Moving to Shanghai China, how to play from there?

[Xelmx]

Hi, I'm moving there and I want to know If I'll be able to play with my current american account or if I have to change to the Chinese version... but I don't know how to do that.

I've invested enough time, so I wouldn't mind paying the world transfer service but I want to know if it is possible.

Any inputs are welcome.

[Shirai]

As long as the chinese government has not blocked the server's IP addresses you should be able to play from there with your account and client.

If you don't have a token you may be asked to reconfirm that you are the account's original player.

[Xelmx]

Thank you Shirai, is there any way I can try to check if the IP's have been blocked before I go there?

Anyone with first hand experiences?

[TheFirstKel]

You can try WTFast (gaming VPN service)...

[KatTatiana]

I've played from Beijing, China on NA server. You will most likely need a tunneling service. I DO NOT RECOMMEND any VPN/tunneling services based off of companies outside of China (WTFast, lowerping, etc) if you're trying to reduce your lag. They simply are not good enough for people in China. You'll need tunneling services offered by companies in China that are made for accessing international games. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Lonlife.net. The website is in Chinese but the program has an English option and they support FFXIV:ARR according to their gamelist. You pick which server you access based on your ISP: China Unicom, China Telecom, or other educational ISPs.

Another problem you may run into is the launcher. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. There is a way to guarantee that it works and that's to use a VPN such as Astrill (best VPN for accessing websites blocked by the Great Firewall). Turn on the VPN (OpenVPN or StealthVPN mode), start the launcher and log in, turn off the VPN, turn on lonlife.net's program, click Play from the FFXIV launcher.

Your ping will be around 100-300ms, maybe even better since you'll be in Shanghai and they seem to have better connections overseas. The Red Carpets you have to dodge are going to be extremely difficult but still doable with practice. I was able to keep up progression-wise with the top guilds when I was still playing from China; first to beat Titan on my server, and first to beat turns 1,2,3,4 on my server before I quit (Bluegartr was still on working on Turn 5 at the time). You'll be able to play from Shanghai just fine and do hardcore progression if that's your thing too.

Edit: About the transfer of character you're planning to do, I can 99.99% guarantee that you won't be able to. The Chinese Gov't has this law for online games where foreign companies wishing to officially place a server in China, they must do so with a Chinese company (in this case, Shanda), and that the server cannot be connected to servers overseas, hence the no server transfer thing. That's why you won't find any MMORPGs where transfers are allowed from international servers to Chinese servers. The only possible option is that you edit the game files of the English client to connect to the Chinese servers, which allows you to play in English with below 50ms on the future Chinese servers when they are released.

[Xelmx]

I can log in and all... and sometimes I get lag and others is completely fine. I did full Labyrinth of the Ancients with other 24 players and I had absolutely no problem whatsoever... I guess it depends mainly on luck? I'll avoid the VPN use for the moment.

Thanks for your very good answer!