[ZeroTigress]

Ooh, this forum is nice. I've never been to one where it displays similar threads to prevent repetitive thread creation. I like this. (By the way, I've already scanned through the forum a bit to see if previous threads had the answers I wish to know.)

So anyhow...

I've played Final Fantasy VII and VIII for the PC so I have faith that SquareEnix did similarly well for this PC port. That said...

I currently play another MMO called Ragnarok Online (which came out 3 months before FFXI according to Wikipedia) and I became interested in playing FFXI after watching my younger cousin play it. I don't mind having to figure out most of the game mechanics on my own since RO is similar in that aspect (and I find it a fun challenge to do so). However, I have but a few questions:

I'm confused about the PlayOnline and Content IDs. From what I've been able to dig up, you're supposed to create a PlayOnline ID first and then register a Content ID for FFXI in order to play? And then when you finish the free trial you must delete the Content ID to prevent from being billed?

As for the free trial itself, are both the 14-day and 30-day trials available or is it only the 14-day trial? (30 days is pretty long for a free trial...) Also, are the free trials restricted in any way (i.e. level cap, limited money, etc.) or can you access the entirety of the game content while playing?

I'm considering playing for long-term since the pricing is nicely similar to that of RO. However, the billing system has me concerned. On RO, I pay for 1 month and the subscription immediately terminates after 30 days pass. (I can't play anymore after 30 days.) From what I could find, SquareEnix does continuous billing (like paying for utilities bills) that must be manually cancelled. Is this how it works or am I assuming wrongly?

How do you choose servers? I wish to play on the same server as my younger cousin and it seems the only way to do that is to obtain a world pass or something to that effect.

Thank you in advance.

[Ameroth]

Originally Posted by ZeroTigress

I'm confused about the PlayOnline and Content IDs. From what I've been able to dig up, you're supposed to create a PlayOnline ID first and then register a Content ID for FFXI in order to play? And then when you finish the free trial you must delete the Content ID to prevent from being billed?

You register a free PlayOnline ID first. Next, you need to create a Content ID that will be attached to your POL ID. The content ID is what's required to create a character and is what you pay a monthly fee for. You do not need to delete the content ID, but can deactivate it at any time to stop payments for future months.

Originally Posted by ZeroTigress

As for the free trial itself, are both the 14-day and 30-day trials available or is it only the 14-day trial? (30 days is pretty long for a free trial...) Also, are the free trials restricted in any way (i.e. level cap, limited money, etc.) or can you access the entirety of the game content while playing?

The 14-day is a free, free trial as in you have not paid for anything yet. The 30-day trial you get from actually buying the game (http://www.direct2drive.com/6753/pro...Q&esvtk_s=bgss), and allows you to play your first month for free. Upon the 31st day of play, you will get charged a fee, and then will continue to be billed on the 1st of every month.

There are no limitations to the content during either the 14- or 30-day trials.

I do not know how the two trial periods work together

World Passes are not used anymore because you can pick your server during character creation.

[Hachibi]

Originally Posted by ZeroTigress

I'm confused about the PlayOnline and Content IDs. From what I've been able to dig up, you're supposed to create a PlayOnline ID first and then register a Content ID for FFXI in order to play? And then when you finish the free trial you must delete the Content ID to prevent from being billed?

Contents ID and all those things still confuses me but if I'm not mistaken, what you said is correct.
You have to get a PlayOnline ID and then register it with a Content ID. As for the trial, they won't ask for your card information so you dont really have to delete the Content ID if you choose to stop playing.

Originally Posted by ZeroTigress

As for the free trial itself, are both the 14-day and 30-day trials available or is it only the 14-day trial? (30 days is pretty long for a free trial...) Also, are the free trials restricted in any way (i.e. level cap, limited money, etc.) or can you access the entirety of the game content while playing?

The only limitations you have on the trial are the access to expansions maps, you're free to do everything else. What you get from the website, its a 14day trial. As for the 30day trial, you get it from buying the game. And it can add up to 44 free days. This is what I did, downloaded trial and used it up. After 14 days changed to a paying account and entered the CD keys and got 30 more free days.

Originally Posted by ZeroTigress

I'm considering playing for long-term since the pricing is nicely similar to that of RO. However, the billing system has me concerned. On RO, I pay for 1 month and the subscription immediately terminates after 30 days pass. (I can't play anymore after 30 days.) From what I could find, SquareEnix does continuous billing (like paying for utilities bills) that must be manually cancelled. Is this how it works or am I assuming wrongly?

That is correct. Unless you want to stop playing, SE will just keep billing the fees.

Originally Posted by ZeroTigress

How do you choose servers? I wish to play on the same server as my younger cousin and it seems the only way to do that is to obtain a world pass or something to that effect.

When creating your character, you can choose which server to play on, unless its overcrowded and SE shuts it down from new characters.

[ZeroTigress]

Originally Posted by Hachibi

That is correct. Unless you want to stop playing, SE will just keep billing the fees.

Hmm, that doesn't sound very promising. I guess I'll have to wait until I play the game to see if it's worth the trouble of stopping the fees after a month.

Originally Posted by Hachibi

When creating your character, you can choose which server to play on, unless its overcrowded and SE shuts it down from new characters.

Oh dear. I hope the server my cousin is on isn't crowded.

[Hachibi]

Originally Posted by ZeroTigress

Hmm, that doesn't sound very promising. I guess I'll have to wait until I play the game to see if it's worth the trouble of stopping the fees after a month.

I don't see why is that such a big problem. After the 30 days, you'll be too hooked up to even consider stop playing so...

[Ziero]

Originally Posted by ZeroTigress

Hmm, that doesn't sound very promising. I guess I'll have to wait until I play the game to see if it's worth the trouble of stopping the fees after a month.

Actually, it's the exact opposite of how you feel. The 30 day trial that comes with the $20 version of the game is completely unrestricted so you can literally do whatever you want within the game and learn almost everything you want about it before paying a monthly fee. It gives you ample time to play the game, experiance it's content and find out if this is something you'd actually want to stay with or not. If you don't like the game after 30 days, you can just cancel your Content ID and SE won't charge you a single penny ever again.

Though just a few things to note:

Your PlayOnline account is completely, and totally 100% free for life. There is no reason to ever cancel your PlayOnline account.

Your Content IDs are what you actually pay for monthly. These allow you access to create and access your characters so you can play the game. If you do enjoy this game and play for a while, but for some reason feel the need to quit, you can just cancel the Content IDs for all of your active characters and SE will not charge you. The characters will still be saved in the system, and will not be deleted for some time (which varies) so if you ever decide to come back after a long break, you can just reactivate a Content ID and use your old character

Oh dear. I hope the server my cousin is on isn't crowded.

So far only one server has officially been closed, and that's Odin. However Bahamut is getting up in numbers and it wouldn't surprise me if that closed down to new characters as well.

[assumedvigilance]

i don't know if this holds true still or not, but i read somewhere that a person had the 30 day free trial going and only got about 15 days before he/she was charged. had to do with when that person signed up and how far along his trial period the next first of the month hit. you may want to make sure that if you do the 2 free trials that they end on the last day of the month so you get your full 44 days out of it.

[ZeroTigress]

Originally Posted by Hachibi

I don't see why is that such a big problem. After the 30 days, you'll be too hooked up to even consider stop playing so...

Oh, you misread me. The problem isn't that I won't get hooked (which is most likely the case), it's that SE will continue to bill me even if I stop playing after a month. The way it works on the MMO I'm playing now, I just pay for 1-month and I play for 30 days. Then once the 30 days expire, I can't play anymore and have to pay for another month to continue playing. This is a nice system as it gives me control over how much money and time I spend on a MMO.

It's interesting that SE has taken a utilities billing approach to charging their players, though it doesn't make me feel very good in the least as it means that SE will continue taking money from me when I don't play. I'm a casual MMO player so my usual habit is to play a game on and off (to keep myself from getting bored with a game I like). From what you're saying, this means I have to continuously delete and create Content IDs in order to not be charged for time I don't play. This won't be a total hassle for me, though it means that I unfortunately will not be able play FFXI very often as a result.

[Rothy]

Originally Posted by ZeroTigress

Oh, you misread me. The problem isn't that I won't get hooked (which is most likely the case), it's that SE will continue to bill me even if I stop playing after a month. The way it works on the MMO I'm playing now, I just pay for 1-month and I play for 30 days. Then once the 30 days expire, I can't play anymore and have to pay for another month to continue playing. This is a nice system as it gives me control over how much money and time I spend on a MMO.

It's interesting that SE has taken a utilities billing approach to charging their players, though it doesn't make me feel very good in the least as it means that SE will continue taking money from me when I don't play. I'm a casual MMO player so my usual habit is to play a game on and off (to keep myself from getting bored with a game I like). From what you're saying, this means I have to continuously delete and create Content IDs in order to not be charged for time I don't play. This won't be a total hassle for me, though it means that I unfortunately will not be able play FFXI very often as a result.

All you do is cancel your content ID if you don't want to be billed anymore (Do not delete your character!) With the IDs cancelled, SE won't charge you.

[meSchnitzel]

Originally Posted by ZeroTigress

Oh, you misread me. The problem isn't that I won't get hooked (which is most likely the case), it's that SE will continue to bill me even if I stop playing after a month. The way it works on the MMO I'm playing now, I just pay for 1-month and I play for 30 days. Then once the 30 days expire, I can't play anymore and have to pay for another month to continue playing. This is a nice system as it gives me control over how much money and time I spend on a MMO.

It's interesting that SE has taken a utilities billing approach to charging their players, though it doesn't make me feel very good in the least as it means that SE will continue taking money from me when I don't play. I'm a casual MMO player so my usual habit is to play a game on and off (to keep myself from getting bored with a game I like). From what you're saying, this means I have to continuously delete and create Content IDs in order to not be charged for time I don't play. This won't be a total hassle for me, though it means that I unfortunately will not be able play FFXI very often as a result.

Actually i think you misunderstood, Its very easy to just Disable your content ID at the end of the month if you don't want to play anymore. It does not delete your character, it simply de-activates your access and you dont get charged again until you reactivate.

MOST MMOs have the auto billing approach active. The difference however that you have experienced is that some allow you to play for 30 days and then have to reactivate, or others will allow you to purchase a time card at the store and it will activate your account for 30 or 60 or however many days you want.

so yeah, no deleting when you dont want to pay, simply deactivating... takes maybe 2 mins

[Solymir]

If I had to manually pay my bill every 30 days that would drive me nuts. I am happy with the way SE does their auto-billing.

[Ameroth]

Originally Posted by ZeroTigress

The problem isn't that I won't get hooked (which is most likely the case), it's that SE will continue to bill me even if I stop playing after a month.

They sure will bill you after a month if you don't cancel their service. If you know for a fact you will not be playing next month, you can cancel your content ID whenever you feel like. In fact, we just had a topic (here) discussing activating a content ID and then immediately deactivating it to prevent SE from charging for the following month.

But SE is not going to charge you for a service you have deactivated. Worry not.

They will, however, charge you for a service you have not deactivated even if you are not utilizing it. It seems like a pretty easy and fair system to me.

[ZeroTigress]

Originally Posted by Solymir

If I had to manually pay my bill every 30 days that would drive me nuts. I am happy with the way SE does their auto-billing.

The reason why I prefer paying for a MMO on a monthly basis (that is, pay for a month and only get that month) is mainly for security reasons. On the MMO I play currently, if you pay by credit card, you have to re-enter the credit card number each time you pay for a new subscription. This means that the company doesn't keep the credit card number in their system and hence anyone who tries to hack my account will not be able to use my characters or steal my in-game items unless they pay for the subscription first.

Granted, someone can easily use their own credit card to compromise my characters, but at least they're using their money and not mine.

[Armando]

This means that the company doesn't keep the credit card number in their system and hence anyone who tries to hack my account will not be able to use my characters or steal my in-game items unless they pay for the subscription first.

Granted, someone can easily use their own credit card to compromise my characters, but at least they're using their money and not mine.

I'm not seeing the benefit though. If you pay on a monthly basis the character is still accessible to anyone who hacks your account for the rest of the month; and really, they just need an hour or two to strip your character clean.

[EternalMalachi]

The billing info is saved on SE servers and I have yet to hear about them getting hacked or their security compromised.

When people get their account 'hacked' it is usally because they gave their info to someone (so they could log them in for lvl'n or whatever) or they download unsafe 3rd party tools and someone gets their info that way. Avoid those things and you should be just fine.

And I would think it would be LESS safe for you having to give your billing info every month. If at some point you unknowingly acquire some malware on your pc, there is more opportunity to get your credit card info if you have to reinput it so often. SE has even changed some process where you use your mouse to enter into a virtual keyboard for certain info to avoid you losing info to possible keyloggers on your system.