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Really think you should give FFXIV a deeper thought beyond just looking at the store and finding the level skips.
Even if you were to buy a skip, there’s still a considerable amount of game in front of you to play. They are only meant to get people to modern content without having to (to some people) slog through hundreds of hours of older stuff. It’s not a p2e micro-transaction by any means — far from it.
I agree with this whole-heartedly, there's simply no way any reasonable person would consider skipping story content as buying power in the context of how FFXIV works as an MMO.
It lets players jump right into the new content without worrying about dozens or hundreds of hours of prior story they may or may not want to play through to get to the latest content at the same level as everyone else starting out, that's all.
Absolutely, it's absurd to conflate XIV's level skips with being able to buy gold in other games.
XIV was actually my first thought re: the OP's query.
Hopefully you understand why I was a little suspicious!
But I tried it out, and holy moly it feels like a different era. My brain can't compute the fact that I just got a free to play game (Just have the demo, which honestly sounds like a ton of game) and it's not trying to sell me anything in game? The tutorial was all about game play in universe, and never once told me about premium currency? My ui doesn't have 5 different things? Crafting doesn't involve long cool downs that I can 5 gems to speed up?
Like it feels like a different era of game, thank you for being persistent! I've only played a couple hours, but so far it feels like it's going to become a comfort game at the very least.
They are only meant to get people to modern content without having to (to some people) slog through hundreds of hours of older stuff.
Counterpoint : if it was just that, it'd be free.
The money makers here want you to play their game. The more time you invest, the more money they make in subs. If you want to skip all that game and thus, in some ways, get all that progress done without having to pay all that sub, you’ve gotta fork over some cash.
You don't cost them anything for not playing part of their game, and you don't owe them anything.
If your interpretation of why they do this is right, it meand they want you to believe that "modern content" is a reward for playing through the rest. Nobody should think like that. Playing the game is the reward for playing the game.
It's like if Netflix made you pay an extra as you start watching a series on season 4, because you didn't pay your subscription through the three previous seasons.
Final Fantasy XIV would fit the bill. The cash shop only has cosmetics, and you can pay to add more retainers (basically bank space), but in terms of actual gold buying or power upgrades, none of that exists.
Hmm these look sus:
https://store.finalfantasyxiv.com/ffxivstore/en-us/product/804 https://store.finalfantasyxiv.com/ffxivstore/en-us/product/822 https://store.finalfantasyxiv.com/ffxivstore/en-us/product/809
Maybe they're not so popular, or in context not worth that much, but levels and money usually are no-nos for me. Because the one appears to be straight up levels and gil.
Leveling up in Final Fantasy XIV is easy. Just play the story and you'll reach max level by the time you finish it.
These items are intended for players who create an alt and who wish to skip most of the stury if they already played it.
Also reaching max level is kind of where the game begins (raids, dungeons, gearing up, etc).
Also 500,000 Gil is pocket change...
Would disagree it's where the game begins, given how story-directed it is. FFXIV is, to me, a single-player JRPG in the shell of MMO combat with a huge amount of multiplayer content. (Especially with the fulfilment of duty support allowing you to do MSQ dungeons with bots.)
I play FFXIV since 2014 and I honestly wouldn't recommend anyone to buy this. You're just paying to not play the game and skip the main quest (which locks up a bunch of content behind it).
Worth actively recommending against, even.
This is a story skip. Many forms of character progress in FFXIV are gated by that individual character completing the main storyline quests.
A story skip boosts the character to the beginning of the current expansion tier, so it is not possible to use this mechanic to compete with standard players on current content. I think the intended use case is alt characters (which are less necessary in FFXIV because you can play all jobs on one character, but many players still have them).
Also: the included gil is a small amount. It's meant to replace the gil you'd earn from doing the story quests.
Yeah, they're a skip to endgame content. But they're not any kind of "instant win."
The couple types of pvp aren't tied to your character level, and the most difficult raid content is best run with a group that you practice with. If you've never played, simply grabbing the game and one of those packages isn't going to give you an immediate edge.
XIV is sort of a single player game with a bunch of coop boss fights.
And, not to be cliche, but you can play through the entire first two arcs (A Realm Reborn and Heavensward) completely free, with no real limitations. The only things locked out of the free tier are the more social aspects, and any content above level 60. A handful of jobs are locked, but there is a ridiculous amount of content available for free.
I've played a few other mmos and hated them all. XIV is something weirdly different. And the overwhelming majority of the community is chill and friendly.
I'd argue that if you never played, then getting one of those packages would actually make you play worse than someone who's played from the start.
It is not a normal suggestion because the base game is probably the most pay to win mmo that has lasted more than a year or two. But both versions of Runescape (both old school and Runescape 3) have a game mode called ironman mode.
Ironman mode is an official account type that you can create where you can not trade other players items or money. Everything is earned and gathered yourself. If you want to make a bow you need to gather the flax to spin a bow string and chop logs to fletch an unstrung bow and then string it.
It is a slower mmo with most skills in the game having methods to train where you don't need to pay much attention and you can mostly watch youtube.
Both games also have very mechanically different and difficult combat encounters you can work your way up to.
Maxing out every skill in the game takes year(s) to do and there are hundreds of incredibly unique quests that in my own opinion set the bar for mmo questing. There are no kill 30 boar quests or fetch quests (really) they are mostly very in depth stories with character archs and so much lore if you are into that.
Would recommend OS over RS3, because much as I love archaeology, RS3 is overmonetised (I think most of the community agrees with that?), and that seems like a big part of what OP wanted to get away from.
Starwars: The old Republic.
Totally free for eight excellent epic stories with no pay wall to overcome or excessive difficulties without subscriber benefits.
Subscription unlocks more content.
Microtransactions are for cosmetic only, and there's plenty of cosmetic options without them too.
Keep meaning to check these out before it dies (how healthy is it? / how long do I have?).
The game was just reassigned to a new studio for maintainance, it'll be around for a few years yet.
Guild Wars 2 is the only one that ever really hooked me. Didn't find any pressure to spend in that to keep up, that said I haven't played it in a while so it may have changed.
FFXIV.
Not sure about ESO and SWTOR. I know WoW has the token market that technically counts as turning money into power by selling tokens and buying clears.
Some of the best gear in ESO come from their paid DLCs and Chapters. Technically locked behind a paywall, but you'll still have to farm the gear yourself.
The microtransactions themselves only offer cosmetics, consumables (that aren't more powerful than the craftable options), and utility stuff (race-change tokens, and skipping some of the skillpoint grind).
There is a player market for exchanging Crowns (microtransaction currency) for gold, and another player market for buying raid clears with gold. Raiding (called Trials) offer some of the best PvE gear. You don't need to buy clears if you're skilled enough to run those Trials and can find groups to do it with you.
If you just want to enjoy the game without worrying about min-maxing your build, all the base-game and craftable options will do you just fine.
Hmm these look sus:
https://store.finalfantasyxiv.com/ffxivstore/en-us/product/804 https://store.finalfantasyxiv.com/ffxivstore/en-us/product/822 https://store.finalfantasyxiv.com/ffxivstore/en-us/product/809
Maybe they’re not so popular, or in context not worth that much, but levels and money usually are no-nos for me.
As others have said, the story skips are kinda awful.
Plus, I gotta say that it doesn’t really make a difference. They don’t give anyone an advantage over anyone else and don’t impact the way you experience the game at all. If you don’t like them, just don’t buy them.
At worst, you’ll run into some guys who are really bad because they skipped a huge portion of the game to get to modern content. But it doesn’t give them any edge over you by any means.
Again, I can’t stress enough how these affect other players 0%.
Replying 19 hours later but...
Yes, FF14 does have options to skip story or (most) character levels. They are, like others have stated, primarily targeted towards players who are levelling alts (which the game by nature doesn't really need as much).
FF14's story is amazing, but it's long and not necessarily something you want to repeat.
And while this is effectively buying levels, FF14 is not designed as a pay-to-win game. The amount of experience required to reach maximum level is balanced for someone who is playing the game legitimately -- unlike P2W games where requirements are artificially inflated to encourage you to spend money. You will get most or all of the experience you need to hit max level just from following the storyline and a moderate amount of side quests (on one class anyways.)
That said, many FF14 players say that fashion is the true endgame... and there are a lot of nice-looking items on the store. So I suppose it depends on what your definition of "winning" is. 🙃
Runescape was like that for the longest time and tbh k dont think bonds really impact my experience all that much
Ironmen stand alone. No trading with other players means no way to p2w.
Yep, OSRS ironman involves so little non-social interaction with other players* that their power from bond gold is almost irrelevant.
(* outside cooperative and competitive minigames etc.)
If you're interested in games that aren't MMORPGs, Path of Exile fits your criteria for monetization. You can only purchase cosmetics and bank storage upgrades. It's an online ARPG but it's mostly single player.
It is pretty much unplayable without the bank storage upgrades though. Given the amount of time they can save you, you may as well say that they are power.
Guild Wars 2 basically makes it impossible to buy power -- once you've purchased all the expansions, at least. Which is incredibly impressive considering there's an official way in-game to trade real-world cash for in-game gold.
That's one of the benefits of having gear be horizontal, you can get a build geared from a fresh account in a few days, and then there's only minor optimizations you can make (there's a gear rarity that's higher than the readily-accessible exotic gear but basically you have to earn it, and then there's legendary gear which is there for fashion and qol because you can change the stats on it at any time).
I see you can buy gems, are gems nothing?