But path of exile which is free has about the same amount of content in their patch cycle no?
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Eh, yes and no depending on the game. Like a common comparison is FFXIVâs shop to WoWâs having more items for this but the reason it gets a pass by players on that game is because the stuff you can acquire in the game is either on par, or better than those on the shop. Most of its items are items that were free during events that got released later so people who didnât get to do that event arenât just out the items for good. About the only time people have been outraged over a shop addition was when they put Cruise Chaser on it, and that was because people were guessing for a year of where it would be only for it to end up with a 25 dollar price tag, and Cruise Chaser is a pretty iconic boss and a âIf I could have any mountâ wish for a long time. There was definitely some emotional investment in that mount to some people and frankly it shouldâve been an achievement mount or something. I guess also the Chocobo Carriage mount too because it was a 4 seater when most multi seat mounts in the game require doing Savage raiding or something on par with it. They arenât exactly common.
WoW on the other hand I notice the gripe with the store mounts in particular is they are almost always leaps and bounds above in quality what people are getting in the actual game, which leads people to feel if you want a mount that actually feels like it had time spent on it, you need to throw out money.
Also community perception of the company is huge. Back to XIV for this, Square shoestrings the XIV budget to an annoying degree that hinders a lot of their ambitions. The cash shop proceeds directly feed into the game and itâs how they funded the European servers when the game launched with a huge sale on items, they had the money needed in a weekend. It basically is expanding the gameâs budget in peopleâs minds. In WoW the money doesnât feel like it goes into the game and is just funding for Kotickâs private island ever since the guy he used to visit with a private island managed to hang himself with a bedsheet in prison.
Whereas WoW couldnât do something like that because the last time they tried to use the shop to crowdfund something, Blizzard basically withdrew their investment, stuck players with the bill of funding their entire prize pool for an event then argued âWell we never said we were putting money into our eventâs prize pool, only that the minimum prize pool was guaranteed 500k, that doesnât mean we were putting 500k up, just if it came short we would cover the difference.â Yeah, the backlash from that was so severe they never crowdfunded anything with the shop since.
Okay, so like I saidâŚ
Then maybe video games, especially games with a sub, are a horribly bad investment right now? If times are that tough then spend money where you need to spend money, not on an Orc mage.
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I think itâs worth it 100%. I would be fine with much longer content draughts personally. I like having all my Alts done gearing (what little gearing I do) and then I can just enjoy random bgs (less so with rank locked gear but meh) and the occasional random heroic dungeon que just for shtz and giggles.
I can get behind this. Not everyone pushes through mythics as soon as itâs available. I feel its a playstyle that burns out very quickly. Completed a raid? K. Now there isnât another one.
Us adventurers though? Iâve been playing since 2005 and I have never once run out of things to do. I donât burn through a whole expansions side projects when itâs current because outside of raiding and mythic+ thereâs generally a lot to do.
Still doing mount runs, mog runs, and the like. Get that mount? Awesome, there are plenty more. Ticked off the Legion archaeology title? Sweet, still 5 other archaeology expansions to sift through.
Iâm pretty happy with the price.
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was that Bliz or Acti - bliz?
i think a lot of that is candy crush. 
The cash shop of FF14 is what made me quit it. they scarifice a lot of in game even to try capitalize on store front gain.
Their excuse was it would support the devs directly and game art.
3 years later and the Bunny Girl still canât wear hat.
Itâs a scam if you ask me. Allied races had more love on WoW than a full developed race on FF14 thatâs supposed to be backed up by digitals, on a game that has a full box price plus sub.
The only thing I did like is that there is a multiple Subscription models. 12.99 was plenty for me on FF14.
Now I wonât get in details comparing the games for their play style.
But when it come monetization I think Blizzard has some key points over Square Enix thatâs very greedy.
But for the amount of content and how frequent patches are, Blizzard fails hard at it.
All of my favourite WoW mounts come from in game, plus there are like 750+ mounts. According to my journal I have 618. A quick Google search and I can see FF14 only have 200, of course with 550+ mounts more in WoW some are going to be bad quality, it does not mean the store mounts are always better, itâs a subjective argument.
All we can say is that the store mounts here are not available in game, it doesnât mean we all think they are better.
Yeh itâs basically how they worded it, they never guaranteed they would put out any money, we simply over spent what they said they would donate. People just complained because they thought Blizzard was going to give more, it was never the case. People always argue around here about literally everything, Blizzard can never win with this player base.
Youâd think but people spend their money however they want as is their right. Iâm not saying I agree with it, but I can definitely understand if someone is under really bad IRL circumstances, thereâs probably a larger incentive for them to engage in a hobby that makes them feel happy to break from the utter depression of living depending on their situation.
Pragmatism and Emotion are bitter enemies when it comes to money. Like if someone has no money and is constantly stressed, but decides to spend what little they do have on drugs or something, while I will not agree with it, I definitely can see why theyâd do that just to take their mind off life for a bit.
Correct, so why should they be rewarded with a smaller sub price just because they use their money unwisely? less than 50 cents US a day is more than fair for a sub price.
I mean, there was no winning there. It was a colossal optics failure even if they were to just say âYo, weâre not funding any of the prize pool this year but you can, buy these toys!â
It isnât exactly common that a company makes fans of an event fund the entire thing. Players had every right to be pissed off because the vague wording to some hinted that Blizzard was putting in 500k and the cut from proceeds was just extra, primarily because like I said, not many companies host their own events and make players fund their prize pool outright. Would be like hosting a party then slapping all attendees with a portion of the cost.
The worst part of the whole ordeal was Blizzard could have clarified this fact, but they chose to leave it in a vague manner like this because they knew players would pay to support players they like, and the big reason for that is because if they were outright and said âWeâre putting nothing in btw, all on you guys!â a lot of people wouldnât have bought the toys. So it felt like a blatant bait and switch.
They wont reduce the sub price. Not that long ago they changed the options for paying for game time which seemed to me to be a push towards using the sub rather than one-off purchases.
If there were things I wouldnt mind seeing reduced in cost permanently it things like transfer and race change fees, faction change costs, etc. And I reckon the expansion costs could do with a bit of a price drop too, especially when we are getting more of these trimmed down expansions.
Too bad for you itâs shareholders prioritized over players. So youâll get big promises every expansion to drive up the launch sales figures, then theyâll abandon ship without investing too much more into it because the shareholders want the big sales figures, and very low investment costs to maximize profit margins. They get kickbacks from the profit, the stock value isnât necessarily the big thing for them. If it was thereâd be a bigger incentive to make the game good so the stock price ballooned.
Them holding more stock equates to a bigger share of the profits, thatâs why they have so much of it. It isnât about the stock price climbing then selling that stock.
The sub price is fine, itâs the expansion price that could take a look at.
Itâs unfortunate that the smart thing to do if youâre willing to wait is to wait for when the current xpac goes on sale?
This is an expensive xpac when you consider that one of the four patches is going to be entirely reused assets.
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I have some hobbies where I can blow a months sub in 30 min, others can burn a years sub in under 10, and one that can cost the same as a 100 years sub in seconds if I screw up.
$15/mo is the cheapest hobby I have!
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The sub cost isnât really supposed to be for new content, that is what the expansion cost covers. Which is why you pay a sub fee even if you donât own the newest expansion.
If 180 a year is that large for someone, they shouldnât bee playing a monthly sub game.
I play the same 3 maps on Battlefield 4 in the same mode over and over again. Pretty much the same here, I queue up for bgs even at max conquest cap and max honor gear because I enjoy it that much. I donât care that much about the grinding, I play because itâs fun, I donât feel pressured for the rewards and I donât care about collecting, I care about the experience. My money is well spent because Iâm having a blast and itâs cheaper than what Iâd buy normally to keep me entertained.
lol you forgot about the wow token and store cosmetics
I wish there was a classic era only sub for like $3-$5 a month because itâs such a cute little number!
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