New ways to monetize the game through customization.

[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 !

[Packetdancer]

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.

I mean, that's fair. And entirely reasonable; lord knows I've dropped games due to burnout.

I just consider "play during this period to earn rewards exclusive to this period" part of gaming reality -- even if I also find it exhausting and would prefer that any timed exclusive reward eventually have some alternate way to get it -- whereas "play during this period to earn rewards exclusive to this period but you also have to give us money before you get the rewards, otherwise you're just playing for no rewards" is something I consider borderline unforgivable.

And "play during this period to earn rewards exclusive to this period, except the rewards are loot boxes where you might not get what you want, and you need to give us real money in order to open those loot boxes" is, in my opinion, flat-out the gaming business model equivalent of a war crime. Loot boxes you pay to get in a cash shop are bad enough. Putting the loot boxes in your inventory, forcing you to pay to open them or else deliberately, consciously throw them out... that's the worst sort of psychological manipulation and abuse of FOMO.

[SturmChurro]

I mean, that's fair. And entirely reasonable; lord knows I've dropped games due to burnout.

I just consider "play during this period to earn rewards exclusive to this period" part of gaming reality -- even if I also find it exhausting and would prefer that any timed exclusive reward eventually have some alternate way to get it -- whereas "play during this period to earn rewards exclusive to this period but you also have to give us money before you get the rewards, otherwise you're just playing for no rewards" is something I consider borderline unforgivable.

And "play during this period to earn rewards exclusive to this period, except the rewards are loot boxes where you might not get what you want, and you need to give us real money in order to open those loot boxes" is, in my opinion, flat-out the gaming business model equivalent of a war crime. Loot boxes you pay to get in a cash shop are bad enough. Putting the loot boxes in your inventory, forcing you to pay to open them or else deliberately, consciously throw them out... that's the worst sort of psychological manipulation and abuse of FOMO.

Companies are definitely trying to make it a part of gaming reality. I understand seasonal rewards (summer events, holidays etc.), but entire games being structured around these battle passes is extremely fatiguing. They are often made incredibly grindy, you are looking at 50-60 hours MINIMUM per on a lot of these passes, and that can be EVEN IF you pay for the premium variant with several tiers already unlocked. I get that they are a good way to revitalize a game for specific periods, but I just don't like it. FFXIV is doing this as well with their CC season malmstones or whatever.

I've never liked lootboxes, it's a big reason I cannot stand ESO's shop for example. Not only does Zenimax have FOMO "limited time" items in the shop, they had limited time lootboxes. Not to mention the high prices, and $100 houses. It was incredibly ridiculous.

[AmpelioB]

No. Outfits and stuff is one thing, and if I had it my way the entire mogstation wouldnt exist. But animations is a step too far for me.

Emote are literally animations, so in a sense they already do that

[Packetdancer]

FFXIV is doing this as well with their CC season malmstones or whatever.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they say that the malmstone rewards from one series would be available in future series? E.g., if you didn't get the archfiend armor as a malmstone during this PVP series, you'll be able to purchase it outright with crystalline trophies during the next series.

(Admittedly, I seem to recall they might remove it after that. Which is perhaps a little annoying if you start doing PVP in series 3 and can't get something you wanted from series 1 as a result, but still... it's at least marginally less annoying to make the grind-for-the-thing stuff available for outright purchase once that grind is no longer current.)

We're 100% in agreement on the practices of the ESO shop. :|

[SturmChurro]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they say that the malmstone rewards from one series would be available in future series? E.g., if you didn't get the archfiend armor as a malmstone during this PVP series, you'll be able to purchase it outright with crystalline trophies during the next series.

(Admittedly, I seem to recall they might remove it after that. Which is perhaps a little annoying if you start doing PVP in series 3 and can't get something you wanted from series 1 as a result, but still... it's at least marginally less annoying to make the grind-for-the-thing stuff available for outright purchase once that grind is no longer current.)

We're 100% in agreement on the practices of the ESO shop. :|

I'm not sure. I have been assuming they were limited to each series. If you can just purchase it outright in the next series that does kind of make the actual initial grind for the piece worthless in that case.

I know that I will never do ranked since I didn't do it in the first season so I don't have the "1" frame, that's for sure.

[Raoabolic]

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.

Whew, good thing the devs have nothing but good ideas! Had me worried for a sec, lol.

[ForteNightshade]

Paid mods. If people make it a problem it could force SE to take down paid mods. That is the context. People will continue to play anyway, even if they went after much of the mods. Let's be real. I do like how the modding community thinks they have so much power though.

What I said still appeals because SE isn't going to come after one sub-section of modders. It simply isn't worth it to them.

You're also underestimating how much the influence these third party programs have nowadays. FFlogs literally changed the entire meta despite the devs often getting credit for it. Selfish jobs like White Mage and Samurai aren't brought into parties because SE broke the Stormblood meta. They're brought because FFlogs introduced rDPS, which removed the actual barrier that encouraged people to lock them out in the first place. People "made it a problem" with Dragonsong and look what happened. A few words, a couple streamers temp-banned and then everything went right back to where it was. All those plugins people were hoping got banned? They're still active and extremely popular.

At the end of the day, it's all about profitability. Unless SE is somehow hurt by the mod community from a financial perspective, they won't care one bit. Paid mods aren't hurting them in the slightest. If anything, they're a benefit.