Woops! I bought the wrong item. (Too bad.)

[Silverbane]

Or, we could look at it another way and say this proposal is trying to bring FFXIV into line with it's main competitor (sounds nicer, I think).

"Let's emulate other games even though they aren't as popular or profitable as ours" seems like a bad business strategy.

[Jojoya]

"Let's emulate other games even though they aren't as popular or profitable as ours" seems like a bad business strategy.

Just because a game isn't as popular or profitable doesn't mean it doesn't have a few good design elements worth adopting.

Adding a return/refund system isn't going to suddenly cause FFXIV the player base to dry and profits to disappear.

[Silverbane]

Adding a return/refund system isn't going to suddenly cause FFXIV the player base to dry and profits to disappear.

You're being absurd; that's not the issue, it's a strawman of your own making.

This issue is: is there a decent ROI on the developer resources spent?
That is, is the subscriber base and/or revenue likely to increase as a result of adding this feature? And if so, is that increase likely to be larger than if the resources had been used to implement something else?

I seriously doubt this is the case: the presence or absence of this feature seems unlikely to affect many people's decision to subscribe or to continue their subscription, or to in any other way spend time or money on the game. Spending the same resources to add more high heeled shoes (such as for fem Vieras) likely has a higher ROI.

[Jojoya]

You're being absurd; that's not the issue, it's a strawman of your own making.

This issue is: is there a decent ROI on the developer resources spent?
That is, is the subscriber base and/or revenue likely to increase as a result of adding this feature? And if so, is that increase likely to be larger than if the resources had been used to implement something else?

I seriously doubt this is the case: the presence or absence of this feature seems unlikely to affect many people's decision to subscribe or to continue their subscription, or to in any other way spend time or money on the game. Spending the same resources to add more high heeled shoes (such as for fem Vieras) likely has a higher ROI.

You're the one who started it with the random "emulating less popular games seems like bad business strategy".

There's a lot of stuff developers do that are unlikely to affect subscription decisions and yet get done anyways. Were players going to quit if they didn't add Adventurer Plates? No. Was the game suddenly going to attract a lot of new players who didn't want to play in the past solely because Adventurer Plates didn't exist? No. Yet SE did it anyway.

Sometimes the best investments are the goodwill gestures done in response to customer requests, like adding in refund systems. Happy customers tend to be loyal customers who bring in more customers. Customers beset with all sorts of small inconveniences are less likely to refer others they know to a product and many times are all too happy to move on when a "best next thing" shows up.

We don't know how much it would cost SE to implement a refund system tied to the tomestone vendors nor how many GM tickets/complaints they get related to the lack. It's probably better not to presume it's not a good investment when there are other games that have decided it was a good investment. In the end, it's SE's decision to make, not ours.

[Illmaeran]

I've done this before (before the game tracked if you had any or not) and learned quickly to "Search for Item" before purchasing. It was one of those "Well, $%!*, I'd better pay attention from now on." moments, for sure.

The worst was having the full lvl 60 Poetics set except the earring and getting it, forgetting that I had Memphina's Earring... Thankfully it was just Poetics gear.

[Asuka-Hykiri]

It's all good, I needed to put a swap request in because someone at SE hates dyslexics and not ONLY did they decide to rename several of the upgrade materials bought with books... they also called them:
Moonshine Brine...
Moonshine Twine.....
Moonshine Shine.......

2 of the 15 characters are different... not going to have ANY POTENTIAL PROBLEMS THERE!

[Datachanger]

Remove the initial "You cannot currently equip this item, do you still wish to purchase it?" advance prompt and have the text of the item name in the confirmation change based on whether it can be equipped by current job (green), equipped by another job that's at the appropriate level (blue) or currently unable to equip on any job (red) - probably could also use some sort of symbol for those who are color blind such as check mark for can currently equip, plus symbol for will be able to equip and X for cannot equip.

That removes one layer of excess confirmation windows we're currently subjected to (frequently mentally tuned out because we expect to get it if we're buying for a different job) and the larger font plus color brings attention to the item about to be purchased so the player is less likely to make an error.

I kinda like this idea as a good middle ground if the code pasta is too thick to allow a refund of a limited currency.
While the accessibility (as you indicated) may need a little polish, I think the idea of a different confirmation popup for limited currency purchases makes sense.

However.... Where would we draw the line?

• The current capped tome (Causality as of writing this) get the popup? Absolutely.
• The savage book vendor? Mhm!
• The normal raid gear token vendor? Most likely.
• Should the uncapped tome (Astronomy as of writing this) get the popup? Probably...?
• ...What about last tier's uncapped tome (now purchasable for nuts)? Ehh... maybe? Probably not.
• Poetic gear? I think most would say no (me included). ...But I vividly remember being upset 3 years ago for buying the wrong gobcoat for upgrading my lvl 60 tome gear.

This list could go on, but it does pose an interesting design question. What do you all think?


EDIT:

Sometimes the best investments are the goodwill gestures done in response to customer requests, like adding in refund systems. Happy customers tend to be loyal customers who bring in more customers. Customers beset with all sorts of small inconveniences are less likely to refer others they know to a product and many times are all too happy to move on when a "best next thing" shows up.

We don't know how much it would cost SE to implement a refund system tied to the tomestone vendors nor how many GM tickets/complaints they get related to the lack. It's probably better not to presume it's not a good investment when there are other games that have decided it was a good investment. In the end, it's SE's decision to make, not ours.

Brilliantly said.

[CaptainDillweed]

You're asking the devs to implement a whole new system in the game just because you screwed up.

• Dev resources aren't free.
• Investing them in creating a system just for careless screw-ups (e.g., you) means not having those resources to implement desirable features for everyone else.
• You're the only one who should pay for your mistake.

So ... NO.

It's just a simple quality of life suggestion for us mere mortals. Chill out, please.