Stop Online Store Items

RSS News · Sunday at 7:02 PM

Problem:

There are a lot, way too many items that are unobtainable in game that you can only get using cash.

Why is this a problem:

We already paid $60 for the game, then $15 per month for subscription and $40 for each DLC every 2 years, totalling approximately $200 per year. It's simply not ethical to lock cosmetic items behind paywall in a paid game with paid subscription and paid DLC.
Essential cosmetics do not have alternatives in game. Emotes like dote, loveheart, costumes that cosplay NPCs, they are only available via online store.
In-game content seriously lacks rewards. Instead of online store, these clothes could be rewards for doing in-game content. For example, it would only be fitting if Cruise Chaser mount was available via The epic of Alexander ultimate, and Ryne's attire was available via Futures Rewritten.
Emotes and cosmetic items that present in game often are inferior to these that are online store only.

But it's only cosmetics!

But cosmetics is a crucial part of FFXIV gameplay and it even is acknowledged by Square Enix themselves. A lot of cosmetics are obtained via in-game means and while they do not give stats, I could argue that cosmetic items are even more important than items that give stats because cosmetic items do not become obsolete with new patches.

Possible solutions to this issue:

Introduce rewards that are currently available only via online store to older content deemed "dead" by now due to lack of rewards, such as variant and criterion dungeons. Periodically rotate these rewards to keep content alive.
Bring into the game ability to acquire items from previous seasonal events during current seasonal events.
Introduce weekly "Bingo Card" that would contain various challenges and mini-qeusts such as completing certain duty. Crossing a line could give you one online store credit that you could use in place of, for example, 100 yen to obtain items from online store. Include duties that players rarely unlock such as hard dungeons, old raids, old alliance raids, optional trials to give more incentive to unlock and run this kind of content. Keep these cards limited to one per account and not available on free trial.

Positive outcomes:

Players are incentivized to keep their subscriptions and keep playing even during content drought, which in long run could bring more money than attempts to squeeze cash out of players via online store
More content is being unlocked and played, issues that some trials and dungeons take forever to fill or don't even proc in roulettes are significantly reduced
Square Enix and FFXIV gets better reputation because they are not trying to squeeze every last penny out of their players anymore