Why don't they just sell gil in the mog station?

[Zipdar]

First off, I've never played WoW or any other pay-to-play subscription game so maybe there is a good reason. Second, I don't need gil in the game, it's just a game and scratching for resources is part of the fun. I'm in no hurry.

But, what is wrong with allowing players to buy gil in the mog station?

I don't see how it can hurt the game economy. It would put more gil in the auction houses. I can see how someone would be concerned that cash players might have an advantage but as far as I can tell there is no losing in this game.

If you die, you don't lose exp or items or anything so..heck I don't mind dying, respawning and getting back into battle - death is meaningless. Similar with racing to level 50 - if you are in a hurry so what? Everyone who wants to will get there eventually. Slow or fast, progress is guaranteed.

Anyone who knows more about these online gaming economies have a good reason?

[Azazela]

Because it's a subscription based game, and adding a real money store would be laughable. Even crappy F2P MMOs try to offer cosmetic things, rather than things that offer an advantage in actual play.

[Garlyle]

Pay-To-Win has been around long enough and completely destroyed games enough for serious developpers to realise that it's a horrible strategy. Allowing people to purchase gil (or in-game items directly or whatever) with real world cash will create an absolutely massive gap betwen those who can throw extra money at the game (and thus can have all those luxurious super items) and those who can't - they can basically forget about genuinely being able to afford anything ever.

Seriously. The economies in play-to-win games aren't even remotely close to "oh just work hard enough and you'll get there someday". Especially in a subscription model where people are already paying just to play, this drives away your customer base super fast.

[TheAngryEwok]

That would be the dumbest thing ever.

[Zozorozo]

When you introduce real world money into a subscription game, you throw off the value of in game currency.

Little Timmy has his parents permission to buy 1,000,000 gil with his birthday money.

Little Johnny doesn't.

Little Timmy goes to the Auction House and buys all the (Pick Item) and grinds 100 finished product while leveling a a craft. He floods the market and obliterates prices.

Little Johnny farms for 3 days to get enough items to make 100 finished products. He goes to the market, there is no market for his items he's spend 3 days gathering mats for.

Why would little Johnny want to continue playing?

[Alish]

Anytime you design a game to favor the player with the bigger wallet over the player that lives on a tighter budget, the experience for the less fortunate can quickly become tedious & miserable trying to fund even the basic necessities to even play the game.

[Altanas]

It would need to be done in a less obvious fashion. More example, selling key items that perma reduce teleportation costs or mounts that are 150-200% faster. i.e. the player saves gil/time over the course of normal activities. That said its P2P I would want such items at the end of quest lines...

[Rillifane]

GW2 had the ability to indirectly buy gold for their game, by buying gems then converting it to gold. RMT still appeared and offered to sell gold for less than what it would cost you to buy the gems then exchange it over for the same value of gold.

So if your idea to allow gil to be bought off the mogstation to reduce RMT it won't work very well at all. If you thought of it for additional reasons then as someone else has stated it will put off people from playing.

[Archie_Griffs]

Bringing pay to win to a P2P game? Ha.

[Ephany]

If they did this, I could ding 50 and buy all the gear and materia that I needed making end game pointless.