More and more microtransactions

[Aylis]

Imagine what would happen if FFXIV switched to F2P model...

My linkshell and I talked a bit about that last night. Going FTP would probably be the death of FFXIV. Bots and gold farmers would pack the servers. SE already moves as slow as a glacier to take care of the ones already under PTP. The situation would become far far worse as FTP. Which leads to all servers eventually being as packed as Balmung is, so hello connectivity issues around all the servers especially on patch days. I could see it taking the FTP model SWTOR has where you're limited to what you can do or have access to unless you become a subscriber or spend money for unlock tokens per week.

On top of things you mentioned, the major FTP games offering far far far more then FFXIV has to offer. In terms of content, new events every now and then in game, customization and so on. FFXIV is second to WoW and that's mainly due to its the only two major games really left that use a sub model. What does FFXIV offer in the long run that isn't offered in other FTP games? I honestly can't think of one thing at all that makes me wanna scream about it being worth it. Well okay maybe G-pose, but that's all I can think of.

That and I shudder to think how SE would handle lock boxes/RNG boxes >_>

[kikix12]

My linkshell and I talked a bit about that last night. Going FTP would probably be the death of FFXIV. Bots and gold farmers would pack the servers. SE already moves as slow as a glacier to take care of the ones already under PTP.

Actually, bots would become less of a problem. I know, I know. It sounds ridiculous at first glance. But it's not.

1) Why pay some dubious site that can hack your account if you can officially pay the developer and get the stuff without any risk added? And if you could get through that way stuff more useful than what you can get for gil which is the only currency that bots can farm ever could buy you?
2) The big issue for permanent bans "But I pay the sub, you can't just ban me at random!" will disappear. Square Enix will have much more freedom to ban players without serious investigation. There is a publisher that bans completely innocent victims just because at one point in time they could have a piece of illegal goods (bot-farmed money, duplicated gear etc.). Even if they were some third in line and never had anything to do with the illegal activity, they would receive a ban and be effectively told "Oh, well, sorry. But we'll keep the ban. You are encouraged to make a new account though. In the future, be more careful when you trade with other players.". Right now Square Enix cannot do such a thing and MUST very carefully investigate every report. It is safer for them to not ban a thousand bots than accidentally ban one innocent.

The other aspects...I won't be responding to. I don't really care much for thinking of what will happen. This games management is bad already. I am still sticking to it more because of friends and cause I just feel like logging in sometimes. A free-to-play would just make playing the game free for me removing my issues. And if it would become crap? Well, that would remove my issues as well. I have no problem leaving a game that I don't have fun with at all, this wouldn't be an exception no matter how much I invested in it.

[KisaiTenshi]

Actually, bots would become less of a problem. I know, I know. It sounds ridiculous at first glance. But it's not.

You've never tried Archeage at release. 90% of the players were RMT bots, and it was a damn joke how the PvP areas would cycle between being able to kill them with impunity and the bots having a pattern that you could watch for the next few hours. People would not log out of the game for fear of not being able to get back into it. Never mind how long it took on foot to get places.

Like a thing I personally like to do to bots is find ways to get them killed. Usually discovering such a way doesn't last very long because it can also be used against actual players. Most of them could be killed simply by luring any monster.

Mabinogi had the gall to have "monster summoning" gacha boxes, where you defeat the monster and it leaves a chest (that you have to buy a damn key for) to unlock. So people would find ways of summoning the monsters right on top of the bots.

But the bots never disappear. Bots are such a overwhelming problem in F2P games that there is NO STAFF TO DEAL WITH IT.

Like clockwork, as soon as it's 5pm on friday, 10,000 bots descend upon the F2P games, and chaos rules until 9am Monday.

[kikix12]

But the bots never disappear. Bots are such a overwhelming problem in F2P games that there is NO STAFF TO DEAL WITH IT.

I have been playing free to play games more than enough to know what kind of situation there is there. Not Archeage, but other ones. However, I also know that it varies from game to game. And there is a reason for that. Some games are simply more attractive for botters than the others.

Most of the stuff we buy with real money are already by default untradable.

You're talking about the current item mall in terms of a possible free to play item mall...What makes you think it is a good idea?!

I'm 100% sure there will be a lot of stuff that players will want very much on a free to play item mall...that will be tradeable. The reason why most of that stuff is not is exactly to minimize the effect of buying your gil with real money. But once this game would turn to free to play I very much doubt that Square would care about that in the slightest. They'd pack it with consumables that are tradeable for players to buy, so as to monetize the non-paying consumers through the "whales" that would buy items explicitly for sale. That is only normal. That's a vast part of where income is in free to play games.

I'm curious what makes you think the reason they don't ban bots is because they're afraid they might ban an "innocent"
There is almost no legal ramifications for them to consider because of the contract you "sign" when you agree to terms.

Because I know, just like Square Enix, that their "contract" won't hold water if someone will really push for it to court with a valid case. Agreements between two parties cannot supersede the law. They are a company. They cannot just ban people randomly for no reason on a whim, especially during the paid term.

Then there is the case of press release, and while Square Enix shows the middle finger to the community a lot, there is a major difference between not listening to requests and making poor design choices and making months of years of effort irrelevant for no reason.
A person that is being shafted by there being no particularly worthwhile content time and time again may still log in here or there to do the older one, and that means that will pay the sub here or there. If not, there is a chance of them returning after an expansion.
A person that is being told that they may lose all the effort they put into the game and start from scratch, even if they never did anything remotely dubious, will think twice whether he wants to actually invest in the game at all. It's one thing with free to play games, another thing entirely with sub games where you literally pay for nothing gameplay-wise.

If anything I think the major reason is the bots are still feeding money into the system and it would be a detriment to the bottom line. A sub is a sub.

Except the bots won't stop being made. If they leave the bots, they'll get a sub once a month. If they'll ban the bots every day, they'll get thirty subs in a month. Clearly it's better to ban them than not money-wise.

[Alucard135]

1) Why pay some dubious site that can hack your account if you can officially pay the developer and get the stuff without any risk added? And if you could get through that way stuff more useful than what you can get for gil which is the only currency that bots can farm ever could buy you?.

Most of the stuff we buy with real money are already by default untradable. So botters don't care about those. The market board ones that players farm or craft are what you need Gil for. And with a F2P model, they would easily level an entire account and use it.
Aion is a perfect example of this. The game is riddled with bots everywhere. And people heavily buy the game currency (Kinah) from other websites to buy stuff from the auction house to the point that prices inflated up to 100s of millions to get stuff (Why wouldn't they if you can buy 45M Kinah with 1$).

[Krotoan]

2) The big issue for permanent bans "But I pay the sub, you can't just ban me at random!" will disappear. Square Enix will have much more freedom to ban players without serious investigation. There is a publisher that bans completely innocent victims just because at one point in time they could have a piece of illegal goods (bot-farmed money, duplicated gear etc.). Even if they were some third in line and never had anything to do with the illegal activity, they would receive a ban and be effectively told "Oh, well, sorry. But we'll keep the ban. You are encouraged to make a new account though. In the future, be more careful when you trade with other players.". Right now Square Enix cannot do such a thing and MUST very carefully investigate every report. It is safer for them to not ban a thousand bots than accidentally ban one innocent.

I'm curious what makes you think the reason they don't ban bots is because they're afraid they might ban an "innocent"
There is almost no legal ramifications for them to consider because of the contract you "sign" when you agree to terms.
If anything I think the major reason is the bots are still feeding money into the system and it would be a detriment to the bottom line. A sub is a sub.


OP: are you asking for a detailed breakdown of income and where it's going? Or just a dev explanation? I'll tell you right now that the chances of you getting that breakdown are slim to none.
I understand you're probably asking "well it doesn't look like the output has changed, where is the money going?" but a lot of things can be improved without us actually seeing a super visible change. It might mostly be on dev side: less stability issues, more thorough QA and so forth. I'm not saying it's definitely being spent on this game but its very possibly being invested into making the invisible side of the process better.

[DreadRabbit]

I really don't think anyone has to fear FFXIV becoming F2P. I mean, FFXI still collects a subscription fee every month.

Yoshida and other Square Enix members have mentioned time and again how the subscription fee carries a connotation to it (that the game is higher quality), and how that actually feeds into their marketing for the game. Final Fantasy is a trusted IP and brand, and if it has a sub fee and so many accounts even with said sub fee, then the game must be good, right? Not my actual opinion, just how they've been candid about it (like in the No Clip documentary).

The sub fee itself is as much a marketing tool as any of their promos. And Square Enix is too prideful for its own good. They'll shut the game down before they go F2P.