If you're not going to get rid of the PoL Viewer, SE, then at least let us bypass it.

[Rhianu]

Seriously, FFXI has always had way too many screens to click through to log in (more than any other MMORPG I know of). With SE merging all PoL Accounts into Square-Enix Accounts, I had been hoping we'd finally be able to do away with the convoluted mess that is the PlayOnline Viewer altogether. Sadly, it appears as though this is not going to be the case.

So once account management is switched over and being handled via web-browser rather than the PoL Viewer, and seeing as how FFXI is the only game remaining in PoL, the Viewer will become nothing but a bunch of useless screens and menus that do nothing but get in the way of FFXI's login process.

With that in mind, I think some redesigning of the PoL Viewer's menus is in order, since apparently we're stuck with the damn thing.

At first I had the idea of simply moving the "Play" button from the FFXI top-page to the main PoL top-page, which would certainly be an improvement over the current layout, but then I thought, "Why stop there? Why not take it a step further?" Since FFXI is now the only game on PoL, we can safely assume that anytime someone launches the PoL Viewer, it's because they want to play FFXI. So why not just make the Viewer launch into FFXI automatically as soon as it starts?

In other words, whatever function is called when we players click on the "Play" button on the FFXI top page, make that function be called automatically as soon as we enter our password(s) and hit Enter, rather than loading the PoL top-page and forcing us to dig through the various layers of menus in the PoL Viewer to get to FFXI.

This would make it feel almost as if the PoL Viewer had been removed, which is very nearly as good as actually removing it.

And just in case anyone's worried about still being able to access the PoL Viewer for any reason, you could still get back to it by backing out of FFXI via the "Back" button on FFXI's title screen.

Oh, and for anyone who actually WANTS to see all of the PoL Viewer's various screens and menus every time they log in (why?), go ahead and throw in a toggle option so people can choose if they want to bypass PoL and load FFXI automatically or not.

[Bumbeen]

Please lord do this. At least make it an option in the settings to auto-launch XI after logging in.

[Catsby]

Fully supporting this. There's an unspoken rule in game usability about there being no more than 3 menu screens or "levels" between the executable and the game state. FFXI violates this to a face-palming degree.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Never heard of that rule and honestly POL doesnt' bother me. Plus, even with such a rule, POL has been grandfathered in. lol

[JackDaniels]

POL is minus 3-4 minutes off my playtime (don't have a lot).

[Tsukino_Kaji]

3-4 minutes?! Your PC sucks. lol
I get through POL in less then 2 inclouding POL itself launching.

[Catsby]

3-4 minutes?! Your PC sucks. lol
I get through POL in less then 2 inclouding POL itself launching.

POL viewer still sucks.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Realy it was designed to hoste the miriad of online games SE was planning. I know tetramaster is gone, but I'm pretty sure the JP markest still has a bunch of other features on it that we never got.

[DebbieGibson]

2-3 mins multiplied by the entire playerbase is a lot of time saved. It is definitely worth spending dev time on.

Also, you wouldn't need to hit back in ffxi to get to pol. You could just make it a little checkbox on the password screen next to the auto-signin one. Checked=straight to XI, unchecked=POL.

[JackDaniels]

2-3 mins multiplied by the entire playerbase is a lot of time saved.

This is exactly what I was thinking.