The FFXIV Online Store. What’s your honest thoughts on it? And what’s your thoughts on Blizzard’s WoW Store?
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unlike SWTOR where I couldn't go 5 minutes without something reminding me that I'm not subscribed or should pay money, Mogstation is basically "it's here if you want it but otherwise, we'll leave you alone about it".
I remember playing before there were EU servers and let me tell you, Titan was a struggle 😅
Yeah I'm on Na. I think the most I have gotten was like 50 lately.
Asmon rolled on my server and it specifically impacted the server once. Just once. It's really not as bad as ppl may think. The queue is less than 30 seconds.
Found the clip for you
https://youtu.be/ETQY3OGnotA?t=609
I think it's crazy how much people whale that place up. but I guess the acceptance comes from the feeling that the game is not actively trying to ripe you off and that the game does not feel like a job, leaving you more bitter at the side things.
Still think emotes in there can fuck off. but at least, from what I heard, it is actually a separate work team for them, and not just things plucked from game like WoW
FF14 simp : blizzard is trash bcs they sell currencies to people so they can buy end game content . blizzard palyer : whats your game end game ? FF14 simp : cosmetic . blizzard player : what they sell in your shop ? FF simp : cosmetics! (inhale copium : but they are cheaper than blizzard shop )
I've seen and read some small errors/misunderstandings in the video and comments and would like to provide some information.
Regarding the FFXIVCensus and Luckybancho data:
FFXIVCensus data is from April 2020. As you have seen it is written in big letters at the top of the page and they are not updated since a long time.
You should therefore look at the LuckyBancho data, as you did.
However, this does not include:
– Korean and Chinese servers, which are at least 23 servers (as many as for the US which alone accounts for 50% of the current pop) spread over the LuXingNiao, Moguli, MaoXiaoPang datacenters + the Korean servers.
– Players in the free trial period (which today represents the first half of the game)
– Players whose level is lower than 60 for the same reasons mentioned above.
– Players who have not done the mount quest so as not to include bots in the data.
– Players who have not chosen a Grand company, again to avoid counting bots.
LyckyBancho changed the way "The Lodestone" data are collected and analysed from patch 5.3 onwards, which is when the new free trial version allowing you to play the base game and the critically acclaimed Heavensward was released.
The real numbers for the US/JP/EU datacenters are therefore slightly higher than LuckyBancho's census since they do not take into account active players who have not yet reached Stormblood and the total population of the game is much higher if you include the Chinese and Korean datacenters. In these territories it is not Square-Enix that publishes the game but ShengquGames in China and Actoz Soft in Korea. Quazii has recently published on its Youtube channel 4 or 5 videos about the history of FFXIV there and it's really interesting.
According to the latest data from Nov 5, 2021, there are at least 1.6M players (so who started the Stormblood expansion). This again is only for JP/NA/EU.
As for the European servers, they have always existed but were originally located in Montreal (Quebec). So the cash shop was not used to create servers for European players but to move them to Europe (to Germany in the city of Frankfurt). Suddenly Titan Extreme has become much easier 🙂
However I don't know, as it was said in one of the comments, if the European players could play with the American ones because they were on different datacenters. However it's very likely that during ARR some EU players played on NA servers because the ping difference was not as big as today.
There's a reddit census post as of April 2021. It's closer, but still around the time of the asmongold exodus.
I remember the Server lag of 150ms back in ARR, Titan was such a treat kicking you off the platform consistently. Thing is so easy now :-/
The reason the store is mostly ignored by the playerbase, and even supported on purpose by many is simple…because people are happy and satisfied with the base product, to either don't mind the store, or even WANT to spend money to further support them.
And then there is glamour crazies…who literally buy Fantasias several times a week🤣🤣
Scholar gives you summoner by default. Gives you another shield healer and you get the boom boom summoner.
I know a few people from EU who still play on NA to this day. I wonder how much that skews numbers?
From my own experience, coming back to FFIXV so close to Endwalker launch, I wanted a skip on a class that I wasn't going to play (drk) just so it gives the ones that I want (pld, sam) to level up a nice fat +100% xp boost for mobs, since I prefer to level in dungeons. True I feel kinda d*cked now that Endwalker is delayed giving me plenty of time to catch up. But I don't regret the purchase as it's not that bad. 10 quid isn't the end of the world. And thanks to that I get nice 400 ilvl paly gear once 70 so that's alright ^^
As a player that has long lasting experience to draw from there is one simple datapoint to draw from to measure growth on a single server basis…and that is Jumbo Cactpot in Gold Saucer. Since it shows how many people actually bought a ticket.
At ANY given time in the past you had around 2.5k tickets sold during a new patch cycle and around 2k during the backend of a patch…
Now it has been at 6k+ on my server for a couple months…so it's safe to say that at least on my server the population has roughly doubled in size.
Crystal data center ftw 🙌🏼
I used a Job Boost because I want to play Paladin (… maybe, because damn I love Gunbreaker), but couldn't be bothered to level from 1 with school and other games. $12.50 was worth a few dozens of hours. Been playing Warrior then Gunbreaker since 60, not really skipping much in learning Paladin since I dungeon grinded it to 80.
one the thing i like about the store is its NOT in the game like wows.
Yeah, during ARR the EU server I was in was in Canada I think, had to use VPN to reduce lag for some reasons…
Titan was "fun" back then …
I always saw the store as just a side business for picking up souvenirs during your gameplay I mean everything in the store is in game except for the seasonal event items that were in game but you can pick up if you see someone else has it and you want it yourself or you missed out on it cause reasons. If I have a complaint I just wish the outfits were a bit cheaper just like $12 or $13 and many people tell me
"Well you don't have to buy it!"
But its like
I WANT TO BUY IT! But it costs the same or more than a sub and I would be more inclined to buy more sets but when they're so pricey you start to feel like you're losing too much
People got to realize that oceana players tend to be on na as it is better ping then if we are on eu
Job boosts for new jobs are never available during the expansion they are released. You'll be hard leveling SGE whether you want to or not.
In case anyone's interested, the Japanese captions on the table that shows up around 10:00 are, from left to right:
– Region (JP/EU/NA)
– Active (criteria explained below – specifically, characters above level 60 who are affiliated with a Grand Company and are either new or whose account displays exp/mount/minion changes since the last census, but excluding characters with 0 mounts or at level 60/70 with level skip gear)
– New (not present in last census)
– Returning (Inactive in last census but currently active)
– Continuing (active in last census)
– ShB started (specifically, characters with a battle class above level 70 or with Gunbreaker/Dancer above 60 – not super accurate imo but it's probably the best they can do with the information available)
– Lv. 80
– ShB clear (characters with the ShB completion reward)
– Patch 5.3 clear (characters with the 5.3 completion reward)
Numbers on the bottom row are the totals across all regions.
This is probably available in English on the Lodestone, but…y'know, now it's here too
For me, it's the one BIG black mark against the game. It's an unfortunate reality of where games have gone though. Once this Pandora's Box was opened it can never be closed and we just have to live with it at this point.
ARR is a safe skip. Specially with the end content before I was able to get to heavenward I was 64.. but HW is a 100% play. Storm blood is another skip. And Shadowbringer is a 100 play again.
Do Wondrous Tails for xp alongside dungeons, pixie, bozja and deep dungeon. WT gives insane amount of xp every week.
been playing on Cactaur all this time and almost never see queues above 40, lasting only 1-2 minutes to get in
yeah, it blew up the single day Asmon arrived, but that burst was super short lived far as queue times go
Here's the biggest/most important differences between the WoW store and the FFXIV Store…
1. The Transmogs: the transmogs you can buy from WoW are utterly amazing looking, whereas the outfits sold by FFXIV store are more RP-centric and not very popular or high quality. The only weapon glamours sold on the MogStation are just gimmicks: they don't have cool visual effects, and they're nowhere near the quality of weapon glamours you can get in-game. The gear glamours are usually based on in-game characters, like Ser Aymeric, or Thancred, Y'Shtola, or Ryne. This is for people who want to "cosplay" or RP as them. The selection is also very small and limited.
This is why FFXIV gets away with selling glamours on the MogStation with little flack, and WoW gets heat for it. WoW literally sells raid gear transmogs. FFXIV does not. Odds are, if you're trying to build a "cool/unique/non-cosplay" glamour using items purchased from the FFXIV store, you'll end up looking like a clown.
In my opinion, this is a good thing, as if you want to get cool gear/glamours/weapons, you have to earn them by playing.
2. The Mounts: the mounts you can buy from WoW are usually amazing looking, often times better than mounts you can get in-game. Meanwhile, FFXIV store mounts are pretty lame when you compare them to the vast majority of in-game mounts. They have far less detail and are typically not worth the price. Plus, FFXIV has literally thousands of mounts that are leagues above store mounts… and you can earn in-game in so many unique and fun ways, which makes up for it.
Again: unlike in WoW, if you want the coolest mounts… you have to earn them by playing the game.
3. WoW Tokens: WoW store sells WoW Tokens, which is literally in-game currency. FFXIV does no such thing, with the exception of giving players 500k gil when you level-boost, which is nothing by comparison and also rather expensive (since you're also boosting a class/job). It would make very little sense to spend $27 for 500k gil when you can go spend $25 for 10 million via RMT websites… which is against FFXIV Terms of Service (and they actually enforce this). Plus, there's so many fun, legitimate, and satisfying ways to earn gil in-game that makes buying gil simply not worth it, and the game has a fantastic/healthy economy. One of the best in MMORPG's hands down, period. Meanwhile, the WoW Token severely hurts WoW's economy.
4. Level Boosting: as you guys pointed out in this video, level boosting in WoW is far more expensive than level boosting in FFXIV. Not only this, but WoW's game design encourages level boosting, whereas FFXIV is designed to discourage it. For example, FFXIV has many "catchup" currencies in-game that can be used to very easily gear up at levels 50, 60, and 70, respectively, making the experience much more tolerable and not forcing players to spend countless hours gearing, just so they can surpass the next level cap and be stuck doing it all over again.
In addition, having a character at level 80 means you get a metric ton of Bonus EXP when leveling alternate jobs, if doing so on the same character. This allows you to breeze through levels when leveling alt-jobs: some people have managed to do this in a single 8-hour day. Anyone who level boosts in FFXIV is just being lazy, whereas there's a very good/understandable reason for level-boosting in WoW, especially considering you have to make a completely new character and basically start the game over if you want to level a new class, literally reverse progression.
So yeah, needless to say… FFXIV is a great example of an MMORPG store done right, and WoW is a great example of an MMORPG store done very, very wrong. Let's just say that it's no coincidence/has nothing to do with the game's "quality" that FFXIV gets little to no flack for having microtransactions.
I don't care about the 14 shop as much as I do WoW's because the actual game is good.
News about Sakagushi: He is a man of focus, SHEER F'ING FOCUS.
• WoW sells high-end/high-quality (Cosmetic) Raid gear & weapon transmogs, FFXIV does not. FFXIV only sells RP costumes and gimmicks. If you want a cool or pretty glamour in FFXIV, you have to earn it by playing the game.
• WoW sells mounts that are often much much cooler than mounts you can easily earn in-game. FFXIV does not– and offers so many unique and fun ways to earn mounts that are WAY better than anything you can get in the store. This discourages buying store mounts, except for very casual players.
• WoW sells in-game currency, aka WoW Tokens. FFXIV does not, unless you spend an arm and a leg to level-boost, netting you a measly 500k gil for around $27. FFXIV has way more efficient/time effective ways to earn gil in game, some even passively. WoW requires major, boring grinds.
• FFXIV is designed to discourage level-boosting. Only the laziest among us level boost, because there's many catchup systems and EXP bonuses for leveling alt-classes/jobs. Not to mention, no reverse-progression because you don't need to make a new character. WoW is designed to encourage boosting, FFXIV is not.
Sacaguchi is a beast!!!
FFXIV's monetisation model is identical to Blizzard, people are just too busy simping to care or admit it