Immediately after logging into the client (on pc) and getting to the blue title screen my game runs into an issue. i click "play" or "data center" and select Aether (home to my characters worlds on Goblin, Moogle, and Gilgamesh) my game says "connecting to Data Center" then a black screen with a loading icon in the lower left and a mouse that is responsive and movable but nothing else opens. this screen never gets advanced, i have tried for hours at a time, leaving the computer and returning later. I cannot advance past this screen. i have updated drivers, updated windows (version 8.0) messed with graphics settings varying from maximum to minimum settings. nothing works. i have disabled pop-up blockers, spyware/malware blockers, and windows firewall. nothing has worked. please assist, i just want to play the game on my beautiful new pc.

EDIT: when the loading screen is open i can alt+tab out of the game and everything else functions, and even more i can right-click on the games icon and select close game. doing so opens up a tab in the game with options "quit game" and "cancel"

i have an intel i5 quad core with an AMD Radeon r9 270x 4gb ddr3 RAM and a 500 gb HDD