SQEX Attempt to Eradicate "Foreigners" from JP Server by BLOCKING/Convolute PAYMENT.

[hagare]

I think a lot of people don't understand the extent of the issue in this thread.
I made my account 10 years ago, living in a supported region.
I have since moved to a different country that uses a different supported currency within that same supported region.

I am unable to change my listed country of residence or the currency that I'm charged in. Customer support have told me it's not possible. Twice.

If I now touch my sub or would like to take a break, my bank card that is issued by the new country will be blocked as it doesn't match my listed residential country.

That is just a terrible system and terrible customer service. They obviously are aware of the SEA player base and want to include them as they've had official FF fan events in one of those countries. It's just nonsensical.

If you can still use the same address you used before, can you use paypal?
It might be an alternative.

[ShariusTC]

You say i can buy from amazon US, with debit card from a remote country in SEA, but somehow SE can't do it in 2024

[Jojoya]

I don't think it's hard to understand why people don't like someone who's wholly unaffected by any of the issues coming into a thread by people who are affected by the issues and telling them "Well, I guess you just can't play anymore.".

Except I am affected. I have friends who either already can't play or soon won't be able to play.

Do you really think I want this situation to be happening to them or anyone else?

There comes a point in time that people have to accept reality. If SE chooses to do nothing, the affected players will either have to find other methods to be able to continue playing or they will have to stop playing.

I'm not going to mask the situation with fantasy sunshine and roses. Pretending that things will be changed when there is no sign those in control are interested in making a change does no one any good.

Again, I hope that SE actually comes through for players here but those affected need to be prepared for the very real possibility it won't happen.

sadly. You must commit fraud to buy a digital game from the SE store.
Aka, lie your ass off about where you live xD

wait........ does DT have a physical version of the game?

There will be retailers selling a box with a game code enclosed. But as you point it, that's not going to help with the subscription billing issue. Purchase of just the expansion isn't going to include free game time.

Trying to purchase game time cards valid for the region of your game license is probably going to be the best bet for now if you're on a Standard subscription. Sounds like those trying to purchase Crysta are running into similar problems.

It might take asking a friend not having billing issues to buy the cards for you then reimbursing them.

You say i can buy from amazon US, with debit card from a remote country in SEA, but somehow SE can't do it in 2024

The billing problems appear to be related to SE's new payment processor and not to SE itself.

Will the new payment processor fix things? We don't know.

Can SE get a different payment processor if this one doesn't? Yes, but it will take time.

[Aravell]

I'm not going to mask the situation with fantasy sunshine and roses. Pretending that things will be changed when there is no sign those in control are interested in making a change does no one any good.

Again, I hope that SE actually comes through for players here but those affected need to be prepared for the very real possibility it won't happen.

I'm not telling you to mask things with happy sunshine and rainbows. But you have the choice to have some empathy and not come and rub salt in people's wounds.

If you have a friend who got injured and can't do their favourite activity of running, do you constantly tell them "Hey, you're injured and can't run, and if things don't improve, you may never be able to run again."?

It doesn't matter if you're just telling the truth. It just ends up being you kicking people while they're down. Maybe don't do that?

[Remolia]

I think a lot of people don't understand the extent of the issue in this thread.
I made my account 10 years ago, living in a supported region.
I have since moved to a different country that uses a different supported currency within that same supported region.

I am unable to change my listed country of residence or the currency that I'm charged in. Customer support have told me it's not possible. Twice.

If I now touch my sub or would like to take a break, my bank card that is issued by the new country will be blocked as it doesn't match my listed residential country.

That is just a terrible system and terrible customer service. They obviously are aware of the SEA player base and want to include them as they've had official FF fan events in one of those countries. It's just nonsensical.

lmao, I am glad that I am using steam version, where steam support is actually able to change ur region.

[LianaThorne]

I'm not trying to claim anyone is a bad person for using a fake address or "borrowing" the address of an overseas friend. Gamers have been doing this for games not locally available to them for a long time. I wouldn't be surprised if a large chunk of the NA player base is guilty of doing it for other JP games that are locked to JP only.

I think you probably mean China with this example as they actually require ID/a passport to access, at least in terms of gacha games. I can't really think of any JP based gacha games (or any recent JP games for that matter) that have forced me to verify my identity to play it. QooApp also exists globally to provide access to KR, TW, JP and a handful of CN based games (I forget if Traditional or Simplified is the easier version to get access to) to non-regional players. This is how I'm currently playing the KR version of Persona 5X for example while an English version is still in the works (which funnily enough just expanded their range of accepted forms of payment to include US credit cards and Google Pay (at launch it was just KR based payment methods) so they must be enjoying having people on the West playing their game lol).

[Jojoya]

I'm not telling you to mask things with happy sunshine and rainbows. But you have the choice to have some empathy and not come and rub salt in people's wounds.

If you have a friend who got injured and can't do their favourite activity of running, do you constantly tell them "Hey, you're injured and can't run, and if things don't improve, you may never be able to run again."?

It doesn't matter if you're just telling the truth. It just ends up being you kicking people while they're down. Maybe don't do that?

The original lack of empathy was for the OP, who was going down the conspiracy theory route of this being some sort of racist plot instead of what it is.

Then others come in, completely misrepresent what I was saying and attack me for being racist.

Yeah, no. I'm not going to show empathy for people trying to play victim of some racist conspiracy that exists only in their heads. I'm going to throw reality in their face.

My empathy is going to the posters in the other threads that are talking about the situation constructively and realistically in hopes of getting a positive resolution.

I think you probably mean China with this example as they actually require ID/a passport to access, at least in terms of gacha games. I can't really think of any JP based gacha games (or any recent JP games for that matter) that have forced me to verify my identity to play it. QooApp also exists globally to provide access to KR, TW, JP and a handful of CN based games (I forget if Traditional or Simplified is the easier version to get access to) to non-regional players. This is how I'm currently playing the KR version of Persona 5X for example while an English version is still in the works (which funnily enough just expanded their range of accepted forms of payment to include US credit cards and Google Pay (at launch it was just KR based payment methods) so they must be enjoying having people on the West playing their game lol).

Some have specifically mentioned JP though perhaps they've been incorrect about the game's source region. It's not something I've done myself. I've only spoken with others who have.

[Janhyua]

for the longest time, they didn't even recognize us as a country, like I bought so much stuff from Japan but for some reason, SE just will not admit Singapore is a country, any physical items they don't even bother to ship to Singapore

I am at a point of thinking, does Japan hate Singapore that much?

[MyouRi]

If you can still use the same address you used before, can you use paypal?
It might be an alternative.

I'm not sure I'm ready yet to gamble my access based on the hope that I won't lose access to a 10 year old account that I've bought plenty of cosmetic items for so I could support the game.

I think this behaviour might actually be in violation of EU GDPR rules and the 'right to rectification' of personal data. I've reached out to the authority in my country and if it is a violation I will make a formal complaint and encourage other EU residents to do so too.

I think the only way SE will address this is if their hand is forced at this stage. They've known it was an issue for 10 years already and refuse to take any steps to fix it.

[TheOperator3712]

I think you probably mean China with this example as they actually require ID/a passport to access, at least in terms of gacha games. I can't really think of any JP based gacha games (or any recent JP games for that matter) that have forced me to verify my identity to play it. QooApp also exists globally to provide access to KR, TW, JP and a handful of CN based games (I forget if Traditional or Simplified is the easier version to get access to) to non-regional players. This is how I'm currently playing the KR version of Persona 5X for example while an English version is still in the works (which funnily enough just expanded their range of accepted forms of payment to include US credit cards and Google Pay (at launch it was just KR based payment methods) so they must be enjoying having people on the West playing their game lol).

When I signed up for the JP version of PSO2 in 2012, I had to give them an address. So of course, I used the physical location of Sega of Japan like every other westerner without an address in Japan.