A few questions, if I may...

[Data Drain]

1. When playing on a PS2, how's the dialup connection? Does it lag a lot, or does it work relatively fine? And am I going to be waiting forever for updates to download?
2. Is there some sort of free trial for the PS2 version, to see if I like it before I actually subscribe?
3. Where's a good place to get Chains of Promathia and Treasures of Aht Urghan (sp?) for a relatively decent price? Do these expansions include registration codes as well?
4. Here's the big question; I recently purchased a used PS2. The PS2 includes a HDD, Final Fantasy XI, and all of the necessary disks needed. The HDD was used with the same PS2 that I'm getting, and thus, so was the game. Am I going to need a new registration code, or do I have to have the person that sold it to me give me his user information so that I can play, since you can't reuse registration codes?

Thanks for all your help, I appreciate it. =D

[Taskmage]

Re: A few questions, if I may...

1. I dunno, but the you can spend a day getting patches even on broadband, so I wouldn't recommend it.
2. If you somehow got a fresh copy of the PS2 version, you would have one month to play for free. If you cancel by the end of that month, you wouldn't have to pay any subscription fees.
3. They have their own registration codes. Don't have any place in mind for great deals on them.
4. Well you have two options. You could use the account that the person you bought it from was using. They'd just need to give you their POL ID and password. That would be the easiest. If not ...

Here's the problem. You need registration codes to start a new account, and registration codes have a region and a platform encoded into them. So when you buy a copy of say FFXI for PC in north america, POL knows that account is an NA PC version of FFXI. It doesn't really care what platform you're playing on at the moment. You can log in with an NA PC account on a JP PS2, but the catch is all the expansions you buy have to match your original account's region and platform.

The reason for the lengthy explanation is this: It is virtually impossible to get a virgin copy of FFXI for the PS2. You could buy a PC version of the game, register it, and play happily with the PC account on your PS2, since you have the discs to install FFXI on your PS2. But ... the catch is that you will need to buy PC versions of the expansions, so the registration codes will all match. However having those codes registered for the expansions doesn't do you any good if you don't have the content installed on your PS2, which of course you can't do with PC discs. So you'd either need to buy 2 copies each of the expansions, one for PC reg codes and one for PS2 content installation, or you would need to borrow or otherwise acquire the discs to install the expansion files onto your PS2.

[Caspian]

Re: A few questions, if I may...

I think Task said it best for most of it. (I really didn't have a clue how registering different expansions and such.)
Only thing I have to offer is that d/l'ing updates does take forever, and can be done faster on broadband. However, as I understand it, ingame all connections are downgraded to dial up speed to not give some people an advantage over others. So, a dial up connection really won't affect you once you're actually in game.

[Data Drain]

Re: A few questions, if I may...

Got'cha. =D One more question...say that the person who originally owned the PS2 and game no longer had his POL information. How would he go about getting hold of it again? And also, once I get his username and password, can I change the basic parts of the account, like the credit card number it's associated to, the name and address, et cetera?

[Caspian]

Re: A few questions, if I may...

He'd need to call and give them his cc info and such to get his number and password. I think if you have all that you can then change the cc info.

[Taskmage]

Re: A few questions, if I may...

He'd need to call and give them his cc info and such to get his number and password. I think if you have all that you can then change the cc info.

Aye. I don't know how the account recovery works, but once you have the ID and password you can chance the password, billing information, etc.

And assuming you get his original PS2 account, you can just buy the PS2 expansions and save yourself a world of trouble.

[Data Drain]

Re: A few questions, if I may...

Okay, I have an update on the situation. He gave me his username and password, and said that he cancelled his subscription to the game. What do I need to do to reactivate his subscription?

[bungiefan]

Re: A few questions, if I may...

Here's the problem. You need registration codes to start a new account, and registration codes have a region and a platform encoded into them. So when you buy a copy of say FFXI for PC in north america, POL knows that account is an NA PC version of FFXI. It doesn't really care what platform you're playing on at the moment. You can log in with an NA PC account on a JP PS2, but the catch is all the expansions you buy have to match your original account's region and platform.

They have to match the region, but not the platform. You can use PC registration codes with the PS2 version, to make an account on the PS2, and you can mix PC, PS2, and Xbox 360 registration codes. I've had plenty of people buy the Vanadiel collection who only have a PS2, and they've used the codes to register and set up everything on the PS2 version they got with a used HDD. I've also got linkshell members who started on PS2, and added Aht Urgan to their accounts with PC registration codes, after switching to playing on PC around the time Promathia came out. One even still plays on both systems and used the PC Aht Urgan code to activate the expansion from his PS2. Region is all that matters when it comes to the codes.

[Taskmage]

Re: A few questions, if I may...

Huh? That's now what Estya told me. I hope you're correct instead, because that'll make it much cheaper/easier for me to get ToAU.

[Data Drain]

Re: A few questions, if I may...

I have another question...are usernames a combination of random numbers and letters, or do you get to choose what they are? The only reason that I ask is because, from the impression I'm getting, they're random letters and numbers, and the username he gave me was one that he seems to have made.

[Taskmage]

Re: A few questions, if I may...

The POL ID number that you log in with is random letters and numbers, but that's not what people see in-game. You pick your handle which I think determines your email address, and your character name of course. When someone adds you to their friend list they'll input their own label to remember you by or use your character name by default. That random alphanumeric string is really only used when communicating with SE.

[Data Drain]

Re: A few questions, if I may...

So what I really need to get from him is the alphanumeric address, otherwise I won't be able to log in?

[Taskmage]

Re: A few questions, if I may...

Yeah it should be 4 letters and 4 numbers. You need that and a password.

[Data Drain]

Re: A few questions, if I may...

And if he can't find that, then he has to call Playonline and give all his personal info to get his account number and whatnot back?

[Taskmage]

Re: A few questions, if I may...

Yeah, they'll probably want credit card information, etc.