I’ll be at the makeover mage south of Fally changin’ up my glam for 3k gp
00:00 Introduction
00:11 The Whale Mount
01:00 Other Outrageous Mounts
01:45 Mog Station Items
02:50 Fantasias
04:38 Promises of Passion
06:00 Game Prices & Membership
07:30 Retainer Service
08:22 Mobile Companion App
09:17 Monthly & One-Time Costs Breakdown
10:05 Character Renaming & Home World Transfer
11:50 Disclaimer
12:40 My Opinions On FFXIV MTac
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I just found this guy on youtube and I already wanna block him
Honestly, this is all pretty standard, i see it this way:
FFXIV is a subscription based game with an optional cosmetics webstore.
The webstore and retainer features are something you could look into in case you want something nice or want to treat yourself, but it's not mandatory or required to any sort of advantage in the game, one of the main differences from other F2P models.
While some prices may be seen as "egregious", I want to remind everyone that while it is not forced and required, anything spent on the store, subscription, retainers, companion app, expansion and anything I may have missed goes towards operational fees Square Enix need to hit every month to keep the game we know and love running for the future and for how much we kept it running till now.
At the end of the day, spend if you want to, but you don't have to, enjoy the game you want to enjoy it, be a Fantasia addict and don't lose yourself over not being able to get some mounts (there are some really cool mounts in-game that I consider to be way better than webstore mounts!)
Have fun fellow WoLs, spend responsibly and have fun! 💕
Unfortunately the actual FFXIV dev team doesn't have any, or barely has any, control on what goes into the Mog Station. SE has a separate team managing the Mog Station, where even Yoshi P doesn't have that much control over what goes in the store. There have been a few times where he was able to get his foot down on certain items being earnable ingame instead of being the mog station, but that does not happen often.
The monetization for the game, aside from the sub price and boxed expansion cost, is pretty expensive but thankfully the devs does have a great chunk of items to be earned compared to being bought.
it cost 25$ to change your race in wow
i am hoping he is just sarcastic coz if he not I hope he should just leave go play something else since optional cosmetics is hurting his brain as it seem
Oh man, if you really want to see out of control monetization, go play ESO
Out of control would be if it was P2W, gambling, whaling or manipulative
14 has none of this. It's just cosmetics.
A price in and of itself can't be predatory. Prices are determined by how much people are willing to pay (ie, how much they value them) and how much the seller is willing to accept.
Something becomes predatory when the seller preys (as in a predator) on faults in psychology to manipulate someone into buying something. On impulse, on gambling, addiction, obfuscation of monetary equivalence, gating progression, etc. Battle passes, login rewards, random chance at rewards (loot boxes and gacha), limited release items for sale, small currencies infusions to bait purchases all do this sort of preying on psychological flaws. There are a ton of predatory practices out there, but this particular shop intentionally stays clear of them all.
You might not like the price. That's totally fair. I also don't like the price. But calling it "predatory" is an issue. Calling it out of control is an issue.
Other people, not you and not me, have found the prices to be fair. So many that they prices stick. Absent any predatory practices, this is a solid metric that the prices are fair value.
How do we know other people have found the prices to be fair? They sell well. Again absent any predatory practices (which is the case here) this is a solid metric that people have accepted the prices.
How do we know they sell well? The prices are stable and/or rising. We can take a really recent example:
Fortnite recently release a car skin for $35. This was so unreasonable to the player base that the sales were horrible. Fortnite then cut the price of those items… twice. In a short time.
These are summarized as "market forces". If prices are unsustainable, the seller will exert upward price pressure. If the prices are untenable, the buyer will exert downward price pressure. Your video is a bit of downward price pressure. However so far there hasn't been much of this sort of pressure.
In conclusion: FFXIV store is not predatory in any sense of the word. Price is not enough to make something predatory. The prices are probably reasonable to their target audience.
These are mostly micro transactions for items that make no difference to the game. They are all cosmetic, and you don't have to have them to proceed through the game. In short, people who choose to buy it do it because they WANT to, not because they HAVE to.
So yes, they are expensive, but you don't NEED to buy it to enjoy, proceed, or make any difference to your character in the game. A lot of games have the same micro transactions that do the same and, in some cases, give you a boost over people who pay to play the game as well.
At least with FFXIV, if you pay to play the game monthly, everyone is on equal footing and can't buy gear and such with real money that makes it better than others.
So, in short. If you don't like the prices, you don't HAVE to buy the items because they do nothing for you other than cosmetic.
So, if you don't have the money to buy all this, you're not missing out on anything that will make a difference to your character in the game. I know I have been playing since 1.0, and I do not buy everything they put out for micro transactions.
Also, for those who don't know. If you play for mutli-months at a time, you get a discount per month, and it will cost less. You also have other free ways to store gear, other than retainers. You have the glamor chest and another chest that can hold event items.
In short, yeah, there are micro transactions, but if you know how to work around the game, you realize there are other ways to do things.
Plus, you don't really need to pay the extra to have multi character because, unlike other games, you can play every job (fighters, gathers, and crafters) on one character. So, multi character monthly pay is basically pointless. Go for the lower fee per month, and then pay in 6 month installments, and you will get a reduced price over all per month to play.
There are other tips and tricks too. But, in short, you're not wrong about all the micro transactions (that aren't required to play or enjoy the game). But, if you make a video about the cost. At least give tips and tricks on how to work around some of them. Because they do exist. 👍
I would say any of this isn't predatory, and better yet, the team is clear in how the money is spent. I was there at the advent of the performance system and the grand reception it relieved despite the request for SE we all ignored. It was a feature that players didnt know we were getting, or even that we wanted. We were grateful.
Later it was stated by Yoshi-P during a Livestream that the development for features like performance was paid for by the optional purchases from the Mog Station and more.
We as a playerbase understands that buying the expansion and paying our sub pays for the standard content, and buying anything extra helps for that little extra that makes Final fantasy xiv the game we love. It pays for additional housing, features, and the extra love they are able to put into it.
I'm okay with this, because it's all extra love. Half the mogstation is seasonal stuff that's available for free at the time, and purchasable a year later, preventing FOMO on stuff i couldn't be there for cause i wasn't playing 8 years ago. This system is healthy, and its why we have the game we have today
Sounds like great marketing to me. If people want additional items let them pay for it. Been playing since A Realm Reborn and ive only bought a few things here and there.
It's all optional though so who cares really. If you have money to burn work away, but you can play the game just fine without these extra things. If it were the only game doing it then yeah I can see the point, but look at the state of the gaming industry now. This is what all games are like. At least it's all cosmetic and non essential and not like every other pay to win game out there. Welcome to gaming in the modern day.
Wow I've never heard someone so whiny as you…. if you don't like it then don't play dude don't try and sway people away from playing. The thing that your trying to complaining about is OPTIONAL content that doesn't have to be purchased unless people want to support the developers for the AMAZING game they created.
If you consider FFXIV monetization to be out of control, you wouldn't survive in other mmo's. (Hey Xeems!)
People in the comments making excuses
LMAO fucking whales
how DARE you criticize le critically eclaimed game, these poor people in this indie studio need to eat, so what if the cash doesn't go back into the game, we need SE to really push NFT's and failed single player games, i think you've really missed the mark with this vid chef, and i really mean it, like come on, Yoshi P cried that one time, do you really think he'd screw us over? the store is governed by the "baroness", poor Yoshida San doesn't have a say in what goes in the store! so we just have to keep buying these in game bosses made into mounts, emotes, glams that modders basically rip and improve to fit races that can't wear hats, i think you're just being too harsh on the devs and this HAS 👏 TO 👏 STOP 👏
I will be making a post on the forums and you'll most likely be hearing from SE's lawyers.
"but you don't need to buy any of this"
"but it's all optional!"
"you don't even play this game"
"what about WoW and diablo 4"
God the community is so brainrot it's unreal, one thing has to be bad at a time and if it's not Blizzard then it's not bad, pathetic comments section you got here.
I can't tell if this is supposed to be satire or not. Like… you don't need any of these things to play the game. They're not "egregious" as there's no actual functional compulsion to buy them. These items are for people that have the kind of "fuck it" money to buy them. Who cares if someone spends their money for extra cosmetic shit in a video game? If they can afford it and that's what they wanna do, cool. I'll pay like $7.00 USD for a dancing emote once in a while and that's about all the "splurging" I'm willing to do. But that's just my budget. Why do we need to judge people who have a higher budget for random shit? And why be upset at Square-Enix for putting it in the store? There's obviously a demand for it, and the price tags don't seem to be stopping people. If folks are willing to shell out the cash, who gives a shit?
The only thing required here are purchasing the game and subs and because of both FFXIV has a reliable development schedule with expansions that are critically well received — not something many (or any) F2P games can claim.
Outside of that — how much of this is actually required or relevant to playing the game?
If you don't like the price, you don't have to buy any of it to "win" at this game. There's even a free option for the EB Ceremony. Not a single thing on that store is pay-to-win, even the story skips and job boosts. This was demonstrated quite clearly a few years back by a WoW raider thinking they could jump right into endgame, failing miserably, quitting and crying about it quite publicly, and getting laughed at straight back to his safe space. Both of those are great if you're creating an alt and don't want to suffer through the misery that is the post-ARR MSQ, but I think it's extremely rare for any vet to tell a new player, "Yeah, buy those, everything before level 80 is pointless and you'll figure it out just fine."
One last point. None of these are microtransactions. Big, one-time fees are not microtransactions. Calling them that is extremely misleading given the nature of games that actually use microtransactions to suck people's bank accounts dry. Anyone silly enough to buy that whale mount is going to pay for it once whether they ever use it or not, and they'll get it on every alt they make on every world and every data center they create alts on for no additional cost. How is that a microtransaction?
If there is anything worse than Duty Finder queues right now it has to be all the drama content creators are trying to stir up over nothing while we wait for the next expansion.
Can I buy power or level boosters in the cash shop? No? Then who cares, I know the bar is low but 14 has one of the better cash shops in mmos, just look at any gamigo game.
disagree.
ok just dont buy them rofl?? You absolutely dont need to? Its all cosmetics?
Where do you live that that's six times the minimum wage I live in Connecticut that's not even three times
I totally agree that things are ridiculously priced but you know what you don't have to buy them And quite frankly I'm more angry about Sony charging to play online than this
I mean i get it, but you don't have to buy any of the stuff, i have been playing 3yrs and haven't purchased one mount and don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.
Same shit people complain about with WoW and Blizzard and its all good but put it in their favorite game and the XIV defense force out here defending 1's and 0's that cost more than they make an hour. GG
i clicked on this video expecting it to be sarcastic or a joke or something. You dont need any of the things in the FF14 cash shop to enjoy the entire game to the fullest. so i dont understand what the problem is? do you need a whale mount thad badly? im really ocnfused as to why this is something to bitch about
Wow docx you and burn your house down? we're not wow we're FFXIV
I personally don't like the whale mount either, but it was the only 8 man mount in game and it was a nod to ff4 iirc. Regardless as a lot of people in the comments have already stated. The store is mainly cosmetic stuff. Sure the prices are high, but thats why if you want something you wait for a sale. But you do you i suppose.
"Unlike any other game, you need to pay real money to make major changes to your character"
Man, you are so misinformed and off the mark here. Have you ever played any other online games past the 2010?
Also, complaining about high prices might be the most stupid thing to complains about when it comes to monetization.
Monetization is a problem when the developers make the game less fun or more grindy so that they can sell you those back as micro transactions.
Or when there is a competitive element to a game but you can buy with real money any thing that would give you a competitive edge against the other players.
If there are 2 things that I agree and do think should not be in the store are the extra retainers and Eternal Bond. I think that a paid account should have access to those things in-game without spending extra money. But that's pretty minor
I actually think it's hilarious that they sale A WHALE for Whales.
Making fun of the people who gives you money AND get more money from them? Genius!!!
While I do agree that some of the prices are a bit up there, I have to point something out. Those mounts you drew attention to are all account-wide. Any character you have created on that account will receive it, as will any new character you create.
Also, gonna point out another gigantic pink marid (that’s the name of an elephant mount you can get through tribal quests) in the room: You can play up to level 70, all the way up to the very last Stormblood patch quest for free. In the video, you said 60, but then again, easy slip of the tongue due to the free trial only recently expanding.
You can play on any world, btw. There's DC travel and world travel.
You guys pay for ff14?
Honestly when I finished this video I can say it feels like it was created a while ago. Like before we had data center travel the free trial going up to lvl 70. I’ll say I bought the lunar whale. And not making excuses. I will say though it serves my use quite well though seeing that it’s an 8 seater mount I can put a map party in the whale and is go to the location without worrying that someone will get lost or that one of the party members hasn’t unlocked flying in a zone. It saves time. Also most all mounts on the mogstation are account wide unlocked so if I wanted to create a character in the eu or Japan servers they will be in the mpg mail waiting on me. As to the cosmetic items it’s true those are more single character items
Fairly reasonable video for the most part. Ignore the haters. There are many "abusive" (it's optional, I get it) practices such as additional retainers being a monthly cost instead of a one time payment, furnishings costing a fortune if you happened to miss the small time window when they were available in-game and most items not being account wide for no particular reason. I've spent a fair amount of money on the mogstation myself and continue to do so, but acting like there are no issues with it is cult mentality. No wonder companies keep doing this sort of thing when the players themselves thank them for being taken advantage of. Quite pathetic, folks.
Me buying more things I wasn't intending to just to spite this guy.
Compared to other games, it's not that bad. That's unfortunately just gaming these days. But $15 a month to play… that's $180 a year to ON TOP of the $60 box price. That is ridiculous IMO. So are the costs of cosmetics, but again, this is the whole industry, and it sucks pretty bad. Personally I think they should reduce the sub fee to $5, maybe $10 cuz SE won't swallow a 66% cut.
i mean its ff14… its not a fully mmorpg… its a really just skyrim with sex mods with a masstive bot issue…
This vid makes me feel so bad lol I've like fantasia 10 times at least….
But then again ff14 is like the only game I play, if I was to go out with friends instead I'd be spending wayyy more. I think playing it actually saves me from more expensive nights out sometimes.
And yes, the mount prices are ASTROCIOUS. Another thing I take an issue with is that your player house (which you spend millions on) gets demolished if you don't enter your house for 45 days, so if you stop your sub 2 months in a row, you lose your house… which is the reason I'm never gonna have a house bc I know won't be playing this game forever.
Is this a clickbait/troll video? I feel like this is a clickbait/troll video. How/why you managed to make a 14-minute+ video complaining about optional micro-transactions on an otherwise amazing game, is beyond me. Either way, you got my interaction…so…mission accomplished, I guess. Nice Runescape avatar, though.
Everything is cosmetic. No advantage is gained in raid content from items in the store. The people who are really into cosmetics can just download mods rather than pay hundreds of dollars for those items. I just don’t see much of an issue specially when this games main market competitor lets you spend real money to get gear for raiding. The people who won one of WOW’s world first races spent like 100k or so to do it.
2022: yeah I agree with you, MTX sucks!
mom dies IRL and quits mmos/gaming late 2022
2023: Hmm. On second thought:
1. if you're a rich whale, you deserve to get harpooned
2. If you're a poor FF addict, guess what, you still deserve to get harpooned, you have free will
MTX crybay: WAHH why they sel shit?
Logic Answer: to make more money. The end.
Final comment: if you are butthurt over people looking shinier than you ingame, get out there (IRL), make more money, and get it yourself. And then, optionally realize how stupid cosmetics are in first place (my journey), and then either A) enjoy games for the right reason or B) quit games for now and do IRL (my journey).
Good luck.
The playerbase asked for the cash shop back in 2.2
i don't really care about the mounts or pets but i agree with you that having trading slots and additional inventory behind monthly payments is harmful to the game and even promote making the base game worse like the convoluted glamour system that should have been improved ages ago. XIV is far from the biggest offender of this but it's definitely overly monetized.
I will keep paying just the base subscription cause that's where i decided to draw a line for myself.