Why Do We Have to Pay to Teleport Via Aetheryte?

[Jpec07]

It makes no sense from a lore perspective. We’re following our own aether trails using our own magical ability. Not to mention, who are we even paying? Is Hydaelyn rifling through our pockets?

It makes no sense from a gameplay perspective. The paltry sums (topping out at 999g) are inconsequential, and far less than what we’d earn from a leve or quest, even as early as level 10. If the intent was to make teleportation a rare thing when you needed to go from one region to the next, the price should have been higher from the get-go. As it stands, it’s basically free, with players (myself included) teleporting with great frequency.

So why is there still a gil fee associated with teleportation via aetheryte? As far as I can tell, it’s just a holdover from 1.0 that no longer serves any purpose.

[Shougun]

The lore reason is maintenance of the aetheryte site, including keeping guard and all that jazz. As for what it does in general it just acts as one of the many gil sinks, like repair costs or market board taxes.

[CazzT]

It makes no sense from a lore perspective. We’re following our own aether trails using our own magical ability. Not to mention, who are we even paying? Is Hydaelyn rifling through our pockets?

It makes no sense from a gameplay perspective. The paltry sums (topping out at 999g) are inconsequential, and far less than what we’d earn from a leve or quest, even as early as level 10. If the intent was to make teleportation a rare thing when you needed to go from one region to the next, the price should have been higher from the get-go. As it stands, it’s basically free, with players (myself included) teleporting with great frequency.

So why is there still a gil fee associated with teleportation via aetheryte? As far as I can tell, it’s just a holdover from 1.0 that no longer serves any purpose.

Lore - they cover this in one off the very early quests that has you attuning to a crystal.
Gameplay - money sink. I agree it doesn't seem like much, but a gil here, a gil there, it adds and helps keep the economy from going insane.
It still serves a purpose and always will.

[Ransom]

Well here's what I've been wondering. Presumably, in-universe, there's some company or governmental agency that gets all that gil. Now, it's plainly established that we are connected to both the aetherites in the source and the aetherites in the first. Does this mean that there's some poor little Lala accountant, sitting at his desk in Ul'dah, trying his damndest to figure out where in the hell all this extra money is coming from all the sudden? "Norvrandt? Where the hell is Norvrandt?"

[PyurBlue]

Lore - they cover this in one off the very early quests that has you attuning to a crystal.
Gameplay - money sink. I agree it doesn't seem like much, but a gil here, a gil there, it adds and helps keep the economy from going insane.
It still serves a purpose and always will.

There is related lore given in game, but it still feels kind of shaky to me. The teleportation system comes across as a developer invention rather than a part of the world. It would have made more sense if aetherlytes worked like airships where you pay an attendant to use them. If you go solely by what we see in game they're practically unguarded and anyone using them could simply cheat the system by holding their money upon teleporting. Not to mention that if your departure and arrival points aren't in communication with each other, how do they know the correct amount to charge a traveler? Do they just ask? Surely many people would lie.

[WhiteArchmage]

In 1.0 you didn't use gil to teleport... you used Anima, which was a self-replenishing but limited resource and different aetherytes cost different amounts of Anima, essentially to gate how far and often you could teleport. The Lore resoning for the change in 2.0 is that the Aetherytes in Eorzea were damaged following the Calamity, and the City-states took on a large loan from the Syndicate which is paid as a tax for teleporting (I believe Koji Fox said to just assume there's a friendly attendant taking your money at every Aetheryte Plaza, don't think to hard on it).

In gameplay it serves as a money-sink, since there's already too many ways to get gil for nothing, and telportation, repairs and such serve to keep that gil from wrecking the economy.

[Saito_S]

There is related lore given in game, but it still feels kind of shaky to me. The teleportation system comes across as a developer invention rather than a part of the world.

I don't really get why this is a problem in the first place, to be honest (quoting you because your phrasing was an easy jumping off point for my post, but this is obviously directed at OP as well, and anyone who is bothered by this). LOTS of things in this game - in nearly all games - make zero sense in terms of lore or in-universe consistency. The segregation between gameplay and story to allow for things that serve ONLY the former even if they "break" the latter is a concept as old as videogames. See also: When it's noon in Eorzea, it's ALSO noon in Othard! And even in Norvrandt! This, obviously, is nonsense. But it's a conceit to serve the "game" side of things.

Yeah, the lore for teleport fees IS a bit shaky, but to me it feels like it's shaky because they knew it wasn't going to be convincing, so they didn't spend a lot of time or energy trying to make it so. It feels cheeky. Like the game is going "wink wink, nudge nudge" while providing this flimsy lore "explanation", because the devs and writers know that WE know that the REAL reason is, again, to serve the "game" side of things (in this case, to provide a gil sink - yes it's a small gil sink, but as someone else pointed out, it can add up bit by bit.)

[Zeonx]

People who try to defend the high priced teleports make me laugh.

To the person who said it helps the market board, not anymore it don't not since wanderer's come and things get lower my stuff takes longer to sell then I am basically undercutting the cutters to make ends meet and on top of that spending tons of gil telelporting yeah I could use tickets cut prices in halve yeah I could use flame guild to use the price cut thing but its still 500 gil a pop then by the time my items sell I am in the hole more than I sold.

especially for people who are late to the crafting scene also noticed armor seems to get damaged even more than usual so I am also paying that.

of course someone will come in and try to reason or soften the comment oh but this and that don't wanna hear it I am sure you have tons of gil doesn't matter what you spend right, me I spam dungeons to stay a float luckly but quickly burns me out luckly I don't own a house so I can quit any time I want.

[PyurBlue]

I don't really get why this is a problem in the first place, to be honest (quoting you because your phrasing was an easy jumping off point for my post, but this is obviously directed at OP as well, and anyone who is bothered by this). LOTS of things in this game - in nearly all games - make zero sense in terms of lore or in-universe consistency. The segregation between gameplay and story to allow for things that serve ONLY the former even if they "break" the latter is a concept as old as videogames. See also: When it's noon in Eorzea, it's ALSO noon in Othard! And even in Norvrandt! This, obviously, is nonsense. But it's a conceit to serve the "game" side of things.

Yeah, the lore for teleport fees IS a bit shaky, but to me it feels like it's shaky because they knew it wasn't going to be convincing, so they didn't spend a lot of time or energy trying to make it so. It feels cheeky. Like the game is going "wink wink, nudge nudge" while providing this flimsy lore "explanation", because the devs and writers know that WE know that the REAL reason is, again, to serve the "game" side of things (in this case, to provide a gil sink - yes it's a small gil sink, but as someone else pointed out, it can add up bit by bit.)

It's not unique to FF14, I didn't want to imply that it was. The inconsistency also isn't a problem persay - it really depends on what you mean by problem. I prefer having less holes in the lore but the teleport fees as they are aren't something that would reduce my likelihood of playing. I don't agree with not taking it seriously and only coming up with a quasi explanation for the sake of having it explained though. I don't think it would have been all that hard to come up with a more plausible system. Of course at some point fantasy will break with reality, so I understand not wanting to fall all the way down a never ending hole just for the sake of airtight lore. Maybe I just like to look into things too deeply.

[Tint]

Here is your answer OP:

An-aether-what?