Worst Process I've Ever Encountered

I just bought the game - had some weird glitches through SE site, so I cancelled my order and purchased it through Steam (which allowed me to instantly access the client and gave me no problems)

I had 2 deal with 2 seperate customer service departments to get a refund (which are both linked from the exact same website), as well as carefully inspect a bunch of information, so I finally got that done.

I had to create 3 or 4 different accounts, jump through 15 loopholes and FINALLY I have my game working, even though I need to input 2 passwords to get into the game and run a seemingly obsolete launcher program with it's own login information, and run 2 different config executables - one of which gives me 3 options for resolutions which I'm still confused about.

I also had to go through some strange and not evident process to register my forum account (select my main character? and OH I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT THERE IS A LITTLE STAR IN THE CORNER THAT I NEED TO HIGHLIGHT)

Oh yeah and it just took me 20 minutes to figure out how to input my bonus code for an in-game item.

Anyway, this entire process has taken me 6+ hours and 2 days of studying your system to figure out.

I just wanted to point out that I've been playing games for 15+ years online - I work in the IT field and design systems - and this is by far the worst system I have ever seen , of anything. It's baffling that this game is 10 years old, run by a mega corporation that specializes in technology and has probably made billions in profit over the years , yet has the absolutely most ridiculously complex and badly designed 'process' for new customers that I have ever seen.

I'm sorry for bringing this up so negatively, but I am certain that I'm not the first person in 10+ years to point this out - and there's no excuses left for you to have not fixed this other than sheer ignorance. Hopefully this is my last negative post and it's all uphill from here but I can't stress enough how you need to streamline this process and merge some databases. Also stop insulting your English consumers with meta-english translations that are hard to understand. I don't know if this is some arrogant Japanese thing where you force your customers through a pilgrimage through hell to play your product or you literally just have never hired an english speaking person and given them enough resources to at least make some sense of this google-translated mess.

/rant

reopening rant for a second:
Your sessions do not carry over on SE site. It's infuriating. I log in, click a link and I'm logged out again. I mean, come on.

/rant

You can save the PlayOnline password so you don't have to enter it every time. They switched to a new login system in 2009, with the SquareEnix ID, and they switched account management from PlayOnline Viewer to the web site last year. The instructions with the game haven't been updated much yet, it's been covered in news posts on their site, the forums, and the POL Viewer.

Essentially, most of the problems are from the changeover and account management system being new.

Well, thanks for the information but I actually have the "save login" box checked for my playonline password and surprise - it doesn't work. But it's nice that this information is out there somewhere for someone to find, but why should a new user who just purchased a product have to go on a wild goose chase to get this information to begin with? This isn't some old shovelware dos game that I found that hasn't been supported for 15 years that I need to spend time configuring, this is a persistent online world created with somewhat recent technologies that is still charging people a monthly subscription fee and releasing paid content for fairly regularly with a large playerbase.

I don't think SE really understands the importance of the user experience and it's frustrating since they are ignorant to what people have come to expect. I understand that this game is a bit of an enigma in that it is run on consoles as well as the PC - but that isn't an excuse for this shoddy design. I mean, I had to get a live customer service rep from their website to explain to me how to navigate through the exact same website to find a link to take me to another live customer service rep that handled the billing side of things; All to get a refund on a purchase I had made on their website that partially went through, and I decided to purchase it out of frustration from a third party source which gave me absolutely no hassle. Then I was pre-emptively sent an e-mail explaining that I needed to do a step which I had already completed and had to further waste my time clicking the link, logging back in and receiving a message stating that it had already been complete. I mean, that is absurd.

I've literally spent so much time trying to sign up and configure my client to run on my machine that I've lost interest in the game out of sheer frustration. In fact, I've now spent more time writing about my anguish than actually playing the game. And I'm contemplating applying for a refund from steam because of this whole ordeal.

You MUST save your PlayOnline password to log in with a SquareEnix account. They just don't let you save the SquareEnix password for security reasons, and in case you are using a security token, since it's input on the same screen.

The resolutions are individually for the window size, menu overlay, and 3D environment prerendering before it is stretched/shrunk to fit the window.

I understand creating a new account is quite different than it used to be, and as my account is from JP game launch, I don't know all the details of using it. However, I've found little trouble actually using any of the menus if I actually stopped to read them.

The Steam install does hide the configuration programs used to set up the game, so installing from a disc is better, and I keep a copy of the disc on my hard drive to speed up installs when I get a new system.

The current system is a major improvement over the old billing and registration system though. You should look up how it used to work.

I think Bungiefan is using a case of, "things used to be worse, so they're better now; so get used to it" and "I had no issues with anything, so you shouldn't".

I hope SE sees these things as their new billing systems and all of the other crap was the reason why my brother quit, he refused to jump through the loops to get the new billing system going and change from using his credit card directly. Square has become terrible with service ecspecially for North American players, but I hope that you do come to enjoy the game, I personally love to see new faces around.

I'd say it's not just me not having issues, judging by the large amount of people I see in Gusgen Mines with Destrier Berets and no subjob. New players aren't having a large occurence of trouble registering. I started a few coworkers on the game and none came to me asking how to set up thier account or register that bonus item. The first they came to me was when they were creating a character and needed the Gold World Pass I said I'd supply them.

I used to get questions about Content IDs and registering expansions under the old system.

Steam may be difficult to get a refund from considering how easy the game is to install without Steam, and that they can't deactivate your FFXI account.

I've had better service than usual from them since the new billing system started. It's easier to get a person on the phone than before. I was also able to successfully get a region change so I could pay the fee again (started with a JP account and the new billing system limits credit cards to the region of the account, which is a pain with now living in the US).

I also bought it on Steam and I agree it's a monstrous, tortured, old system that's really poorly explained. And I can see why Steam would be unwilling to provide a refund, other than their usual policy - they can't unregister your key or delete your account.

And the FFXI config utility doesn't seem to do anything. No matter what I set, I get the same 800x600 bordered fullscreen mode that looks incredibly blurry and rough.

Yeah bought mine through their website and it was absolutely the worst experience ever, they merged the playonline with SE and so it wouldn't let me start up my new account without merging the two only I had never set up a Play online since this was my first time trying the game. Their poor choice in names for their codes led me on a 4 hour chase around the internet until out of curiosity I tried a code I found hidden somewhere. Would've been faster only to access their online support I needed that code.