Just to recap, so I don't have to start baking cream pies for people to toss...

- Crysta IS an option, but it is not a solution. At best, it forms PART of a solution.

- People are more likely to trust the advice of their banking institution when a payment bounces than they are the advice of an overseas company. While ClickandBuy indeed is possible to use in foreign countries, they appear to have not sought to meet relevant international financial standards that would cause them to avoid being red-flagged by suspicious banks.

ClickandBuy has its uses as a payment option, but as a system that is based in the UK and Germany and clearly optimized for small purchases in those areas for local online shopping, it again is not a solution on its own. Through correspondence related in final fantasy forums (official and otherwise), ClickandBuy have also demonstrated that they are not set up properly to handle an international market.

Only a wide spread of payment options will be able to accommodate all players. My estimate is that current appropriate coverage is about 60%. I would want it to be closer to 200% so that each player would have on average two viable payment options they could go with, offering a feeling of control and choice to the customer.

Let us not forget that there are people like me who have been able to set up their ClickandBuy accounts without verifying their credit card through them yet, meaning they do not yet know if their payment options will bounce - if it bounces come pay2play, that will be what makes my decision for me as I trust in my bank and my country's (Australia's) financial regulations.

So there is a lot of work to do. I am expecting some heads to turn on September 1st when the PlayOnline>SquareEnix account conversion rates are interpreted by Square Enix accountants. Things should then get mighty interesting.

((I am trying to be more moderate in my posts on this topic, as it is my hope that Squeenix will respond better to a more calm and collected person presenting intelligent arguments.))