Is this game still completely P2P?Follow

Awesome ending to one of the best posts I've read in a very long time.

I try to coax people to think long term when it comes to these monthly bolt-ons to the sub. Why some otherwise refuse to acknowledge the benefit of 1-2 more retainers baffles me. It's 20-40 more sale spaces, 8-16 more pages of storage, and then whatever passive farming benefits, particularly the unique ones, that will come of the impending new system. Looking at it another way, those who don't shell out the added $2 a month will be at a 50% disadvantage to those who do.

...then some freak out about **** like EXP potions in other games.

Whose brilliant claim was it that you can't nickel-and-dime in a sub game?

In the end we are getting more content than games on other payment models, so the major advantage of the sub fee has not gone anywhere.

This faux-outrage is pathetic not the least because SE has nickel-and-dimed from the very beginning. First in 1.0 by having us pay for retainers, then at the start of 2.0 by having us pay if we want more than one character on the same server. This giant pile of tears should have happened back then at the start of 2.0 if it was such a massive deal, but it says a lot that it didn't.

People are just looking to stir the pot and failing spectacularly.

Such hostility. If I remember something incorrectly I trust the good fellows at ZAM.com to correct me. It seems they have just rated me down and moved on, while you are the first person to call me out on remembering the facts wrong.

So let me do the right thing and correct my mistake: SE nickel-and-dimed us in 1.0 by having us pay 3 extra euros(dollars?) for every character we make, not retainers.

Maybe that changes my underlying message drastically, but considering the 1.0 policy is even worse than in ARR I'd say it only enforces said message. Nickel-and-dime has happened since 1.0 and as the matter of fact it was even worse back in the day.

The points that are being made are mostly that $4/m isnt a large amount or the question if you're getting your money's worth of that $4/m.

But what everyone is forgetting is simply;

We already pay a generous amount of money for this game's subscription. Why isnt this feature simply included in the otherwise already so meager update material? Or better yet, why would we have to pay $4/m completely "optionally" if the expenses for SE (which is you think about it is rediculous) are neglible if not completely void anyhow. Surely development costs are included in our monthly sub already, and they're making a healthy profit while we're at it already.

They have what? 20 MB of extra data to store on a server somewhere per person, and i'm being really generous here. Something that takes as much interaction and thus bandwidth as any NPC chatter would if you were to interact with it. Or something that takes as much data as a new set of Armor/weapons and textures.

What's next? "Here's your 2.21 update with a new piece of recolored armor, but before you can patch the game, please deposit an additional $1 per month" or even more rediculous "If you want to interact with this NPC to progress the storyline, please upgrade your account to the $3 per month extra package"? How about if they were to release Musketeer finally, but in order to unlock it, you would have to pay an additional $4 a month as well? It's surely heading in that direction with stuff like this.

We shouldnt have to pay MORE for additions to the game that should have been free in the first place. Especially considdering what little the content updates already feature.

What was the last one that everyone was so hyped about? Oh yes, some hard/extreme-mode monsters we already had before and new storyline which was just some npc chatter and nothing more with you moving to Mor Dhona. You think this one is any diffirent? That's exactly what everyone said about the last one. And the one before. With how little stuff we get each time, we shouldnt have to pay extra for portions of the update. Despite what anyone might tell you, they're not "optional". You want them, and you would like to obtain them. The only question is if you will want to spend the $4 a month on them or not.

Present day life might have games you buy now that are 10% complete (I'm looking at you "Plants Vs. Zombies 2"), on which you can purchase the remaining 90% in nice 5% DLC chunks while all games before this new system either came 100% complete with unlockables through playing or had the much more preferable (but less profitable) buy a game that's 95% complete, and you can get the last 5% in one DLC.

Please dont let Final Fantasy turn into the same money grabbing thing.

Though truth be told it's already too late. FFXIII-2 already had costumes, weapons and arena monsters. 5 Weapons at $0.99 each, 11 Costumes at $2,99 each, 6 Colliseum monsters costing you $18 and three tiny "scenario" battles costing you an impressive $4,99 each. That's $71 just from a few things to basicly make the already bad $40 incomplete game, complete.

You're listing things that have extra costs for the people doing it.

Having a retainer has very little, if any, extra costs for SE. Why, by your reasoning, every update has extra costs for them so every update should be something they should charge us for?

Oh wait, they do already. Through the basic monthly subscription. Which is... the thing they use to cover all their expenses. They shouldnt need to charge more for it.

And that same reasoning could be applied to every example I mentioned. "The extra cost to the business isn't significant, it should already be covered by what I'm currently paying."

Businesses don't determine prices based on their costs. They determine their prices based on what consumers are willing to pay. This is nothing new. If you don't want to pay for something, then don't pay for it. Vote with your wallet. It's a far more powerful tool than message board outrage against the evil, greedy corporation that's trying to extort you.

Must be a pretty big napkin.

This may be a re-iteration of what I already stated before, but;
for me the problem is not the $2 extra. In fact, I wouldn`t have bothered if they had told us that
due to inflation, subscription fees had to be increased to $20 per month.

What really strikes me as wrong is that there suddenly are game elements that provide a tangible
benefit for paying more money. Now you could argue that even the difference between the standard
and starter plan are such a tangible benefit; but how many people do you think really went throug
the hassle to level another character just to have more retainer space available?

Now all you have to pay is $50 extra a year, and poof: retainer space, acution house slots and rare
item ventures doubled. For nothing more than $50 a year. No gameplay time or challenge involved,
just CASH.

Not good. Twist it however you want, I call "foul".
As I did when the tidal charm was released.

Hm pretty simple topic.

Is the game P2P? Yes. You cannot play it without paying the monthly fee. Why are we having this discussion?

You wish to speak about the ramifications of 'cash shop' elements in 14? Why? Didn't Yoshi just tell you he plans to model the game after WoW? Bringing WoW to the Japanese populace I think is what he said. OK so let's go look at WoW:

https://us.battle.net/shop/en/product/game/wow?categories=game-services

Oh look: $60 to get myself to level cap instantly. Faction changes still cost $30. Changing your name still for $10. Transfer your character still for $25. Change your race still for $25.

lol

Do you know how easy it is to manipulate that type of data or how long it takes? Easily done by an intern in minutes.

Appearance change is exactly what Fantasia will be and they sell it for $15. Judge whether charging for extra (useless) retainers is underhanded or not based on the price of Fantasia when it is listed.

But do not be surprised that these elements appear in a game where the developer and producer has told you exactly where he intends to take us. You decide to come along for the ride and that's your own problem.

Edited, Mar 26th 2014 1:02am by HitomeOfBismarck

I'm a bit confused here. I was under the impression that we have access to two free retainers (which I'm sure most of us have, right?), and then if you wanted to have more retainers, it would cost $2 extra a month for each one past the first two that you have. Is this incorrect?

Oh yeah, that was right before the other interview. Still, it helps put the other interview into greater context, and confirms which elements of F2P we can expect in XIV... Basically, a P2P game with a small cash shop.