Quickly coming to the end of Heavensward and with every step closer to the end of the trial. Have to see if I wait for one more expansion is added as we are getting a new one in June and while I wait I level up some additional jobs (however I love being a tank and cannot see myself doing other roles in a duty...)
Holy cow they really messed up the accounts and payments system. If you only have an Xbox version license, your MUST pay with the coins. If you also have a license on other platforms THEN you may pay with credit card, Crysta, or retail prepaid cards. That makes no sense. I have a ps license but unfortunately my psn is is locked to a different square account. Totally nuts. Just when I thought square couldn't make billing anymore confusing they did this. It's not Microsoft. I get that coins were added so that you could pay in the console store directly where you can't on ps, and you can use ms rewards for it that way. This is all on square and their account management on their own website.
Somehow I got free coins added to my account today though and I have no idea why.
@NEStalgia yeah, I read about that but to be frank I still don't get it fully as I never bought other currencies (I know it is fairly common for mtx but I never bought any)... Problems for future me when the trial stops I guess
@Balta666 Yeah, it's just insane. I don't mind the existence of the currency, it's not a bad thing. On ps you can't buy the game time or mtx on the console at all you have to do it all on the website, and can't use ps wallet credit or discounts from PSN. So all that is improved on xb by having currency.
But what's weird in that if you only have the xb version you must ONLY use that currency. Normally you can plug in a cc and auto bill like a subscription. Weirder is the game already HAS a currency, Crysta for a decade. Why not use use that? And it has retail prepaid cards in stores and Amazon and GameStop. But you can't actually use those on the Xbox version. Unless you ALSO have a ps, PC, or steam version linked to your account. Then you can use all the above and it just works on everything including Xbox. Totally insane. Maybe ms demanded it to get the royalties, but it's still nuts. I now have retail cards I can't use on Xbox unless I can get my ps linked to my new account via square support or just buy a steam copy just so I can link it and unlock "other platforms" to use them on Xbox lol.
It won't be a problem for you really you just can't pay the actual cost you have to top up your wallet for more than the cost like all currencies. But if you have existing time cards like he or want to auto renew on a cc is just crazy.
@Balta666 lol even worse I found the page to unlink a PSN id from an account so you can link a new one. It's a once per lifetime service. They can deny. And the only valid reason is because you accidentally linked the wrong one which is hard to argue years later because I created a new one for Xbox. So the only real solution is "too bad, create a new PSN account (and rebuy the game too.).
And they require requesting proof of ID/passport information for ID verification. Who in their right mind would give square or any video game customer service department identifying documents to unlink an account?? They're not a bank. They don't have that kind of security.
Insane! I'd be better off buying a Steam deck just to register xiv on it. Wouldn't cost much more.
@NEStalgia and wouldn't be easier to remove your current SE account from Xbox? Or it is even not possible either/you would loose access to other games in your library...
@Balta666 It's not possible, they treat console links as "permanent." It would make sense if your SE account linked a console to it, and you could remove a console from the SE account, like how Amazon manages Kindles, or Google manages Androids, but instead they basically link a console account to an SE account, so that if any SE account in the system is linked to given PSN/XBL/STEAM user, that user is forever linked to that SE account and may never change it. Except one exception granted once per human lifetime, if they decide to, requiring banking level information transacted, ONLY if you accidentally registered the wrong account, and from their own T&C for no other reason at all.
.....and then the game prompts for your username and password....even though it will never accept any user name and password other than the one linked to the console account.....so....why prompt if they already know the console account? It makes no sense.
I think a part of the reason it works that way is the greedy nature that they can tie the game license purchased on the console store to the user account and thus avoid "game sharing" to other users on the same console. It prevents multiple SE account logins from a single console. Meanwhile farm bots on Windows can log in as much as they want. Which is bizarre because they basically charge peanuts for the actual game these days, and most of the money comes from the monthly sub, which every user on a console would need anyway.
An oddity is that Steam is not treated as PC. "Windows" and "Steam" are two different "service account types" along with PS and XB. So they already treat Steam like a console separate from PC. People keep arguing about if the next Xbox is a PC inside or not and then it's not a console anymore.....Square's apparently already been treating Steam as a console on PC for a decade, lol!
Seriously, Squeenix is so backwards....
So in my situation, my only options would be to ask customer service to remove my PSN account link, and send confidential identifying banking level information to a video game customer service department that may still refuse to do it anyway. A video game company that's already been hacked once.
Or do the same thing for Xbox, but that's the account I actually have more playtime on, because the first few times I played on PS I just couldn't "get" into the game and gave it one last try on XB and it finally clicked.
Or start a whole second PSN ID and purchase the game on PS again and never have my real PSN account show any data for the game. And add another login tile on my PS which is a first world problem but annoying for one game. Fortunately PS unlike XB doesn't require Plus subscription for the game. The XB store pages for the game says you need GP although around launch Square supposedly said you didn't. On PS it does not.
Or buy a PC version and register it, knowing the game will never be playable on PS. Which may not be an issue, but still, insanity! This is the one game I was actually half tempted to buy a PS Portal if one is ever stocked somewhere just to have an 8" handheld screen for it, even though I prefer it on XB otherwise (seriously, you know how "select"'menu cycles between the UI windows? Imagine doing that on the touch pad. gag
I'm glad I finally "get" the game and it clicked for me but it's the second time I'm punished for actually being an early paying customer. The first was when I was blocked from the free trial because I had already bought Heavensword years and years back.
@Balta666 For your own amusement I did research on how it all works and it's still overwhelmingly confusing, but here's the final details:
You can unlink a console from an SE account once in your life, IF you say pretty please, open yourself to ID fraud if they ask you to, and if they let you. But officially only if it's a trial or a beta, not a paid account. Once it's a paid account it's locked to your console account for life and not even Ifrit can remove it.
It looks like Bethesda has the same type of policy for Bethesda accounts/ESO where you can't unlink you have to ask them, so it may really be a console vendor thing. Although EA lets you unlink at will. But Bethesda's not nearly as draconian as Square's "once in your lifetime, only on new accounts, only if it was accidentally registered." And Bethesda says for Steam that it used to be by request-only but now you get a limited amount of DIY unlinks. Square? Nope you still can't unlink unless they let you, once in your life, if you made a mistake at initial login.
So basically once you link either console to an account for Square, that account is that console user account's account for life, and if you want to change logins, you must create a new console account. Less of an issue for PS because you don't need Plus to play. Big issue for Xbox because you DO need GP to play. Still annoying as you end up with a different console user, friends list, everything just for one game.
For purchases it gets weirder. If you log into Mog Station it'll show your xbox-only version and coins as the only way to play (which are purchased on the xbox store not S-E store. You can not buy coins that are evenly in the amount of any renewal purchase, you must buy more. Typical mtx/currency trick so that you always have leftover funds in your account you feel compelled to buy more to use.
If you go into account details it'll prompt you to set up your address information. Then it'll give you access to store a credit card, or purchase Crysta. The OTHER FFXIV currency they sell on their own website.
Crysta are sold in DIFFERENT denomination blocks, different from the Coins. They are also not sold in amounts that equal the actual costs so you must buy more. It's actually worse than Coins because the denominations are in even 5's so you have to buy even more than you need than with Coins. The fact that they're 2 currencies both sold in different denomination packs is bizzarre. Coins actually are a penny cheaper, so there's that.
But if you only have an Xbox version on your account, even though you can register a credit card, or buy Crysta with a card or PayPal, you can't actually use the credit you have paid for because the Xbox version has it's own payment tab that only accepts coins from the Xbox store. Those paid crysta will just rot there. You also can not enter prepaid retail cards anywhere for the Xbox version. If you have one, you paid $30 for a string of digits, nothing more.
But if you link a PS, PC, Steam, Mac, or Windows version of the game to your account, too, you can suddenly use any of the above payment methods including for Xbox because the month you paid for is good for all your logins, including Xbox (so why not just allow that for Xbox from the beginning??).
I have never in my life heard of a worse account/payment system anywhere other than maybe spending crypto on the darkweb.
Xbox is taking a lot of flak for how this rolled out, but honestly, for a new player, who plays only on Xbox, I think the "separate" isolated Xbox system is the best and most user friendly. You just go to your xbox store, buy your xbox currency, play your xbox game. It's a bad look for Xbox because you go to the FFXIV payment page and you get "here's the costs and payment methods for PS, Steam, Windows, Mac, Atari 2600, Nokia Flip Phones, Commodore 64, and Game Boy. Click that weird button over there if you're on Xbox where everything is different." Meanwhile if you're Xbox only none of that other stuff exists in your world. there's just coins to buy your game in the built in MS store. No laptop/phone required. But if you buy someone with an Xbox version a retail time card....they are going to hurt you.
In a lot of ways Xbox improved the process by just cutting Square out of their own convoluted payments process. But it's a mess if you have played on any other platform. And made worse if you linked a different account, like me, so I'll need a second PSN ID if I ever want to play the game on PS (or pay with a retail card....) I don't really want to recover my old SE account. It has no real progress on it.
Where Xbox does deserve scorn though is requiring GP to play a $13/mo game while PS does not. If there isn't an L to take, MS will make their own, every time.
One odd (simple?) trick though is if you have xbox and other versions registered, that means your account you renewed with xbox coins also activates your account for all other platforms. So you could technically use MS Rewards and the GP coins perks I'm sure we'll be offered from time to time to buy Coins to activate your account, to then play on PS/PC. Way too much work for the effort, but still an interesting fact.
@NEStalgia it is convoluted for sure.. regarding GP requirement personally does not bother me as I am not thinking about getting rid of it at least for a good while (I actually topped it with a few months in advance that a I found at discount anyways)
@Balta666 yeah I'm keeping gp too, but it's a big issue for games like this because there's a lot of people that play ONLY this. So having to buy gp to do so while Sony doesn't means another defeat pulled from the jaws of victory on team Green.
Oh btw other confusion when you pay is that there's 2 tiers of subs. Entry/basic and standard. If you want basic you have to change it back from standard, the default when you start a paid 30 days when you get the game (paid or perk). The only difference is an 8 character vs 40 character limit (and more than 1 per server.). That, and basic is monthly, while standard can be bought up to 6 months, and basic is cheaper monthly but if you buy 6 months they're the same price. Because more confusion is that is most needed.
Unless you live in the game I can't imagine any reason anyone would buy standard. Who needs more than 8 characters in a 3000+ hour RPG you can get all job classes on one character on? 😂
Ok, after what it always feels like is even longer than the main campaign (specially from the more hardcore dungeons), I am at the start of Stormblood which I heard it is sort of the ugly duck of the game but many people like also so let's see how it goes. However I have been ignoring Dragons Dogma 2 and need to sort that out too 😂
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Topic: Final Fantasy XIV
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