The reasons P2P worked for FFXI...Follow

..are all broken in FFXIV.

Cash shop options didn't directly influence game design decisions, because there isn't one to tempt the devs. - Retainers are one of the biggest culprits of this on XIV but you will also see more as the game progresses (toning down of the look and prestige of "free" ingame items, mounts and pets as to add prestige to cash shop ones is very common in cash shop games and has already happened in XIV). "we can't have extra inventory because server limitations"...but you can have as many retainers as you want! please buy!"

RMT were destroyed on FFXI, the devs were ruthless and decimated them. On XIV they are rampant and allowed to be due to very slow bans, which means they can easily make profits to offset buying the game. This appears to be intentional.

The lore and aesthetic of FFXI is never compromised, because they want you to believe in it and accept it as being a real place. No out of place cash shop items, as you see in f2p games to ruin the aesthetic and pull you out of the game. - In XIV the cash shop items and collaboration events make it look completely ridiculous and the devs don't care at all, pink unicorns with an afro are not something you can rule out of being added at all. How long till XIV get a hello kitty collaboration event?

The developers don't destroy things you have obtained while paying to play the game, nothing you have obtained in FFXI will be taken away from you as punishment from a time when you paid to play. Everything, every single thing I ever obtained in XI is still on my characters (including my mog house and all items in it). In XIV housing is destroyed if you dare to unsub for a period of time (nor do they give you back all the gil and items from destroying it), this is a fair tactic when used on f2p games but not on a p2p one.

FFXI is a proper play to pay game, comparing it to any f2p game the differences and benefits are available for all to see. The same cannot be said for XIV.


Edited, Apr 30th 2016 6:18am by Runespider

Ya, that was around Christmas 2004-2006 (can't remember which year exactly). I just remember gil selling for 5$/Million which was nuts (might of been even cheaper). Lot of people got burned, while some got stupid rich. Didn't help you had people fishing up rusty caps all day and night to either craft them or sell em off to npc/bazaar. Or the bots camping Stroper Chime for sniper rings, Argus for PCharm, etc. Funny how all those things got changed throughout the years to combat these things. BCNM drops for those items, caps selling for nothing to NPCs, Goblin Anglers, change in fishing all together, etc.

My only real beef with sold vanity stuff is if it has no in-game alternative acquisition. Whether or not it "fits" the world is another matter, but I know I disliked when Rift started throwing stuff in like horse head helmets because meme's gonna meme. The concept of a maid and such outfits doesn't seem very out of place for XIV, but I can understand if the chosen aesthetic representation might not jive.

I'll agree the XIV housing system is a mess and it's for reasons I've beaten to death in thread(s) more dedicated to it. Long and short of it, it's 2016, inactivity should not result in a player losing resources.

I can't agree that XI destroyed RMT, either. Or more accurately, gutted methods legitimate players used to make gil. Actual gil generation in XI was atrocious, with mobs dropping very little, vendored items getting nerfed to hell if they were found too high (especially with crafting involved), and quest rewarded gil may as well not being a thing. To this day, you'll have some people with max gil accounts while all that's circulating is mainly still ill-gotten stuff from the olden days of fish botting and mass gardening. If you wanted to make gil in XI today, odds are you're stuck farming RME currencies because good luck finding a reliable market in anything else, especially with all decent gear being exclusive.

Yeah I remember around christmas there some people in my guild were talking about how they got gil as a christmas present from their parents haha.

I actually agree with Theonehio, RMT can't be eliminated entirely regardless and quite frankly I think SE has done a better job in XI than a lot of newer games have despite knowing about the issue going in. Some of them basically just destroy the economy from the start just to avoid RMT issues, but the spam is always there regardless with the only difference being there is no economy to begin with.

I think XI did a good job of making an economy that worked somewhat and then doing their best to crush RMT as opposed to how many developers do it now where they create a system that is more or less broken enough to suck from the beginning to combat RMT. For me the XI way was more fun and worked better in the longrun.

Eh, all official sales do is put a cap on the market. It'll still have some economic ramifications, but let's not kid ourselves, RMT are also trying to steal whatever accounts they can get their hands on to either liquidate or (bot) farm/advertise. You also risk that feeling of pay-to-win if purchases go beyond vanity buys.