I finally was able to install Final Fantasy XIV. After 3 rounds of updates, it allowed me to actually startup the program.
Wait- go to the Square Enix website and enter your FF XIV key (why can’t they do this in-game?)
Oh- and a good deal of the Square Enix website doesn’t work with Google Chrome; no errors- it just doesn’t work. Like if you try to enter your FF XIV key in chrome, it just drops you back to the main account screen with no indication of what happened…
Re-launch and blank screen; update ATI drivers to current and I now have a 50/50 chance of blank screen/menu screen.
After this I get to get to the character screen.
Wait- go to back the Square Enix website and purchase a character option. Square Enix must have a credit card on file (or the purchase of ‘Crysta’ points- what the Hell is ‘Cryata’?)
WTF? $9.99/month for a FF XIV account- and add $3/month per additional character (up to 8) for a grand total of $34.99/month if I choose to have 8 characters? Wow- these Square Enix guys are pretty fucking greedy! Do they get their pricing ideas from a cell phone provider?
Character creation is pretty basic- and the game seems to be relying on CGI cut scenes to keep the storyline going (rather long and boring cut scenes- with long load times in-between).
Get used to seeing a LOT of these:
Even more interesting is the occasional freeze during a load between zones- no indication other than a spinning ‘loading’ icon for 5+ mins. If I close the windows (prompted by a ‘possible data loss notice’) I start back at the character screen where I get ‘13001 The lobby server has encountered an error. Error code 3102. Status 0’…
all I appear able to do is delete my character and start over (after a mandatory 30 second delay to confirm delete) -Very, very annoying.
The delete ultimately fails and I must go back to the Square Enix site and add additional character slots…
I added one character (for $12.99/month) and I can already tell that I will be cancelling before the 30 day trial is up- and I just wasted $79 on a ‘collector edition’ that features an blank journal, a keyfob and a goofy DVD.
It appears this game was designed solely for mining wealthy Final Fantasy fan boys and has no intention of appealing to the general public.
I am anticipating that Square Enix will be going to the ‘Play for Free’ model in another year- or shutting down most of their servers!
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