Unable to connect to Data Center

[Nekodar]

well... thats something... when i pull up the resource monitor i dont see a .exe for final fantasy, even with the game open and minimized on the play screen. unless of course what im actually looking for is Steam.exe, since im running through steam.

The exe you're looking for should be ffxiv.exe or something like that. But, I don't run through Steam, so not sure how that works.

Just to be sure... You start the game, get a window where you have to input username, password and possibly OTP... press play there, then get into the main screen where you have to select datacenter?
Or do you get from steam directly to the main screen?

When you install the game through steam, have you tried to start the game through the start "menu" instead of through steam?