PETITION: Regarding FINAL FANTASY XIV Steam Version (Mar. 8)

[Ayer2015]

Ayer right now it does nothing different from launching via launcher. You get an overlay by doing this but there is no difference in functionality. Your client connects directly to SE's servers. When this change becomes enforced your game will function differently, it will connect to Valve's auth servers which will then forward your game connection on to SE's servers. If Valves servers go down, you will DC. If the connection between Valves auth servers and SE's auth servers overload or otherwise mess up you will be booted from the game and be unable to log in again.

This has already happened with another MMO, ESO. ZOS could do nothing to help the users because the problems are always on Steam's end. It has been a mess for over 18 months and Valve shows no signs of trying to find a serious solution to the issue. To imagine that it will somehow be different for SE belies the reality that just this morning the Steam auth servers came back up after 2 days of being down for ESO. The game is still getting days and weeks of downtime for Steam users. FFXIV will have to contend with the exact same issue.

Can we migrate a Steam account character to a SE version if we re-purchase the title?

nevermind: FAQ Article: 67467 says no

[Aramina]

Consider me signed. ARR was originally gifted to me via steam so that locked me into getting the expansions that way too. It wasn't a big deal since I could just launch the game directly without even being logged into steam, but now that is not going to be allowed anymore? This is ridiculous.

[Lozza]

Can we migrate a Steam account character to a SE version if we re-purchase the title?

No. You cannot have a PC and a Steam key on the same account as it currently stands. Hence the threads requesting it. Steam and PC keys are treated weirdly, unlike the PS3 and PS4 keys which were different Steam keys are both the same and not the same as PC. IE if you try to put a PC key for ARR on an account that has a Steam key for ARR it believes the account already has the ARR key and you can't apply it. However it also treats them differently in that you can't apply a HW Steam key to a ARR PC key. This same but not same weirdness is the crux of the issue with this change. We have no choice to change to PC - such a change is completely impossible - even at our own expense.

[Embler]

I would purchase the game again to get around this, if I could. In the time since ARR came out, I've kinda stopped using Steam. It would be pretty inconvenient to keep it running all the time.

[MrThinker]

Signed. I'm tired of Valve in general nowadays.

[Gwenorai]

I honestly never knew people had such problems with steam. The worst I've had is it constantly complaining about a component not working but that's easy to fix. So yeah; guess I'll sign my name because people shouldn't be forced into that.

[Lozza]

I honestly never knew people had such problems with steam. The worst I've had is it constantly complaining about a component not working but that's easy to fix. So yeah; guess I'll sign my name because people shouldn't be forced into that.

Steam as it stands at the moment isn't an issue really. All it adds is an overlay of varying usefulness and forces you to buy the expacs by Steam - which most people don't like but don't hate either. When this change happens though Steam users will be forced through a Valve auth server. We know this because this is how it works in ESO, another MMO that changed to this system some 18+ months back. The moment the auth server goes down - and it does so regularly in ESO - Steam users will be completely unable to access FFXIV even though there is no issue with the game servers.

I'll also point out that Steam users in ESO were eventually forced to pay for crowns (cash store currency) via the Steam wallet which isn't something everyone uses. I certainly don't. By that time I had support switch my account over to a PC version rather than run the Steam one so I wasn't affected. But ESO also doesn't have the weird can't have a Steam/PC key on the one account issue.

There is also the issue of what happens when someone loses access to their Steam account. Many players who have Steam versions of FFXIV don't use Steam much anymore if at all. Steam account gets hacked or locked down - lose access to FFXIV. Steam servers under DDoS. Can't play FFXIV. Steam bans you for something completely unrelated to FFXIV, they have effectively banned you from FFXIV - with no way to get your account back because you can't put a PC key on a SE account that has a Steam key.

[Crushnight]

I'm a ps4 user so i have no clue on alot of pc/steam things so i want to ask what are the steam policies that ffxiv now has to adhere to? and what are the consequences should SE not follow them?

[Nora_of_Mira]

I was about to make the same thread. Literally no one wants to log in on steam just to log in on a game.

I'll bet they'll want us to reinstall it too. What a waste of time. No one wants this terrible change. It's complete garbage.

i log into steam every time i boot up my pc, in fact it auto-logs in. I literally press the Steam icon and it just opens up. Then I press FF14-Play and the FF14 launcher is up. I don't really understand the overall issue.

edit: If the steam auth servers go down as much as is being implied, yeah I would agree this is a bad change. But i have no experience with dealing with steams auth servers going down so I'll remain on the fence.

[Syphin_Polaris]

I've never had any issues with steam in the past outside of their online service randomly having a stroke and forcing an "offline" mode. This only effected Peer2Peer games for me typically, but if this does become an issue for an MMO that valve has nothing to really do with, that is silly.

Signed, for the sake of everyone's sanity. Such a pointless change if only to give headaches.