@Rosina,

I appreciate your loyalty to the game and to Square-Enix. Really, I do.

The rest of us, up till now, have been just as loyal as you. Some of us have played FFXI since it came out, and logged in countless hours. Some of us have been with Squaresoft since the original Final Fantasy, and played every game since then. We've leveled every job and craft, beaten every mission of every expansion and mini-expansion, and defeated every major Notorious Monster. Some go to conventions; the game is a topic of conversation in real-life even when we're not playing. We go to bed too late to get in a few more hours of play. One of the first things we do when we wake-up is log on, manage auctions, and one of the last things we do is log-off and bid our linkshell mates good night.

It is a big deal to us, and we just want you, and Square-Enix, to understand that we are upset and we have a right to be upset. A loyalty that is not returned is folly in its purest and most unrefined form. What it comes down to is this: they want us to use a two-bit hustler in a back alley as a go-between for payment, and they want us to overpay him to boot. Our answer, quite simply, is "Hell, no".

Over-reactions to game mechanic changes go ignored, and well they should be. But this is quite different. This is our hard-earned money. We are not bluffing. Go ahead, try us. But before you do, know that it is never a question of "What are my chances?" and always a question of "Can I afford to lose?"