethos]

An argument to people screaming that it's optional? Yep, citing other MMOs that have went down the same route, the same group of people claimed it was only optional stuff and that the majority was still in the game, and that changed fast.

The few subscription-required MMOs that I know that have gone down the same route with a cash shop (it's not a long list after all) haven't changed from having the majority still be in-game.

Those that shifted the lion's share of stuff to optional purchases via cash shop are pretty much all games that also shifted to a F2P model, wherein the cash shop becomes the main source of revenue instead of subscriptions.

Now, most mounts in game are a literal reskin (not even adding extra armour in some cases).

That's not exactly a new thing. Even as far back as The Burning Crusade most mounts added were reskins of a select set. Netherwings were just reskinned drake models and most options were simple recolors. On occasion they have made greater variations and the occasional unique model (usually attached to a raid boss - something they are still doing with the current one for killing Heroic or Mythic Archimonde), but since 2004 most in-game available mounts have been reskins of a specific set of the already available mounts. The only store-bought mount that I can think of that doesn't already have an equivalent version in the game (with reskins of it also available from various sources in the game) is the armored bat mount.

So yeah...WoW doing more reskins than new mounts is almost a decade old at this point.

[Caelan]

agreed w op. i'm broke af irl and like having things to do in-game. i'm not alone in this, i think?

[Mature]

This is a game, literally everything in it and the game itself is optional

If the item was part of the story mode and it REQUIRES YOU to buy in order to finish the game will you still say it's an optional thing? Clearly not. You already paying for the sub why will you need to pay again?

The magitek is just a cosmetic thing as well as everything else in the cash shop making it OPTIONAL. In other words , no needed.

This should be locked as this cash shop business has been talked about over and over again.

[whiskeybravo]

Glamour is big for some people, sure. I guess I'm just your average guy that doesn't particular care about stuff like that, so maybe that's why I feel the way I do. I look at the mogstation and don't see anything that's worth spending real money on.

PS. Could any form of petition of a very real issue not be considering fear mongering? I hate to compare it to real world issues, but I'll do so anyway. Net Neutrality is a big thing was/is a rather large issue, people were spreading the potential issues ("fearmongering", as you put it) of it changing to a more closed system, and that caused hundreds of thousands to voice their dislike for the system and get it stopped even though it seems to be pop up again every few months. Should we shut up and accept it because we're creating fear? No, it's reasonable to fear such a system because of it's potential, previously proven examples.

I don't know much about the context of this particular issue, but yes by definition that could be considered fear-mongering. I think an important distinction to make is who is involved. EA has certainly went to town with cash shops, they wouldn't have any problem charging us $15 to boost to level 60. I haven't played many Blizzard games but I'll assume they did too based on the discussions. Are there any Square Enix games that offer that (excluding mobile)? I'm genuinely not sure, I haven't played every SE game. I do know that no other Final Fantasy game has offered those kind of shortcuts though. So, precedent is a big part of determining whether there should be legitimate concern or whether it should just be viewed as a fear tactic to get people worried about something that is less likely to happen. Fear-mongering was maybe too strong of a word to use, but that's just what comes to mind when I see people claiming things that (at least as far as I can tell) will probably never happen.

[Jatoi]

One would think they make a decent amount off of fantasias and even the dyes, now. It all adds up.

The NPC outfits were silly as hell and I don't see much of a point to the mounts though but hey

[GTANJ]

The way I see it, things like mounts and glamour items are not necessary for the game to feel "complete". Some people want these items, and that's why they're perfect for something like a cash shop. They are ancillary items added to the whole of FFXIV.

I don't see how things like Fantasia can be controversial either. That kinda stuff is all additional and, if people will pay for it, of course Squeenix is gonna charge for it. I don't know why people would even get mad at WoW offering things like quick 100 rank-ups either. You can still level the regular way, and it's not forcing you to pay to get to that level. Look at this stuff like bonuses that cost money, which is what they are, instead of things ripped from the game that should be free.

[whiskeybravo]

I don't know why people would even get mad at WoW offering things like quick 100 rank-ups either. You can still level the regular way, and it's not forcing you to pay to get to that level.

I can understand being upset with paying for levels, or in something like Battlefield being able to buy all the guns without ranking up and unlocking. Sure, you don't have to buy them, but it puts you below the playing field if you don't. It's sort of like a peer pressure. It probably wouldn't be so bad in a mainly cooperative type game like this, but certainly a competitive multiplayer game there is a decent advantage in higher tier weapons/perks/etc. So I sort of agree with that disdain, and I don't play any Battlefield or EA sports games as a result.

[GTANJ]

I can understand being upset with paying for levels, or in something like Battlefield being able to buy all the guns without ranking up and unlocking. Sure, you don't have to buy them, but it puts you way below the playing field if you don't. It's sort of like a peer pressure. It probably wouldn't be so bad in a mainly cooperative type game like this, but certainly a competitive multiplayer game there is a decent advantage in higher tier weapons/perks/etc. So I sort of agree with that disdain, and I don't play any Battlefield or EA sports games as a result.

But that kind of content inherently changes the game for you if you don't own it. None of the stuff on the mogstation inherently changes the game if you don't own it. It's all cosmetic and you can live without it. Some people argue that because they want it, it should be free, but that's not the way this stuff works.

[Catwho]

Most of the stuff in the mog station I'm fine with skipping. But there are a few things I missed that I wanted. I plunked down $3 for the Cherry Blossom earrings, on the justification that they were very pretty and I've spent a ten times that amount on real life earrings I rarely wear.

I have no burning desire for a red or white magitek. If they were in-game items, I wouldn't even bother farming for them.

[Chayala]

I find it funny how they seem to have no money to hire devs, but put more and more half assed or already developed items into the cash shop. I think the issues people REALLY have is that the game doesn't have a very good wealth of content that is worth doing. FFXI for all it's faults (It had a great many) had just as many strengths. One of those was the fact that you had multiple ways of progressing AND could mix and match. The game really lost most of it's player base when everything kept getting out item leveled to a point that stuff became like this game. Relic? Gone. Mythic? Gone. Empy? Gone. Unless you wanted to put in UNGODLY amounts of hours in between fairly short patches OR spend ungodly amount of gil. And then have it totally killed again. So again, this game has a fair amount of content (Less than most games but it's not that bad). But most of it is irrelavent except for roulettes. So pushing cash shop stuff like this is what really seems to set people off. WoW did the cash shop stuff with almost no outcry(there was some) because when they implemented it it had a good pace of content coming out and LOTS to do now. Release WoD which has a little more content than this game currently and you see them release mounts for cash store only? Yeah that's where the outcry comes from.

On the fact of level boosting not being a bad thing? I can only ask if you are trolling. The problem with level boosting is you have NO idea what you're doing. Maybe if you level boosted and had to walk through "baby's first tutorial- how not to screw up your class" it would be fine. People in WoW didn't just "Accept" it. They just gave up and lost half their subs. I take it you want people to give up and accept the state of FFXIV the way that people did for WoW?(Although WoW had FAR more old content people could go through and have fun and with leveling up new characters doing quests and seeing how things changed were a benefit. Here after you story quest you're litereally stuck in the fate/dungeon grind when you run out of quests. Oh and leves.).

I believe the reason that people are pissed about this is 1) They're using assets that are mostly in game to make cash grabs when no real money is being put back into this game or content added that is relevant. Making cash shop expansions like this is what hurts if nothing else game image. That = bad. Cash shops for minor things = ok. But only if you have a game that is worth it. And considering how many emptyish servers there are and how poor the CS is with this game and in general at square. Also the fact that ya know, after the initial 2.0 story line it seems like they started reading the scripts for the other FF games(The good ones, not XIII) with a TVtropes page open. So now we have not Kain mind controlled (Oh hey. Like that's never been a main problem with dragoons. Hi Kain. But at least you were awesome enough for me to love ya anyhow) and the garbage that was Ramuh/Leviathan. Shiva was average at best and most of Heavensward was below even Tera's expansions writing, and I regret being dragged back here. But sure. Support the cash shop. Buy stuff when they can't be bothered to maintain the game correctly, fix massive in game lag for comcast users or provide content at the pace they said they would (3 months). I mean, it's not like they've gone against their word many times right?

Oh and if you're looking for non mobile games with money transactions Bravely Default had one where you bought extra turns lol. That was funny. I laughed thinking about the stupid parents who put their card info into their kid's 3ds and didn't watch it like a hawk.