Problem with "Optional" Items in the Cash Shop

[Burningskull]

My main point was, what's the difference between the Thavnarian gear in the game that you can get by crafting recipes, and the Fuga gear on the cash shop? Why is it ok to charge for one when they put the other one in the game? What is so different about them that they can't put all the glamour items in the game?

[Yallaid]

My main point was, what's the difference between the Thavnarian gear in the game that you can get by crafting recipes, and the Fuga gear on the cash shop? Why is it ok to charge for one when they put the other one in the game? What is so different about them that they can't put all the glamour items in the game?

To play devil's advocate against myself, can you imagine the insanity if all these great cosmetic outfits were tied to end-game crafting in-game, the way the Thavnarian set was originally?

I'm all for incentivizing people to play the game, but even I would balk when there were 10 different awesome looking sets available for every last cent of your hard earned gil or locked behind 200 hours of omnicrafter leveling.

I just don't think cash shop is the only way out of this bind, that's all.

[Burningskull]

To play devil's advocate against myself, can you imagine the insanity if all these great cosmetic outfits were tied to end-game crafting in-game, the way the Thavnarian set was originally?

I'm all for incentivizing people to play the game, but even I would balk when there were 10 different awesome looking sets available for every last cent of your hard earned gil or locked behind 200 hours of omnicrafter leveling.

I just don't think cash shop is the only way out of this bind, that's all.

Again I'm just wanting, preferably someone from SE, to say why one set of cometic gear is worth paying for. 18 bucks at that. When another set of cosmetic gear they put in the game, either as a recipe or a reward or w/e. The question applies to all the cash shop stuff. Like Mounts and emotes.

[Yallaid]

Again I'm just wanting, preferably someone from SE, to say why one set of cometic gear is worth paying for. 18 bucks at that. When another set of cosmetic gear they put in the game, either as a recipe or a reward or w/e. The question applies to all the cash shop stuff. Like Mounts and emotes.

I think the sad truth is, it comes down to exactly what Belhi is talking about: business. Likely the Thavnarian sets and some of the other things like it (Kirimu Coat) were going to be created already, because there was some content they'd been designed for or an NPC that needed to wear it first or something. Basically, the stuff that's cheap to produce or was already going to exist can just go right in game, no questions asked.

But the second they start spending time and resources to make something cool, just because they've heard people want it, now they have to start doing cost analysis. And it's exactly like has been said, most of this stuff flat out wouldn't exist if they didn't have a cash shop. They'd decide the effort creating these items would not be worth the pay-off of simply extending some players subs. They need a more direct stream of income in order to support that level of development.


Now why one set ends up on one side of the fence and another on the other side? I guess it's just called fate or something, right?

[Belhi]

Again I'm just wanting, preferably someone from SE, to say why one set of cometic gear is worth paying for. 18 bucks at that. When another set of cosmetic gear they put in the game, either as a recipe or a reward or w/e. The question applies to all the cash shop stuff. Like Mounts and emotes.

People are explaining.

Look this is just straight forward financial planning within a business. FF14 makes a certain amount of revenue from core game sales and subscriptions. It has certain base expenses to keep the server infrastructure and support services running. What is left over after that is used to determine the games performance financially and allocate a budget to the developers, taking into account things like necessary upgrades and alterations needed for sustained subscriptions and growth. That budget is then divided up into the various development projects used to produce in game events, expansions and the patch cycle and work on infrastructure upgrades and game features.

To expand their revenue they created the cash shop. Rather than determining the net revenue by factoring in infrastructure costs, net revenue is determined by the production costs. SE forecasts what they expect sales figures to be and determine if the production costs are sufficient to justify the production of the items for sale.

Now here is the interesting bit often overlooked. Net revenue from the cash shop would be factored into the total earnings of FF14 which in turn will dictate the core budget for the main content production and will help justify investment into the game such as server upgrades. The cash shop helps pay for stuff you get for your sub fee, not the other way round. Additional revenue streams help the developers put more into the game, not less.

That is a very simplified version but almost certainly close to what SE's model is from the information I have seen.

I get some of the reason people has put forth. But that begs another question. Why put the effort into making something people might not buy? If they had put the Fuga gear out and no one had bought it then they wasted that time and don't get paid for it? It's the same for the items in the game tho right? If no body does the content they spent the time developing then that time is still going to waste?

Sales forecasting is a basic part of developing new products for sale. They would be using a lot of existing metrics to determine what is in demand and likely to provide good returns. This goes for the base game as well. The features they have developed and the focus of content and design will have taken into account what players are likely to react positively to and enjoy.

[Claviusnex]

My main point was, what's the difference between the Thavnarian gear in the game that you can get by crafting recipes, and the Fuga gear on the cash shop? Why is it ok to charge for one when they put the other one in the game? What is so different about them that they can't put all the glamour items in the game?

They need to recover the cost of the new items that many players could care less about. Even something simple costs money. Would you rather have them increase the monthly sub to cover the costs? If SE does they run the risk of losing players who don't want to pay for extras they didn't ask for. The cash shop lets SE take the middle ground by offering additional items to those that are interested without impacting those that aren't.

[Cynfael]

My main point was, what's the difference between the Thavnarian gear in the game that you can get by crafting recipes, and the Fuga gear on the cash shop? Why is it ok to charge for one when they put the other one in the game? What is so different about them that they can't put all the glamour items in the game?

Again, I would guess that the payroll hours it takes to design and implement some of this additional content are funded at least partially by the cash shop's revenue.

Personally I don't mind this cash shop because it's purely cosmetic, offers nothing that's of substantially better quality than what you can already find in the game, and supplements a game I enjoy and pay a piddly base monthly fee to access. I kind of look at it as SE's tip jar tbh.