Why no Plex system?

[Aylis]

But there's crafted raid gear which is either entry level or possibly above, and socketing materia makes a HUGE difference in your character's potency.

As handy as those are, both are something I would never spend real money on. Just because those exist in the short term. If I have a whale moment on any form of currency or plex exchange, I want something that's going to be for the long term or permanent. I think everyone that spends money on exchange wants the same, so as to not feel like they're throwing money out the window. Unless its changed to where matiria can be desocketed and reused and over melding to max is always 100% chance in each socket. No sale for me. I have no problem throwing money earned in game at that system. If I'm spending real money though. I want something to keep.

Same goes for currant crafted gear. With the games short gear life span it's a waste, more so specifically speaking as a non raider. The extra bonus really doesn't effect me. VS a game like Wildstar where I'm still wearing several pieces of tier 1 BoE raid dropped gear sold on auction house. Simply because that gear will get a long life use out of me.

[loreleidiangelo]

I don't really have an issue with the concept, but unlike other games where this system works I see absolutely zero incentive to actually SELL a sub token, given what little meaningful gil sinks we have in the game already. If players see nothing of substantial worth to buy with in-game currency, they won't sell tokens.

Admittedly, this is just my personal viewpoint - I wouldn't object a token implementation on principle.

[Vexander]

I don't really have an issue with the concept, but unlike other games where this system works I see absolutely zero incentive to actually SELL a sub token, given what little meaningful gil sinks we have in the game already. If players see nothing of substantial worth to buy with in-game currency, they won't sell tokens.

Admittedly, this is just my personal viewpoint - I wouldn't object a token implementation on principle.

Its not as though SE couldn't create in-game gil sinks either. New in-game content not directly related to the Mogstation is always in fairly high demand. Imagine if items from the Gold Saucer could be purchased with Gil instead of MGP? Or that Gil to MGP conversions were no longer limited? Well, someone with 10,000,000 Gil might really want that Fenrir Mount, having nothing better to do with their gil, and decide to convert it to MGP to get the mount. Those without the gil could continue to play the MGP games and challenge logs to slowly earn it.

[Culfinrandir]

This would be a terrible move & open up so many legal problems. If real money could be traded to gil then anything in the Gold Saucer would become gambling under the laws of most countries. As a result it would either be restricted to over 18/21/25 or banned altogether. How would the game check the age of the user? Would everyone be required to pay subscriptions with credit cards or provide certified copies of passports? What about selling crafted items - they'd be able to be purchased with cash therefore would fall under Consumer Regulations.

A can of worms.

[Dualgunner]

This would be a terrible move & open up so many legal problems. If real money could be traded to gil then anything in the Gold Saucer would become gambling under the laws of most countries. As a result it would either be restricted to over 18/21/25 or banned altogether. How would the game check the age of the user? Would everyone be required to pay subscriptions with credit cards or provide certified copies of passports? What about selling crafted items - they'd be able to be purchased with cash therefore would fall under Consumer Regulations.

A can of worms.

But...Gold Saucer doesn't use gil as currency. Therefore, this wouldn't affect GS at all.

Has WoW had any of these legal problems you say XIV would? Because I don't see the can of worms you do.

[Vexander]

But...Gold Saucer doesn't use gil as currency. Therefore, this wouldn't affect GS at all.

Has WoW had any of these legal problems you say XIV would? Because I don't see the can of worms you do.

WoW hasn't had any of those legal problems because there is no way to convert gold into money. The, 'Legal,' issues he pointed out may as well apply to a game of monopoly. You bought the, 'Fake Currency,' and are, 'Gambling,' since you're rolling dice to determine what you gain and lose and all. If there was a way to convert Gil into money, yeah, there would be an issue. But Plex systems don't do that. The idea that using money to buy game time and selling game time to another player would cause issues with consumer laws is laughable since in most MMOs if you buy something off of a Cash Shop you can vendor sell it for money which is just one additional step in this logic of violating consumer laws.

[Vaer]

The only thing I really see this affecting might be the housing situation. Suddenly more people can get the gil easily (whether to upgrade to a medium or a large) by just dropping some cash on tokens (let's be honest, there have been multiple threads about people wanting to use the cash shop to buy houses outright). Yeah, affording a small is chump change to some, but I've actually known some players that are not that great at making money.

People already kinda did this with the marriage bracelets, they would sell them for gil since they can be traded. All they said is "Plz don't do it." Doubt anyone got banned.

I don't mind either way I suppose but I guess some might see it as a gray area P2W.

On the topic of WoW, most of the inflation is/was caused by garrison/OH gold missions (especially with alts) IMO not really the token.

I would not be surprised if they are already thinking about it since they already put in a jump potion.

[Aldora]

This subject has been discussed several times in the past and every single one of them became quite heated at that. The main issue people have with this is the mindset behind it.

One person says that that people will be able to buy game time with an in-game currency, so that they don't have to pay the subscription fee due to real life financial issues. Another person says that (s)he has so much in-game money, that they save spend it on buying game time through the market boards and save money. And finally another person says it's to battle RMT, by "legalizing" it through a token system like "Chronosphere/Plex/WoWTokens/etc".

But, why are we in this situation to begin with? Because players buy in-game currencies by spending real money through RMT. As long as there are people buying in-game currency with real money, there will always be RMT around the corner who will make full use of that opportunity. But, “legalizing” it is not the way to go.

RMT is a bannable offence and thus has to be punished. You buy gil? You suffer the consequence. Period.

The only wish i have is that SE hunts them down faster. Have a GM stand in each zone of the game and the second they see an RMT shout or receives one through tell, let the ban hammer fly. They can even suspend them until the internal investigation of their illicit activities/RMT Advertising has concluded.

RMT should not be tolerated and addressed with a firm hand. Not be “challenged” by introducing your own “Legal RMT”.

But, make no mistake. I’m all for the opportunity to gift game time to friends or family, but not like this. If you want to gift game time, either buy a game time card for them, or have the ability to purchase game time through the Mog station, which then can be sent directly to the SE account of person you want it to be sent. The person would then receive either a real life e-mail saying that their game time has been extended for the amount which has been paid for, or the person would receive an untradeable and unsellable item in the Moogle Mail box which will extend their game time upon use.

Game time should never be sold through in-game currency and the reason why is basically due to the question: “How much in-game currency do you think is game time worth?” Depending on who you ask, you will get a different answer every time.

Even if SE sets a fixed price for the tokens on the Market boards, if we take the housing system into account, how many people would actually be able to afford these tokens? There’s a very big disparity between players when it comes to their virtual income. Top tier crafters tend to have a heck of a lot more Gil than someone who only runs battle content on a casual level. So, why would only a “select group of players” be able to purchase game time through in-game currencies?

And if we turn this question around, if someone wants to get more Gil (to buy an in-game house or crafted raiding gear), they would be able to buy a Token and sell it on the Market boards. However, there are plenty of crafters who work for the Gil they earned. How would that be considered "fair" for the amount of time and effort the crafter has put into the game?

Even though the money is only moving around, the financial disparity between players will only increase over time.

This particular topic will always have 2 camps sitting at polar opposites of each other, who will never be able to agree with each other. I personally, am sitting at the camp that gives a firm “No” to a system that allows people buy game tokens which real money, which they can sell on the Market Boards for in-game currency. As well as allowing people to buy game-time with an in-game currency only.

They only way i would agree with such a token system is when:

• You can use it to buy Game Time for yourself through the MogStation, without needing to subscribe to the game. There are people who are having difficulties subscribing to this game, because their transaction keep getting denied their banks and they are forced to pay with “Crysta”. Or when people only want to play for 1 single month, without the hassle of starting and canceling a subscription. Make buying Game Time / Subscriptions easier for them.
• You can use it to gift Game Time to friends and family through the MogStation. The person would then receive either a real life e-mail saying that their game time has been extended for the amount which has been paid for, or the person would receive an untradeable and unsellable item in the Moogle Mail box which will extend their game time upon use.

That’s all i have to say about this topic.

[Vexander]

And if we turn this question around, if someone wants to get more Gil (to buy an in-game house or crafted raiding gear), they would be able to buy a Token and sell it on the Market boards. However, there are plenty of crafters who work for the Gil they earned. How would that be considered "fair" for the amount of time and effort the crafter has put into the game?

Because the Crafter could buy game time with that hard earned gil, and thus not have to expend their Real Life currency? I mean, honestly, in a way I feel like a Plex system would probably benefit a lot of the players who are in the regions about to be affected by the subscription price normalization. Brazil and the likes. A Plex system would at least give them the opportunity to continue playing if they could earn enough Gil to buy tokens.

[AthenaSinclaire]

RMT should not be tolerated and addressed with a firm hand. Not be “challenged” by introducing your own “Legal RMT”.

It actually is, though.

And introducing your own "legal" RMT is the only tactic that has proven to work time and time again with plenty of other MMOs (EVE, WoW, Wildstar, etc.)

You can ban billions of RMT accounts and it won't change anything. RMT accounts are paid for with stolen credit card numbers.

The ONLY WAY to stop RMT is to sate the demand for it yourself.

Believe me when I say that MMO developers have been fighting RMT for decades and they all came to the same conclusion: Plex is the only thing that works.