Quote Originally Posted by Paladinleeds View Post
Exclusive perks help drive sales during certain periods (example, pre-ordering a game). Heck, it's driven me to pre-order a few things myself. It's a valid business tactic.
Yes. But it is completely inefficient business tactic for ongoing things. For MMO games, exclusivity is actually killing the business. There are many people that like collecting stuff, and if they know they won't have any chance of finishing their collection, they won't play the game at all.

As for the argument that the event stuff is the "carrot", I'm afraid that doesn't hold grounds either, here. Hardly any person will ever buy something from mog station if they don't play the game, and to play the game, they will have to pay the subscription. If they paid the subscription, then they can get the event or not at their leisure. If they DID pay for the subscription and DIDN'T get the item due to whatever reason, but want it, then they will buy it. That way, Square Enix earns from BOTH the subscription AND the mog station at once.
Then add to that people that weren't yet playing during the event that will want the items.

All in all, this business tactic earns them more money AND makes more players happier. Mature players don't care about others having these things either, since they are just for the looks. Unfortunately elitism, even completely pointless where the only difference is when you found the game etc., is wide-spread in western and central communities of the world.