[FF11] Just a warning about cancelling

[AladainAF]

I do not recall hearing this back in the day, but thought I would post this anyway.

I went to play FFXI again for awhile with a few friends, just off and on, and was having problems with my old play online account not letting me in.

I was doing my research and found this incredible link:

https://secure.playonline.com/polapp...6polg_loc%3Den

You can become a member again after unsubscribing from PlayOnline. If you return to PlayOnline within three months of unsubscribing, you can restart the same service without having to complete the regular registration process. In this case, use the "For PlayOnline Members Only" when launching PlayOnline after a reinstall to log back in using your existing PlayOnline ID and PlayOnline Password. If you return to PlayOnline three months after unsubscribing, you must register a new PlayOnline account. This means you must purchase a new copy of the software to obtain a new set of registration codes.

Is this legal? That does not sound reasonable, nor does it state anywhere on the box that you must continue to pay or else you'll have to buy a whole new copy of the game -- solely for registration codes (Not to mention I never canceled the playonline crap, I only canceled my content ID for FFXI).

Does anyone else have/had this problem, and if so, were you able to get around it by calling Squenix ? I'm gonna give them a buzz tomorrow, but this seems unacceptable, and possibly close-to illegal to me.

[Arbitrary]

I assume that I'm not the only one who changes games from time to time. Shit like this makes my reasons for putting WoW on hold look like a disagreement over box cover art in comparison.

[Man0warr]

SE and PlayOnline has been like this since the game launched. They did allow people to reactivate old accounts a year or so back, when ToAU came out.

[Saban]

Yea its been like this as long as i can remember.

Between this and the 1 character per account unless you pay more is proof square and playonline have no fucking idea how to run a reasonable mmo.

FFXI is trash.

[Jabberwhacky]

Well, isn't the real kick-in-the-pants that FFXI isn't trash, but is handled like trash? I've never played but have heard all sorts of comments like "FFXI's sub-job system rocks" or "the rapegecko (sic?)combo system really makes you value skilled players."

[mek]

Yeah, we've definitely discussed this before. It's incredibly retarded, even from a profit standpoint - I'm sure their current population would be much larger if it was possible for players to return to FFXI after getting bored of WoW.

[Saban]

Only thing i liked about FFXI was the playonline browser, it was a cool concept, the ability to change jobs so i didnt have a ton of alts, and how well the game ran.

The grinding, emphasis on grouping past level 10-15, lack of a decent quest interface, etc etc turned me away quick.

[AladainAF]

I just want to play because I have a perma-group with some old friends with jobs around my current level... and when I saw that, my jaw dropped. I simply cannot understand why they would do this. Even if this was this way from the beginning, as stated, it doesn't mention that anywhere that I saw on the box, and only in some paragraph on like page 11 of the manual, which you cannot see until you open the box.

It just seems like a very, very, very broken system to me.

[Saban]

Square used to send me emails saying i had an outstanding balance when they couldnt bill me for a month.

[Aerawnt]

Just reinstalled playonline to login my account that hasn't been in use for 2 years, after logging in, it said the acct was closed and prompted me to reactivate, which it let me do without hassle. My FFXI stuff is still registered etc.

If you're 100% sure you didn't cancel the playonline account, are you sure you have the right passwords? And the right manual/id? Dunno if you're in a situation where multiple people in your home would have a copy.

Also, I got some account and playonline password does not match crap when I tried logging in, but leaving the account password blank ended up working for me. Just tested with an old friend's info too, and set the account name to something totally random and put in the playonline stuff properly and it worked fine. So give that a shot if you haven't.

And not really trying to defend their crappy account mismanagement but...

The way it's setup there is no reason to ever unsubscribe/delete your playonline account. It's completely free, the first content id/char you subscribe for is 14.99 or whatever, so when you quit, you cancel that and you're done being billed.

So if you quit for 3 months after canceling just your content id, the character would be gone, but you would still be able to use your existing registration codes to buy a new content id.

[Goliath]

I remember I bought FF11 when it came out. I played for like two months then quit. One day I went to come back and found out that I had to rebuy the game. I laughed and never looked back. I also don't see how it is legal, it is completely insane.

[Vinen]

I still play this game. It's given me far more enjoyment then WoW did. It has competition and camping "uber mobs" against other guilds doesn't really bother me. It's all worth it when you claim something with 12 people (And they fail with 24+) and beat it right front of their faces with less people and in less time...

[Warrik]

Yea, this has been the case since launch pretty much. Way back when FFXi was semi hot on these boards the issues surrounding canceling was discussed as many ppl started to discover what you just posted.

[Troll]

This is probably the only reason I never tried the game.

[Aamina]

I have actually gotten involved in FFXI twice, once at launch and once last year. The second time I was informed that after 3-4 months of inactivity, your account may be deleted. It can be kept longer but they can delete it at that point.

Anyway, mine was, but I chose to get back involved...when I got back it was just as bad as I remembered. Terrible travel system, no bufftimers (wtf is that about...) and bizarre gear tiering.

-Aamina