Mogstation taking another step to the darkside

[Saefinn]

Even if it is a slippery slope fallacy, there is always the risk that it won't be at some point in the future.

This new Mog Station item is a good example. They would have perhaps offered it in the event itself if there was no Cash Shop.

I think the accepted subscription cost for MMOs may be too low right now, which forces MMOs to invest more and more in Micro Transaction practices to ensure their profit. Problem is, price of MMO sub has stayed the same for a very long time while people seem not get ready to pay more for sub, despite inflation.

If it is a slippery slope fallacy right now, I think it won't be in future.

If there is evidence that the slope is there or likely and we're heading in the direction of SE doing some big no-no's, then reasonable for us to be calling them out on it and forming an argument against their decisions for it and what it is leading to. Else we're jumping at shadows and crying wolf. And we can give the devs the benefit of the doubt that they're not EA until they show signs of well...being like EA.

But I've been here since BETA and was around when the cash shop was announced and I know there was the worry back then we'd get some of the bad practices other companies have done when adding micro-transactions to their game (and there are plenty). And found those concerns were for nought when their practices were found to be mild and not player exploitative or to negatively impact or to enhance any person's experience of playing the game but simply aesthetics. The cash shop has been a thing for 6 and a half years now? I've not seen anything controversial done with it, sure things for people to complain about, such as price or preferring an item to have been acquirable in game. So I'm not worried about it being an issue.

However, regarding pricing, I would agree they can be steep in places for what you get.

[ForteNightshade]

Even if it is a slippery slope fallacy, there is always the risk that it won't be at some point in the future.

This new Mog Station item is a good example. They would have perhaps offered it in the event itself if there was no Cash Shop.

I think the accepted subscription cost for MMOs may be too low right now, which forces MMOs to invest more and more in Micro Transaction practices to ensure their profit. Problem is, price of MMO sub has stayed the same for a very long time while people seem not get ready to pay more for sub, despite inflation.

If it is a slippery slope fallacy right now, I think it won't be in future.

You're chasing shadows. There has to be some precedence otherwise you can make fallacy claims against anything.

And no. It wouldn't have been made at all. Like I said in my previous post, the team SE has handling the MogStation are separate from the dev team. If the MogStation didn't exist, that team would be working on something else.

This idea we'd get all the cash shop stuff in-game if it weren't for that dastardly SE needs to stop. None of it would be made at all because cash shop exclusive items are designed solely for profit. Take the profit away and what incentive does SE—who we've established is a greedy company—have to make them?

Now this isn't to say I agree with their prices, timing or any of the such. I'm simply being pragmatic.

[Makeda]

the team SE has handling the MogStation are separate from the dev team. If the MogStation didn't exist, that team would be working on something else.

Different skill sets.

If they weren't working on the mogstation most of them would be in the unemployment line.

You've got things like

frontend developers, backend developers, platform integration engineers, project managers,
marketers, graphic designers, story writers, game-designers, community managers, monetization teams, payment-processing engineers (I should know this one's actual name - a good friend of mine specializes in designing the engineering behind processing global payment systems),
animators, riggers, body-modelers, face-modelers, effects modelers, static-object modelers, scene designers, etc... (a friend of mine specializes in leading a team of people who just rig faces so they can be animated in movie effects - and no his team is NOT the one that screwed up Henry Clavel's mustache - "3D modeler" is a term that covers a broad range of different specialists you have to hire separately unless you're hiring interns).

- these are all different skill sets.

And I'm sure that's only a small segment of the types of folks required.

[Bsrking5]

I'm not comfortable with SE adding this into the mog shop. Even if it's not technically a seasonal event, it certainly does feel like it. It would be the same as Halloween themed mount like pumpkin with bats being sold as soon as the Halloween event starts or a snowman for Xmas.

Honestly I don't get why the prices in mog shop are so high but I get enough with base sub price that I usually don't mind the mog shop additions but this does feel very odd.

[Vahlnir]

Honestly I don't get why the prices in mog shop are so high but I get enough with base sub price that I usually don't mind the mog shop additions but this does feel very odd.

The prices are so high because SE knows people will pay them.

Did you freak out when they added the whale? Or the bike?

Didn't really care about the whale (especially not now since obtaining the Regalia), but I did freak out over the bike...but not in a negative way. It was more of a "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!" moment. I don't think I've ever bought a store mount so fast in my life. I still use that bike more than any other mount I have.

[Bsrking5]

Even if it is a slippery slope fallacy, there is always the risk that it won't be at some point in the future.

This new Mog Station item is a good example. They would have perhaps offered it in the event itself if there was no Cash Shop.

I think the accepted subscription cost for MMOs may be too low right now, which forces MMOs to invest more and more in Micro Transaction practices to ensure their profit. Problem is, price of MMO sub has stayed the same for a very long time while people seem not get ready to pay more for sub, despite inflation.

If it is a slippery slope fallacy right now, I think it won't be in future.

All I have to say is, you realize that very little of the profit of 14 goes back into 14 and the majority of it goes into other projects for SE. they aren't hurting for money which would be what you are claiming.

[SamRF]

All I have to say is, you realize that very little of the profit of 14 goes back into 14 and the majority of it goes into other projects for SE. they aren't hurting for money which would be what you are claiming.

But that's part of it. FFXIV wouldn't exist without SE and its size as a studio. It wouldn't exist on its own so it only makes sense that its money goes to SE and perhaps other projects. They aren't hurting for money but they have to keep a certain profit margin to justify its existence, a profit margin that won't be satisfied with sub cost only (in the future) as inflation continuous.

[Paladinleeds]

If I remember rightly, only a tiny amount of the money from subs goes back into XIV. With SE taking the lion's share for other projects like FF15 and FF7R (which let's be honest, need to be paid for SOMEHOW). The cash shop however, unless Yoshi is telling porkies, goes exclusively back to XIV. Given SE aren't going to give XIV more money from subs, I say keep the cash shop. Yes, there's been a few misses and few "Are you kidding?" moments, but generally I think the cash shop is a good thing. I feel like Shadowbringers has been an amazing expansion that clearly wasn't done on the cheap (or if it was, dang did they hide it well), and a large portion of that is very likely due to the cash shop.

[dotsforlife]

It's less about resources and more about profit margin. How much they can squeeze from the playerbase with minimal content/effort before the players get fed up and leave in droves. Every business does it eventually.

[Boa-Noah]

I know it's not really the topic at hand but I'd really just prefer SE to stack seasonal events instead of replacing them, like I was around at the beginning and I remember having a lot of fun doing the halloween event to get special stuff, and goofing around in the ghost costume during the HM primals. It'd be way better if every Halloween came with the year before's event as well, so instead of just getting one short not-super worth it seasonal event you'll get every single Halloween so you can play through them all or do ones you missed, not only does it extend the content's shelf life but it allows newer players to have those fun first times they'll never get now.

There's not even a really good reason not to do it this way, more content is better for every player and it allows people to get things they missed out on once a year instead of being forced to cough up to the Mogstation if they want to play spooky ghost dress up with their friends.