New ways to monetize the game through customization.

[Packetdancer]

As someone who used to work in the games industry, I'm actually not averse to the idea of a cosmetics shop. Selling outfits, mounts, whatever... I'm okay with having people who want to buy that stuff help to further fund the game's development. Heck, I have enough disposable income at this point in my life that I'm happy enough to be that person if there's something I really want.

As others have said, the cost of game development has gone up astronomically; I may not work in the industry any longer (for a variety of reasons, mostly "crunch time and omnipresent background sexism sapped my will to live"), but I still talk to a whooooole lot of friends who are. And I still do game development on my own time; I can attest even just the tools I use as an independent developer have skyrocketed in cost in many areas, much less the sort of stuff entailed in full commercial AAA game dev.

(Albeit with a few pleasant exceptions; Quixel Mixer being free still gives me joy.)

However...

And statues should be merely pretty statues not extremely expensive emotes.

I'm definitely in agreement with this.

I get that this game has a long history of tying in-game items to real-world purchases. Buy a stuffed carbuncle, get a carbuncle minion. Buy a soundtrack, get an orchestrion roll or minion in game. And to some extent, I don't really mind that; buying a soundtrack album and getting an in-game orchestrion roll as a bonus seems a nice perk. (Especially as generally it's an album-specific version of a track that already exists as an orchestrion obtainable in-game.)

But the emotes with the statues are a far cry from an orchestrion roll you get with a relatively-affordable soundtrack; they're very flashy, and precisely the sort of "prestige" thing people would grind in-game to obtain.

I bought the Omega statue because I love those raids, and I am very happy to have the statue here on my desk. (I am also very very glad that they fixed the production quality problems with said statues before mine shipped.) And I do also love the emotes that came with that statue, don't get me wrong. But it's kind of lame that other people who want them would've had to pay quite a bit for a statue that they maybe didn't want just to get the emotes that they did want.

And this is only exacerbated by the fact that the statues quickly go out of stock entirely, potentially for very, very long times. If you want Odin's Zantetsuken emote, even if you're willing to buy the statue to get it, you don't have that option any longer. Same with the emotes for any of the other statues.

And while I don't really want any of the other statues -- maybe Shiva, given the Heavensward story -- I would have happily done something stupidly grindy in-game to get that Zantetsuken emote if I had the option.

I mean, I hate when there's something you find in-game that you realize you can't get because you weren't playing during a specific time when that thing was available to get in-game. (Witness people looking at Garo stuff before they were able to negotiate the return of the Garo tie-in event. Or people who couldn't get the FFXV Regalia mount because they started playing after the event was held. Or anyone looking at PvP seasonal mounts that haven't been available for like... 4 years, or whatever.)

It's even worse if it's something you now can't get and would have had to pay real money for even if you could. That's the sort of thing to induce the worst type of FOMO mindset -- the thought that "if I don't spend this money now, I won't be able to get the thing I want ever."

That's just yikes on a lot of levels.

[Syln]

100% agree, FOMO is one of the worst thing used by a video game company to retain players.

[SturmChurro]

100% agree, FOMO is one of the worst thing used by a video game company to retain players.

I hate it. Unfortunately, it seems to be the latest trend for every game. I'll watch devs acting like their "new" monetization scheme is so much better. Including fortnite style battle passes and the like. All FOMO.

[Packetdancer]

I hate it. Unfortunately, it seems to be the latest trend for every game. I'll watch devs acting like their "new" monetization scheme is so much better. Including fortnite style battle passes and the like. All FOMO.

If your "battle pass" is a "you pay once and everything we come out with during the duration of this pass, you get" system -- e.g., season passes that come with "any and all DLC we come out with" and such -- I'm inclined to like it somewhat more -- or at least, hate it somewhat less -- than actively "here's a Cool Thing! Don't you want the Cool Thing? Better buy the Cool Thing right now, or you'll never see it again!" followed by, three weeks later, "Here's the Cool Thing with new, better colors! Don't you prefer this Cool Thing? Better buy it right now, or..."

But if your "battle pass" is "you need to pay us money in order to be eligible at all for any rewards you would earn in-game during this period", then your entire business model is bad and you should feel bad.

If you make things I earn in-game dependent on paying you real money and earning those things in game, I will stop playing. It's even worse if you make earning those things in-game become gambling a'la loot boxes. I bailed on Secret World Legends after having been a loyal player of The Secret World from beta -- having a Grandmaster lifetime subscription and all -- because they started dropping in-world loot boxes from mobs that you had to pay real money to get keys to open, and which you had no idea what they might contain. And that was a hard pass from me. (Despite the fact that, as a holder of one of those legacy lifetime subscriptions, they threw a large number of those keys at me per month.)

I will pay for extra content. I will grind for extra content. I will not pay you (beyond any applicable subscription fee to the game in general) for extra content which I must then also grind for.

[SturmChurro]

...

Regardless of if it's pay to get more, or play to earn all ("free"). You still are forced to play during specific periods, seasonally, otherwise you miss out. These games conveniently allow you to pay a large premium to unlock everything without the need to play during this period. I would rather not play these games altogether. Every game has their own passes nowadays, there are too many to keep up with, and it leads to burn out.

Let's be real, if this game is going to go off the deep end (if it hasn't for you already, lol) then I would say them introducing a WoW token like item to the cash shop would be the final nail. They can milk those types of sales via expansions.

WoW token would be worthless as gil is largely worthless. It would definitely be one of the worst things they could add to the game though.

[Raoabolic]

I hate it. Unfortunately, it seems to be the latest trend for every game. I'll watch devs acting like their "new" monetization scheme is so much better. Including fortnite style battle passes and the like. All FOMO.

Let's be real, if this game is going to go off the deep end (if it hasn't for you already, lol) then I would say them introducing a WoW token like item to the cash shop would be the final nail. They can milk those types of sales via expansions.

[Stormfur]

I'd happily buy the other gender's pose's at the gold saucer. Like the female Dragoon and DRK poses look awesome!

[Syln]

I'd happily buy the other gender's pose's at the gold saucer. Like the female Dragoon and DRK poses look awesome!

Always wanted the male version of the DRK and Dragoon poses guess the grass is always greener on the other side !