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Final Fantasy XI's character reactivation service lets you bring deleted characters back to life

Seraphina Brennan — Sat, 30 May 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Business models, Game mechanics, News items, Consoles

Do you miss the home you use to call Vana'diel? Do you wish you never punched that "delete" key when you were signing off of PlayOnline for the last time? And, lastly, are you too impatient to wait for another "Return Home to Vana'diel" campaign to begin?

Good news for you then! The guys and gals over at Square-Enix have finally decided to drop their timed campaign and bring in a new permanent solution for those of you who have deleted your characters from the system but would like to get them back -- character reactivation.

The new service allows people who have canceled and deleted their Content IDs, people who have deleted characters and canceled their accounts, or people who have canceled their accounts and let the account sit for too long to go back in and restore old data to the account. This means when you now /ragequit Final Fantasy XI and press that delete key too hastily, you can now undo that mistake you made.

Sadly, this method won't offer anniversary rings like the "Return Home" campaign did, but hey, you can get your character back anytime you want now! What's not to love?

Final Fantasy XI's character reactivation service lets you bring deleted characters back to life originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 30 May 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: Will the new campaign bring you home to FFXI?

William Dobson — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Business models, The Daily Grind

It didn't surprise us when Square Enix said that the "Return Home to Vana'diel" campaign was back by "popular demand" -- old subscribers demanding access to deleted characters must be a fairly popular query for their customer service team to handle. Complaining about the policy won't do much good though, as it seems to be here to stay. In other words, if you've at all considered returning to FFXI in the near future, it would make sense to do it while the campaign is running.

However, MMOs are really competing for subscribers these holidays. A number of the biggest titles have just had expansions released, and others are churning out major patches to keep up. If you are someone who would benefit from this campaign (ie., you've played FFXI before but have been un-subscribed long enough to lose your characters, and could now recover them), do you see yourself taking this opportunity before it goes away in April of next year, or are you currently too wrapped up in one of the other MMOs out there?

The Daily Grind: Will the new campaign bring you home to FFXI? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Join the moogles for the Starlight Celebration in FFXI

William Dobson — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Events, in-game, Quests

This coming Friday, the 19th of December, the Starlight Celebration will begin in Vana'diel, offering Final Fantasy XI players the chance to party with the moogles and score some presents. On one side of the equation, you can assist the moogles with giving out gifts and greeting cards. On the flip-side, you can look for the presents that they've hidden all over the place to get some for yourself -- but since they had to make the boxes monster-proof, there will probably be some force required to bust those suckers open.

If you're looking for more to do, or if the moogles just plain creep you out a little bit, you can help smilebringers deliver some Starlight joy to the children of Vana'diel, or visit special merchants to pick up festive items. The official website has the lowdown on exactly where you can find these activities. Seeing as the "Return Home to Vana'diel" campaign begins on December the 15th, those that are planning on restoring their old FFXI characters will be just in time for the celebrations to kick off on Friday. The holiday will draw to a close at 7:00AM PST on December the 31st.

Join the moogles for the Starlight Celebration in FFXI originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 14 Dec 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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"Return Home to Vana'diel" is back, and Squeenix hopes you will be too

William Dobson — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Business models, News items

The last "Return Home to Vana'diel" campaign ended in February this year, making the decision of whether to return to Final Fantasy XI a lot easier. Now, Square Enix is running the promotion again, giving former players the chance to restore their characters and making that decision a little less clear-cut. The campaign officially kicks off at midnight on Thursday, the 18th of December, and ends at 1am on April 15th. After that point, you'll be stuck with two choices: waiting for the chance of another campaign, or starting from scratch if you wish to resubscribe.

To sweeten the deal, re-subscribers will be able to obtain an Anniversary Ring which provides a 100% experience bonus. However, there are a couple of eligibility requirements:

- Characters who did not receive an Anniversary Ring during the Adventurer Appreciation Campaign in May 2008.
- Characters who were created before Wednesday, May 28, 2008 and have logged into the game at least once since then.

*Note: Characters meeting the above requirements are able to receive an Anniversary Ring even without participating in the Return Home to Vana'diel Campaign.

That's right -- if you're already a subscriber and don't have an Anniversary Ring, this will be your chance to pick one up as well (this offer also ends on April 15th). Be warned though that deleting your current ring doesn't mean you can get another one.

This is a great opportunity to get back into FFXI, and we can't deny that there's a lot going on in the game right now -- but such a campaign would not be necessary if characters weren't deleted after 3 months. Is such a practice acceptable for today's MMOs?

"Return Home to Vana'diel" is back, and Squeenix hopes you will be too originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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