12,675 x 4 = 50,700.  So about 440 dollars per year.  That's not including all the other stuff you have to buy for convinience, costumes, artisans, daily cron stone bundles....

Meanwhile in FFXIV...

16,194 x 2 = 32,388.   100 crysta is 1 dollar so 323.88 USD per year.  That's it no extras, that's the maximum sub with 10 retainers and Companion app.

What so giving people tets and t9 horses are not going to make em stay??? *shocked emoji*

Let's get the facts straight at least:

1) They are giving a lot of free buffs (at least 2-3 months of all per year so your projected costs are like 20%-30% inflated unless you CBA to click and collect free items and codes).

2) You don't have to run buffs 365. It's prolly even a big waste to do so.

3) You have free to play options ( sniping from marketplace - loyalties ).

4) BDO is light years ahead and better game obviously than this FXXDVIIIX thing you're comparing it too. What that even is I don't even know it. Seems like a bad copy of WoW from the trailer, and has a name like an NVIDIA driver from 2004 *cough*

5) The "all the other stuff" you mention is something different from the sub you're discussing here. All  games have either those, or expansions cost.

OBVIOUSLY. One of the most played mmo in the world has to get to bdos standards. 

So  you are comparing the base cost of 1 game to the premium cost of another game and saying that the game that you are using the premium cost is price gouging?  

Instead lets compare the base cost of BDO $10, or $70 if you include a tent, with no further purchase.

VS

FF14 $323.88 per year forever.  

I'll take the 1 time payment of $10 or $70 over the $323.88 every year subject to potential increase year over year.

FF14 is a premium game. Bdo is not. You also need pets, maids, weight, inventory slots, fairy, horse skill change coupons, tailoring coupons and costumes. Things that come standard with the sub in ff14 since it does not have intentional bad design in it to steer you towards the cash shop.  

Bdo also has gambling with real money. Both in scam boxes and in artisans/crons. 

BDO is not a game.

Its a framework for abusive monetisation.

If you let this sink in, everything become crystal clear.

Most players won't keep all buffs active all year long, but get real, if they keep these prices, that's because it works, players buy the buffs they really want and not the rest.

Just check this discount, the idea is to make players buy ALL the buffs, not just one of them. 

Moreover, you have a strange conception about what you HAVE TO buy in BDO. Yeah, if you add all the possible cash shop purchases, BDO is far more expensive than FFXIV. But that's unrealistic. 

When people make those posts they like to omit a few important points, some of which were already mentioned, but lets just list them regardless:

 1. You do NOT have to have all of the premium features active at all times. You can pick and choose what you need based on your ingame activities.

2. Buffs like Kama blessing and Book can be obtained fairly regularly via marketplace for silver (I have been doing that for ages). The only buff that is hard to get from market is VP.

3. We get quite a bit of free premium time that you can use for buffer where needed.

4. We often get discouted premium buffs and or Premium VP (essentially a severely discounted version of it)

5. We regularly get -50% offers for Pearl boxes which essentially halves the cost of anything in the Pearl shop

6. And last but not least, if you are a compulsive spender and have no financial literacy the problem is YOU, not the game.

Does BDO have shiity monetisation options? Sure, like 95% of modern games, especially MMOs. Is it entirely their fault that you can't control your spending on non-essential features? No it is not, take some accountability and do better.

For the past several years I've never went over ~100 bucks per year for BDO because when I decide to spend I do it smartly and I have never lacked for anything.

Cheerio,