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[steve]

And was met with the unfortunate news that once you've cancelled your PlayOnline account (which I did over a year ago which in hindsight obviously wasn't the best of ideas) you can never get another one. Meaning if I ever want to play FFXI again, I need to go out and re-buy it, along with the HDD because the geniuses at Sony decided it was a good idea to never sell it as a standalone product. That's got to be the worst idea that I've ever come across. So essentially, I now have a $150 paperweight sitting inside my PS2. : |

If this post saves one person from the frustration I'm feeling right now, then at least something positive has come from this experience.

 

[Jonnyram]

Why would you cancel your PlayOnline account? You don't have to pay to use that - you should have just cancelled the content ID for FFXI.
Have you tried to log into POL? Try it... if you can, you can just make a new content ID for FFXI anyway.

 

[neptunes]

Call Square/Sony Customer support

 

[steve]

To be honest, I'm not even sure if I did. I know when I decided to stop playing FFXI, I went in and cancelled my Content ID. I suppose it's possible that I also went ahead and decided to deactivate my POL account knowing that I wouldn't be needing one until the next big Square game came along. But in searching the web for mentions of this same topic, I've seen numerous accounts of people claiming to have had their POL accounts deactivated by Square after 6 months of being idle. For instance, one fellow was forced to leave the country for work purposes, and returned 8 months later to find his POL account no longer worked.

So it's certainly feasible this is what happened to me in this instance. It's been over a year since I stopped playing the game, so it's tough to remember if I did in fact manually cancel the POL account.

But in all honesty, that's not really the point. Once a consumer plunks down his/her hard-earned cash for a piece of software, there's no reason that there should be an option contained therein to render the software absolutely useless. A CD key is a CD key, it's a proof of purchase and should always be valid. I've still got all my POL ID's and passwords, and yet here I sit not being able to access the software because of a policy that boggles the mind.

It's ludicrous in any case.

 

[Kabuki Waq]

after a year of no playing i think you should have expected your account to get deleted. I mean its not as if you were paying the monthly fee.

 

[Belfast]

Yeah, you should've only cancelled your Content ID. Cancelling PoL is kind of silly.

 

[steve]

why would you want to get back into that mind numbing grind of a game?

Its like work only your the one paying.

I still have numerous friends playing, and today a co-worker decided he wanted to try it out. He offered to pay for me to get back into it, so he'd have someone to play alongside.

As for cancelling the POL account, like I said, even if someone does do it, be it on purpose or by accident, the fact remains that it's silly to prevent someone from creating a new account.

It would be like playing on your Xbox and one day deciding to cancel your Live subscription only to find out a year down the road that if you want to ever use the Live service again, you need to buy a new Xbox.

It's so unreasonable it hurts to even fathom the notion.

 

[hgplayer1]

I think I remember reading somewhere that you can go out and buy the PC version and just use the content IDs that are packaged in it.

 

[Nightbreeze]

I think I remember reading somewhere that you can go out and buy the PC version and just use the content IDs that are packaged in it.

yea you can do that. My friend has both versions.

 

[Kabuki Waq]

I still have numerous friends playing, and today a co-worker decided he wanted to try it out. He offered to pay for me to get back into it, so he'd have someone to play alongside.

As for cancelling the POL account, like I said, even if someone does do it, be it on purpose or by accident, the fact remains that it's silly to prevent someone from creating a new account.

It would be like playing on your Xbox and one day deciding to cancel your Live subscription only to find out a year down the road that if you want to ever use the Live service again, you need to buy a new Xbox.

It's so unreasonable it hurts to even fathom the notion.

wait so they dont even let you creat a new account??! i misunderstood your first post.
wow thats such a scam.

 

[steve]

I think I remember reading somewhere that you can go out and buy the PC version and just use the content IDs that are packaged in it.

So you're saying that I can use a PC game's POL ID on my PS2? How exactly does that work? Wouldn't the software on my PS2 be looking for the info that was installed on the HDD in the first place?

 

[Jonnyram]

wait so they dont even let you creat a new account??! i misunderstood your first post.
wow thats such a scam.

Stop using every available opportunity to bash. Every MMORPG is as mindnumbingly crap as the opposition, believe it or not.

Anyway, if you call POL, you should be able to rectify this situation. They'll go through it with you. You certainly don't need to buy a new copy just to get a new content ID - if you can't access POL on your PS2 because you're locked out, maybe Square can give you a new one, but you might have to tell them some info about your account so they can verify you actually bought it.

As for accounts getting closed and the like - if you stop payments, the account will close after a couple of months. Three months after the account is closed, the character will be deleted.

 

[steve]

I'm not worried about the characters being deleted, I fully expected that. Heck, I wouldn't even have minded losing the POL account.

I'm just asking for the ability to create a new one from scratch now that I desire to get back into it.

I'll definitely be calling Square tomorrow to see what can be done about this.

 

[AndoCalrissian]

I played the PC version two seperate times last school year, but I never had any problem starting up. I cancelled my original account in January I believe and then took it up again in March, with no problems whatsoever.

 

[ManaByte]

Anyway, if you call POL, you should be able to rectify this situation. They'll go through it with you. You certainly don't need to buy a new copy just to get a new content ID - if you can't access POL on your PS2 because you're locked out, maybe Square can give you a new one, but you might have to tell them some info about your account so they can verify you actually bought it.

Sorry, but no. It's ungodly retarded, but the way Square is running FFXI is that after three months your account is wiped and you need to buy a new copy of the game to get a new CD Key.

I played the PC version two seperate times last school year, but I never had any problem starting up. I cancelled my original account in January I believe and then took it up again in March, with no problems whatsoever.

As long as you don't close your POL account you're fine. You just need to enter your CD Key to buy a new Content ID. If you close your POL account, after three months you're fucked.

Oh an BTW your avatar reminded me. PlanetSide ROCKS with the Mechs now.

 

[steve]

Sorry, but no. It's ungodly retarded, but the way Square is running FFXI is that after three months your account is wiped and you need to buy a new copy of the game to get a new CD Key.

As long as you don't close your POL account you're fine. You just need to enter your CD Key to buy a new Content ID. If you close your POL account, after three months you're fucked.

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks that is absolutely retarded.

 

[teiresias]

Yes, this has been brought up numerous times, and frankly I'm surprised it hasn't bitten Square Enix in the ass immensely.

To clear it up with people, the problem isn't your FFXI Content ID. The problem is if you cancel your PlayOnline account. Once you cancel PlayOnline you're screwed because the only way to play is to buy another copy of the game. It's completely retarded, particularly since there's an idle period where if you don't log into PlayOnline after so many months they cancel your PlayOnline account automatically.

And don't think calling Square helps at all. Apparently they're being extremely strict about it, if your PlayOnline account lapses you're screwed, may as well just chuck the game in the trash.

I mean, I have an original release copy of Asheron's Call from back in the day which I could probably still install and play if I wanted without much hassle. Certainly not the kind of crap Square does with this game.

 

[Brannon]

So essentially, I now have a $150 paperweight sitting inside my PS2. : |

And that's when the HDLoader busts through your door and says "OH YEAH!".

eh?

eh?