Mogstation taking another step to the darkside

[Seraphor]

The thing is, even if SE don't "need" the income from the cash shop, they do get it, which means FFXIV brings in more money, which means it gets more funding, which means more content.
So indirectly, the game does benefit from the cash shop.
It's up to you whether you feel the need to buy anything from it, anything purely optional and cosmetic.

[SturmChurro]

The thing is, even if SE don't "need" the income from the cash shop, they do get it, which means FFXIV brings in more money, which means it gets more funding, which means more content.
So indirectly, the game does benefit from the cash shop.
It's up to you whether you feel the need to buy anything from it, anything purely optional and cosmetic.

Just wait for the argument. "They use all the profits towards other projects". You'll be seeing that on this page or two, if someone decides to reply to you.

[ElciaDeiLinus]

It seems strange to be freaking out about what is basically the most harmless and RNG free cash shop in MMOs, if anything I'd consider this to be the ideal way to do a cash shop.

Cash shops are part of MMOs, RNG cash items which are generally what get the whales and ruin people financially have been a part of MMOs since as long as I've been playing them.

I can't actually name an MMO that does not have some sort of loot crate or RNG item, generally wherein an average person can expect to get that one item they want after spending $100s- ESO, GW2, BDO, near every overseas MMO, WoW with its TCG prizes that are so rare they can go for $1000s.

FFXIV has done two things that are basically unique in the genre. No RNG, and you can't turn cash items into gil or vice versa.

If you don't think there should be any MTs in games fine- you're basically fighting a battle that was lost over a decade ago but go at it. But if you're looking at the industry as a whole, I can't think of an MMO that is both less greedy and less predatory/dangerous with their cash shop model, heck even several games that aren't near the scope of MMOs are considerably worse.

Far as I'm concerned, the sub pays for content- and FFXIV gives far more content than any non-sub game, and most of those sub games make you pay for their content anyway (ESO for example has full priced xpacs that offer a fraction of what a FFXIV/WoW xpac does, and makes you pay for small content updates too- while many other MMOs just don't add content or will do as much in a year as a sub mmo does in a month). This game includes a considerable amount of cosmetic items obtainable in game; outfits from story, raids that are actually worth wearing, mounts and pets- f2p mmos generally don't have any of that available from playing the game, and instead have them solely from their stores.

ESO mounts you can buy are 30-50 bucks, but the best ones through RNG crates average about $250, and houses can be around $120. BDO outfits are about $40. GW2's entire economy is at the mercy of the real money store. For those games, the cosmetic aspect and often the entire economy and actual gameplay aspect is dominated by real money spending. If you were to buy both the content and the cosmetics that FFXIV has in game at the prices other MMOs charge you'd be paying about $1000 a month, like I don't think people get just how expensive f2p MMOs actually are for what they offer.

[Vespar]

To the heart of the original post...
Mogstation is here to stay, no matter what form it takes. Its your choice to buy or not. I mean folks were just fine without whatever item they just released before it was shown off anyways. Pony up or not, but please, just get over it.

[Lathander81]

To the heart of the original post...
Mogstation is here to stay, no matter what form it takes. Its your choice to buy or not. I mean folks were just fine without whatever item they just released before it was shown off anyways. Pony up or not, but please, just get over it.

This goes to show people have no reading comprehension. Let me break it down..A seasonal style mount was placed in the cashshop and I think its crossing the line never crossed before by SE. This mount should be available ingame because its a Spriggan which is the mascot for the Spring event. We literally got a Spriggan outfit last year.

[Melichoir]

This goes to show people have no reading comprehension. Let me break it down..A seasonal style mount was placed in the cashshop and I think its crossing the line never crossed before by SE. This mount should be available ingame because its a Spriggan which is the mascot for the Spring event. We literally got a Spriggan outfit last year.

The spriggan mount is 'technically' a holiday mount, but only in the sense of when its released, and not perhaps in its intentions or designs. What I mean is that the only thing connecting it to this event is literally that it is a spriggin. Thats it. Now Im not faulting you or anyone who makes the connection the mount is a Holiday event mount. Its a pretty simple conclusion on its face. But theres a bit more to this if you give it more consideration.

The point that is being overlooked is that mount being a spriggin or released during easter does not mean the mount was developed specifically for the event to be given to us through the event. It is very plausible that they were developing a spriggin mount from the get go and felt that now would be a decent time to release it cause Spriggans themselves are the mascot of the event, which would be a pretty good marketing ploy to be frank. It's like releasing an ocean themed mount in summer - you put the two together simply because theyre loosely associated overall, but it doesnt mean that the mount was specifically designed as a summer event mount. The spriggin is the same, particularly since nothing on the spriggin screams easter in of itself. It wouldnt feel to out of place if it was released 2 months ago, or 6 months from now.

The trouble you run into with it being a seasonal mount is that you cant definitively say or prove that SE is being money grubbing and took an event item and through it on the mogstation to fleece people. If anything, the point that this is different than anything they have done before regarding mounts released during seasonal events, paired with the fact that it doesnt have seasonal bells and whistles on it (which previous mounts had direct links to), would suggest the opposite: That this was in development and only released at this time cause it was a good marketing ploy, and not that it was intentionally developed for the event specifically and moved to mog station to fleece people.

The crux of your point seems to rely on the belief that this IS a seasonal mount developed purely because of this event, when you have no proof of this and rely only on "Easter has spriggans, this is a spriggan mount, therefore its seasonal in nature" despite the mount does not have any seasonal drappings and plausible counter explanations can be provided. It looks like you have a gut feeling about something and are pulling together ideas that prove your gut feeling, while discarding any that may run counter to it.

Keep in mind, I dont have any proof of my position either. I could be very well wrong, but this also seems very plausible considering the mount details and basic business practices.

[NanaWiloh]

They put more mounts and glams in game over the course of and expansion then what they add too the mogstation. Only time anyone gripes about this stuff being added is when they want it but are not willing to spend the money on it.

[Arngrim_Greyashe]

It might be better to be overly critical to prevent SE from considering taking further steps in expanding Cash Shop practices. Give an inch of tolerance and they usually will take a mile. Perhaps not at once, but little by little. Even if it's all useless criticism and they never were going to expand anyway, it's a worthy security measure to let developpers know where you stand.

Unless you actually like the existence of Cash Shop and want to expand it, shilling for SE just because you're a fanboy is silly and not in your best interest I'd say.

It seems to me that you're just echoing what you're reading from others without paying any actual attention to what I typed. Also this "give them an inch" saying is complete nonsense. You seem to forget that this is their game. Not ours. If they wanted to expand the cash shop, no amount of complaining on the forums will stop them. They would have already done it. We'd be sitting with BDO's predatory cash shop in XIV with it being a major part of the games focus.

I swear you all think this is the end of days every time they put a mount on mog station. If you want it, buy it. If you don't, don't buy it. It's simplistic. Not everything in life is free and your subscription doesn't entitle you to anything. It gets you an access pass to the game. Nothing else. This whole thread is completely unaware how a business runs, apparently. Businesses need money. They're getting money through subscriptions. They also added an extra OPTIONAL avenue to gain revenue. People that have extra money to spend can go there to buy optional things that get their attention if they so choose. It's not predatorial. It's not scummy. It's not shady. It's business. And a rather peaceful one in my opinion.

Also, calling me a fanboy for understanding how a business works and saying that I'm shilling for SE is a pathetic attempt to try to cover the fact that you have no real argument. Get out of here with that nonsense.

[SamRF]

It seems to me that you're just echoing what you're reading from others without paying any actual attention to what I typed. Also this "give them an inch" saying is complete nonsense. You seem to forget that this is their game. Not ours. If they wanted to expand the cash shop, no amount of complaining on the forums will stop them. They would have already done it. We'd be sitting with BDO's predatory cash shop in XIV with it being a major part of the games focus.

I swear you all think this is the end of days every time they put a mount on mog station. If you want it, buy it. If you don't, don't buy it. It's simplistic. Not everything in life is free and your subscription doesn't entitle you to anything. It gets you an access pass to the game. Nothing else. This whole thread is completely unaware how a business runs, apparently. Businesses need money. They're getting money through subscriptions. They also added an extra OPTIONAL avenue to gain revenue. People that have extra money to spend can go there to buy optional things that get their attention if they so choose. It's not predatorial. It's not scummy. It's not shady. It's business. And a rather peaceful one in my opinion.

Also, calling me a fanboy for understanding how a business works and saying that I'm shilling for SE is a pathetic attempt to try to cover the fact that you have no real argument. Get out of here with that nonsense.

By your logic of how a business works, there's no reason why this game wouldn't be BDO + subscription right now with obvious p2w mechanics. The reason that isn't the case is because there will be a massive exodus of players when SE would implement something like this, so it would be a bad business decision to do that. You could use the same reasoning with deciding between having a Cash Shop or not. A game may consider charging higher subscription (e.g. 20$/month) with the promise of never implementing a Cash Shop and may attract more players that way, since there are players who want to have such principle in their game. It's all about supply and demand.

If SE lets Cash Shop go out of hand, it will also perhaps lead to a player exodus and less players joining the game and thus it would have been a bad business decision if money lost by player decline is greater than the extra profit from Cash Shop. You can see what me and others are trying to do by being overly critical is warn SE that we will be dissatisfied and will leave the game if this does go out of hand. SE will thus perhaps be more inclined to be careful and not walk that fine line between players leaving and Cash Shop profit.

I'm sure forum complaints will indeed have minimal impact though so you may have a point with that. All else you said are cheap bashing arguments that sound eloquent but are empty of merit. I'm sure you're well aware that nobody cares about this game enough to feel entitled on actually deciding its direction. We're simply giving feedback (and our reasoning behind it).

[ElciaDeiLinus]

Players in general aren't that principled, if anything player behaviour has shown quite the opposite that there's almost none. Basically every major planned boycott by players due to company decisions gets ridiculed when the most fervent players ends up being the first to break from their supposed values.

If SE's sub went up to get rid of the cash shop you'd see far more people leave over the extra money, even if it's inconsequential- because regardless of what people signal regarding their feelings on MTs (and right now it's generally considered hip and progressive to hate it when companies make money of any kind), at the end of the day everyone's out for themselves and other people buying cash shop items to keep their own sub lower is always preferable.

It's a different story when the RNG elements of loot crates or the p2w aspects of the cash shop actually start to affect your in game content, but in this case that's not happening to anyone other than the few who both greatly want the new mount, and also greatly despise MTs.