Charge for Final Fantasy XIV

[Mishakai]

Oh, I just thought up something awesome.

How about...people who wants to feel like they are donating by paying for the game monthly...just donate every month as if they are being charged!

My god, what a solution!

Well said.

[Kaedan]

Yes but 4% to SE to rebuild would put how many back to work as well. And it's not true that Red Cross doesn't have operating expenses to pay from what we donate. There are multiple ways to help the people of Japan. Donate to Red Cross AND pay SE!

But DO NOT donate to the American Red Cross. Please, for the love of all that is holy people, don't make this mistake (not if you want your money to actually get to Japan, that is).

Donate only to the Japanese Red Cross. If you donate to the American Red Cross or any of the other charity orgs accepting right now, you have no guarantee that ANY of your money will used for Japan.

[MysaZages]

Agree - Japanese Red Cross

[Ayerc]

The first part of your statement is very, very wrong. A large portion of money donated to most charities and non-profits goes to the charity and non-profit themselves. Especially the charities that claim to spread your money "where it needs to go". This is why you have to be very careful when choosing a charity to donate to and look at their financials. You also have to look at the fine print that states that your money may go to other things. It is usually not effective at all... especially with the American Red Cross.

SE would be able to donate that money directly to the JSDF (Japanese Self Defense Force), which is doing the bulk of the recovery effort. Unfortunately, there is no way for Americans to donate directly to the JSDF without sending snail mail.

Which brings me to you last comment: Did you even click the link? I suggested donating to the Japanese Red Cross. That's the only organization Americans should donate to if they want to see all (or at least the majority) of their money going to the disaster effort.

I'm not saying SE should start charging a fee... but it would be nice if they set up an option to charge a fee and then act as the middle man for Americans to get their money to the JSDF.

I have no idea where you're coming from. You suggested donating to the Japanese Red Cross, so did I. I wasn't even responding to you in my post, so get off your high horse.

Unless you have some sort of inside knowledge as to where charities spend their money, then get over yourself. Of course people should research where their donations will go, I never said, or implied, anything to the contrary.

And just because S-E could donate directly to the JSDF doesn't mean they will. Where do you think more corruption lies, in organizations like the Red Cross, or corporate entities? I'm not saying that S-E is that kind of company, but I'll take my chances donating to a humanitarian organization before I ever trust a corporate entity to do the right thing.

[Verecund]

If you want to help Japan, donate to the Red Cross. If you want to help SE, buy Crysta.

[Kaedan]

I have no idea where you're coming from. You suggested donating to the Japanese Red Cross, so did I. I wasn't even responding to you in my post, so get off your high horse.

It seemed like you responding directly to me. But seeing as you aren't attempting to be civil, you're not going to get an apology.

Unless you have some sort of inside knowledge as to where charities spend their money, then get over yourself. Of course people should research where their donations will go, I never said, or implied, anything to the contrary.

Yeah, it's called look at the financial records they are required to release. Not exactly inside, but shows that not nearly all the money donated goes to the people they are supposedly accepting money for. Of course, you need to have some knowledge of finance and possibly accounting to decipher the records, so I don't blame the average person for not understanding them... which is why I am warning them. Are you with one of these organizations or something? Why are you being so aggressive?

And just because S-E could donate directly to the JSDF doesn't mean they will. Where do you think more corruption lies, in organizations like the Red Cross, or corporate entities? I'm not saying that S-E is that kind of company, but I'll take my chances donating to a humanitarian organization before I ever trust a corporate entity to do the right thing.

The RC and the other organizations ARE corporate entities. The only difference is that non-profits are not allowed to distribute earnings... any surplus has to be reinvested into the company. The way many of the non-profits operate is that they pay their upper management HUGE salaries.

If SE did start accepting donations in the forms of paying for FFXIV, claimed they would donate the money to JSDF, and lied about it... that would create a huge lawsuit issue. But I like how you suggest that a company willing to turn off it's A/C and work in less comfortable conditions for the sake of helping the TRAGEDY in Japan would be corrupt and be dishonest with our money should they offer it. Very mature of you.

[Ayerc]

Let me start by saying your first response came off as a bit condescending. That, coupled with some of the attitudes I've run into on these boards, is why I was being a bit more aggressive, it pushed me a bit over the top. For that I'll apologize, and I think you can see where I'm coming from.

Yeah, it's called look at the financial records they are required to release.

I'm not with them, but I am tired of people spreading such misconceptions about them. Looking at the American Red Cross's Audited Financial Statement for 2010 (numbers in thousands), you'll see that for a total of $1,061,137 in public support, they spent $3,102,170 directly funding their relief programs. That's a pretty good ratio if you ask me. A good enough ratio to still favor donating to them over a for-profit corporate entity without as much transparency in their financial statements. I know that donating to the American Red Cross will not help the situation in Japan, so I want to reiterate that anyone wishing to donate to relief efforts should be donating to the Japanese Red Cross, as we both suggested.

Source: http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Do...lStatement.pdf

If SE did start accepting donations in the forms of paying for FFXIV, claimed they would donate the money to JSDF, and lied about it... that would create a huge lawsuit issue. But I like how you suggest that a company willing to turn off it's A/C and work in less comfortable conditions for the sake of helping the TRAGEDY in Japan would be corrupt and be dishonest with our money should they offer it. Very mature of you.

Now let me say that if you had read my post, you'd see I wasn't suggesting S-E would be this dishonest. In fact, my exact words were "I'm not saying that S-E is that kind of company." So with that cleared up, can we move on?