This free week isn't actually free.

[Dadian]

I'm actually writing this from my friend's account because my account can't post on the forums unless I pay for a subscription. Allow me to explain why the welcome back campaign is full of convoluted nonsense.

I quit in 2010. I heard about the free week from the welcome back campaign and was interested in logging in for a specific reason. I recovered my Playonline password and transferred it to my Square Enix account on Wednesday the 10th (it was already linked). When I try to log in it says "Please obtain a new Content ID or reactivate a cancelled one in order to play the game and/or to use PlayOnline services."

I log into my Square Enix account to activate my content ID with crysta (of which I have zero) and it says I have too little Crysta. I found from a friend who had transferred his PlayOnline account earlier that he was able to log in without any trouble, but his wife, who had not transferred her account was not able to log in. This leads me to conclude that I am ineligible for the welcome back campaign because my PlayOnline ID was not transferred before some specified date.

This is bullcrap. I quit the game before transferring my PlayOnline ID, why would I have already done this? Why can't they just activate all inactive content ID's for the duration of the campaign? It also leads to a broader question. Why the hell do content ID's still exist? Why haven't they streamlined the subscription crap to operate like XIV?

[Pixela]

Square seem to go out of their way to turn customers away.

Many players imported the game at launch because they were really impatient to play, they have been paying and buying expansions since then. Within the last couple of years Square decided to screw these players over, blocking them buying any expansions at all and not accepting their CC payments.

When a company does that you know they are kinda dumb. Then they seem surprised because player numbers are down.

So yeah nothing surprises me really.

[Elexia]

Why the hell do content ID's still exist? Why haven't they streamlined the subscription crap to operate like XIV?

XIV also uses "content IDs", it's basically the exact same as what they do with XI, XI's is just more obvious. With XIV you need an active service account (Content ID) - if you have two or more on one account, it acts the same as well.

And yes, you had to make the transition to the SE account system quite awhile ago, so in reality that's actually not Square's problem if you quit before the forced switch.

[Bamph]

Square seem to go out of their way to turn customers away.

Many players imported the game at launch because they were really impatient to play, they have been paying and buying expansions since then. Within the last couple of years Square decided to screw these players over, blocking them buying any expansions at all and not accepting their CC payments.

When a company does that you know they are kinda dumb. Then they seem surprised because player numbers are down.

So yeah nothing surprises me really.

Importing a game and expecting to be able to play it seamlessly runs the risk of it not actually working. Many games are like this. DVDs have regions. CDs have regions! You can't expect to buy a game from Japan and play it on a console from North America, and pay for it in Euros.

Sure, it would make sense to let people transfer their codes over to a certain market once they've bought it (I've heard you can do it once). But why can't you buy the expansions/pay for the game the same way you bought it in the first place?

[Raydeus]

Shouldn't the title be "I don't qualify for the free weekend" instead?

[Dadian]

And yes, you had to make the transition to the SE account system quite awhile ago, so in reality that's actually not Square's problem if you quit before the forced switch.

My point precisely is that people who quit before people were required to transfer their ID never had a reason to do so. Obviously it's not their problem, it's just a game that has a subscription that I'm not paying for, but I find it counter productive to the objective of a welcome back campaign to effectively exclude people who quit before a given date.

[wildsprite]

so if I'm reading the OP post right he needs to have an active POL account to do the transfer?

so when you try to transfer the POL account over it asks you to pay?

I only ask this because when a friend did it he wasnt asked to activate his inactive POL account only how he wanted to pay. then again he did the transfer before they forced it so his account would be all set.

are you certain your account didnt owe any money on it?

[Alhanelem]

It most certainly is free. I just logged right in and started playing the day it started. Didn't pay a dime.

There might be issues that prevented you from gaining access to it, but topic title makes it sound like there was some kind of money cost involved and there isn't. Sorry you ran into some kind of issue (and yes, the system is still as convoluted as ever), but free is free and I certainly didn't pay.

[Elphy]

One of my friends cannot play unless he renews his sub as well. Every time he has tried it directs him to his account to reactivate by subscribing. He just quit a year ago so he has done all the transfers and what not, always paid on time, never had an issue with violating tos, heck he didn't even use a certain 3rd pt program the majority of players use he was so on the up and up.

It just keeps telling him he has to pay to play.

So the "free to play for returning players" thing is fickle at best. Another old ls bud of ours logged right in.