FF14 and additional fees

[Vhailor]

I wholeheartedly agree with OP. It's a sad state of affairs.

I will say, though, that there non-boycott remedies available for single-player titles. If a company isn't behaving in a way you feel is appropriate, avoid purchasing a title at full price. Recall, for instance, that Rise of the Tomb Raider (published by SE) was a timed Xbox exclusive. I don't much care if consoles compete against other consoles, but the exclusive blocked the title's release on PC for some months, too. The net result? I waited until it dropped to $30 before purchasing it. Or consider, as another example, Fallout 4; I still haven't purchased the DLC for the title, because it's hideously over-priced. Originally I'd have been willing to pay $30 based on the DLC quality, but Bethesda's push to maintain a high price point well after Steam reviews began torching them for it irritated me further, so now I'll wait for a bundle at $20. And if I no longer care about replaying FO4 with the DLC once it hits $20, well, Bethesda just lost the sale entirely.

Couple this with a strong inclination to pay full price for quality independent titles, and I have most of a solution, at least so far as I'm concerned.

Unfortunately, the reason I must say 'most of' a solution is that this approach clearly doesn't work well for titles that are predominantly played with others. As an example, when the next expansion for FFXIV releases, I don't really have a good way to pay what I feel it's worth. If it's like Stormblood - Heavensward with a new coat of paint followed by a couple of years of stale update cycles - it would be worth $25ish to me, not $40. But, my choices are essentially limited to quitting FFXIV entirely, or purchasing the new expansion along with everyone else. Similarly, the Housing demolition system essentially means I can't easily 'quit' FFXIV for a couple of update cycles in order to truly vote with my wallet (if I quit long enough to lose my house, I likely would never come back). I try to make up for this limitation by being a vocal critic of SE's crappier practices on the forums, but it just isn't the same. Still, better than nothing, I suppose...

[MrPresident]

Oh, it's probably a bit off-topic, but the video game manuals also. I loved their smell in the brand new games, and reading them on my way back home... And now they are all gone. Instead, now it's just full of advertising flyers. ( '-')

Yes, same! I’d sit there reading through the whole thing, firstly for the controls, but there would also be some story/lore based stuff depending on the game, as well as some tips and tricks.

[Sigma-Astra]

Oh, it's probably a bit off-topic, but the video game manuals also. I loved their smell in the brand new games, and reading them on my way back home... And now they are all gone. Instead, now it's just full of advertising flyers. ( '-')

Yes, same! I’d sit there reading through the whole thing, firstly for the controls, but there would also be some story/lore based stuff depending on the game, as well as some tips and tricks.

I wouldn't say that they're all gone completely, some games include character dossiers and bestiaries as part of their gameplay features. Those are always fun to look through every time you get a new important person and whatnot. Not all games do it though unfortunately, it would be nice if more people did as it's always interesting to read through them if they don't come with manuals.

[CainCrimson]

I wouldn't say that they're all gone completely, some games include character dossiers and bestiaries as part of their gameplay features. Those are always fun to look through every time you get a new important person and whatnot. Not all games do it though unfortunately, it would be nice if more people did as it's always interesting to read through them if they don't come with manuals.

This is one reason I enjoyed Mass Effect (1) so much, they really fleshed out the world. I'm one of those players that actually reads all that stuff or talks to every NPC before moving forward.

...or at least I was until Call of Duty ruined my attention span.

[AppleJinx]

Yeah I can't wait for them to add ultimate and savage tickets to mog station.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Yeah I can't wait for them to add ultimate and savage tickets to mog station.

One way to kill the PF selling scene.

[Vstarstruck]

Yes, another thread about this topic.

I find companies just milk gamers all around these days. I miss when you paid the game box price and you got the full game, no nickle and diming.

We pay for expansions and a sub in this game, yet continually more and more additional paid features are added. The whole point of a sub MMO is NOT for this to occur. I don't think I've ever come across a sub MMO with this many paid features before. ESO which has a large active community these days provides store currency if you choose to pay a monthly sub. Frankly, SE is demonstrating pure greed... and we buy into it.

Clearly many are willing to pay the sub plus the retainer fees, mog store items, companion app fees, ect... While I agree with all the complaint threads, things aren't going to change given the player base overall financially supports these features.

There is plenty of stuff I would buy from mog station if it was cheaper and reasonable (but all it combined adds to be being too much) for a sub mmo... with retainer sub fees and app sub fee.. I cancel sub then if you are going to be that greedy.

FFXIV is F2P model locked behind sub.

One way to kill the PF selling scene.

yeah cut out the middle man, just let everything be buyable with IRL money. Gil is not pay to win so why not let us buy gil? Paying for savage mount is no different then buying it from some group with gil so why not? just like leveling potions, you buying a mount does not effect my play experience.

[Colt47]

I got no problems with a F2P model if the money is actually being reinvested into the games development. As it stands I have zero knowledge where all this cash shop money is going to and I still want to know why I'm having to pay for extra bank space via the retainer system.

If they want the shop to feel less of a cash grab, they should make better use of it, like using it as a way to fund building a new dungeon or armor set. Maybe even help pay for development time on fixing some cosmetic issues. If I'm helping pay for a side project to improve housing, or make it easier for derelect FCs to merge without losing their FC housing or something, that would be a thing I'd love to help with.

[Sigma-Astra]

I got no problems with a F2P model if the money is actually being reinvested into the games development. As it stands I have zero knowledge where all this cash shop money is going to and I still want to know why I'm having to pay for extra bank space via the retainer system.

I think it has been stated numerous times by Yoshi or someone else that the funds created from the Mogstation basically fund the costs of running said Mogstation alone separately from the funds produced by subscription fees. The profits that they reap from the Mogstation are probably minuscule compared towards the profits reaped by people continuing paying their subscription fees on whatever billing cycle that the customer chooses. Since, in order to use said Mogstation at all, you still have to be subbed and playing the game with an active service account to begin with.

It's about the same way with their own SE storefront online that's not even connected to XIV directly which probably funds itself through online sales and whatnot.

I think your ideas are great, by the way, just that they probably don't or won't use the funds of the Mogstation to pay for the extra time and effort that's needed on the game designers and developers to work on more stuff. It may not be that large of an amount that would make it financially worth to pay people overtime.

It's hard to tell since no company would ever give out their fiscal reports openly towards the public. That's PR suicide and allowing the competition to gain an advantage.

[Ruf]

Really, leave xi out of this, there is no crappy cash shop there & I dont want any.