Mogstation and New Content

[Brannigan]

There is a reason most subscription MMOs also have a cash shop, game development is expensive; while the costs of game development don't require a cash shop but they are very attractive to the business.

The reason subscription games have a cash shop is because they can get away with it. WoW added a cash shop when it had like four million subs. Like with many products, MMO prices are determined by what they think customers are willing to pay. I'm confident that they could continue development on FFXIV with income from (fully priced) box sales alone.

And I already explained this in a previous post. This conversation is about optional items. And this topic only came to be when optional items were introduced (the topic in general, not the thread). I don't remember people complaining about paid name changes or paid server transfers <-- also a part of Mog Station. So, what is it? Is the entire Mog Station (as the title of this thread suggests) the issue, or is it just the optional items?

Name changes and server transfers are services which make no sense to be added to the game content's rewards. Mounts, minions, clothes, and emotes all come from in-game content - events, quests, raids, etc. Putting these things in the cash shop makes it feel like they're taking content out of the game, since often times the motivation players feel to do content will be inspired by the promise of rewards. Would anyone have done Diadem 1.0 if it didn't have the rewards it did? How often would you run dungeons if they didn't drop weekly cap tomestones?

I think this is especially important since SE invalidates the reason to do content so often by making its rewards obsolete (Every dungeon drops obsolete gear on release, raid gear gets killed every 7 months). Putting cosmetic rewards into old content can revitalize it and get people out there having fun. Look at the craftable/dyeable coil gear, for example. They could have done something similar a couple of patches into Stormblood with the Heavens' Ward gear, but I suppose they gotta get those fatty stacks of yen for a bunch of reskins that are already in the game.