Payment Options- The Easiest Solution (Opinions Wanted)

[Selzak]

Simply:

Add a "Final Fantasy XI" Crysta option for $11.95


This is not as convenient as the way it has been, and we still have to pay in $5, $10, etc increments for characters- but at least it will even out nicely from month to month. I can not think of any reason why this can't be done, and if this option is not added I would like to know why.

You could even get fancy with it and create a Warrior's Crysta($11.95) to indicate its purpose.

Doing this would, without a doubt, increase your sell of Crysta. The little chunks of leftovers that your FFXI customers are currently being forced to add-on would come nowhere near the additional customers that would otherwise not be buying that $11.95 worth of Crysta every single month given this option.


If one account means anything to you, personally this option (or another one that is trustworthy and void of additional fees) will likely be the difference between $0 a month from me and my continued subscription. For every person who gets fed up with the options we've been given, you need about five more players buying Crysta with that additional cost (assuming 1-2 characters) just to offset your loss. If that was my money on the line, I would definitely not be willing to take that gamble given the current reaction.

Finally, SE has had problems with urgency in the past and I hope the people responsible for decisions like this realize the urgency of the situation we're in now. If your lack of a response disrupts someone's habitual subscription payments, you can not expect them to come back a month or two later after you've provided the alternatives that they were asking for before they gave up and left.

Two facts:

1) This situation, left alone until the deadline, will cost you subscriptions- probably a rather significant amount more of them than you were expecting.

2) A large margin of those lost subscriptions will not come back after they're gone, no matter what. Not out of anger or principle, but simply because habits don't always look back.

Stop being so hands-off with this issue and fix it before it's too late.

[RAIST]

If trying to fix the Crysta issue...just give us a field to enter the exact amount we want to buy, and put a minimum purchase level if you need to to cover the transaction fees incurred (probly $5.00 minimum or something like that).

Otherwise....replicate the code from the JP site, adjusting the pieces needed to send payments through the regional merchant accounts you still have agreements with for processing the NA and EU cards...and much of the problem simply goes away. Those with 3DS cards can continue as they have over the years, those without 3DS cards can go C&B or Crysta, or players can go opt to use Crysta over all other methods if that is what they like. Then ALL the bases are covered.

[Panthera]

This would be a solution for those without mules. But what about people with an odd number of mules that don't match the currently available Chrysta amounts? The solution you propose fixes the problem in only one case.

There's a few routes SE can go to fix the problem:

1) sell Chrysta that equals $1.00. This way, people could buy close to exactly the amount they need.
2) PayPay option
3) Charging people's Visas exactly as they always have. If there is a fee for this, I think people would be willing to pay it.

[Kojo]

The monthly fee is $12.95, plus $1.00 per added character. So $11.95 wouldn't pay your service.

[Selzak]

The monthly fee is $12.95, plus $1.00 per added character. So $11.95 wouldn't pay your service.

This is noted in the OP. Pretty sure it's $11.95, then $1.00 per character.

Again, I'm looking at the simplest way to handle it on their end (not exactly the most obvious from our side) without any possible hiccups.

[Kojo]

This is noted in the OP. Pretty sure it's $11.95, then $1.00 per character.

Again, I'm looking at the simplest way to handle it on their end (not exactly the most obvious from our side) without any possible hiccups.

I have my character and a mule, my fee is $13.95.

[Romanova]

Since people seem to still be confused on this.

They changed the way the wording is when it comes to the fees (iono why but w/e).

Before:

account + 1st character = 12.95

Mule = 1.00

so 1 char and 1 mule= 12.95 + 1.00 = 13.95

Now:


account ONLY = 11.95

EACH character = 1.00

So 1 char and 1 mule = 11.95 + 1.00 + 1.00 = 13.95


It all comes out the same just worded differently.

It also means that if they were to do this at minimum they should have the crysta at least 12.95, because who is going to keep an SE account for 11.95 with no active characters?


Quite frankly though, just let us buy in whatever amount we want is much better because everyone has different amounts of mules.

[RAIST]

The base fee for NA is $12.95 USD. It may be adjusted perhaps in different regions due to currency exchange rates though. The OP didn't state what currency was being used.

[Wo1verine]

I would like to toss my vote in:
The easiest solution would be to lower the monthly subscription cost to an even $9 +$1 per character. (1000 Crysta for no mules.)
Win Win!

The sad truth about why SE is slowly phasing in Crysta may hidden in other MMO's that are "F2P" I fear that before too long they will offer purchase much more than just their subscriptions with the Crysta, you see alot of these older games sell ingame items for this fake currency stuff, purchased outside of game. Stuff like, fully lvl'd characters, brews and other super potions, and likely expensive stuff like stripeshells or maybe a cat's eye.
They are probably hoping that the small amount of leftover Crysta each month will be impulse spent on something like an extra brew.
For the record, this is pure conjecture and I REALLY hope they don't actually pull this stunt, but it just seems like they are easing us into it.