Microtransactions :(

[Loony BoB]

Final Fantasy XIV a serious WoW rival, says Wada | Game Development | News by Develop (http://www.develop-online.net/news/33514/Final-Fantasy-XIV-a-serious-WoW-rival-says-Wada)


“The basic model hasn't changed,” he said. “It's a monthly flat rate service with additional charges for items that users want to buy.

“For FFXI we didn't initially set up the item transaction model that well – although the demand for it was high. We thought that it would be a benefit for users, but that we wouldn't be able to charge.

“We soon learnt that there are a lot of people who want that kind of model, so we would like to introduce more pay-as-you-use items into the game. But there were too few items in FFXI – however we don't want to take it to the other extreme entirely for FFXIV.

I'm not sure if anything else has been said on the matter and I couldn't find a thread about it here. I sincerely hope that if they are going ahead with pay-as-you-use items that they are not advantage-giving items but merely aesthetic or something like that. Because otherwise I can see this game suddenly moving towards my "do not want" list.

[leader of mortals]

Oh no, what if it turns into Maplestory?:eek:

[Mirage]

Probably won't play.

The moment i see them sell anything that matters gameplay wise, it's cancel subscription for me.

[leader of mortals]

Why is this such a problem? When I play Maplestory, for example, I just play without nexon cash, and get my mesos from equips and scrolls and such.

What is the big problem with micro-transactions? I understand it is unfair, but unless PvP is among the most important parts of the game, I don't see how it will ruin the game.

[Rostum]

Actually there's nothing there that says there will be micro-transactions in the way that we currently know it. Everyone has jumped on the bandwagon of "omg it'll ruin the game!" and don't actually know what the hell Square is up to; no one does.

But as BoB said, it could most likely be aesthetical items rather than items that give an advantage - all MMO's do this currently including FFXI and WoW and people seem to like it, so that's what they could be refering to.

Btw. Maple Story is lame. :D

[Mirage]

Maybe I'm just pessimistic, but I really have a bad feeling that SE is gonna mess this up one way or another.

[Rostum]

It must suck being a pessimist and all. Never can look forward to anything.

[Mirage]

That's not fair, I look forwards to plenty of things :p.

[Rostum]

Omecle doesn't play fair. :cool:

[Vermachtnis]

And in Imagine even people without AP can get stuff from the Cash Shop. There are people who sell 100AP for 100K in game money and just trade the items and stuff.

[WildRaubtier]

http://www.snowy-day.net/spacetime/squeenixdontcareaboutkoreans.html

Heard about this ages ago; good for them, really, but they aren't getting [more of] my money.

[Del Murder]

Another thing to wait and see, like most things. I wouldn't like it if you can buy good equipment though. Defeats the purpose of playing.

[WildRaubtier]

Eh, not really. People play for a lot of reasons. For those of us who don't think grinding for the good stuff is worth the time cost, then buying good stuff to do the regular content with is very attractive.

That said, people who say things like "if they let people who are happy to waste money on an online game that isn't the subscription fee an option to do just that then i'm gonna quit!!!!" are silly. It's not like having the option there to be ignored is going to ruin your game experience. Nor is Squeenix stupid enough to seel people things like relic weapons. You'll definitely still have to work your arse off for those, no worries.

[Loony BoB]

Other forums discussing this matter are pointing out that he said "the model is basically the same: Flat rate and microtransactions" - meaning that he saw things in FFXI as microtransactions. I imagine this will mean getting special items in the mini-stories that you can buy for $10, the SE keyfob (security token thing) that allows you to increase the amount you can carry, that sort of thing. Maybe there will be more of the same there, or maybe they will just say "We'll give you this item that allows you to carry extra stuff if you spend IRL money". Which really is the same as FFXI, so yeah. Maybe it won't be that bad. Who knows.

[WildRaubtier]

Purchased - FFXIclopedia, the Final Fantasy XI wiki - Characters, items, jobs, and more (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Purchased)

There's your supporting argument. That page doesn't have the Mog Sachel on it though, for some reason. Stange since that was probably the most popular.

[Rostum]

Also, just to put this out there and take it however you please: People do pay a lot of money for online games, and when I say a lot I mean a lot. Some people were willing to drop $4,000 on a botting program and that got shut down so they lost all their money and I'm betting they are willing to pay the same if not more for the next big bot program even though FFXI is on the decline.

People are just that crazy, that paying something like $10 for an item that may or may not give you a slight advantage in some small way is just not really that big of a deal considering people are already paying huge amounts of money to get a much bigger advantage over the rest.

Now, I'm not saying it's justified, but it could be a better solution. Anyway just throwing it out there.

Also that list on FFXI forgot not only the satchel but the Nexus Cape; and item you get for buying all three mini-expansions and it lets you warp to where your party leader is (one use every 40 hours I believe). Stuff like that is great, imo.

[Loony BoB]

An interesting idea would be having some servers with pay-items and some without.

[Ouch!]

Given SE's idea of fair effort to reward, I sincerely doubt that you'll be able to buy anything of consequence through micro-transactions. I imagine it'll be as it is in FFXI: items of convenience (mog satchel, nexus cape) and items without practical game play application (tidal pendant, moghouse piano). These things don't bother me in the slightest. I mean, this is the company who regularly institutes obnoxiously low drop-rates for mediocre items. I really have a hard time imagining that they're change they're game play model so drastically so quickly.

[Del Murder]

I hope so! I didn't mind the idea of the FFXI mini-expansions at first because I thought they would actually be mini-expansions, where they turned out to be a lot of stupid little side quests which resulted in some great piece of armor at the end. It was no where near being half the content of a Wings of the Goddess expansion even though it was half the price. You were basically paying for the armor and not the experience. I fear that the success of those would set a precedent that goes away from full scale expansions and toward selling us a crappy subplot just to get some elite gearz.

[Lionx]

This is like DLC, cheap and makes them TONS of money. I won't touch any of them XP Full expansions are one thing but DLC usually are weak.

[Rostum]

This is like DLC, cheap and makes them TONS of money. I won't touch any of them XP Full expansions are one thing but DLC usually are weak.

That's not always the case. DLC is evolving very rapidly, and there's still a chance for Square Enix to do it right.

[Lionx]

Oh theres definitely exceptions(Borderland's DLC comes to mind), just the majority of them are pretty underwhelming. I agree that theres still time for them to get it right, and i really hope they do. :)

[Rostum]

True but I must say FFXI mini expansions aren't really that great. They only sold because of the item you can get at the end of each.

[Del Murder]

I agree, and I don't want to see more of that, especially in lieu of better things they can include.

[Ouch!]

Eh, A Crystalline Prophesy's plot wasn't too bad. It was short, certainly, but at least it was relevant to the existing Final Fantasy XI storyline. It tied up a loose end that had been left open since the opening video of the video game. I can't say much in favor of A Moogle Kupo d'Etat's plot, however. I wasn't particularly fond of it, and the fetch-quest missions were even more obnoxious than ACP's (which really aren't that bad unless you were doing it right when it came out and there was all the competition). Can't say much about the third one as I've not finished it yet. I've heard the final fight is loads of fun, but that's about it.

[Del Murder]

What? ACP's story sucked balls. It was by far the worst of the three. It gave the promise of tying up loose ends but it was just nonsensical.

[Ouch!]

Nonsensical is stories featuring a villain called Riko Kupenreich. D;

[Del Murder]

But that one was nonsensical on purpose. Riko was funny as hell. Even for all the silliness it still made more sense than ACP and felt more rewarding.

[Roogle]

I would not mind paying a small price for items on convenience. If there is one thing that I have learned over the years, it's that in a difficult online game, it's you against the world and you have to do whatever it takes to come out on top while spending as little time as possible. If I could have paid to teleport anywhere in the world in Final Fantasy XI, I would gladly pay a small fee.

[Madame Adequate]

In all MMOs, it's really a question of what purchasable items permit. If you can spend money for a shortcut - the teleportation Roogle suggests, for instance - then I don't really have a problem. Aesthetic stuff is fine, it's one reason I bought the CE of Burning Crusade for WoW. Equipment is where I start feeling it's a bit dodgy though, because it really does feel like it's defeating the purpose of the game. I appreciate however that people have very different objectives and desires in playing MMOs - outside of PvP, even equipment doesn't make much difference to me. There just shouldn't be something which is entirely unparalleled by stuff you can get in game through more traditional methods.