Much-needed streamlining of the PlayOnline Viewer's superfluous login process

[Edyth]

The PlayOnline viewer is the most redundant piece of software I've ever encountered. I understand that FFXI is intimately bound to the POL infrastructure, but there's no need for POL to be a bad piece of software in itself.

This is based on the North American PC version of the POL Viewer with security token enabled.

Every time I log in, I have to:

Enter my Square-Enix password twice in a row
Endure a message about account security that is utterly meaningless because I always expect it to be there and say the same thing (Pplz getin' hax'd!), and I never read a word of it anymore, so if there's ever anything important or new, I'm unaware
Get reminded for the 3000th time not to forget my friends or family
Get beaten over the head about how the game is rated T for Teen and the reasons why (I've never played any Final Fantasy game that forces you to look at the rating WITHIN software EVERY time you play. In fact, I've never played ANY game besides FFXI that does that even once, much less every time I play)
Accept the terms of the User Agreement for the 3000th time


Remedies for these issues:

Ask me for my Square-Enix password once. This is a no-brainer. Even online banking websites don't require users to enter the same password twice every login.
Add a box for the user to check "Do not show again" for the hax message, like nearly any software offers for redundant warning messages
Stop reminding players about their friends or family if the POL account is over 30 days old
Put the T rating on the same screen as the "Seekers of Adoulin sales have started" button, or trust users to know it's rated T and ban those who are under 13, per the user agreement
Make us accept the user agreement only once on the first login. If needed, change the wording to "I understand that I will always be bound to this agreement so long as I use the service" or something similar


I believe that the North American Square-Enix HQ has some control over this (especially considering the ESRB rating), so pretty please, can we have it? For our 11th anniversary?

[Vizzer]

I enjoy the chocobo pointer.

[Dsherman]

I am puzzled by the claim of the OP that she needs to enter her SE password twice at each login. I only enter it once and it works just fine.

The only thing I can think of that might cause this is she has put something in the settings page for her account entry in the POL Viewer that doesn't need to be there.

On the first main menu page of the POL Viewer, you will see options on the left which include "Member List" at the top, and "Exit Viewer" at the bottom. To the right, you will see a list of 1 to 4 accounts that have been put into this copy of the POL Viewer. Select your account from that list.

This will bring up a new page with Login Information about the account you selected, and options to the left that say "Log In", "Settings", "Delete", and "Back". Select "Settings".

This will bring up a "Change Settings" page. There are three sections on this page. The first includes your Playonline ID, and the Playonline password (listed as all ******** to keep anyone from reading it).

The Second section in the middle is labeled "Set password for extra security". It has 2 items in it which are both password fields. They should BOTH BE BLANK, unless you have a local need to protect your account entry in your local copy of the POL Viewer from mischief from say a sibling that might try to do things with your account. These two password fields in the middle section of this page are LOCAL PASSWORDS ONLY and are NOT used to login to SE at all. Again, if you do not have a need for a local protection of your account entry within the POL Viewer, you should leave BOTH of these spaces BLANK.

The third section of the page is the space to enter your SE account ID, and the indicator of whether you have a Security Token configured on your SE account (so that the Viewer will know to prompt you for the one time password).

Having your SE account password in those two fields in the middle section of this page is the only way I can think of that the POL Viewer would prompt you for your SE account password twice.


As for the other things you would like to have taken away, I do agree that SE really shouldn't leave the message about account compromises there all the time. It does tend to make people just skip over it and not read when it does change into something else that is important.

As for the other items you would like to see taken away, I am afraid the reputation of many Citizens of the United States of America to be very litigation oriented (the lawyers like to sue anyone they can) will make it necessary to keep all of them in place. SE needs them to be there for its own protection. And it may not just be in the USA.

[svengalis]

PS2 limitations.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

The likely answer is that he added an account password or didn't set his POL password to save.

[Babekeke]

For me:

Open FFXI from shortcut;
Goes straight to login page, where I enter SE password (once);
Then security token;
Tab down twice and hit enter;
Hit enter on the shortcut to FFXI;
Hit enter to select Play;
Escape to get off the warning;
Enter to accept it;
Enter to accept terms;
Enter to select a char;
Enter to choose a char;
Enter to confirm it's the right char.

12 steps to logging in. Great when you get D/Cd in the middle of a fight >.>

[BST]

Sounds like someone wants a login process from 2013, like...FFXIV login right, just enter the password once and hit play, done.

[Kaisha]

All I want in the log-in process is another box to tick under the password entry that says "Load straight into FFXI".


Also a /logout flag in FFXI itself that returns to you to the main POL account selection screen, so I can swap accounts more quickly.

[svengalis]

For me:

Open FFXI from shortcut;
Goes straight to login page, where I enter SE password (once);
Then security token;
Tab down twice and hit enter;
Hit enter on the shortcut to FFXI;
Hit enter to select Play;
Escape to get off the warning;
Enter to accept it;
Enter to accept terms;
Enter to select a char;
Enter to choose a char;
Enter to confirm it's the right char.

12 steps to logging in. Great when you get D/Cd in the middle of a fight >.>

This is one thing I hate about duo boxing and for some reason my internet wants to to disconnect me all the time now. ><

[Direct]

100% agree with the orginal poster, there is far to many screens we have to pass to get logged into the game.

I feel sorry for the people who duo - quad box and have to log in after a dc.

[SpankWustler]

I don't know if streamlining the process is even possible, but I really wish it could happen.

If I didn't think the chocobo cursor were so adorable, there's a chance I would have kept my old half-broken monitor around for one more day for the pleasure of putting my fist through the POL login stuff before tossing the thing out.

[svengalis]

If this game was PC only it would be possible. Sadly it's not.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

It's not possible because all of those window you need to go through are still used to access other available feature. You seem to be forgetting that POL has nothing to do with logging into FFXI persay, but is a gaming platform/hub, much like steam. True it didn't pan out, but it is how the game was designed to be launched.

The only way around it I can see is if SE release a new login access. Patch the PC version so that it bypasses POL entirely.

[Babekeke]

The 'shortcut' added into PoL should take you directly to the character selection screen. Everything before that is unnecessary.

Add new content ID could be added as an option to the next available free character slot. When a content ID has been added but no character created yet, the add new content ID moves to the next available slot, and the one that was just added becomes 'Create new Character'.

(Actually, isn't create new content ID completely redundant now anyway since it's all done through the SEMS?)

Then just add a separate button for 'Delete Character'.

[FrankReynolds]

This (combined with the crappy bazaar / auction house systems) is the reason that I have been logged in 24/7/365 for something like 9 or 10 years now (4 of those years on two machines at the same time).

I'm pretty sure that the electricity bill costs more than the game at this point.