SE Please implement a Chonoscroll/PLEX system in FFXIV: ARR

[Abriael]

I didnt read the whole thing tbh, but wouldn't this idea be hurt by the fact that legacy members and regular subscribers will have different monthly costs?

It would just mean that legacy members would still have to pay the same price for the chronoscroll/PLEX item as anyone else. The Legacy promotion didn't include this after all, but just their own account.

With this system you pay for someone else's account, not for yours, so if you want to use it as a seller, you pay the normal price.

As buyers legacy subbers would still benefit from it. Just a little less than others, as they would save less money.

After all I seriously hope legacy members will be the vast minority in ARR. Because if they aren't, the game is pretty much screwed.

[Duuude007]

I didnt read the whole thing tbh, but wouldn't this idea be hurt by the fact that legacy members and regular subscribers will have different monthly costs?

Their monthly crysta price would be cheaper than non legacy monthly crysta price.

[Abriael]

Yes, their crysta would be cheaper than non legacy crysta.

That in itself is an issue in fairness, heh.

Actually, using crysta solves the problem, as it's not the crysta that it's cheaper for them, but charging their own account simply requires less crysta.

Crysta has exactly the same price per unit whether you're a legacy subber or a normal subber.

[Quesse]

Chronoscrolls will not deter RMT. By definition, Chronoscrolls ARE RMT. It is just that wealthier players become the RMT for poor players who don't mind paying more money on top of their monthly subscription for an in-game boost.

EVE has PLEX, and if you go to any RMT site you'll see the RMT using PLEX as a currency for their activities.

Will it help lazy people from getting hacked? Probably. But that's not the point - the point is the effect is has on the game economy when anyone can pay $XX USD for a large amount of gil regardless of ability, level, persistence, or knowledge.

I'd rather have a game world where people need to think long and hard and twice before they decide to open their real world wallets to buy in-game gold. Just because restricting RMT is hard and complex doesn't mean its not worth doing completely.

[Abriael]

Chronoscrolls will not deter RMT. By definition, Chronoscrolls ARE RMT. It is just that wealthier players become the RMT for poor players who don't mind paying more money on top of their monthly subscription for an in-game boost.

EVE has PLEX, and if you go to any RMT site you'll see the RMT using PLEX as a currency for their activities.

In TERA Chronoscrolls have completely destroyed RMT. In EVE it didn't, but it still serves as a rather large obstacle, in fact RMT is a lot less widespread in EVE than in any other MMO (besides TERA).

Will it help lazy people from getting hacked? Probably. But that's not the point - the point is the effect is has on the game economy when anyone can pay $XX USD for a large amount of gil regardless of ability, level, persistence, or knowledge.

It doesn't affect the game economy at all, because no gil is inserted into it. While some people's purchase power inside the game is increased, other people's is decreased, meaning that the amount of possible big spenders remains the same.

Economy isn't mumbo jumbo, it has rules.

I'd rather have a game world where people need to think long and hard and twice before they decide to open their real world wallets to buy in-game gold. Just because restricting RMT is hard and complex doesn't mean its not worth doing completely.

I'd rather have a game where people don't need to think long and hard and twice before they decide to keep their account running, and I bet SE would rather have the same.

More accounts that stay running = more revenue for SE = more content for me, without impacting my experience in any negative way.

[Huginn]

In TERA Chronoscrolls have completely destroyed RMT. In EVE it didn't, but it still serves as a rather large obstacle, in fact RMT is a lot less widespread in EVE than in any other MMO (besides TERA).

Economy isn't mumbo jumbo, it has rules.

It took me less than one minute to find 35k gold for sale on tera, as well as chronoscrolls for sale less than the original purchase price. This shows that RMT is alive and well and profiting off of chronoscrolls through recapture. Adding this sort of system might be convenient for some players, but i would much rather just see us be able to trade Crysta to our friends if they happen to be behind one month (except that would lead to linkshells forcing members to pay for certain other members).

Economics is indeed not mumbo jumbo, unfortunately it seems that you are a bit naive as to how an economy actually functions. Wealth creation is not a zero sum equation, even in this game.

[AhmeraMae]

It took me less than one minute to find 35k gold for sale on tera, as well as chronoscrolls for sale less than the original purchase price. This shows that RMT is alive and well and profiting off of chronoscrolls through recapture.

In what way does an "offer" show you how well gold and scrolls are selling? How do you know if the person buying or selling won't be banned for RMT? EvE, as well as TERA, actively ban ppl who spend real money on any ingame-item outside of the game's boundaries or via 3rd parties.

Most players involved are afraid of losing their account due to a EULA violation anyway. Those who take the risk may get away with it once, twice or trice but they'll never be safe buying from 3rd parties.

The problem that is RMT won't disappear by itself. This way SE profits from it because the good used for such transactions is limited in supply. Also the amount asked from RMTers is hardcapped due to the fact that SE is "RMTing" aswell, which makes it less profitable.

sorry for bad language, not a native speaker.

[Yoona]

I have read through the first some odd pages of this thread, so I have to apologize in advance if this has been raised already. But, I have to get to work soon and I'm dying to ask the question below.

I have played TERA and other MMORPGs myself, and I have seen the PLEX system in TERA. I have not played any other game which had a PLEX system, so I will just use TERA here as an example since it's been raised so often. I think it is much easier to farm gold in TERA than it is to farm gil in FFXIV. Because most of the top-level gear in FFXIV is untradable and only obtained through instances such as primals and raids, the rate at which one can earn gil in FFXIV is different to that of TERA. I remember just mindlessly killing anything around my level for a few hours and I would have some gold I can spend in TERA, but in FFXIV you are limited to ways of making fast money. Whether you choose to gather, meld, sell materia or farm using DoW/M, I still think the two games are hard to compare because of the vastly different ways you have to go about making money in them. Actually, I would argue even further that it is hard to compare FFXIV to most other MMOs I've played. In most games, monsters drop gear/money directly that you can sell or pocket for money. In FFXIV, you have to level DoL, DoH or at least a job you can take to spiritbond to gain cash.

I believe SE has already said that materia will be changing in ARR. Given that materia is one of the largest source of income presently, I expect there will be lots of changes to the economy in ARR. There are a lot of questions that one cannot answer for at the moment as far as a PLEX system goes. How do you price these PLEX items? If you price them too high, veterans will benefit more than others. If you price them too low, you are likely to cause a disturbance within the economy. What is "just right?" Given that FFXIV is a complex game, and likely to become even more complex, you don't simply sit there and kill any monster to make money like you do in other MMOs. While everyone does have the freedom to take up crafting and gathering, not everyone has the time to do this. Yet, without a gathering or a few crafting jobs, it is really difficult to make money. You can spiritbond but we don't know how materia will handle themselves in ARR. If you choose to ignore DoL/DoH, then you have to farm monsters for crafting materials to sell. You will have to compete for these camps in ARR, and I imagine on a much larger scale than you have to do now.

Are we then splitting the game into those with money can just sit and relax while watching their bank grow, but those without have to farm and compete? We are creating very different experiences, and I don't think that is how a good MMO should be. There are a lot of MMOs like that thanks to a pay-to-win system (cash shop) or whatever other form of real-money system in place, and they phase out overtime. They have no lasting appeal because of the ability to pay to win.

I like the idea but I think it is premature to assume it will work out well in FFXIV. FFXIV is a unique MMO where many aspects doesn't follow traditional MMO roots. I'd hate to wake up one day and find that a Final Fantasy game has been infected with a cash shop or cash shop-alike system. PLEX is a cool concept, but maybe it is more the more traditional MMO setting where anyone can make a feasible income without having to commit to crafting/gathering. The way it is right now, I believe a PLEX system will allow those with crafting and gathering jobs to completely dominate the market, because they have the ability to make a large sum of gil very easily. While it is fair in the way that everyone can level these jobs, not everyone has the time to do so and I believe the economy will not be balanced. Imagine crafters buying out every chronoscroll on the market and just re-selling them for profit. What's there to stop them since you have to allow these scrolls to be tradable?

It would certainly benefit me as I have nearly all DoL/DoH maxed, but I think it would cause a lot of newer players to turn away to other games, and since I love FFXIV, I would rather just not have a PLEX, at least for a long while.

[Aenarion]

Imagine crafters buying out every chronoscroll on the market and just re-selling them for profit. What's there to stop them since you have to allow these scrolls to be tradable?

Irrelevant. What's there to stop the crafters from buying out EVERYTHING on the market and resell them for profit RIGHT NOW? Chronoscroll/PLEX isn't something unique in this regard, this is something that can be done with any and every item.

To answer your question though, what's there to stop them is the exact same thing that stops the rich from doing so in other games that employs this system - supply and demand.

People are not forced to buy Chronoscroll/PLEX to keep their accounts alive, if the market on those items are driven up too high, then less and less people will be willing to fork over the money to purchase them. For example, Eve player A is paying 400mil per month for a PLEX to fund a pvp alt, but if the price of the PLEX rises to 600mil, he will either cancel that account, or switch it back on traditional sub. This happens all the time (I've done this multiple times throughout my Eve years).

[Headseed]

I have been talking about this for a long time with my LS friends. I completely agree that this could work very well. I really see no downside to the idea. If someone plays a lot and has extra Gil they could buy a free month of game time and if someone really can't find the time to grind gil they can just buy it directly from SE with no chance of being banned.

The way I see it everyone wins. As for RMT's selling the currency that gives 30 days of playtime. If they bought up all the currency in game and someone could then buy a 30 day sub for less than the monthly sub cost why would that be a bad thing?