Endgame DRG Armor

[Ilitsa]

Sadly all the bad signs are showing, sooner or later we will see materia packs, and top tier tomestone gear on the cash shop just because some people "loves to support". Stop it. You are bad.

I was in agreement with your post until this part. Then you just became a condescending prick. Good job. Once someone resorts to calling someone else "bad" because they think a different way, that person loses any and all respect and credibility in my eyes.

[Kaiser-Ace]

Nothing in this game is free, all should be granted to me by just buying it and keeping my subscription up.
Microtransactions are the cancer of the gaming industry from gamers perspective, saying that you love it is simply a justification to your probably mental condition of impulsive consumism.

Communism? Starting to think, like fascism, most people don't know what it means. They make the item, they chose its price, and chose how they sell it. Your choice is to buy it or not buy it. That my friend is Capitalism in a nutshell. If it made no money it wouldn't be done. If it makes a lot of money it gets more/continued support. The Mog Station falls into the later.

Well, I'm sure some SE executive type is looking at FFXIV, looking at the massive amounts of money they draw in from the cash shop, and going "Why should we waste money hiring content designers to make better content for the game? Just paint that mount another colour and charge for it".

That is easily as backwards as the communism comment considering it's the same development teams making all the items in the cash shop that make the respective ingame items. And it's not like data just autonomously assembles its self into cash shop items. The Devs have it develop it to. As far as development time they pick one of three choices after deciding "We're going to make <Insert item here>" they add it to the core game, they add it to the veteran rewards system, or they add it to the cash shop. nothing is lost in development here.

At least this cash shop doesn't sell required quest items or OP "Premium Gear" like some other MMOs. (Looking at you D&D Online)

Those loyalty "rewards" aren't a pay to us back with freebies for being loyal, they're a way to keep people subscribing even when they're not interested in the game. "Oh, it's only $15 a month... if I unsub I might be even more behind in these reward." (source: myself and my friends, friends of friends, past experiences with MMOs that use a similar system, and so on).

6 of one half a dozen of the other really. They are rewards for prolonged subscriptions to act as incentives for continually subscribing long term. The fact that you unsub for about 2 months without visiting your housing plot and it getting demoed and the plot resold is the only actual punishment for unsubbing.

[Ashkendor]

saying that you love it is simply a justification to your probably mental condition of impulsive consumism.

I think you mean consumerism. I don't think you're qualified to diagnose someone's mental condition, in any case.

Sadly all the bad signs are showing, sooner or later we will see materia packs, and top tier tomestone gear on the cash shop just because some people "loves to support".

I haven't seen a single "bad sign" that the cash shop is moving beyond cosmetic items.

Do you have an example? Just one would do. I'll wait.

Stop it. You are bad. Microtransactions are bad. Cash Shops are bad.

Indulging in ad hominem attacks doesn't make you right. It just makes you a jerk.

[RyuRoots]

Because people enjoy supporting what they like (or love). It's actually not a foreign concept, you know. Not to mention, for every service, there deserves compensation. We already get free outfits and such as sub rewards every few months, too.

You can pay 15 bucks a month for a gym membership that has access to all their facilities, but that doesn't mean you get Gatorade and protein bars for free. Sub MMO's don't really operate much differently, and I'd say you shouldn't take for granted the freebies we already do get.

FREEBIES. Wow. This is a new level of white-knighting absurdity. No one goes to a gym to collect gatorade or protein bars either, smart guy. Yeah, it IS true that you only technically get access to the servers for your sub fee, but there's a degree of player trust that what they get access to will be worthwhile and that they won't be nickel and dimed because they are already supporting what they love with their money. I don't think you understand what a "freebie" is.

[Nominous]

No one goes to a gym to collect gatorade or protein bars either, smart guy.

For one, you're making the assumption that I think everyone's going around explicitly trying to 'collect' free stuff from subscriptions and memberships. I'm just saying- there is a such thing as an extraneous offering. Something that is by every meaning of the word, 'optional'. People seem to not understand what this means when it comes to gaming. It's like people understand this concept when applied to literally anything else, like it doesn't apply to gaming (I assure you, business is business, it does).

Nothing in this game is free, all should be granted to me by just buying it and keeping my subscription up.
Microtransactions are the cancer of the gaming industry from gamers perspective,

And from the opposite perspective, not meeting their investors, or company's sales goals is no better. If they don't, the game could easily be considered a failure in their eyes, and then it'd be shut down. The alternative to shutting it down, would be the state it's already in but worse- not being given enough funding from SE. If they can't show SE it's worth the funding through good sales, then it just won't be funded.

This just extends to worse problems for the game overall. Less raids, less new jobs, less time to balance, or add any new content.

So really, the better option is to let the few people who want to be the 'cancer' apparently, do what they do and fund the game YOU want to play for the minimum price of entry. This is how it's always been. The few pay for the many. You can be mad all you want, but any extra money they get from things like Cash Shop go towards a better experience for you. The same way that EA has the ability to take risks on games like Mirror's Edge Catalyst (of which the original sold TERRIBLY) because of all the money the 'cancer' made them.

[Nalien]

And obviously it's something that's working for most companies, because it's still here.

Yeah, it's working real great for WoW. Record subscriber losses, but what's that? They're still making plenty of money off it?

Having 100k subscribers, all paying 15$ a month, or having 50k subscribers, paying the same 15$ a month, but also willing to pay 15$ frequently in the cash shop? Which is better?

From a corporate stand point, the later. From a players standpoint though?

but any extra money they get from things like Cash Shop go towards a better experience for you.

In theory. In practice?

So far we've gotten EU servers. That's... About it? Perhaps the cash shop has finally afforded them a solution to housing come 3.3, but I wont hold my breath. Meanwhile the content they have been delivering has begun to be unimpressive, to say the least. We've had two major delays, back to back (Heavenswards release, and 3.1 because apparently SE can't schedule vacation time properly). We've had crap like Lords of Verminion and Diadem. People are starting to wake up and realize how recycled much of the games content is.

What better experience has the cash shop afforded me exactly? What's the major difference between Pharos Sirius (Hard) and the original Pharos Sirius? How is Diadem any better than Hunts? How much old content is actually improved upon, rather than just recycled? They seriously need to take that cash shop money, and hire some people with a damned sense of how to design content, because content has taken a step back, not forwards, or at best it has stagnated.

Ironically, PvP is where I perhaps see the most improvement in this game... Glad I enjoy PvP... Everywhere else though? They've streamlined content down to a fine art, rather than innovating or trying new things... The difference between Sastasha and Antitower? The mobs I burn down and the box I'm playing in. They haven't improved dungeons or done anything different with them. The same, to an extend, goes for Trials and Raids. When they do try to innovate, there is clearly an utter lack of any attempt at such a thing... Diadem is just a pretty box to play in. They just slapped Hunts in there (despite Hunts questionable popularity) and threw Gathering on top and called it a day, despite the obvious issues a choice like that presents (gatherers not contributing but casting lot on gear, for example). There was no attempt to work Hunts differently (and some how they're surprised when groups teamed up in Diadem in the same way they team up for Hunts...), there was no attempt to work gathering into the actual event in any meaningful way (slap temporary items to help in combat in the chests gatherers dig up, that ones free, SE). Props to the guys that made the zone and enemies, but the guys that made the event messed up. Lets not forget Relics, too... Oh look, despite extra money from the cash shop and months of subscription fees, we get... Pretty much a condensed version of the Zodiac weapon grind with the only new piece of content being the weapons themselves...

In a recent interview Yoshida mentioned how they're perhaps looking to hire content designers, and I hope to God they do, because the game really needs it at this point... The current guys putting this stuff together are just recycling the same tired ideas... Guys working on PvP are at least listening to the community and addressing some (though sadly not all) of the concerns of the PvP community. On the PvE side we're just getting the same stuff over and over, despite consistent complaints over the stuff... They clearly need some new blood coming up with ideas, because right now it seems they're going "People didn't like Atma... Oh well, lets give them Atma again!".

[RyuRoots]

For one, you're making theassumption that I think everyone's going around explicitly trying to 'collect' free stuff from subscriptions and memberships. I'm just saying- there is a such thing as an extraneous offering. Something that is by every meaning of the word, 'optional'. People seem to not understand what this means when it comes to gaming. It's like people understand this concept when applied to literally anything else, like it doesn't apply to gaming (I assure you, business is business, it does).

What? You clearly don't understand what you're reading since I implied nothing of the sort. I'm saying that many people play specifically for glamours and such. What I take issue with is describing what you pay for every month as "free", because it really isn't. We're not playing a free-to-play game, we're playing a game where you fork over cash every month. This line of logic might work for some single-player games where you buy it once and then the devs churn out extra stuff that you can buy if you're interested in. That's not what's happening here. It's chunks and pieces that easily could and should be in the game that are being chopped up and sold piecemeal.

Funny thing is that I actually don't have anything against people that use it, since I have. Not because I like it, but I just gave up. Certain things I want and I know nothing is gonna change the system we have, so screw it. I've gotten a fair number of gifts from friends from the shop too so eh. Do what you want with your own money, but don't try to pretend that this is somehow a good or reasonable state of affairs when you don't seem to be aware that "optional content" as you put it, was at one time something you got WITH your purchase, not in addition to it.

[Colorful]

Because people enjoy supporting what they like (or love). It's actually not a foreign concept, you know. Not to mention, for every service, there deserves compensation. We already get free outfits and such as sub rewards every few months, too.

Those loyalty "rewards" aren't a pay to us back with freebies for being loyal, they're a way to keep people subscribing even when they're not interested in the game. "Oh, it's only $15 a month... if I unsub I might be even more behind in these reward." (source: myself and my friends, friends of friends, past experiences with MMOs that use a similar system, and so on).

[Cuervo78]

I am supporting the game with my subscription, even though I accept some paid services exist like world transfer or name change there are limits what is tolerable in a pay to play MMO.

[CyrilLucifer]

I am supporting the game with my subscription, even though I accept some paid services exist like world transfer or name change there are limits what is tolerable in a pay to play MMO.

I agree. Those are fair. The others are absurdity.

That being said, Ricard is the superior Highwind Dragoon.