Petition: clickandbuy the only way no,thanks.

[Vhailor]

Well, one thing is certainly clear by now. SE likely is taking a "wait and see" approach with FFXI. I wish I could cancel at the end of August, but I will be playing until the end of September; this is largely due to the fact that I've been with a static party for some years now and the next time we're all available is near the end of that month. Thus I'll purchase enough Crysta for that, and call it good.

However, I have made one other decision: I won't be purchasing Deus Ex, despite an immense attraction to the title. If we, as consumers, boycott their products (not just FFXI, but all other SE titles), it WILL send an enduring message to the rest of the gaming industry to not ever behave in such a pathetic fashion.

Of course, this decision will shift according to SE's response. I'll be quite willing to forgive and forget if they admit their mistake before August ends. If they wait until September, though, they won't get me returning unless they make the game free. They need to show me they respect us as players, not just dollar signs; fixing the system after their bottom line takes a major hit provides me absolutely no assurances they won't try this crap again.

As others have said: follow through. Quit FFXI. Boycott other titles if you can bring yourself to. Force them to be responsive to their player base by removing your dollars and support until they change. I'm as addicted to FFXI as the next person; it'll be like quitting coffee, it's that much of a routine for me. Use this as motivation to take the final step. I know I will be.

Hell of a way for 7+ years of fun to end, but... well, had to happen sometime.

[Panthera]

We need to face reality and realize gaming companies don't care about us at all, they want money, to them we're money, they don't care how we feel about it so long as they save a dime, they don't care how inconvenienced we are until it cuts into their bottom line...Saddly, even with all this huff and puffing they'll likely continue profiting enough from the people who just say "fk it" and buy Crysta... They think they'll come out ahead by doing this, and they're probably right... Unless 1/4th~1/2 of the population quits because of this, nothing will change.

(my italics)

I don't think this is huffing and puffing. Is it not fair to say the reaction has been 90% negative? If only 33% quit, that easily meets the 1/4 loss you mentioned (using this forum as a sample population) . If just half of those are the real deal, that's a 45% loss; too close for comfort to the half-way mark you mentioned. And what if everyone that says they'll quit will? There's a word, decimation, to kill one man in every 10. This is worse than decimation, taken literally.

Italics from your quote are why I think there's hope for all concerned. We are money to them, that's why we are valuable to them for exactly that reason; it's actually a good thing. I don't think they saw this $#!^storm coming at all. Put yourself in their shoes. If you saw this reaction coming, would you have done this? Is billing so expensive in and of itself that it's more profitable to lose customers than to outsource it and keep what customers you can? I think the mistake they made is not putting themselves in our shoes. They're tight lipped. The fact that they intend to make changes to me means they're admitting to a mistake. They are not infallible. Movies get released that flop at the box office. TV shows get cancelled after one season. Gaming is a medium just the same, and reactions can be unexpectedly, overwhelmingly positive or negative. The difference is that the billing is in flux. I doubt they're sleeping much. I think they're up late doing everything they can to retain customers--their money. Wouldn't you? To us, it's our money. To them, it's their jobs.

Again, I am in no way an apologist for SE. I think they made a mistake, and I think it's in our mutual interest for them to fix it.

Hell, They've even gone out of their way to convenience the JP Crowd more. Its almost like they're trying to alienate foreign players.

(my italics)

Why would they try to do that? I'm not saying it is fair; it isn't, but put yourself in their shoes. Would you push paying customers away? Gonna go out on a limb here and guessing that running an international business is more complicated than running a mom'n pop store on Main Street.

Money holds us all to the same standards; in that sense, we are all equals. If you're 12.95, you're 12.95. If you start charging fees for going across borders, you're worth less. Money is money is money. Going across international lines, someone has to do some work to make dollars yen and so on; someone has to pay.

I give you that from a gameplay standpoint, many changes are too late in coming to matter. The game is in many ways better and worse than when we started. But we aren't talking about gameplay changes. We are talking about real money--and in that regard, real life. There is uncertainty because there is no precedent. So we can either despair or hope. Me, I choose hope.

[RAIST]

They aren't spending much on CC processing fees compared to what they are pulling in. If it was costly, small businesses couldn't afford it. Granted, the rates are a bit higher for internet based processing, but in the US you are looking at up to around $30 in monthly fees at worst (some may get waived in part, or completely in some cases), and under a quarter per transaction plus a varying schedule up to MAYBE 3% on each transaction in the WORST case (no discount rate). Granted, this may be different in the EU or Japan, but in the US, it's a paultry amount. When we pay taxes online here, they pass the % portion of the transaction fees on to us and it is only 1.83% tacked on to our bill.

[mistmonster]

As others have said: follow through. Quit FFXI. Boycott other titles if you can bring yourself to. Force them to be responsive to their player base by removing your dollars and support until they change. I'm as addicted to FFXI as the next person; it'll be like quitting coffee, it's that much of a routine for me. Use this as motivation to take the final step. I know I will be.

I doubt it will do much, but yeah I canceled every SE preorder I had. If they actually go through with this (as I believe they will) I don't ever want to see them again for treating me this way.

[tifia]

I doubt it will do much, but yeah I canceled every SE preorder I had. If they actually go through with this (as I believe they will) I don't ever want to see them again for treating me this way.

You'd be surprised at how much power we as consumers hold. If enough of us say No and don't transfer, it'll force SE to listen to us. Take your local grocery store for example. The products sold at your grocery store are based on what people have previously bought. Ever wondered why your favorite snack is no longer being sold or why there are less fruits and more cookies? Because it's what people are buying. The all-mighty dollar has a lot of sway. We as consumers have more. If we with-hold our money from SE, if they see a large number of people not transferring their accounts, they will look into alternate payment methods. Boycotting can work if people follow-through.

Unfortunately I do believe SE is going to fully implement the new payment system at the end of the month and not follow-up with our concerns. This is the same complaint that we had when FF14 was released nearly a year ago. We made a huge uprising against ClickandBuy and Crysta and got the word from devs that they were going to look for alternate payment methods. Clearly it didn't happen since FF14 immediately went back into "beta" mode again and customers didn't have to pay. So the rabble died down. I'm not surprised that they're attempting to pull this again. But now they have a much larger, and dedicated user-base that they're affecting.

Now to figure out where I'm going to send my character for her last day on Vanadiel.

[Octaviane]

Well let's see. Given that current payment options are not all available everywhere, those are the players who will most likely be lost. They will also lose players who take extended breaks and as yet might not even be aware of the changes. There are probably even more who have no clue yet what is about to happen. Then there are players who are holding out in hopes SE will bring back direct payment or allow exact purchases of Crysta. What will their decision be when August 31 rolls around and nothing is changed? Many will just say to heck with it and cave in. Yes, there will be a small number of players who dig their heels in and say no way and quit. There might be a small ray of hope that this will amount to enough to impact SE's bottom line. Problem is they won't really see it until September if it happens at all.

It has been 12 days (July 27) since the changes were put into effect, and at least 6 weeks since they were first announced. A few people back then saw right off the bat that there was going to be a $#!& storm on the Horizon. The 2 responses we have seen thus far have done nothing to quell the rising tide of opposition.

If SE can't immediately see from the pages and pages of posts in this thread and other threads that have brought up the subject that they have made an enormous blunder, there is no hope for them. I am still hoping though, for the sake of everyone that tomorrow will bring a major announcement from SE that will be acceptable to everyone, not just a select few.

[Ciecle]

Here's a little tidbit for you that are complaining about how unfair this is.

JP players pay 1180 Yen for the service(1239 w/tax) and 100 for a character(105 w/tax) (source: http://www.playonline.com/ff11/envi/charge.html)

1 dollar is ~ 78.38 yen
1239 + 105= 1344
¥1344 = $17.15
US:
$12.95 = ¥ 1015.0210

Even if SE were to change it to where you can direct pay them, but were told that they cant tax US players

¥1180 + ¥100 = ¥1280
¥1280 = $16.33

Now lets look at the example of a JP player buying 3 more characters and a US player buying 3 more

12.95+3 = 15.95
¥1344+¥315 = ¥1659
¥1659 = $21.17
15.95 = ¥1247.81

[Ravenmore]

Thing it really comes down is how they stand on profits. Does just being plus in the black good enough? If its that then they could 86 the rest of us and still make money. Since with the JPs they don't have to bring home the profits and pay fees and such and get hit with crappy exchange rates. Exporting nations with a strong currancy gets the shaft. As long as they keep thier main base happy that being JDM they can keep making money, even if they scale back thier over seas holdings.

Is it fair no way in hell, would you put this past any other company like say apple or at&t. At&T sending out tethering fee notices to people that are still on the old unlimited plan that use over 5 gigs of data. Or apples stance on that you have no right to down load anything that they have not appoved or is competing with thier own apps. Or any other BS they are trying to pull and seem to be getting away with.

Its sucks that they are doing it but am I really surpised, not one bit. Some regions crysta isn't even legel so why wouldn't they at least look into the fact CnB might not even work with the banks. I would have hoped they learned after the massive fail Spirits and the massive amounts of people that left cause WoTg took 3 years to finish with nothing worth 3 years of dragging it out. Then the game getting nothing in 2009 other then wotg missions. I only seen one other self destrustion this bad lately, and I highly doubt they have the nads(or skill) to pull a "New Coke" moment.

[Ciecle]

maybe you misunderstood the message...

equality is a 'bad' thing when it comes to this. If SE told everyone we're now going to be doing direct pay, but the current subscriptions would jump up 4+ dollars, everyone would freak out.

SE is trying to do what they've been planing. and that's dropping Playonline and only using it as a launch pad.

Yes alternative methods can be found, just give SE time.

Sure you can cut into their bottom line, but how many more problems will that cause?

Make SE lose money = They start shutting down servers.
Start shutting servers down = More pissed off players
More pissed off players = More loss.

[Ravenmore]

maybe you misunderstood the message...

equality is a 'bad' thing when it comes to this. If SE told everyone we're now going to be doing direct pay, but the current subscriptions would jump up 4+ dollars, everyone would freak out.

SE is trying to do what they've been planing. and that's dropping Playonline and only using it as a launch pad.

Yes alternative methods can be found, just give SE time.

Sure you can cut into their bottom line, but how many more problems will that cause?

Make SE lose money = They start shutting down servers.
Start shutting servers down = More pissed off players
More pissed off players = More loss.

Was't talking about anything you mention simple wrote that long before your post just got pulled way. And I get distracted easy while typing .