Final Fantasy Titles, Cross-overs, Purchase Benefits, and the Cash Shop

[Shougun]

tl;dr, shifting the focus of items in the shop, more nostalgic items from "other worlds", encouraging sales of other FF games and new blood from people interested in those games into this one.

Few thoughts lead to this thread:

• Was thinking about some of the items I see added to the cash shop, some of them I strongly wonder "...why was that not default into the game, it really fits the game world.. or is already in the game world.. just a different color.." and of course there are others that are like "hah, yeah okay cash shop makes sense - I mean I wish it wasn't there but like.. it doesn't really fit without having to go about making it so eh we'd never see it if it wasn't for this".
  
• It lead me onto some other thoughts like how I believe SE could be encouraging fans of this game to try (again, or for the first time) other FF games by adding purchase benefits in this game with the purchase of others. Or to get people to buy the remakes, since I own old ones that probably don't even work on disc anymore lol. Or for fans of the single player games encouragement to try FFXIV.
  
• I also felt curious on why X famous outfit, hairstyle, housing item, etc, wasn't in the game from Y yet when it would do /very/ well with fans of said content.
  
• Then I went over the idea of cross over quests, and of course thinking of the above (all these things that are popular that cost money to make) I figured, quite obviously, that they don't make them all yet because it's time/money consuming with little incentive unless cash shop (and also probably busy due to 5.0).

So.. With all that said I thought perhaps to bring some cash shop acceptance, moving SE away from making items that easily fit into the world to items that are from "other worlds". While also making sure the idea doesn't cost SE lots of money. Obviously if an employee told the CEO of SE to close the cash shop the CEO would probably laugh them out of the office.

The concept is in a few parts and I think it might be generally "okay"/acceptable to players and SE, leading to a bit of benefit to everyone (not always a pure pro but probably "well enough").

So the pre step is that the you'd see a lot more other Final Fantasy options available to you albeit in the cash shop (but hang on a sec with that table flip lol). So things like all the main cast's outfits (Auron, Yuffie, Vincent, Noctis, etc, etc), hairs, MUSIC, perhaps squadron/trust NPC unlocks, new mounts, and especially housing furnishings (things that could visually fit, with some tweaks but don't really belong in the FF natively - like our cloud outfits and such).

Now into the actual implementation:

• When you buy a Final Fantasy game from a supported source (lets assume SE's own shop for now as that means sharing a bit less money with others, even if they activate on steam still) you'd get a code for a free unlock of that series item in the shop of FFXIV. Say if you bought FFX you could unlock the shoopuff mount at no additional charge (or whatever else you pick instead lol). FFX-2 getting you that favorite dress-sphere you liked.
  
• Once 10 items (around there) have been added from a series a cross-over event would be looked into, a series of quests, fates, mini-games, or what have you as one would expect from a cross over. For example:

  FFIX could have a mini-theater event with mini-games reminiscent and inspired by FFIX, the theater showing from the prima vista (airship). These events would happen yearly on the anniversary release date of the game. The reward from the event being items that can be used to purchase from the shop.

  Designed in such a way/rate that non-paying players can have hope to see that item they wanted while paying able players will likely still be paying because they want /all of them/. This would add a lot of "happenings" throughout the year seeing as SE has many games already . Also consider giving players who own that game bonus goodies each anniversary - the consumable goody pack or limited time costumes (like halloween where we could be GC leaders for a bit lol), some way to feel special each time even if the player doesn't need the quest anymore (because they bought everything or are satisfied).
  
  
• If they ever design their own steam like launcher (not recommended unless its made with pure love and attention to detail), they can also add achievement rewards from one game to the next. For example in Assassins Creed a certain achievement/play time in one game will lead to a reward in another. Beating that first blitz ball team in FFX (it's possible lol) could be an achievement that unlocks a trophy in FFXIV for your house.

I feel as SE has so many games, many of them beloved and having many things people want to see in this game, and SE has so far been on a spree of HD/Remake that it could be good to put a spin on it such that:

• we see less things that should fit into the game be put into the cash shop (things that are from the game world that clearly belonged to the game world)
• more things that wouldn't normally be made because there was no financial incentive (pretty much see all your favorite outfits and more)
• perhaps more players because of the single player interested games now being invited into multiplayer content
• more sales of the single-player content as the FFXIV crowd sees extra value and news notice about them existing. Especially if they time release the content such that say FFVII remake purchase gets you Red XIII companion and some other thing (like chocobo, but it's Red mate lol) - four or so months after release it gets added to the shop. Boosts sales, perhaps, although FFVII probably wont need help lol (just don't mess up and make it bad XD haha). PLEASE DO NOT MAKE PERMANENT EXCLUSIVES, it just feels like an ever growing disheartening mountain (although timed exclusive I think is perfectly great tool).

Felt like it needed it's own aside but a big thing to possibly reward from buying the other games under this program could be music inside FFXIV, like through a FFXV system. Made a post on that here.

Anyway thought it might be nice to see some more of people's favorites, and I believe most people expect outside of special unique events that these will go cash shop anyways - so rather we see less "Eorzean" items in the shop but we'll see a lot more "other world" items instead. With the mutual avenue of paying for the game "FF[number here]" and getting a bonus, or if SE is nice adding a really nostalgic anniversary event after enough items are in the shop from said series number.

Actually want to make a post for the mogshop having a feature a little bit like the one detailed in here (like veteran reward is mogshop cash at an interval not too fast or too slow) but it'll be another thread and definitely at another week lol (these ideas may be semi-conflicting but I have some other mog related items I want to put in that thread too).

Thanks for reading~