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Want To Play Final Fantasy XIV? Convert Your Dough Into Crysta

Square Enix finally reveals its currency system, which might be a bit cumbersome.

People who showed faith in Square Enix's MMO Final Fantasy XIV by pre-ordering the collector's edition of the game are now running around freely in its digital world. And while those users are indeed doing MMO things like hacking at dodo birds and slash-dancing at inappropriate times, they're also learning how to spend their real-life, hard-earned cash in the game. Square Enix waited until servers went live to unveil FFXIV's curious currency exchange system, which operates a lot like Microsoft's Xbox Live points-for-cash system. Unfortunately, Crysta doesn't appear to cater to the user quite as well.

Let's back up. All chargeable services, including content and subscription fees for FFXIV, must be paid with "Crysta" moon dollars, Square Enix has revealed in a press release. One dollar equals 100 Crysta points, the publisher says, but bundles of Crysta have to be purchased in $5, $10, $20, $30, $50, or $100 increments. Also, there's a cap on how much money can be stored in users' Crysta coffers.

It seems simple, and the exchange part is. After all, we've been purchasing Microsoft banana bucks and Wii Shop zoo dollars for game services for years. But, according to users and digital Game Informer, there is a slight annoyance associated with using Crysta.  
 

No Caption Provided
 
== TEASER ==Here's the shining example. A monthly subscription is $9.99 a month, while a character itself is $3 per month. That means a normal, one-character user will need to pay $12.99 for the privilege to play the game. Cysta, however, isn't conveniently sold in $13 dollar increments, thus its users will be jammed with overages regardless of how they try to purchase Crysta. Your best bet to avoid a major hassle is to purchase a $10 package and then a $5 package, leaving you with roughly $2 left over. Bummer.

As GI points out, a traditional credit card method of payment is apparently coming via a London-based service called Click and Buy. And while that sounds helpful, it might not be the total savior it could be. There's a small fee associated with use of this regular service, and there's always the chance that some users' credit card companies might not like the foreign transactions.

If Click and Buy turns out to be the dud people believe it will be, then it appears the best (and only) way to pay for FFXIV will be through Square Enix's Crysta system. What will people do with the leftovers? Save it until a rainy day? Purchase wallpaper? This remains to be seen.

104 Comments

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TheMartino

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Edited By TheMartino

I wonder if this is going to stop anyone from playing. While I personally abhor this idea, I can see many people jumping through the necessary hoops.

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WhytePanther

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Edited By WhytePanther

Paying per character is a dumb enough move.  I don't care if my one character can be any class, because as long as there are multiple races, there are reasons to have multiple characters.  Add this payment system to it, and the BS meter is hitting the top of the charts.  That and you make a PC MMO that plays better with a freaking controller, and I'm just done.  I wasn't planning on buying this before, was taking a cautious wait and see stance, but I'll stick with WoW then.
 
And of course, the correct answer to the problem is to save the $2 leftover, and 2 out of every 5 months you'd only have to pay $10, but it's still total crap.  And you have pennies left over.  Fuuuuun.

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Zohar

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Edited By Zohar

This is fucking stupid.

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Nytrik

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Edited By Nytrik

*headdesk* 
 
This never works. People like normal pay schemes. 

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teekomeeko

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Edited By teekomeeko
@Junpei: 
 
You also don't have to constantly make a new character to experience something different. I never played WoW for long because (among several other reasons) whenever I got bored of what I was doing, I'd have to start from absolute scratch, and I pretty much said screw that mess.
 
Complain all you want, but in FFXIV you never actually need another character to do something new, so paying $3 is a luxury in the purest sense. People didn't  "let" them do it, they just designed a game where you didn't necessarily have to (though for FFXI it was $1, so the extra storage space was worth it)..
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Vaancor

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Edited By Vaancor

So glad I stayed away from this, it's just confusing.

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Rolyatkcinmai

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Edited By Rolyatkcinmai

I signed up using Click & Buy today. No problems or strange charges.

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bunnypot

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Edited By bunnypot

People in a FFXIV forum, getting mad about FFXIV.  
 
If you don't like it, the door is thaddaway...

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ThePhenomenal1

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Edited By ThePhenomenal1

why does square-enix continue to act like they are the only people in the world making video games? i have absolutely no reason to play their shitty MMORPG when i can go hang out with friends and play halo: reach, starcraft 2, and WoW.

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shirogane

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Edited By shirogane

This seems no different from MS stuff. Or, the way they used to be. I seem to remember them changing it. No matter. Point is i still have a leftover few points left over that i can't do anything with, cause MS sold them in messed up increments.
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Addfwyn

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Edited By Addfwyn
@solidlife: Which is why you shouldn't compete with WoW, but do something different. 
 
FFXIV is great, and this pricing structure hardly seems any different than stuff like Microsoft points.  Yes, it's kinda dumb, but it's something a lot of other businesses do for whatever reason. 
 
I just used a credit card to bypass this system anyway, I don't see what all the hooplah is, except another reason for people who hate everything Japanese to try to hate on this again.
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MikkaQ

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Edited By MikkaQ

Man, why the hell are MMOs so messed up compared to other games. I know server costs can be kinda crazy, but some games seem to be doing fine online without having to screw you on every possible corner. 
 
My only conclusion is that these games are designed for the insane asian markets that devote their lives and abandon their babies to play the games. Only someone that stupid would be able to get into them anyway. 

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ThePhilatron

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Edited By ThePhilatron

Wow or FFXIV? Well this debate is over before it started.

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count_zero

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Edited By count_zero

Wait. So, instead of just letting you pay a flat monthly fee via credit card like everyone else, either just the fee or the fee+ micro-transactions for nonessential but cool extras, or going free-to-play + micro-transactions for nonessential but cool extras, they are instead choosing option C, which is a flat rate, plus an additional monthly fee for essentials in the game, but done through a bizarre moon-money currency system ala Xbox Live Marketplace? 
 
What do you think, Jean-Luc? 
 

No Caption Provided
I couldn't agree more.
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Pinworm45

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Edited By Pinworm45

Good, maybe people will stop paying for that shit now

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wonderhare

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Edited By wonderhare

Goddammit, Square. Now I'm actually happy I didn't end up pre-ordering. :I

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sodiumCyclops

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Edited By sodiumCyclops

Did Realtime Worlds develop this?

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Toxin066

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Edited By Toxin066

At first I thought you ran out of room in the title. Crysta? Dumb. 
 
 So, was setting up that playonline account to set up an FFXI account just practice for paying for currency that will pay for our gaming? Psssssh. Listen to me. I almost sound as if I intend to partake in this madness. I'm not even going to try this game.

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SuperfluousMoniker

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 "One dollar equals 100 Crysta points, the publisher says, but bundles of Crysta have to be purchased in $5, $10, $20, $30, $50, or $100 increments."
 
That sounds exactly like the Microsoft points system, what with the purchase amounts being purposely not equal to how much you actually need to buy something. At least they're not messing with the ten base system like M$ Banana Dollars does. Still bullshit though.

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Addfwyn

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Edited By Addfwyn
@Count_Zero: You can still just pay with a credit card, I did with no problem.
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deactivated-5bb67033e3422

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Wow, this is just bad. I was looking forward to this and even pre-ordered it but an extra charge for every character is just crazy.
 
Order cancelled.
 
Thanks Square. 

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Shiro_Shishi

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Edited By Shiro_Shishi

I'm really interested how FFXIV is going to be in about 2 months time.
 
Because there's a lot of bullshit surrounding the game of late. I WANT to try it out for myself, because I hate making assumptions, but the fan outcry is just too large to ignore.

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Addfwyn

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Edited By Addfwyn
@JustKamToo: Why would you need more than one character?  You realize that one character can be every job, splitting yourself into multiple characters would actually make your main kind of gimp.  Or is there another reason I am missing?
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Zaapp1

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Edited By Zaapp1

I pre-ordered, but Best Buy won't get it 'til Friday, so I lost the biggest collector's edition advantage...

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Dedodido

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Edited By Dedodido

That subscription method is bonkers. If I have the usual 5 or so characters that I make in MMOs that would set me back $25 a month? (or approx £15 in local currency). It's almost like the company is being run by 3 year olds.

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EdsXwing

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Edited By EdsXwing

I have to say that I like having left over Crysta as much as I like having leftover Microsoft Points... which is to say, I don't. But that being said, I always end up using all my Microsoft Points and I'll most likely use up all my Crysta as well.  Not to mention I can just buy Crysta with PayPal, a company I trust fairly well.

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Nasos100

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Edited By Nasos100
@Garadon: theres no reason. I was kinda intersted in this but ill stick to WoW
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ImpendingFoil

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Edited By ImpendingFoil

This is the kind of stuff that is going to get them sued.  Their goofy account system for FFXI brought them a lawsuit and I can almost guaranty this whole hot dog/hot dog buns way of paying the monthly fee is going to get them in trouble yet again.
 
I really wonder why they keep doing stuff like this.

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deactivated-5bb67033e3422

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@Addfwyn:   

I’ve always enjoyed creating loads of alts on MMO’s (hell I even have a bank alt on borderlands) I can’t see that I’m going to stay with one character in FFXIV no matter how much they can do, so I’m not going to fork out extra money just for what I would call standard on almost every other MMO.

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sins_of_mosin

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Edited By sins_of_mosin

Haha, what a cherry to a cake of poop that this game is.
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Aviar

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Edited By Aviar

I am so glad I skipped this game after playing in the beta, and not being very impressed.  A charge per character is just ridiculous, and the currency conversion is even more outrageous.

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Addfwyn

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Edited By Addfwyn
 @Dedodido: Except in most MMOs, you need 5 different characters.  It's a bad policy for extra characters to cost more, just because many people are going to have the same attitude, and not realize that there is actually zero reason to split your time up between multiple characters when one character can do everything.   
 
Even having a crafting alt would be silly, because it'd just be faster to level that on your main and let your fatigue deplete from your combat classes.  
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zomgenius

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Edited By zomgenius

I fully agree that having to go through hoops just to pay for all the fees, etc. is not good, but really, how bad is it that you have to pay $15 a month for a one-character subscription? I mean, take WoW for example. You have to pay $15 there, right? I know that with WoW, you can make a million alts if you want to, but in FFXIV, you shouldn't have to. They way they've been setting this up looks to me as though you really only need one character. As long as you spend time on each of the classes and crafting, you will be able to consistently level up your character, etc. That being said, it'd be kind of a waste to have one character for fighting and one for crafting, because you just wouldn't get the right kind of experience from it - literally and figuratively. So yeah, it's dumb that you have to buy $15 worth of 'Crysta' just to pay for $13 of membership, but if it gets left over and you keep buying a monthly subscription, I don't really see the problem. Personally, I'd be happy to pay it if I were to play this.
 
Maybe that's just me. :/

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Dedodido

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Edited By Dedodido
@Addfwyn: 
I must confess that I know very little about the class and race mechanics for FFXIV, but I thought it was pretty sensible to assume it had different classes, and different races. When I make alts it's so that I can see all there is to see from the game, and get a decent view of all the different ways there are to play the game. If one character in FFXIV can do everything.... then why are there different classes at all?
 
Besides, I play MMOs with several different people, and I don't like to go running off ahead of everyone else when they aren't around. That takes up 3 of my slots minimum, one to play by myself, one to play with one group of friends, and one to play with another.
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Addfwyn

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Edited By Addfwyn
@Dedodido:  
It's pretty similar to FFXI if you are familiar with that at all.  There are a pretty wide variety of classes (Though a lot of them are crafting/gathering classes right now) that you change by changing your weapon.  For example, if you equip a big axe you'll be a marauder.  As you play that class, you'll build up your skill with the axe (and thus the marauder class) and unlock new abilities and weapon skills.   
 
If you want to change classes or want to play with a lower level friend, you just switch your weapon.  Switch to a staff and you'll be a conjurer, and your skill development is separate from that of your marauder, so you can go back with your friends who just started the game and play with them that way, while developing that class.  Unlike FFXI, there's some more multi-classing options, so you can actually take [some] abilities you learned in one class and use it in some others, but you don't have access to every ability of every class at once.  Changing weapons changes your class. 
 
The biggest problem I could see for you is if you want to play with your newer friends as the same class that you were already levelling, that may create a problem.  But for the most part, you can level every class with one character.  There are different classes because there are still different roles, you can just freely change between them.  That's why alts are generally unnecessary, unless you really really want to try a different race.  Overall, splitting up your time between alts is less ideal than dividing your time on your main between different classes.
 
Sorry, it may be slightly complicated to somebody not familiar with XI or XIV already, did that explanation help at all?
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Dedodido

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Edited By Dedodido
@Addfwyn: 
Yeah that makes sense, interesting way of doing things. I don't go for subscription based MMOs anyway, but if I did I can see how their current pricing model makes sense. However, like you said doing payments per character can easily turn into a PR disaster and turn people off the game before they know anything about it.
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donaldkhogan

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Edited By donaldkhogan
w/regard to my interest level: this plus the impossible beta client download has completely dashed my hopes of ever playing this game.   
 
w/regard to the points system: its the same damned thing EXACTLY as XBL.  Its not sorta like it, it is a copy of the model.  How many of you have 20 or 18 or 12 points in your MS points wallet?  How many users do you think that is?  Whats th install base of Xbox 360?   
 
So lets say each of us on average have a stagnant 18 ms points.  Lets say that is about 5 cents.  Lets just say the sample group is 1 million users. 

 1 million users at 5 cents a piece is $500,000 for fucking free.

  That's what MS is making off of there stupid ass points system.  It's cheating and stealing.  Its clever manipulation of the market in order to get FREE money from us on a service 

we ALREADY FUCKING PAY FOR.

   
 
I normally don't swear in posts, but this stuff gets me riled up.  And now w/Sony and this game, It really sucks because what is going to happen is people are going to have leftover Shrutebucks and they'll be all "hm, what to do with these duckets?"  and sony will come along and be like, "DUDE, we've got this SIIIIIICK red pair of wingtip shoes for your avatar.  They are only 20 spacebucks!  And they'll somehow spin it as if they are providing an extra service to users because they recognize the "problem" of leftover mangabucks and so they try to play the big corporation who is catering to the needs of users when 

THEY MADE TH FUCKING PROBLEM IN THE FIRST PLACE.   Knowing full well what they were doing.  All I can say is (other than all this other nonsense I just spouted) the game had better be damned amazing. 

 
[/soapbox] 
 
p.s.  What they could do is donate the leftover spacely sprocketdollars to charity.  Then I could totally get behind the model.
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koolaid

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Edited By koolaid

I remember when my local arcade switched to this system.   You bought cards with points on it.  Every 1 dollar was like 100 points.  But games were like 110 points.  I don't even think you could combine cards!  This is one of the slimiest business practice since Zanga's reward points.

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LordAndrew

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Edited By LordAndrew
@Kuraform said:
" People in a FFXIV forum, getting mad about FFXIV.
 
If you don't like it, the door is thaddaway... "
It's also a news story on the site, making it far more visible than any other thread in the FFXIV forum. If the responses really bother you that much, well, you know where the door is.
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gunharp

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Edited By gunharp
@donaldkhogan said:   
 "...now w/Sony and this game, It really sucks because what is going to happen is people are going to have leftover Shrutebucks and they'll be all "hm, what to do with these duckets?"  and sony will come along and be like, "DUDE, we've got this SIIIIIICK red pair of wingtip shoes for your avatar...."
What exactly does Sony have to do with this?
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zitosilva

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Edited By zitosilva

Seems like a cheap move to garantee that people spend more money with in game stuff.

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Addfwyn

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Edited By Addfwyn
@zitosilva:
@donaldkhogan:

There are, at the moment, no in-game microtransactions you could use these on. 
 
Also, you CAN pay for the game with just a credit card, I have.  The hooplah over this story is misleading, this [admittedly weird] system is more just replacing gamecard type payments for people who don't want to use a CC. 
 
Again, YOU CAN JUST USE CREDIT CARD.  I hate typing in all caps like an idiot, but it can't be stated enough that this story is just misleading.
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BionicMonster

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Edited By BionicMonster
@Babylonian: thats why he wrote "convert".
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DHunter329

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Edited By DHunter329

Anyone have the numbers for Final Fantasy 11, subscription-wise. I don't see this lasting too long, especially with WoW still pulling in subs. I could be wrong, but until  FF 14 is out for a few months, its all speculation at this point.

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morden2261

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Edited By morden2261

This feels like more Japanese internet weirdness.  They always seem to overcomplicate anything and everything online.

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babylonian

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Edited By babylonian
@BionicMonster said:
" @Babylonian: thats why he wrote "convert". "
Which do you think is more likely: that I straight up cannot read, or that I was poking a little gentle fun at Brad "Shoemarker" Nicholson for a pretty egregious headline typo that was fixed by the time you saw it?
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Lorazepam

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Edited By Lorazepam

Let's just.... make it a real currency! C'mon, Squenix, make it happen!

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donaldkhogan

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Edited By donaldkhogan
@Gunharp:   Oops my bad, I totally meant Square/Enix.  I was too excited.
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Kayotix

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Edited By Kayotix

Despite the crysta thing (which isnt news worthy imo becasue you can just use a CC anyways) the game is pretty good so far, its a VERY nice change of pace from WoW which i always go back but in 2 months am sick of it again. I can see myself playing FF14 for awhile and im glad its not just a reskined clone of other MMOs.