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.

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.

This is fucking stupid.

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

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

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

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

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.

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. 

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

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? 
 

Good, maybe people will stop paying for that shit now

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

Did Realtime Worlds develop this?

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.

 "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.

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. 

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. :/

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

we ALREADY FUCKING PAY FOR.

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. 

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.

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

 "...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...."

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

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.

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

" @Babylonian: thats why he wrote "convert". "

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