I got this at a site where FFXI was released and somebody got the copy and wrote a timeline of his day with it.

5/16 10:00 My local game store opens, and I immediately pick up my reserved copy of FFXI, 300-page instruction book and all.
5/16 11:30 Installation to hard disk of the PlayOnline viewer and FFXI completes. (Not too bad, given that FFXI probably has a huge amount of data.)
5/16 12:00 Official launch of FFXI; i.e. Square finally connects the servers up to the Internet. I, of course, immediately go into the account creation screen.
5/16 12:15 Account creation completes. Note that this consisted of about 2 minutes of entering data and 13 minutes of waiting for the server.
5/16 12:20 I start up FFXI and go into the "content ID" purchase screen. (A "content ID" is basically a slot that you can create an FFXI character in. This is the thing that costs 1280 yen per month.)
5/16 13:10 Content ID creation finishes. Note that this consisted of about 30 seconds of selecting options, 45 minutes of waiting, and 4 minutes 30 seconds of clicking "retry" on the "network timeout error" dialog.
5/16 18:00 A friend gets home from work and starts the registration process.
5/16 19:00 I go back to the content ID purchase screen to make an extra character slot.
5/16 19:40 I click "Buy" and the server comes back with "Error, try again."
5/16 20:00 Deja vu on the error screen. I give up and go back to FFXI-- only to discover that I now have 3 character slots. No word from Square yet to my request to delete one and cancel the charges for it.
5/17 01:00 The friend finally completes the registration process.
5/17 02:00 All PlayOnline/FFXI servers die suddenly, with no warning.
All times are Japan Standard Time (+0900)

At the time of this story, it is just after 1AM, May 18th in Tokyo. The Final Fantasy XI servers are still down, and will be until Square relaunches in about eight hours from now. The PlayOnline website also experienced problems during this time frame


If this happens in USA, I will scream.

Is that fact, or a horror story? Seriously I had to reread it to make sure. Well I anticipate that one of 2 possible futures: 1, Square wisely hires people to fix this problem and gets it straighted out before it hits American shores, or 2, this problem is handled improperly and the afforementioned bugs and wait times will grow exponentially until all of FF is dragged into the dark depths of LAG!!! I will be praying that this is a temporary difficulty. If you worship a god, I suggest you do the same(crossing your fingers is also acceptable in this capacity-whatever works;) ). I'll just wait and see...

It seems that Square needs to refine some aspects of FFXI. Like registering and managing character slots... and ofcourse keeping the connection up
I hope it will get better for you Nanaki, as well as I hope that it will get better for the rest of the world.
300 paged manual, sounds fun xD

Hahaha. I knew something like this would've happened, whether it be in the U.S. or Japan, FFXI will not only suck, but have reocurring problems. Take that all you FFXI lovers who've yet even to see the game XD

Japan isnt as bad as you say it is. I lived there and I loved it! Ya maybe the traffic was murder but hey almost every big city has traffic, am i right? I love japan and nothing will change my mind!!!

"Take that all you XI lovers who have not even seen the game"? Umm, have you seen it? How can you say it sucks? I did get something out of that stupid reply, you are not a loyal final fantasy fan.

Originally posted by PostalGoatman
"Take that all you XI lovers who have not even seen the game"? Umm, have you seen it? How can you say it sucks? I did get something out of that stupid reply, you are not a loyal final fantasy fan.

Eh, falls more into the "hypocrite" category. ;)

I'm not surprised this has happened. It's the biggest flaw of MMORPGs. There's always some kind of server problem going on. If it's nothing to do with errors like the ones mentioned above, it's lag. I just hope someone doesn't find a way to hack FFXI. I think that'd be too much "fun" for the world to handle.

300-page instruction booklet? *cries.*

hey, that sux but aleast they get all the rpg and good games that dont come here in australia :mad: