it's unknown because SE are dumbshits who never seek out feedback before or after implementing terrible ideas. Even perusing this thread i can see it will backfire
besides, i think their actual reasons are just they know it will get worse and they'd be doling out $30/mo for P2W crap in no time. Really it doesn't take much to discourage someone from jumping back into this game. It's already a steep climb unless you have escha gear
ok reading ffxiah...what i think is hilarious is the apologists comparing this to buying a mule. Thread locked, whatever
in 2003, was the advent of mules a clear slippery slope to cash shop, maybe P2W, like this here is?
all the way up till 2009 i had console friends who used mules as i think SE intended, not for storage but as **2nd characters** You know, a galka melee/tank and taru mage. People actually did this before multi box was so common, and it was a legit reason that went beyond cash grabs. The only remotely P2W you could say about mules is it allowed multiple crafts
I thought they said they didnt have enuf resources to make the change to f2p so it wouldnt ever happen, unless the extra dough they hope to make from new wardrobes is for that express purpose. So hopefully we dont have to worry about that. although I wouldnt mind a reduction in the regular fees for an old game.
I have known one player in all my time playing this game who legitimately used a mule on the same account as another character instead of just storage. She was crazy and crazy for doing so.
Back in the days I met many people like that, at least on Asura. Wouldn't say it was the most common approach, but it wasn't that incredibly rare either.
I mean, I knew people who took jobs to 30 or something trying out another race, but only one person who got to 75 and did endgame on two characters on the same account.
If the cost of keeping the game running is a serious concern, why are there so many dead servers going on so long without merges?
I knew people that did this to get alternate mission rewards/specialized merits and more open inventory space per character. IE: int merit taru character focused on mage jobs, elvaan/whatever focused on melee jobs, etc.
Yeah, I'm not going to say people like that didn't exist, but they're probably like the smallest of smallest portion of the player base. Given how rough it could be to get capped CoP done, a lot of folks just didn't have the stomach to try it again with alts. Rarer cross-job EX drops were also a thing, and you can bet most HNMLS weren't terribly tolerant of someone munching up 2+ when other people could use 'em, too. Given this was/is one of the few MMOs that doesn't outright force alt-hopping to play other classes, either, I think most also preferred the singular character approach.
At best, I could understand the issue of being a mage galka since lolMP, but most of the other class differences were often negligible. Heck, some could argue taru PLDs were better than galka due to more curing potential, even though their HP was lower.
Anyway, I'm too cynical to believe this storage cash grab is really for XI's benefit. For all the years we funded/propped up XIV and who knows what else funneled off to XV and other projects, I still say the game's earned some mercy from SE's coffers. Otherwise, you don't cut manpower and jack up costs expecting people to really believe things will get better.
I actually leveled one of my mules to 99 just to mess around with jobs I didn't have inv space for on my main, and to farm crafting mats when back when they didn't stack. This was around the VW era where there was crap all else to do than level jobs or build your Nth empyrean/relic/mythic. I've never used the char for anything I'd consider "end game" though. Best gear it has is from anything extra I can dbox to it. Beyond that I've always just used mules as low level gear storage when level cap was a thing, misc crap storage, and crafting.
Majority of the people who levelled mules on the same account fall into the category Byrth described, that I know of. That is: people who weren't really actively doing end-game content.
A few were just Brothers/siblings using different characters on the same account.
I had a couple of friends who used multiple characters on the same account to do stuff like Dynamis and Salvage though, to farm more gil.
Not many, but I can think about a few.
Back then having multiple accounts wasn't really as common as it is nowdays, if anything it was pretty rare and often not seen very well but a community that, back then, was soooooooo busy with witch-hunting FFXI players with their moral-police attitude.
The issue's been addressed in the recent Freshly-Picked Vana'diel presentation (still can't post links here though, check the FFXI twitter and official forums):
Interesting that apparently more people transition from console to PC than they expected...Along with the July version update, we implement the Mog Wardrobe 3 & 4 optional service. I would like to let you know that this does not mean that the plan for FFXI moving forward is to go the microtransaction route, so please rest assured this is not the case.
There are two main reasons why we decided to adopt our paid optional service plan.
The first is to mitigate against the increased stress placed on the servers from storage. Besides the increased loading times for items that occurs for each character, it’s very important to consider the issue where adding inventory support to all characters would cause stress on the entire server. Thus, one of the main reasons why this is an optional service requiring a fee is to mitigate as much of this server stress as possible. We’re building an environment tailored to those who wish to expand their inventory.
When looking into storage expansion, this is primarily the reason that it took so much time to make it happen. We decided to provide a fee-based optional service to accommodate players who absolutely felt that they needed more storage.
The second reason was to gain capital for continued service of FFXI.
When shifting service over to the Windows platform only, a great number of users moved from their previous platforms, which exceed our expected numbers. While this showed us good prospects, in order to ensure we can continue service for a long time to come we would like to do everything that we can.
I’d appreciate it if you took this optional service as a service that was provided only for those that need it.
The price they set still seems like pretty bad value for money, at least if your gear isn't super-optimized for a lot of swaps - it's hard to justify it being more expensive than just getting another character when that provides several benefits beyond storage, like more AH slots.
I never bothered to get a mule, but maybe after I get rid of the bonanza marbles, if I find myself with a really strained inventory (I have so many Mog Garden quests to do, those involve getting a lot of items there, and I don't like throwing stuff away), maybe I'll take the leap and pitch in with the slight bump to my monthly payments that would imply - maybe if enough people did that someone at SE would notice a pattern and revise the pricing. A wardrobe at a price of a mule would be a reasonable trade-off for the convenience, but not at twice the price of the existing practice...
They should still just go with a joint XI/XIV account and some server merges though...
I agree, that would be the best at this point. The lack of population on some servers is very demoralizing for people. The discount would be a huge bonus. Seeing that makes me okay with it to an extent as long as they keep the game going.
Without the threat of microtransactions looming, I will happily activate at least wardrobe 3 on my characters with the most jobs. I'm sure there are others who feel similarly. Good move, SE.
I would like to let you know that this does not mean that the plan for FFXI moving forward is to go the microtransaction route, so please rest assured this is not the case.Yeah.. gonna go ahead and just say I fully expect to see more things like this happening. While I don't expect things to reach XIV levels(the game can't really integrate a cash shop like that shitshow can) they're just going to offer new "optional services" whenever they feel pressure from the higher-ups to increase profit.The second reason was to gain capital for continued service of FFXI. ... While this showed us good prospects, in order to ensure we can continue service for a long time to come we would like to do everything that we can.
Well, I'm relieved to hear they're not planning on making XI microtransaction based. However, SE has been known to say they will/won't do something and then almost immediately do a 180 on their stance so I'm still feeling cautious.
Can't say I'm surprised at their server woes. I suppose it's far too late to do an overhaul of this game anyway.
Exactely, and even beyond that we don't even know if Matsui even MEANT those words or if it was just about words for the occasion, to keep people calm.
Now if Wardrobe3 and 4 proved to be a failure, economically, now I'd be pretty leaning to thing that would be the major proof for SE that no, microtransations ain't gonna work in FFXI.
But judging at how, despite whinings, people have proved to be very leaning to bend over at 90° in front of microtransations (see how many people already bought 1 if not even 2 wardrobes) I seriously doubt they will judge it a failure, quite the other way around.
We all know what this can and eventually lead to, it's just a matter of time.
No use discussing or arguing about it anyway, it's too late already, only thing we can do is watch it unfold and hope it's not gonna be too bad in the end. (like... the best case scenario we can hope for is that yes, SE found a way to milk more money out of us, let's hope they will actually INVEST this money into FFXI i.e. new stuff released, instead of just keep them into their wallets)