Multiple Login/Character Transfer

[Almalieque]

I've brought this topic up a couple of times, but have never had any feedback. Players with multiple accounts with the same billing information should be able to make at least one character transfer. Obviously there are concerns with RMT, but that is easily combated with the following conditions.

1. Same billing information on both accounts.
2. Both accounts must have had the same billing information for at least 3 months prior to the request.
3. There will be a fee ($50) for the move
4. There could be only one transfer (with either account) once per 3 months

If that's not possible, at least allow players to log on multiple characters on the same account.

[Mirage]

Multiple logons per account is a potential loss in profit for SE. I could share my account with 5 friends and play with them, just claiming that we all live in the same house but have unique external IPs because our ISP is cool like that. It would bring the income per player from 12.95 a month to ~3 a month.

[Almalieque]

Multiple logons per account is a potential loss in profit for SE. I could share my account with 5 friends and play with them, just claiming that we all live in the same house but have unique external IPs because our ISP is cool like that. It would bring the income per player from 12.95 a month to ~3 a month.

I understand your concern, but that is easily remedied in the similar way that I provided a solution for the character transfer.

1. Allow players to pay multiple monthly charges (i.e. 12.95) for the ability to simultaneously log on with multiple characters.

2. Each additional monthly charge allows an additional character to be logged on simultaneously. For example, a player with four characters on one account can pay two 12.95 monthly charges for the ability to log on with any two characters at the same time.

That literally took me 15 seconds to think up. Besides, people already share their accounts and contrary to user agreement interpretation, the game is designed for internal/home sharing. In any case, that's neither here nor there. The concern of sharing is easily remedied with the aforesaid solution.

[Mirage]

Yeah that kind of could work. SE could sell normal content IDs for 1 dollar a piece, and also Power-contentIDs for 12.95 that would allow two concurrent logins from the same account. That's actually a pretty decent idea.

Now the real question remains. Can it be implemented in less than 5 minutes? If not, SE might not have the manpower to do it

[Almalieque]

I honestly think that's the problem. To be fair though, it could have simply been an oversight. However, with the amount of attention that the game has been getting lately, there is no reason not to implement it. The "power content-IDs" (or any equivalent) would actually help more people than you would initially think. This would remove the necessity of creating an entire new account just duo box. Furthermore, it would allow the transfer of certain ex equipment with your other characters on your account.

It's a really a win/win situation. Players would start paying 12.95 (or some other amount) for characters that they were paying 1.00 for and the players get more versatility with their characters.

[Dragoy]

Besides, people already share their accounts and contrary to user agreement interpretation, the game is designed for internal/home sharing.

Hm, I can't see how the agreement could be interpreted in any other way, than “sharing the account credentials is allowed only between an under-aged child and their legal guardian”. Though I am of course aware of players interpreting a lot of things from the agreement in any way they want to. xd

Or rather, they don't interpret them at all. ^^;

I also never got the feeling of such a design being there... but well, that's me!


As for the suggestion, I'm not sure if I understand it right.

You want to be able to transfer Content IDs from a PlayOnline account to another?
I don't think I would support that.

Being able to log in with more than one character at a time on the same POL account, I probably would support. Without any changes to billing, it would obviously be a loss of money to the company. It's unfortunate that the game is so much about multiple accounts in the first place, or even multiple characters just for the storage.

I would possibly also support being able to deliver the certain items to other POL accounts, instead of characters on the same one. That is, as long as they are on the same SqEX account.
I'm not sure the restriction makes any sense since one is supposed to be one person on that account, and they can't, for example, take part in certain contests on more than one of those POL accounts. I guess there might be a bit of a contradiction somewhere there.

But I digress!


Transferring characters from a PlayOnline account to another: no thanks.

Being able to log in on multiple characters of a PlayOnline account simultaneously: yes please.

[RushLynx]

The fact that so many items are now transferable over characters on the same account makes this a tricky subject... It has long been my opinion that multi-boxers ruin MMOs by subtracting from the available PUG population and demeaning the intended difficulty of non-soloable content... but that doesn't seem to be SE's official stance, as long as they're getting their money...

I was scanning through FAQ files for FFXIV and there's a situation wherein they seem to be facilitating multi-boxers... Disappointing for me, but I don't plan on being all that hardcore about FFXIV anyway... (http://support.jp.square-enix.com/fa...5&id=5382&la=1) ... and hopefully FFXIV will have, and maintain, the playerbase necessary so that multi-boxing won't ruin it... As it stands, though, FFXI is definitely a game that has become ruined by multi-boxers... particularly in the Abyssea age of content, many people quit because they were one of the few that didn't have a WHM mule constantly following them around so they could solo what they needed...

[Almalieque]

Hm, I can't see how the agreement could be interpreted in any other way, than “sharing the account credentials is allowed only between an under-aged child and their legal guardian”. Though I am of course aware of players interpreting a lot of things from the agreement in any way they want to. xd

Or rather, they don't interpret them at all. ^^;

I also never got the feeling of such a design being there... but well, that's me!

The game is designed to effectively do everything with one character, yet you are able to have up to 16(?) characters on an account. There is absolutely no reason to have that many characters (mules included). With the game being developed as a group effort as opposed to solo, there is no enticement to want to redo missions/quests just to have a separate character. The intent is a family plan. I doubt SE intended a family of 4 living together to have 4 separate accounts.

You want to be able to transfer Content IDs from a PlayOnline account to another?
I don't think I would support that.

Why wouldn't you support that?

Without any changes to billing, it would obviously be a loss of money to the company.

It would have to be changes to billing. There would be enough people participating in it to make up for any production charges.

[Dragoy]

I was scanning through FAQ files for FFXIV and there's a situation wherein they seem to be facilitating multi-boxers... Disappointing for me, but I don't plan on being all that hardcore about FFXIV anyway... (http://support.jp.square-enix.com/fa...5&id=5382&la=1) ...

That is quite the interesting article. At the same time, it's quite surprising while being not surprising at all!

I guess they figured from XI that people will very likely 'dual-box' to some extent at least, no matter what. Might just as well make it a bit easier, although I, too, can see it having its effects on the community.

Then again, people would do it either way, probably.

As it stands, though, FFXI is definitely a game that has become ruined by multi-boxers... particularly in the Abyssea age of content, many people quit because they were one of the few that didn't have a WHM mule constantly following them around so they could solo what they needed...

I wouldn't say they ruined it. Rather the game design itself, and more than the current designs, whatever they may be, it's the limitations it had from the start. As time went on and on, more items were added, and there were the limits imposed by the clunky crafting system(s). Not to mention storage issues...

I really don't want to think that 'having mules' was ever intended in the early stages...

The game is designed to effectively do everything with one character, yet you are able to have up to 16(?) characters on an account. There is absolutely no reason to have that many characters (mules included).

I certainly can't say what their intentions were, but I don't think I would see the 16 slots per account indicating that.

Just as a quick example that comes to mind, I can say that I've been in a game that started at around 1997, and has 20 'slots' per account (no extra fees on additional characters, though, and you can access the game absolutely free, or pay for premium areas and so on and forth). It strictly forbids ANY sort of account sharing (even within a family). That one is from a German company, so it's definitely not just a Japanese thing, even though I kind of easily imagine Japanese wanting to play several characters for some reason.

Both realms also have several servers around, and many players indeed play on different ones, so there is that.

Granted, one can not change their 'job' for any one character there, so if you wanted to become something else, you'd want another character for that. However, there is no real need to play as the other 'jobs' as there might often be in FINAL FANTASY XI Online.

I apologise! I could probably come up with better reasons, but my mind is wandering, and sleep is told to be calling.

With the game being developed as a group effort as opposed to solo, there is no enticement to want to redo missions/quests just to have a separate character. The intent is a family plan. I doubt SE intended a family of 4 living together to have 4 separate accounts.

I actually know quite a few players who have several characters (in FFXI) and actually play them (not just for crafting and whatnot). Not 16 characters, but yeah. Some of them got all jobs up to 99 even, but don't really do the group events.

You want to be able to transfer Content IDs from a PlayOnline account to another?
I don't think I would support that.

Why wouldn't you support that?

I guess I just see it too much of promoting account sharing/trading, RMT or not, but I might just be so stuck in my old ways (good example is that game from before, where it was very strictly forbidden).

It would have to be changes to billing. There would be enough people participating in it to make up for any production charges.

Yeah. If done right, it would be convenient fer sure, and could work. And what was seen above, it looks like they're allowing one to play a few characters on one account simultaneously, without extra fees, in X|V (that no extra fee is quite surprising).

Unless I read that wrong.


Sorry if there's anything that makes no sense whatsoever; I should be sleeping, not posting!

[Almalieque]

I certainly can't say what their intentions were, but I don't think I would see the 16 slots per account indicating that.

It most certainly does. As mentioned, this game is designed to be played on one character. There is no reason to create another character outside of having a mule and/or crafting, in which both could have easily been handled without having an entire new and fully playable character.

While there might be exceptions in where people start duplicate characters on the same account with the full intention of playing both, that is the minority. The family plan concept is a prevalent practice that benefits everyone. Just as your local phone, cable, dish, etc. company discount multiple users within the same household, SE did the same exact thing.

If SE truly wanted a 1:1 ratio, then each character would be full price. Major companies such as Google and Sony even allow at least 2 downloads of digital purchases. Other organizations use MAC filtering to prevent sharing. Do I need to bring up Microsoft?????!?! There is absolutely nothing that SE has done to prevent sharing and everything to promote it.

You're confusing "CYA" statements with actual enforced regulations, similar to not authorizing 3rd party software. SE doesn't care if you use windower, the concerns are hacks, viruses, etc. SE doesn't want to be held accountable for any nonsense that you may have done.

However, rules are rules, but the current setup of the game does not indicate wanting a parent to pay for another account for his/her child to play. Because of that, it is easy to infer that SE doesn't want players to share their account information with other players outside of their intermediate family. SE doesn't want anything to do with people stealing, damaging or deleting your digital information.