Donate Gil to the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund

[Kluaf]

I would like to see SE do something besides just shutting down the servers to help out with the relief in Japan. As all of us know this is a world wide community of players through out all of the servers on FFXI. I would like SE to start an account to where the players can send gil to a special account towards a Relief Fund to help the people of Japan during these times. I know SE does not allow gil to be bought or sold. But it could be done as part of a special event like the mog bonanza and players could receive a special mog house statue for taking place in the donation event. The gil could be auctioned off on ebay with all the proceeds going to a Japan Earthquake Relief Fund ...

Just a thought as theres obviously theres gonna be a Red Cross type cell phone donation fund ...

[Rubeus]

I think it's a great idea.

[Burmecia]

That's actually a really nice idea. I like it a lot.

[Topdogg]

or instead od them giving us a free month, they could just charge us as normal and donate that money to relief.

[Starcade]

I was actually thinking of posting both those ideas while talking to friends tonight just as the game went down.

Since the Devs (or at least, probably pro tem, the American team) are going to see this:

1) Players who can do so (and, in this economy, I can definitely take anybody who truly cannot do this) might wish to consider taking their April $12.95 and donating it to any one or more of the relief efforts.

2) After Square-Enix and the Japanese power grid can get stabilized, I would like to make a suggestion vis-a-vis that the players are able to "donate gil" and, for every X amount of gil, Square Enix or some group of corps will donate to the relief efforts, and make a nice in-game event out of it or something.

But, before all that, first things first: Japan has a lot of work to do, and I'm glad to see them getting at doing it. We'll be here when you get back.

[Niyah]

these are some great ideas, im all for it. where do i sign up?

[Emerican]

Or better yet they could make some exclusive gear or items, even dollar Mog house Decorations. With all of the proceeds going directly towards the relief fund. I would for sure buy one of these items in support of this terrible tragedy.

[Helel]

I would definitely endorse the idea of giving our April monthly fee to a relief fund. I think that's a great idea. They would have to make it optional since they already promised they wouldn't charge us, but I think most people would participate in it regardless.

[Burmecia]

Or better yet they could make some exclusive gear or items, even dollar Mog house Decorations. With all of the proceeds going directly towards the relief fund. I would for sure buy one of these items in support of this terrible tragedy.

When I think about it, something as simple as this might be a better solution. I was discussing this with my fiancee, and we were thinking of the good and bad that could come out of a gil fund-raiser such as the OP suggested. I really like the idea of everyone being able to contribute, and money not being an issue for those like me who are barely getting by in the current economy... However, the bad things I could see happening from this are RMT phishing scams (RMT's claiming to be SE's official donation account or something of the like), and people just not donating to this due to the fact that this could technically be RMT activity even though it would be sanctioned by SE.

But in reply to your suggestion, it's a really simple and straight forward way that would probably be more effective. I could see a lot more money being raised this way in all honesty (and if the donation "items" were cheap enough maybe even I could contribute).

But either way, I really like the idea of raising money for the people of Japan who have been struck by this disaster. I'd be happy to see anything created by SE to help with the cause. :)

[Jaguar]

I would definitely endorse the idea of giving our April monthly fee to a relief fund. I think that's a great idea. They would have to make it optional since they already promised they wouldn't charge us, but I think most people would participate in it regardless.

^
This. The fees for one month alone would be a huge donation.

[Madscientist]

I think the staff of SE has made a difficult and heavely thought decision, with 3 nuclear reactors facing possible meltdown and or radiation leackage its a wise decision. Mayby in the future they will have a backup server, but now they should only concentrate to help those who lost their loved ones in this sad sad time. My condolences to all in SE that lost their loved ones or friends. I feel with you all. But I liked the idea of a relief found its a good idea. They can have also an option during the mounthly payment where we can donate. But I think the japanese people are proud people and they want to try to solve their problems internaly. They are well known as the most well prepared in the world regarding Aid. They are allways the first contry to reach to the desaster areas.

[Lollerblades]

You think about how many people play world wide~ If we all donated our April billing the relief fund what get a hell-o-lot of monies to help :)

[Kabel]

I would gladly still pay my 12.95 monthly subscription fee.

[Imakun]

Even if SE itself doesn't do it, we can help with donations in many many ways already. Just send your April's 12$ through one of those, at least that's what I'll do.
I don't think it matters who takes the initiative, what's important is to help our fellow adventurers, their families and everybody else.

[Runespider]

I think it would possibly be a good idea for Square to maybe at least suggest a good charity organisation that would actively be helping with this right now. I'm not sure I really trust the red cross as an organisation anymore or whether they wouldbe the best place to actually send money.

[Rubeus]

Legally, money donated in the U.S. only has to funnel "whatever money is left over" to the actual donation; the rest can all go towards "cost of maintaining the relief center, salaries of the executives, etc."

I would like SE to give us a Japanese charity that will take USD and Euros. we the players, on the whole, are worried and feel a deep sadness and many of us want to help in more ways than we legitimately can given many of our demographic locations. Even if SE just set up a donation paypal for the Japanese people, or guided us to a Japanese-run organization, I believe many of us would like to use that. (partial repost from the large earthquake thread ^^)

sidenote: posted @ffxi_en on twitter to have them read these 2 threads (with links). my suggestion would be for more people to do that too so the actual dev team DOES know we care and want to do something to help. they're more likely to get the hint faster with a bunch of us going HEY WE WANZ HALP YOU

just a thought~

[Emerican]

When I think about it, something as simple as this might be a better solution. I was discussing this with my fiancee, and we were thinking of the good and bad that could come out of a gil fund-raiser such as the OP suggested. I really like the idea of everyone being able to contribute, and money not being an issue for those like me who are barely getting by in the current economy... However, the bad things I could see happening from this are RMT phishing scams (RMT's claiming to be SE's official donation account or something of the like), and people just not donating to this due to the fact that this could technically be RMT activity even though it would be sanctioned by SE.

But in reply to your suggestion, it's a really simple and straight forward way that would probably be more effective. I could see a lot more money being raised this way in all honesty (and if the donation "items" were cheap enough maybe even I could contribute).

But either way, I really like the idea of raising money for the people of Japan who have been struck by this disaster. I'd be happy to see anything created by SE to help with the cause. :)

Yeah the idea would be to make a set of several cheap MH or gear pieces. Making it to were if you wanna donate more you could buy the whole set or for people who cannot afford the set, could just buy one piece and donate as well.

[Rubeus]

honestly even if they just re-sold tidal talismans as well as did buyable MH furniture and maybe just another mog bonanza with the gil going towards disaster relief (like a gil>yen conversion ratio, in the millions) i bet you people would do all 3.

[lowkey]

Why do you need an incentive to donate? Can't you just donate even if they don't give you a bajillion gil, or give your moogle a cowboy outfit? It's called charity, because you do it out of the kindness of your heart, because it's the moral thing to do, not because it's the only way for you to obtain some lame virtual trinket. Is worthless crap the price of acting decent these days, or something?

[Rubeus]

Why do you need an incentive to donate? Can't you just donate even if they don't give you a bajillion gil, or give your moogle a cowboy outfit? It's called charity, because you do it out of the kindness of your heart, because it's the moral thing to do, not because it's the only way for you to obtain some lame virtual trinket. Is worthless crap the price of acting decent these days, or something?

not for you, not for me, not for many of us on the forums, but for someone else? maybe, yeah. it takes all kinds, and if you can get more help to people who need it, i dont see why you shouldn't take any avenue available to you.

besides, many donation places only accept nothing smaller than like, 1000 dollars. >_> this would be a great idea for players to show we care without re-mortgaging our houses to do it.

[Randwolf]

From their point of view, they probably would not want to bill the gamers automatically. Although, the majority of the player base would have no issue with it. Not many people would want to feel like the recipient of a forced donation.

However, S/E could allow people to opt in and be billed their normal amount, or more as if purchasing an add-on. Then let S/E decide how the money should be used. Since S/E still incurs operating overhead, they could use the fees to pay their employees as well as donate extra monies to the Japanese relief efforts. Or even use the funds just to help S/E employees who are in crisis.

[Lexin]

I can understand them having to turn the servers off to conserve energy. I also would rather instead of getting a free month have that April subscription be donated to help the relief.

[Randwolf]

I put up a petition for S/E to allow voluntary payment of April fees as well as to donate, through PoL, extra monies. It wouldn't be a lot different than the way people could make donations through their cell phones. And, by donating through S/E, you know it wouldn't be a scam.

[Runespider]

Or better yet they could make some exclusive gear or items, even dollar Mog house Decorations. With all of the proceeds going directly towards the relief fund. I would for sure buy one of these items in support of this terrible tragedy.

Buying trinkets cheapens the whole idea in the first place and is in bad taste :/

If you want to give money give money to a charity to help, if not don't. If you need to get something out of the deal you should probably not bother.

Should probably keep in mind that this isn't like some massive flood in africa or something, Japan is a rich country same as if this happened in the US or EU so they don't really need silly cheap gimmicks to get as much money as possible. The point of giving money is compassion at what's going on showing the rest of the world does care and helping, not getting a stupid item out of the deal.

[Jesterking]

Basically OP is condoning SE sanctioned RMT... y'ok..
Also, like someone said before, why do you need some in-game item to feel the need to give. Talk about greedy. They're lives are being altered, possibly forever and you want something for a game that will shut down eventually. So dumb.

[Selzak]

Or better yet they could make some exclusive gear or items, even dollar Mog house Decorations. With all of the proceeds going directly towards the relief fund. I would for sure buy one of these items in support of this terrible tragedy.
This is the best game-related idea. Donating gil is not practical at all.

[Krystal]

when i first saw this i was like"oh come on...sweet idea but silly" now that i've properly read over it i actually think it would be a cool idea..however SE wouldn't sell gil..that would be going against everything they have put in place to stop RMTs.and about donating out monthly payments to them..how about this instead of our monthly payments being donated how about they install a button into the viewer that allows you to make a $10 donation? and hell if SE really wanted to they could offer and special in game item for those who did. i mean it's not like in game items have any value but it would encourage players to donate....just an idea though.

[Krystal]

Basically OP is condoning SE sanctioned RMT... y'ok..
Also, like someone said before, why do you need some in-game item to feel the need to give. Talk about greedy. They're lives are being altered, possibly forever and you want something for a game that will shut down eventually. So dumb.

the idea of offering an in game item is to encourage players who"only care about FFXI" to donate as well. we all know that most of us would donate without a second thought expecting no reward in return. but those out there who could give a rats ass about lives and only care about their own would need some "encouragement" to donate. this way those who donated out of the kindness of their hearts who didn't expect a reward would know they did something nice for Japan and get something a little extra for their generosity, while the ones who don't give a damn would get their damned little "special in game item" for in their eyes"Paying for a neat new item to play with in game" while still at leats helping the cause.

[Jesterking]

the idea of offering an in game item is to encourage players who"only care about FFXI" to donate as well. we all know that most of us would donate without a second thought expecting no reward in return. but those out there who could give a rats ass about lives and only care about their own would need some "encouragement" to donate. this way those who donated out of the kindness of their hearts who didn't expect a reward would know they did something nice for Japan and get something a little extra for their generosity, while the ones who don't give a damn would get their damned little "special in game item" for in their eyes"Paying for a neat new item to play with in game" while still at leats helping the cause.

I see what you mean, but I think if that's the ONLY reason why people are donating, then they shouldn't bother donating at all. Because really, in a way they wouldn't be donating, they'd just be paying for the item. Plus, asking for an item is asking SE to create some item for the playerbase when they already have more then enough on their plates.

[Krystal]

I see what you mean, but I think if that's the ONLY reason why people are donating, then they shouldn't bother donating at all. Because really, in a way they wouldn't be donating, they'd just be paying for the item. Plus, asking for an item is asking SE to create some item for the playerbase when they already have more then enough on their plates.

in my eyes the end justifies the means. so if throwing some little item at players to get them to donate to help out japan ends up helping japan..then by all means do it.

[Marianka]

I feel for Japan and the ordeal the people overthere are still going through. I would like to donate money, but lets face it, Square Enix is NOT Japan, just a corporation there. If you gave them your money they would prolly keep ff14 alive for another year

[Krystal]

I feel for Japan and the ordeal the people overthere are still going through. I would like to donate money, but lets face it, Square Enix is NOT Japan, just a corporation there. If you gave them your money they would prolly keep ff14 alive for another year

as cruel as that sounds............you're probably right...-_-;

[Ilax]

I feel for Japan and the ordeal the people overthere are still going through. I would like to donate money, but lets face it, Square Enix is NOT Japan, just a corporation there. If you gave them your money they would prolly keep ff14 alive for another year

That horrible to think SE would do such of shame activity again they own country... Pay 14 with a disaster, when i say many of you guy need a break off the game i am serious...

[slakyak]

Thanks SE for not charging for April. Think mine is going back in to the disaster relief fund though! Looking at some of the sickening/enraging posts going on in some of the topics elsewhere (rollback anyone??) not everyone would agree with SE putting the money in to a fund.

eBay auctions are a nice idea, not sure about SE becoming gillsellers though!! Maybe selling haircuts for characters or something could work. I don't like it that someone with a spare $30 could buy a weapon that someone slaved over no matter where the money goes. But I'm all for furniture, costumes, hair or race changes.... Maybe even random tat that SE have kicking around the office?

[Starcade]

When I think about it, something as simple as this might be a better solution. I was discussing this with my fiancee, and we were thinking of the good and bad that could come out of a gil fund-raiser such as the OP suggested. I really like the idea of everyone being able to contribute, and money not being an issue for those like me who are barely getting by in the current economy... However, the bad things I could see happening from this are RMT phishing scams (RMT's claiming to be SE's official donation account or something of the like), and people just not donating to this due to the fact that this could technically be RMT activity even though it would be sanctioned by SE.


Starting my way through the posts on our first day of vacation:

It would be RMT, but it would be legal because it's Square-Enix doing it. It's like the pets and the like which Blizzard sell in WoW. There's a term for that, though, for the life of me, I forget what it was.

Easy way to deal with the scammers: Any donations made in or "near" game (on the POL part for XI, probably somewhere near the login stuff for XIV) are done only to official outlets. Gil donations, if such a matter were tried, would be to moogles within either game only.

[slakyak]

You got me thinking now! How about $5 or your local equivalent for a /jobemote style animation where a halo appears above your head for a couple seconds??

[Vanar]

Customers of participating wireless carriers can text REDCROSS to 9-0-9-9-9 to make a $10 donation to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Donations will appear on customers’ monthly bills or be debited from a prepaid account balance. Message and data rates may apply. Depending on the carrier, individuals can donate two or three times per month.

SE shutdown the servers, and cut our service fees for April, in support. Lets use this simple method to show our support for japan, as well as show SE how we support their decisions.

[Zarchery]

Gil isn't real. Why not donate MONEY?

[Meyi]

Gil is a virtual item and does not affect reality in any such way.

However, I think it'd be great if they opened up a way for us to donate money. Real life money.

[Burmecia]

Why do you need an incentive to donate? Can't you just donate even if they don't give you a bajillion gil, or give your moogle a cowboy outfit? It's called charity, because you do it out of the kindness of your heart, because it's the moral thing to do, not because it's the only way for you to obtain some lame virtual trinket. Is worthless crap the price of acting decent these days, or something?

It's a little naive to expect a lot of people to do this. Creating a virtual in-game item that could be buyable on the POL website creates an incentive for people to donate money. Perhaps you are right that people need to be doing this on their own, but you really can't expect that from everyone. Sometimes an incentive needs to be created to have better results.

Not only that but if SE followed through with this, it would give a ton of a positive feedback for them in the media. So in the end, it's beneficial to both the company and the people they(we) help. ^_^ So it's not impractical at all.

[Starcade]

Gil is a virtual item and does not affect reality in any such way.

However, I think it'd be great if they opened up a way for us to donate money. Real life money.

This is not what the OP had in mind I think, but this is something I posted somewhere -- maybe in this thread.

I believe there should be a gil-based way to donate, because there are many FFXI players who cannot afford to donate as much as they'd either probably like or have necessary to really help out.

My idea would be that, once (and, frankly, if) everything is stable enough that the game can continue, Square-Enix partners with a number of other companies, and an in-game event is created where players can donate gil to Moogles (say, even make this part of the 9th Anniversary, which would, if this thing goes a month or six weeks, effectively BE the re-launch) or buy special items (be they furnishings or semi-desireable lower-level gear), with the gil proceeds being put in to a pot, where X amount of gil means a donation to the relevant charities.

[Musahashi]

500,000g wating in my pocket to be sent to any account SE deems responsible. I would like to nominate myself as an Ideal candidate for recieving funds and listing the amount of gil sent and what player sent it :D.

But seriously, I am not going to miss the April fees, It's already in the my budget, so why not put them towards the relief?

And as for sending gil to SE, Well, since Enix have their pockets lined with gold, how about they donate as much yen as we donate gil? I would like to see that.

[Starcade]

I don't think they have as much "gold" in their pockets as you think -- I still think, though, that an effort to allow players who can't necessarily afford direct cash donations would be a good idea, as long as they end up in repositories that Square-Enix can track, like when they track the amount of Mog Bonanza gil.