Officially confused on how to Subscribe

[FeiyoMavklas]

So I'm 2 days away from my free trial until it ends and I just added 1,500 crysta. I've looked around and they said it's usually around 15 bucks to pay for a month. So I added 1,500. I went to mog station, went to squareenix account settings, went to proceed to payment, then went to transfer to regular service, then I'm left with "enter registration code" and "purchase the game".

Now, assuming that I'm doing everything correct to become a "real" player..why must I purchase the damn game when I already downloaded the game? It says 29.99 to get standard edition? Wah? Is there something that I'm missing here? Because really, if I have to buy the game and pay for the sub I'm just going to give 15 bucks to them and leave the damn game for good. I won't put up with this crap.

I HOPE that I'm wrong and that the method I used was off course and I hope that someone will point me in the right direction.

[Kaitlen]

You still have to purchase a valid copy of the game once the trial is over and you want to keep going.

Free trial is just a free trial of the game, you'd still have to purchase a copy of the game like the rest of us to pay for a sub and keep playing.

[Niwashi]

Yes, you have to buy the game in order to play it. Purchase of the game includes 30 days of subscription access, after which you need to renew that subscription to continue playing. (The $15 per month you saw was the price for renewing the subscription.)

EDIT:
Oh, you might be able to purchase the game for less than the standard 29.99, though, if you shop around a little. I think Amazon had it for around $20 the last time I checked. Just make sure you buy the right version for the platform you're using. (A PS3 copy wouldn't let you play on PC, and so on.) Given that purchase comes with your first month of access, it may not cost much more than the sub would anyway if you can find a good deal.

[Sakuraluna]

It just sounds like you downloaded the free trial version and haven't bought the game yet. It's like a lot of other games on the market, you have to buy a copy before you can play outside of the trial.

[FeiyoMavklas]

So lame.....well I guess that's my good karma for today. Thanks for the response everyone. I'll pass on this. Call me immature if you want but just the fact that you need to buy the game and then sub pisses me off. I know that everyone have to do it too but the concept alone is stupid and I won't accept it. Never in any game did I ever have to do that because everything was on the downloaded client already and in order to unlock the extra benefit or vip status you'll need to sub or buy cash items. I don't see how this is any different than Tera, Gw2 or AA. Just plain absurd. I can understand if they're updating to a new patch or whatever and that you would need to buy the specific content but for the default client? No thanks.

I know it's my loss but when something irks me...well... Too bad though this game had potential. Take care everyone.

[Asheilin]

This isn't a Free To Play game like those ones where you pay a cheep sub to get "vip" status.... its a subscription based MMO, which means you BUY the game and pay a monthly sub to keep the game going, get patches with new content etc and not need to pay extra for 1 time use items like weapon skin/etc Only items are some vanity stuff and Race/gender change, Name change, server transfer; you ever get items for being a continued player (having sub days equaling X days)

[nuyu11]

World Of Warcraft also like this...
I think it's common...

You can try RIFT... That game is free to play and Graphic is nice in there....

[Niwashi]

I can understand if they're updating to a new patch or whatever and that you would need to buy the specific content but for the default client? No thanks.

This isn't a free game, so it's not divided up into pieces like that. There is no "default client" followed by a bunch of other extra pieces. You purchase the game as a whole and get all of it, including all patches. Only full expansions are separate, (of which there aren't any yet anyway, though one is coming up soon). That's the standard normal way that games are sold.

I'm just not sure where in getting a limited 14 day free trial demo you got the impression that the full game would be Free to Play. (F2P games don't generally need such demos, as you can just start with the free part of the client.)

[Sakuraluna]

I'll pass on this. Call me immature if you want but just the fact that you need to buy the game and then sub pisses me off.

Not so much immature as being unrealistic. As others have said, this is the standard way that pay to play mmo's work. Free to play are a whole other ball game, and one that I personally choose not to play.

[ExiledOne]

I somewhat sympathize with OP.
but I know that's not reality. as others have stated the industry standard for paying/playing MMOs is that you buy the game then buy subscription.
I believe that income for MMOs is on the subscription and not the initial purchase.
Having said that, I was happy to have a month of game access to play the game initially and considered it a good trade off.
And for all I know, perhaps not everyone that buys the game stays subscribed. I'm sure the industry has figured out a way to maximize on their investments.