Cash shop

Linnaete

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A few new additions have made their way to Square Enix's lucrative MogStation cash store. And right on cue, just as gravity inevitably pulls an object down to earth, forum goers are quickly livid and outraged by the unreasonable prices. And perhaps I don't blame them. This would be daylight robbery to me if I had the uncontrollable urge to compulsively snap them up.

"I wanted the Chinese dress so badly...and now we finally have it and they had the sheer gall to put it up on the cash store for like 18 USD with some stat and EXP boosts for the first thirty levels AND the fact that it's only limited to one character rather than across my service account!" I do hear them cry.

So what do you guys think of the cash shop?

Is it just a minor nuisance that really shouldn't have a place in a subscription game but something that we can mercifully ignore if we don't want to purchase any of its pricey goods?

Or has it gone too far/in the process of going too far in your view? It is a lucrative side business, I would imagine! Are Square Enix at risk of encroaching towards pay-to-win items knowing how far they can probably push the envelope at this point? Like a round of Sophia EX, are we at the beginning of a slippery slope?

Wait, hang on. Has anyone here actually purchased anything from the cash store? Are you contributing to that extra money that is likely going to be reinvested into Final Fantasy XV instead of this game? :ahmed:

I sort of kid. No one really knows where the cash shop money goes to. Besides Yoshi-P's salary.
 
I think some people are so very easily outraged over nothing.

Is the price of that Chinese dress very steep for what you're actually getting? Yes. It's actually really silly, to be honest. But at the same time, it's a piece of cloth for a virtual character in a video game. You're missing out on literally nothing if you choose not to spend the money. It's either worth the price to you or it isn't. And if it isn't, then don't buy it. The game is otherwise full of hundreds of different glamours that you can choose to wear at no extra cost to yourself (My opinion would be radically different if this wasn't the case)

I won't argue that it wouldn't be great for such items to appear in the game as recipes to be crafted or rewards for doing certain activities. More 'free' content is always good. But our subscription doesn't entitle us to have everything XIV related that SE comes up with. We're still FAR from pay-to-win, regardless of how one might try to spin a slight exp increase on level 1 gear that offers no gameplay benefits and is outdated by gear you get in the first five story quests.

For reference, I did buy that dress. I had the money to throw away and thought it looked nice. But even if I didn't, I would find it hard to be upset over something so trivial. Nothing in that cash shop was ever promised to us and none of it offers any kind of benefit to the players who buy from there.
 
I think some people are so very easily outraged over nothing.

Is the price of that Chinese dress very steep for what you're actually getting? Yes. It's actually really silly, to be honest. But at the same time, it's a piece of cloth for a virtual character in a video game. You're missing out on literally nothing if you choose not to spend the money. It's either worth the price to you or it isn't. And if it isn't, then don't buy it. The game is otherwise full of hundreds of different glamours that you can choose to wear at no extra cost to yourself (My opinion would be radically different if this wasn't the case)

I won't argue that it wouldn't be great for such items to appear in the game as recipes to be crafted or rewards for doing certain activities. More 'free' content is always good. But our subscription doesn't entitle us to have everything XIV related that SE comes up with. We're still FAR from pay-to-win, regardless of how one might try to spin a slight exp increase on level 1 gear that offers no gameplay benefits and is outdated by gear you get in the first five story quests.

For reference, I did buy that dress. I had the money to throw away and thought it looked nice. But even if I didn't, I would find it hard to be upset over something so trivial. Nothing in that cash shop was ever promised to us and none of it offers any kind of benefit to the players who buy from there.

Couldn't have said it any better myself, to be honest.

__

Linnaete said:
Is it just a minor nuisance that really shouldn't have a place in a subscription game but something that we can mercifully ignore if we don't want to purchase any of its pricey goods?

Or has it gone too far/in the process of going too far in your view? It is a lucrative side business, I would imagine! Are Square Enix at risk of encroaching towards pay-to-win items knowing how far they can probably push the envelope at this point? Like a round of Sophia EX, are we at the beginning of a slippery slope?

If there is a market for it, why not? In my personal opinion, you are not obligated to purchase anything, so I don't see the need to complain about small things like these endlessly. You don't want to support it? Don't buy it. You don't want SE to "exploit" things like these? Don't sub to their games. It's so simple! Mind blown. :wacky:

As long as people keep buying it (they have every right to), SE is able to have that as a side business. If no one, and I mean no one, bought stuff like this, they couldn't pull it off or get away with it.

If you already pay a monthly subscription consistently, you're obviously invested in the game. What's so odd about playing the game to your needs? Whether it be a name change, fantasia potion, glamours? You pay for the game, better make damn sure you're a 100% satisfied with your character. I mean, really.

I think, and obviously I find it's priced too high, but that certain things being locked out of the game give it a certain uniqueness. Remember, the Bustier was "the shit" back then, and now people are complaining everyone has it. Eye-roll much? :lew:
 
I wasn't even aware that people were complaining about this.

I'll keep it short. It's not my concern where people distribute their spare change. Never have been one to look over at my neighbor's things and complain that they have something I don't have or choose not to have.

I remember buying the griffon when it first came out and to this day I use it as my main mode of transportation. Bought it so might as well ride the crap out of it. I love that griffon.
 
I wasn't even aware that people were complaining about this.

The Official FFXIV Forums will complain about literally anything to the point of artistic beauty. xD

Indeed, general complaints cover things like: the price of the items concerned for someone who would like to purchase them, the ethical question(?) of a successful subscription MMO having a concurrent cash shop with expensive items, the odd fears that this will encourage SE complacency and...fears of a slippery slope and the eventual degradation of the cash shop into one that will offer pay-to-win items for sale.

I think the most legitimate complaint you can throw at the cash shop is how transparently clear it is that Square knows they can get away with increasingly exorbitant prices. I can see why it irks some people out of principle. But then again, the very valid counterpoint to that concerns the principle of supply and demand, as well as a basic tenet of business. Where there is sufficient demand, you can't blame a company too much for acting rationally to their own interests while there is a healthy number of projected customers happy enough to exercise a consumer option available to them.

Do I wish the prices can be toned down? I wouldn't mind. I just don't particularly care at this point, because there's nothing in the cash shop that tempts me enough to open my wallet a little more. Perhaps if it reaches a point where the asking price becomes so ludicrous that it unfairly locks out plenty of people who don't quite have that supply of disposable income to throw at something they personally desire while also paying for subscription money, I may join their chorus then. I'm not particularly fond of companies anyway that price hike their items to absurd levels simply because they know they can.

And yes, there is the argument that is a slippery slope and that an emboldened Square will eventually throw in pay-to-win items just to really push the envelope. There is absolutely no evidence of this happening and I think it's absurd. It's largely because the Chinese dress offers some EXP gain boost up to level 30. That isn't pay-to-win by any stretch of the imagination. That is barely even an advantage worth paying for, especially when FC EXP boosts, food boosts, Hall of the Novice items and friendship bracelets exist. A genuine pay-to-win item would be say, a piece of equipment that uniquely grants an effect, skill or trait that puts the purchaser at a genuine advantage over someone else who hasn't opened their wallet. Until that day comes and as long as the cash store has extraneous items that bear no objective enhancement to one's game experience, this is just nonsense.

At the end of the day, what a person decides to do with their money is wholly up to them. Someone else will quantify something on the cash store as a product that they feel is worth the asking price. All power to them. Even the person who is buying maybe a dozen Fantasias a week. Personally I do have to raise an eyebrow at that, though that is simply because I can't imagine how much money that will cost versus my own subjective valuation of the item(s) in particular. It harms absolutely no one and people should not feel legitimately ashamed for something they absolutely are free to do.
 
I think at this point my position has shifted a little. It's becoming a little bothersome just how few glamours we are seemingly getting with each new patch, and just how often you see these new 18 dollar mounts and outfits on the MogStation.

Yeah it doesn't really affect me, and I certainly don't need to buy any because it is not pay to win, but yanno.
 
I sort of agree there dispite being behind in content. I would like to see some mounts integrated into either patch content or the seasonal events, an area which has seen a notable drop in quality awards. Most seasonal events are extremely simple fetch and carry scenarios with far more dialogue than action content to get through and recently I find that the awards have been a little lack luster and would have preferred something more comprehensive with a decent mount/glamour set at the end. I have no objections to there being a cash shop or unique items being available there, just maybe make seasonal events great again with awards along the same calibre as that in the shop?
 
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