New subscription price planning - Standard vs Entry. Am I missing something?

[Zezlar]

First off, let me thank Square again for their humble generosity for all of the loyalty awards that will be given to us for 2.0. That was a really nice gesture on their part. However after going over the new price planning something is bothering me.

In the new price planning it is mentioned that:

Entry - 1 Max Character per World - 8 Max Total Characters
Standard - 8 Max Characters per World - 40 Max Total Characters

*No information given regarding retainer pricing*

Now my problem lye's here. Are they giving Standard subscribers 39 characters for free for that extra 3 dollars, or the ability to HOLD (hence the word "max") 39 extra characters on their account meaning they would have to pay for additional characters. I really don't understand why they would allow this considering you only really need one character for this game since you can do pretty much everything on it with no restrictions. A majority of the players who will create extra characters will be for inventory space and or AH/wards selling.

There would be no purpose for buying extra retainers since you could create a new character (for free?) and have inventory space/retainer space available to you.

I also believe that this will be an open invitation for RMT abuse if it goes down this route. So I would like some clarity as to what this information actually means.

[Rokien]

No, I think you have to pay for them, just a difference in number of char. that you can have.

[Wolfie]

Entry level plan lets you create 8 characters total, and there is a max of one per world. Extra characters do not cost extra.

Standard plan lets you create 40 characters total, and there is a max of 8 per world. Extra characters do not cost extra.

Creating a new account requires you to get either an entry level or standard plan for it; there are no free characters or retainers given this way. You can't even buy extra retainers now, if I remember right. RMT will not have it any easier this way than they do now, because the accounts can only be logged in once at any time, so having one character or 40 characters makes no difference; they are still only able to farm with one at a time.

[Zezlar]

Entry level plan lets you create 8 characters total, and there is a max of one per world. Extra characters do not cost extra.

Standard plan lets you create 40 characters total, and there is a max of 8 per world. Extra characters do not cost extra.

Creating a new account requires you to get either an entry level or standard plan for it; there are no free characters or retainers given this way. You can't even buy extra retainers now, if I remember right. RMT will not have it any easier this way than they do now, because the accounts can only be logged in once at any time, so having one character or 40 characters makes no difference; they are still only able to farm with one at a time.

It could allow for possible market manipulation as they could still trade between characters (delivery service is coming).

[Wolfie]

It could allow for possible market manipulation as they could still trade between characters (delivery service is coming).

Market manipulation in what way? Give me a concrete example; they can trade between characters now.

[Zezlar]

Market manipulation in what way? Give me a concrete example; they can trade between characters now.

For example:

Monopolizing materials for crafting (only has the ability to sell his wares in 10 slots). So they distribute the remaining items to their other characters (which also have 10 slots available). RMT can be a lot more aggressive than you or I for example since Gil is Gil, and their ultimate plan is to sell it. Either way they can afford to sell items for dirt cheap which will in turn make players follow this path in order to be competitive. Everything will crash since there will be a number of RMT that can do it for longer than we can.

Of course this is just one scenario, and i'm really hoping i'm just being a worrywart here because I for one like many others really want to enjoy 2.0.

[Rizon]

For example:

Monopolizing materials for crafting (only has the ability to sell his wares in 10 slots). So they distribute the remaining items to their other characters (which also have 10 slots available). RMT can be a lot more aggressive than you or I for example since Gil is Gil, and their ultimate plan is to sell it. Either way they can afford to sell items for dirt cheap which will in turn make players follow this path in order to be competitive. Everything will crash since there will be a number of RMT that can do it for longer than we can.

Of course this is just one scenario, and i'm really hoping i'm just being a worrywart here because I for one like many others really want to enjoy 2.0.

No matter how they worked it RMTs will always be a challange. I am sure they have taken this into consideration. Just remains to be seen how they will handle it.

[Wolfie]

For example:

Monopolizing materials for crafting (only has the ability to sell his wares in 10 slots). So they distribute the remaining items to their other characters (which also have 10 slots available). RMT can be a lot more aggressive than you or I for example since Gil is Gil, and their ultimate plan is to sell it. Either way they can afford to sell items for dirt cheap which will in turn make players follow this path in order to be competitive. Everything will crash since there will be a number of RMT that can do it for longer than we can.

Of course this is just one scenario, and i'm really hoping i'm just being a worrywart here because I for one like many others really want to enjoy 2.0.

That is, of course, assuming that we'll be keeping the same market ward model we have now with a limit of 10 slots per retainer. Other MMOs have unlimited AH slots and 50 character limits on the AH, and people are still able to make money. Unlike RMTs who, while they may be more organized in one particular area, players are fluid and will generally re-orient themselves to farm things that become profitable (happened in FFXI too; people switched from farming leeches for blood, to bone chips, silk, etc.).

In no free market has any item "crashed" (with a caveat, see below) the market in such a way that players can't make money or players lose their money, and they are unable to play the game. Every single item in an MMO will stabilize at a price, because it's governed by how common it is (the amount of players farming it). That's all fine and dandy, because as a player you have the option to either make this money in another way or farm the item yourself.

The one thing that RMT can do to damage a game for players is if they can monopolize a given resource. Things like a rare, tradable, and desirable NM drop. When this happens, then yes, you can officially say that RMT has ruined this for players; most MMO's, and FFXIV included, have avoided this by making non-instanced content drops untradeable, by making their drops relatively average in quality, and by moving the highly desirable items in instanced areas. Additionally, letting RMT have multiple characters per account will not aid them at all in monopolizing a resource, because they can still only use one character at a time.

I'm not trying to defend RMT here or to s**t on your topic, but allowing players to create multiple characters without extra payment is something that is so huge for the community, because it lets players spend time with friends on different worlds and try new things. While it does give some minor convenience to RMT (in the form of extra storage, although I don't even know why they would need that), it's not enough of a justification in my opinion to inconvenience legitimate players in such a huge way (with only one allowed character) while only slightly inconveniencing RMT.

[Rokien]

Entry level plan lets you create 8 characters total, and there is a max of one per world. Extra characters do not cost extra.

Standard plan lets you create 40 characters total, and there is a max of 8 per world. Extra characters do not cost extra.

Creating a new account requires you to get either an entry level or standard plan for it; there are no free characters or retainers given this way. You can't even buy extra retainers now, if I remember right. RMT will not have it any easier this way than they do now, because the accounts can only be logged in once at any time, so having one character or 40 characters makes no difference; they are still only able to farm with one at a time.

Pretty sure you are going to have to pay for each additional characters.

[Denmo]

I'm pretty sure they're aiming for WoW's fee standards.

You pay a flat rate per month and get to make as many characters as that rate entails. No where did it say, "additional fee per character".

You guys should be happy.