question about Crysta

[wildsprite]

I am curious about something, people are complaining about spending extra on crysta....

does SE charge a fee for it?

while yes I know it doesn't come in the exact amount you would pay for FFXI ...I was under the impression you get the amount you pay for

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Isn't crysta a third party? So don't you have to pay some kind of usage fee? If not, I'm suspicious how it remains free to use. Honestly I never even knew it existed until this whole account swap thing came up. Which is why I'm asking.

[wildsprite]

really? I was under the impression it was from SE themselves...I have nothing to base this on except SE is the first and only company I have heard of using it

[Alhanelem]

does SE charge a fee for it?

No. 100 Crysta = 1.00 units of your region's currency, and the price you pay in crysta is equal to the price you pay in that currency.

e.g. if you're in the US, the subscription fee is 1295 crysta, which is equal to 12.95 USD. 100 Crysta = $1.00
If you're in Japan, 100 crysta = 100 yen, and goes toward the Japanese subscription price (dont know what it is offhand)
... and so on.

In the US, you can only put on up to a maximum of $100 worth of Crysta on your account; I'd assume the limit is 10k yen's worth in Japan, and 100 euros in most of Europe and 100 GBP in the UK.

Isn't crysta a third party?

Crysta is not a third party. Crysta is SE's own Points, like microsoft points or wii points or tutti fruiti points.

You may be thinking of the generic Ultimate Game Cards that can be used to purchase them, or PayPal which can also be used to purchase them. But the Crysta system is SE's system.

[wildsprite]

@Alhanelem; thank you for clearing that up, I suspected this was the case but was not sure

[Alhanelem]

Really, the only drawback with crysta is the leftover balance you end up with due to not being able to put exactly $12.95 worth of crysta on. You can pay for several months in advance this way, and some people like that idea.

This MIGHT (though I doubt) also open up the possibility of multi-month discounts which are available for FFXIV (or rather, would be available if they were charging for it at this time)

[wildsprite]

multi month discounts would be nice, I would like to see this

is FFXIV pay to play again? last I heart is was still free till it was "good enough for the players" but I haven't heard anything recently about it

[TybudX]

FFXIV is still free to play. I'm guessing SE has some sort of contractual obligation to Ultimate Play and Click and Buy, despite not actually using their services. It makes sense that they would put FFXI under this system just so that they can get some sort of value for whatever it is they are paying, if nothing else. On one hand it sucks, as it forces (some) FFXI players to jump through more hoops in order to play, on the other hand it's a sign that FFXIV probably won't go pay to play any time in the foreseeable future. I guess both of those are bad, actually. Oh well.

[wildsprite]

true but according to the way I understood it we don't have to use them, I suggest paypal for those that don't have a 3D secure CC, then just buy crysta with it, I don't know many people that would end up going over $15 a month so they could buy crysta in implements of $20, then $10 or buy $30 every 2 months

[erevan]

The question that comes to mind for me is that no longer will the fee be taken directly fromm my account, that I'll have to physically make the payment each month?