CREDD/PLEX/WoW Token system

[JBee]

Been there done that with EQ2. They took a great game without as large a fanbase as WoW and turned into a cow wringing machine.

First they looked the other way with botters; then they looked the other way with the in game money sellers. Then the cash shop went from fluff to a couple "mild" advantages, but nothing game breaking. Then the items that could be freely traded and sold on the in game market that were the equivalent to one month's sub.

Then those became the main way that people made money. Low on funds? Swipe your cc, sell the thing, get ton of money. Repeat.

Then they added more and more pay to win elements - just as the doom and gloomers predicted. Spells have levels there. You level up, you get the level 1 version, and there were I think 8 levels total. Increased levels hit for more - typical stuff. You can get it in game buy finding the item (they went whole expansions where there was quite literally zero way of getting them short of cash shop)... or you can wait to slowly level it (progress bar, one spell going up one level in upper tiers? 40+ IRL DAYS). Or, for the low low price....

The "serious" raiders were expected to max out their hardest hitting spells, if not all of them. One character getting maxed for raiding that way was well over $1,000 USD - JUST for the spell upgrades. Not to mention buying the sub items that were turned into money, that's about another $500 USD. Every expansion was a gear reset, or very near to it - either by upping itemization or by increasing level caps. You wouldn't wear a level 50 ring on a level 60 character, etc.

And the cycle repeated.

Lot of the diehards have long left that mess.

When you introduce pay to win, it only leads to one place.

Leave the cash shop full of the fluff stuff - fun glamour items that have no bearing on game play. Even gear sets without any stats that give extra exp like they have. Even the jump and story boosts so people can catch up easier to their friends - if they stick around, they will learn in time.

But adding in pay for gil or pay for a sub item that you can sell? It's a mistake.

Sorry for long windedness on this - I left a lot of good friends and 10+ years of character development on alts and etc because it got to be too much there because of the irreparable damage that was done.

[Vaer]

I'm on the fence about this. In other games it's not really a big deal, but I think it would impact housing negatively. Since the high priced plots price people out of the system, being able to just legal RMT gil will just add more buyers when there are already a limited amount of plots. If they fix the housing system then that's another story.

Secondly, games like WoW got around the inflation (which might have been caused by garrison/guild hall missions indirectly encouraging buying of tokens by giving everyone a ton of gold for doing almost nothing - man would not surprise me if they did actually did this intentionally to give people gold to buy tokens /tinfoil) by adding mounts and pets that cost a ginormous amount of gold (500k - millions) on merchants and that being the only way of getting them.

Right now on FFXIV you can get most mounts and pets that aren't promotions by just playing the game regularly, if they went that route (Having super expensive untradeable mounts/minions bought with gil - talking millions of gil not 100k) that would be lame. Sure, some of the rare mounts cost a lot (like the PoTD, HoH ones), but you can get most of them as drops even if rare, too.

[JunseiKei]

I'd prefer it if the XIV team makes it so players that want to stay have to contribute to supporting the servers and the game directly.

There's no gil sinks in this game that really amount to anything. It's far easier to accumulate gil than to actually spend it - something I don't mind as you don't need to go out of your way to purposely farm gil (a massive QoL change from other games that I personally enjoy), be it from grinding, crafting or whatnot. I like the fact that running a dungeon or two covers my repair costs for the next 15+ dungeon runs, or 1 raid prog night.

This system also doesn't account for regions that are able to buy items for cheaper than other regions and then reselling at a profit. I'm unsure if this was addressed, but why that other MogStation store popped up and could work (please do not support third party purchases!). The thought that the possibility of one of these third party traders buying a token that could be sold in-game, making XIV lose money, upsets me. That's a beginning of how games could die. For all its ups and downs, XIV doesn't deserve that kind of fate.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

[Mirassou]

I like FFXIV because it is not like the other mmo's out there.

I don't think this will decrease RMT bots in the slightest. But I do think introducing a source of gil earned by paying real money as opposed to earning it in-game is a slippery slope and one I hope the team never embarks upon.

Edit: And I am very happy to welcome people from WoW who are dissatisfied by that game and want a new gaming experience. But I see threads by (probably well-meaning) people who want to add WoW features to FFXIV. Please no.

[TitaniaZero]

While I am a poor stupid fool and did take advantage of WoW's token thing for many things, I just don't feel it necessary in this one. In fact a part of me believes the token system in WoW helped to ruin it.

FFXIV works differently than those other games. Just look at how we pay our subs. That system is convoluted and fails regularly. While WoW's is a few clicks and done away. Adding the FFXIV version of the token would just add to the trouble one would deal with... Though I do recall Crysta is a thing isn't it?

Anyway no. Let's not do that to this game. The Dev's have enough trouble with their shakey servers, they always seem to strapped for time, and never have enough resources as is. Let's not add to this trouble by wishing this game to go into a strange F2P system.

[Shougun]

I don't really like this because it "legalizes" RMT. I don't want to see that. I'd prefer sloppeh ban sweeps over making it smooth process to buy gil with real money (plex).

That said I think most generic common items (the bread and milk of the FFXIV world) wouldn't inflate (or much) because of this, but I think luxury items would gain a negative experience for people playing normally (luxury priced for those with the means of many many hours as is now but also now includes more of those with willing disposable funds outside of the game- likely making luxury market more expensive than before). Also would be another cherry on top of the cherry skyscraper that is housing for those new to the game looking at the price tag of a new area added and all the houses are taken quickly (if they don't go "instanced" (1:1 demand/supply), if they go instanced then no worries it's fine lol). The housing costs are pretty high when you're new so now it's like "spend real money at the chance to get one or get rekt at those who've played much longer or are willing to pay" (all three sizes are not bad if you set your mind on making gil over other content or have some end game options available and give it some time).

Also I'm curious if in the long term SE would lose players because you go from paying monthly and just not playing sometimes to "I'm sick of running the gil treadmill, I'll come back later". I mean I think more people would try it temporarily and it might spur gil spending for a while but I think you'd see some people drop their sub more often during quiet times because they were of the mindset of gil a month. Once you start spending (real) money and are not stretching your cash flow thin I think it's easier to be subbed that way. Every time someone unsubs there is a chance they don't come back or that they'll just decide it's too much effort to come back until a major patch/expansion. I'm not certain on this but I think a system like that (in game currency for sub) has a chance to shake off non-dedicated players easier than if they had just been spending some starbucks money a month (one is more set it and forget it than the other).

Even though I don't want the system in this game I just wanted to toss out warframe as another RMT-ish sort of scenario like plex, can buy cash shop items with in game money which is a sort of cute way they keep that game free. Of course the base game and a massive amount of it's content is free by default so it's not a 1:1 example.

It would also help reduce the massive bot army's that are farming 24/7, thereby decreasing the rate of gil that is being created every day.

Assuming they still operate how I read they did before then they'll still be there and now with cheaper prices to entice players to go their way instead of the official way (if official way becomes cheap at least lol). Last I read it doesn't cost a lot to keep them running so unless they can get the profit margin low enough through CREDD/PLEX I don't think you're going to see a huge dive in third party RMT - just an increase in players buying gil with real money. Also people themselves might bot more to earn gil as botting could pay for their sub through making gil.

[Sanctify]

In on the fence about this. On one hand the idea of me saving my real money is flipping awesome. On the other hand the WoW token has ended up being the only excuse to have to play wow because of how shitty it is now that it still perplexes me that people pay actual money to play it lol. And I dont wana see this game go down that route.... but I like saving money lol.

[Xatsh]

I say hell no to legalized rmt. Keep that garbage out of the game. People should never be able to convert RL money into ingame money ever period.



The current cash shop is already way way too much with the "Cash Shop" Exclusive crap and job boosters.

[Mavrias]

yall are all talking about gil sellers crashing markets as if there arent people who would rather pay for their subs and things with gil rather than having to use actual real world money.

yknow people with less disposable income who arent spending it on buying gil in the first place.