Thank You SE and Good-bye

[Heimdall]

Because if you have been reading the forums at all you would know that Alhanelem is a forums troll that seems to feel he knows so much more about the game than others he of course has to put in his 2 cents. This is a common illness among the basement dwelling community, I frankly feel we should start an association and have a telethon to help combat this horrible social disease, but sadly very few ppl care about them or anything they say.

ya why i'm not even bothering responding to him. simply put i've been charged in a 2 month period almost 70 dollars for my account and trying contact SE been a joke afer repeatidly waiting on live support hold system for 30 mins at time only to be cancled out with a message no agent available emails going un answered and phone support just being a perment hold it all just become on big joke. Far as what i said eariler about it beingthem trying distance them self from US dollar why else would they make people in other countrys who use pay with the dollar no longer be allowed to. There was a simular article while back about wii sales and money the company would lose due to echange rate flucturations.

[JackDaniels]

It's bad business practice to force people who have been paying the same way for nearly a decade to abruptly change the way transactions are processed. What were they thinking? If I wasn't so heavily invested into this game I would stop playing, but that's exactly what SE is banking on.

[Cursed]

So many "SE fails" comments in this thread.

Does anyone else wonder if maybe SE's actions are having the exact desired effect on FFXI?
Is it still profitable for them? Idk, they eliminated half the servers. Maybe they're way bellow the amount of subcribers they need to hit a profit. Maybe the cost of staff employed to maintain and design/redesign FFXI is greater than the combined sum of all their subscriber's fees.

Slowly killing FFXI is what I would do if I was running at a loss, and wanted to mitigate the permanent damage to my reputation among my loyal fan base.

I've always thought that Abyssea was SE's way of accelerating the demise of the game's challenge factor. (to encourage/support/initiate subscribers retirement/quit)
I think the new payment method is their way of slamming the breaks and shouting "END OF FFXI, WE'RE HERE! ALL OUT"
(the closer we get to September, the more "/rage quit" we're going to see.

I for one, am not bothered anymore. If I am unable to log in September 1st or 2nd, I will just leave it as it is until I find a reason to log on. Lvl cap rise isn't sufficient tbh.

[Panthera]

So many "SE fails" comments in this thread.

Does anyone else wonder if maybe SE's actions are having the exact desired effect on FFXI?
Is it still profitable for them? Idk, they eliminated half the servers. Maybe they're way bellow the amount of subcribers they need to hit a profit. Maybe the cost of staff employed to maintain and design/redesign FFXI is greater than the combined sum of all their subscriber's fees.

If servers aren't running at capacity, and you can consolidate them, then consolidate them. I think that's just about saving money.

Is this still making money? Well, they're still supporting it. I guess yes?

Slowly killing FFXI is what I would do if I was running at a loss, and wanted to mitigate the permanent damage to my reputation among my loyal fan base.

If the game is running at a loss, you do one of two things: try and save it, make it free-to-play, or shut it down. Article on MMOs that failed here. If this doesn't officially kill the thread, I don't know what will.

I've always thought that Abyssea was SE's way of accelerating the demise of the game's challenge factor. (to encourage/support/initiate subscribers retirement/quit)

I think the idea was that they're trying to warp you through middle-game/exp grind content as quickly as possible so that they can get you to end-game content where they can sell you expansions and mini-expansions.

I think the new payment method is their way of slamming the breaks and shouting "END OF FFXI, WE'RE HERE! ALL OUT"

There's a few possible reasons.

* PlayOnline didn't play out the way they intended (and that's a fact), and was probably too expensive to run as-is. They wanted the payment procedures to be leaner for their own benefit.

* Chrysta makes sense because they make a slight profit on over-payments.

* Paying in advance that's non-refundable is guaranteed profit. There are people who would shell out a year's worth in advance for this.

(the closer we get to September, the more "/rage quit" we're going to see.

Yup. People are already posting these in pre-existing threads. It's just a matter of more individual threads coming up. What makes this thread unique is about what SE got right and got wrong, and how billing fits into the equation.

I for one, am not bothered anymore. If I am unable to log in September 1st or 2nd, I will just leave it as it is until I find a reason to log on. Lvl cap rise isn't sufficient tbh.

I'm still playing and still hoping this works out better, but I have not and will not sign up for Click'n Buy as things stand. But I am bothered about it though. Been playing for awhile, as so many have, and this is just a terrible way for it all to end. Quitting because of real-life demands is one thing. This on the other hand is just lame.

[Heimdall]

So many "SE fails" comments in this thread.

Does anyone else wonder if maybe SE's actions are having the exact desired effect on FFXI?
Is it still profitable for them? Idk, they eliminated half the servers. Maybe they're way bellow the amount of subcribers they need to hit a profit. Maybe the cost of staff employed to maintain and design/redesign FFXI is greater than the combined sum of all their subscriber's fees.

Slowly killing FFXI is what I would do if I was running at a loss, and wanted to mitigate the permanent damage to my reputation among my loyal fan base.

I've always thought that Abyssea was SE's way of accelerating the demise of the game's challenge factor. (to encourage/support/initiate subscribers retirement/quit)
I think the new payment method is their way of slamming the breaks and shouting "END OF FFXI, WE'RE HERE! ALL OUT"
(the closer we get to September, the more "/rage quit" we're going to see.

I for one, am not bothered anymore. If I am unable to log in September 1st or 2nd, I will just leave it as it is until I find a reason to log on. Lvl cap rise isn't sufficient tbh.

From my understanding ffxi is one their only current profit makers going on and maybe some hand held stuff/phone apps. It is sounding like they looking to get away from main game system game development and move to other mediums like phone apps and some others things. Far as abyssea really think it was their attempt to copy WOWs success by eliminating xp grind system. As most people know in wow soon u turn on game u practiclly maxed level. In the end it seems like they become gun shy with so many company screwups missmanagments and lacking a proper focus for what direction to go in to recover. they need focus on quality and customer satifaction as in the past instead of trying squeeze every cent out of everything to rebuild the brand quality and customer loyality. square at one time was the company i think everyone else looked up to and respected while every release they made was a major event that was eagerly anticipated.

[Kuwabaraone]

Before I begin this is no way an attack, but rather an brief letter to SE.

Till Directwithdrawl is reinstated, I'll Say "Thank You SE for the Years, and Farewell." This is My Last Month.

Glacont
2004 - August 2011

[This last piece I wish to address My Fellow Gamers. Even though this is a Letter from Myself to SE, and is not an debate over a choosen topic, I welcome all constructive views, however, any negative, sarcastic comments... and yes, even those I know so much eyes '>.>' I will not respond to. Take Care, Everyone].

Ah, so you are willing to continue the adventure if they are more willing to fall back on traditional methods of payment then? ^.^) But I do share your concern with 'ClickandBuy' as I did sign up. But what concerns me more is the fact that I have yet to be charged for THIS month (August, 2011) and I'm still playing. It IS a shame for a seasoned veteran to say their farewells, but we ALL will leave this playground of Vana'diel one day (some sooner than others). You felt ready, and made your choice. If it's still around, you should come back (even if as a 'new player' ) and see what has become of this world.

KB1

PS. May Altana (God) continue to watch over you and your loved ones. /salute

[Airget]

it is a pity a majority of the people I play with most likely won't be continuing because of the payment plan not because of the game, though to an extent this is more like the final straw.

While the future of the game does look promising upon finishing WoTG you kinda just lose the motivation to continue on since it all just feels like you're playing to get more gear and the severe lack of any story substance is quite sad. As I beat WoTG and went through the final CS I thought to myself, we'll never get anything like this again, based on what they've been doing we'll never see an actual story like this ever again cause they are so adamant about keeping ps2 support even if it means destroying the potential the game has.

It's kind of sad while they keep ps2 support they have no problem removing a payment plan that has always been an option to us and imo doesn't really require much effort to keep together. While you claim it's cause of our safety then you should explain why it appears the japanese don't have to go with this mandatory change and it's only us.

I just hope your company is smart enough to realize that when you see a severe drop in customers it's not cause of the game but because of the mandatory change in payment plans. If you wish to keep your customers loyal you should give us the benefit of keeping with a payment plan we have been using for years, to forcefully have us change it and care little about our opinions and attempt to calm us by saying it's safe is only alienating loyal players.

SE you have players that have been playing for years even those that have been playing since NA release leaving because of this, not because of the game but because of the change to the payment plan. You are failing to listen to the countless outcries and would rather lose a large amount of customers to save a little cash? Next month you're gonna see how much money you're going to be losing over this, you've already lost a few customers this month because they may have changed or they are unable to change even though they have linked their account and you know what they are right not to waste there time trying to pay for a game they want to play and spend hours trying to get it to work.

A person shoudlnt' have to work hard to pay to enjoy an mmo the fact you are making it this difficult for people to play clearly shows you might not even care for this game anymore and are trying to find an excuse to end this games life. Prove me wrong though, if you can manage to muster enough care to find more approved methods or paying or directly paying you then please lay it upon us. But if you're willing to lose a constant flow of cash because you're unwilling to listen to customer outcry then so be it, you deserve to have both mmos fail because of your lack of better judgment when it comes to how customers feel towards who they give their information to.

[Panthera]

While you claim it's cause of our safety then you should explain why it appears the japanese don't have to go with this mandatory change and it's only us.

Wow.

Obviously, the "for security reasons" and "it's for our best interest" were bologna, this just makes it painfully real that we're not being told any kind of truth. JP Credit Cards are safe, but EU/NA are in danger, why?

[Reznov831]

Dude you're a noob, the new system works fine and it does have a direct withdrawal option from your bank account with no shady extra fees, as long as u aren't messing around with additional services like mules constantly. It's the same exact price it was before and what's nice is that they don't take the money till around the 3rd or 5th day of the month. So u have a lil more time to have money in ur account. just join the new system and quit your belly aching, seriously everyone complains but if they'd actually attempt the transfer they would realize that "hey it's not any more expensive and I can still do direct payment, why was i complaining before."

[Niyariko]

I suggest for better security, stop accepting JP credit cards, and ask all the japanese to use Click and Buy /overpaid-crysta.
Go on, I dare you.

I bet everyone there will quit FFXIV and FFXI right away, don't let a stupid payment plan destroy your game, is a dumb way to go out of business.