FF14 Companion app Premium Service

[Voltyblast]

What are you referring to, specifically? The cash shop hasn't changed a bit, as far as I can tell. It was all glamour then, and it's all glamour now. I doubt that many of the folks who were saying, "It's glamour; it's fine to sell it for cash" then are singing a different tune, now.

Initially the cash shop was supposed to sell items that WERE OBTAINABLE in the game but you could no longer get - like old event emotes, costumes, etcetera - and at the beginning that was it, but then they slowly started to add exclusive items that WERE NOT OBTAINABLE in the game, like new mounts, emotes and special costumes, and eventually it turned where almost all items that you could potentially get inside the game are just cash shop exclusives.
For example, the Odin Ex had a perfect chance to give the Sleipnir mount but nope, only cash shop...
Wanted the costume from Edda in POTD? Nope, cash shop.
We wanted a /lie emote for ages...and we got /playdead from the cash shop.

There are a few exceptions that are okay, like the Chinese dress and the maid outfit that were exclusives to promotional events, but you can see them adding new items that could've been easily in the game but nope, gotta cash in that dime!

And while we are at it, they could just allow us to gain those old items from the new events instead but they clearly want us to buy that 2 buck costume...on a single toon as it's not even account bound! So lazy!

PS: also, how could I forget the addition of the story jump and level jump potions?

[Kirsten_Rev]

PS: also, how could I forget the addition of the story jump and level jump potions?

I'd also point out that these are especially egregious. Not only are they the closest XIV has come to P2W, but the story jump potion in particular was also built as a solution to design problems that SE neglected to properly fix. Newcomers to FFXIV right now have to navigate literally hundreds of quests before they can access one iota of current content. It'll be even worse come 5.0 if they don't change tactics. They're implicitly compelling newcomers and returning players to spend significant sums of money in order to return in a relatively painless fashion.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I'd also point out that these are especially egregious. Not only are they the closest XIV has come to P2W, but the story jump potion in particular was also built as a solution to design problems that SE neglected to properly fix. Newcomers to FFXIV right now have to navigate literally hundreds of quests before they can access one iota of current content. It'll be even worse come 5.0 if they don't change tactics. They're implicitly compelling newcomers and returning players to spend significant sums of money in order to return in a relatively painless fashion.

They have mentioned going back and trimming things down. Unfortunately, that is no small undertaking. And while they should do so eventually, it means their budget is being allotted elsewhere instead of into new content. I don't know about you, but I'd prefer things I can do at current max level rather than the devs focus on content I've long since completed years ago.

Even if/when they do reduce the amount of quests required, jump potions don't impact much. People who aren't interested in the story are going to skip it all anyway and powerlevel through PotD/HoH. Square may as well profit on it. Most who opt to do so are usually leveling an alt.

[Hestzhyen]

They have mentioned going back and trimming things down. Unfortunately, that is no small undertaking. And while they should do so eventually, it means their budget is being allotted elsewhere instead of into new content. I don't know about you, but I'd prefer things I can do at current max level rather than the devs focus on content I've long since completed years ago.

I wouldn't mind if they went back and did it. Honestly I enjoy so little of the content they've been putting out since SB that I wouldn't mind if some of it was abandoned to go back and make things better for newcomers. The slog was real when I did it as new content, I can only imagine how much worse it is when you have to do it back to back to back chasing that beautiful moment when you can finally go to Ishgard.

[Kirsten_Rev]

They have mentioned going back and trimming things down. Unfortunately, that is no small undertaking.

The fundamental issue is their short-sighted decision to build a sequential storyline in the first place. No other MMO has attempted this to my understanding, and they should have realized their folly before even releasing Stormblood. Instead, they seem to be doubling-down on it, rather than adapting their storyboards to not depend upon post-ARR content. So, yeah, of course it's a lot of work now - and even a trim-down is still going to have hundreds of quests.

That's actually the underlying issue with SE's development of FFXIV, and it ties in to my concerns surrounding the Companion App and their approach to monetization, as well. Regardless of player feedback (Diadem, Eureka, content update cycle, etc.), and regardless of technical challenges imposed (Housing system, sequential storyline, etc.), SE doesn't change course. I spent some time as a graduate student in mathematics, and one of the issues professors frequently warned about was tunnel vision of a sort: someone aiming to approach a problem from a particular direction, and doubling down when it seems to not be working, rather than retreating and approaching from a new perspective. SE exhibits this same sort of stubborn behaviour with FFXIV, and it results in a lot of wasted time and energy for less-than-perfect results.

Eventually, this is going to catch up to them. It arguably already is. It's why I worry about their steady push toward more monetization, because I fear they'll completely ignore player feedback warnings as they push too far outside people's comfort zones. It also might never happen, though; they've got a sort of slow-boil approach going that makes it less likely players will feel the sense of shock that would push them to quit. But it's nevertheless a huge problem from a quality-of-game standpoint.

Edit / Aside: It's particularly interesting to note that the single best decision SE made for FFXIV - the decision to reboot the entire game - was an example of backing out of a failed path entirely, and starting down a new one, with a fresh approach. They'd be well advised to not be so fearful of doing this more often.

[LineageRazor]

Initially the cash shop was supposed to sell items that WERE OBTAINABLE in the game but you could no longer get - like old event emotes, costumes, etcetera - and at the beginning that was it, but then they slowly started to add exclusive items that WERE NOT OBTAINABLE in the game, like new mounts, emotes and special costumes, and eventually it turned where almost all items that you could potentially get inside the game are just cash shop exclusives.
For example, the Odin Ex had a perfect chance to give the Sleipnir mount but nope, only cash shop...
Wanted the costume from Edda in POTD? Nope, cash shop.
We wanted a /lie emote for ages...and we got /playdead from the cash shop.

There are a few exceptions that are okay, like the Chinese dress and the maid outfit that were exclusives to promotional events, but you can see them adding new items that could've been easily in the game but nope, gotta cash in that dime!

And while we are at it, they could just allow us to gain those old items from the new events instead but they clearly want us to buy that 2 buck costume...on a single toon as it's not even account bound! So lazy!

PS: also, how could I forget the addition of the story jump and level jump potions?

I'm not sure where you got the impression that the cash shop was only for previously-acquireable-in-game stuff. That promise was never made, and Scion gear and Sleipnir were among the VERY FIRST things added to the cash shop. In fact, folks WEREN'T expecting in-game emotes and stuff to be there - there was quite an uproar when the previous year's event gear wound up in the cash shop instead of in the in-game event shops. No, it was always well-known that the cash shop would be a venue for EXCLUSIVE glamours, unobtainable any other way. It was the retreads that were a surprise.

As for story- and level-jump potions, it is true that those are not glamour. They are opportunities to pay SE to power-level you. Is this pay-to-win? Not sure... but I've played with people who have progressed by this method, and they didn't really feel like "winners" to me. XD

[Voltyblast]

I'm gonna reply one more time about the cash shop or else this will go off topic. Here goes.

You mean... nothing changed? Mogstation has remained cosmetic only since its inception. And even the items added have mostly been ported from the Chinese/Korean version or past events. The one exception are jump potions, but those aren't p2w by any stretch.

So yes, the whole "Don't like it. Don't buy it" still applies.

Those Chinese and Korean items are the only exceptions I can think off because they were never legitimately in the game and the only way to obtain it was to be...well Korean or Chinese, they weren't exactly easy to obtain and while they could have given us for free - and they could if they cared - they decided for us to pay for them...okay, I can deal with that.

However at its inception (27 of October 2014 to be exact) it mostly had few items from older events and I think the Sleipnir mount - Urth's Fount would be released in 2.5, making it just useless to re-run besides that crappy glamour - and it was "okay" because yes they could have given us those older event items for free - and they could, if they cared - but we have to pay few cents for those things again...fair enough.

But the more time passed the more focus was done on the cash shop, to the point that possible good incentives to re-run content were relegated to the cash shop instead of ingame which I also made a few examples.
This begs the question: is this an f2p MMORPG or what? A costume, even if cosmetic, costing more than a sub is just not fair and forcing us to rent additional retainers is just...do I have to say anything?

Your question is "so nothing has changed?" but with all the examples I gave, with all their focus on the shop, with everything they've added in the cash shop that could've been EASILY be applied to the game, do you still think nothing has changed? Maaaaybe things got worse? Or the fact we can pay 12 bucks for a SINGLE emote is just the same as before?

I might have to answer it straightforward or else mayhem will happen: the answer is "The cash shop got worse, so worse that it's essentially an f2p version of it. More straightforward than that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

PS: About the jumping potions you can compare them like in those trash games on the cell phone - such as candy crush - where you pay to proceed faster: sure you can go slower and wait God knows how long to clear all the 570 quests in order to unlock endgame (yes it's that many), or you can pay us to take out 422 of them and only bother with the remaining (as of now) 148 quests in order to play the actual game.
I call them pay to win, but you can call them "pay to progress faster", but it doesn't change the fact they just took advantage of the filler-riddled MSQ to sell potions instead of fixing it and make it flow better.

I'm not sure where you got the impression that the cash shop was only for previously-acquireable-in-game stuff. That promise was never made, and Scion gear and Sleipnir were among the VERY FIRST things added to the cash shop. In fact, folks WEREN'T expecting in-game emotes and stuff to be there - there was quite an uproar when the previous year's event gear wound up in the cash shop instead of in the in-game event shops. No, it was always well-known that the cash shop would be a venue for EXCLUSIVE glamours, unobtainable any other way. It was the retreads that were a surprise.

As for story- and level-jump potions, it is true that those are not glamour. They are opportunities to pay SE to power-level you. Is this pay-to-win? Not sure... but I've played with people who have progressed by this method, and they didn't really feel like "winners" to me. XD

I do remember people saying it was about older items to be obtained but this is the thing: I didn't care at first because I had all the items in the cash shop, I did all events and I didn't bother spending a dime on those. When they first added the first batch of crap items that's when people got a bad feeling, as the white knights kept saying "IT'S ONLY COSMETIC, IT'S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT" and it slowly descended into worse and worse...to the point they're now selling an emote for 12 bucks.

And here' comes the issue that MIGHT happen with the application as well: giving more unlocks for paying more. The cash shops started with needless and crappy old costumes and event rewards that unless you were new, you already had them (with some exceptions of course), but now they're basically focusing on giving more stuff from the cash shop than the actual game...and what if that happens with the application?
What if you pay a subscription to the application to allow you to have a higher weekly tomestome limit?
What if you have to pay to get an additional loot at a raid?
What if you additional dresser space is locked behind premium?
What if you can grant extra exp to your alt classes thanks to the application?

They're starting relatively tame for now - I don't care, I don't craft and I got enough space with my two retainers - but if they see the application becoming more and more worth their time, they might just add more stuff there since "it sells so why not?".
People said that the mog shop would end up BADLY one day but we didn't listen...but if this happens to the application ffxiv might turn into a SWTOR 2 of sorts, a game where you had to pay 5 bucks to unlock additional skill bars...

Or nothing might happen and this will be just pointless banter...I dunno, I might be gone by that time anyway so you do you: get your app, buy your stuff at the mog shop and have fun...just don't come back and cry when they'll add stuff that was once easily available for free now it's locked behind a premium subscription! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And with that, I'm done with the topic of cash shop.

[Luna-M]

Initially the cash shop was supposed to sell items that WERE OBTAINABLE in the game but you could no longer get - like old event emotes, costumes, etcetera - and at the beginning that was it, but then they slowly started to add exclusive items that WERE NOT OBTAINABLE in the game, like new mounts, emotes and special costumes, and eventually it turned where almost all items that you could potentially get inside the game are just cash shop exclusives.
For example, the Odin Ex had a perfect chance to give the Sleipnir mount but nope, only cash shop...
Wanted the costume from Edda in POTD? Nope, cash shop.
We wanted a /lie emote for ages...and we got /playdead from the cash shop.

There are a few exceptions that are okay, like the Chinese dress and the maid outfit that were exclusives to promotional events, but you can see them adding new items that could've been easily in the game but nope, gotta cash in that dime!

And while we are at it, they could just allow us to gain those old items from the new events instead but they clearly want us to buy that 2 buck costume...on a single toon as it's not even account bound! So lazy!

PS: also, how could I forget the addition of the story jump and level jump potions?

So.. cosmetics. (But good points)

As for story- and level-jump potions, it is true that those are not glamour. They are opportunities to pay SE to power-level you. Is this pay-to-win? Not sure... but I've played with people who have progressed by this method, and they didn't really feel like "winners" to me. XD

Since having access to retainers and inventory is assumed P2W I'm gonna say a skip potion is as much P2W. Both as ridiculous arguements.

[SigmaOZ]

Well, it does offer a bit more than that: If you're already sitting at the maximum of six paid retainers, the premium service will let you go one more BEYOND the max. I have little doubt that there are folks out there with a full set of retainers and are STILL struggling to find inventory space.

I happen to have 6 extra retainers for a total of 8 and I have been cleaning up the mess in my inventories, as it turns out I can easily fire 2 to 4 retainers without much struggling!...

[Hasrat]

I happen to have 6 extra retainers for a total of 8 and I have been cleaning up the mess in my inventories, as it turns out I can easily fire 2 to 4 retainers without much struggling!...

My only real gripe with the app, and what could get me to actually use it, is how it doesn't actually maintain inventory organization. If the inventory tabs on the app were sorted the same as I have in game, it wouldn't be so bad dinking around with items.