I really should have learned the first time...

Dear Square-Enix,

I swear to god, you are the WORST company to deal with. I dealt with you for the five years I played FFXI. I should have learned. But noooo. FFXIV was on sale for half-price, $15 with a free month of play, and I had fun in the beta (until my account mysteriously vanished), so hey, $15 for a month. I could do that.

So I bought the game. Of course, for lord knows what reason, S-E requires you to make an account with the company. Should be easy enough, right? We make accounts all the time, it's simple as pie and takes minutes.

I've been trying to make my S-E account since yesterday evening. I tried to make it within the game window (as recommended). I tried to make it directly on your site. You never send me the confirmation email. I've used three different email accounts, over ten attempts total so far. (And of course I checked my spam/junk folders.)

Your instructions if I don't get the email? Try again using a "valid" address. So the gmail account I've been using for years isn't good enough? Well, how about the second one I've been also using for years?

Bah. I swear to god, I hate S-E. I want to play the game. I bought it. You have my damned money. Why, oh why, do you make people jump through such hoops? And hoops that DON'T WORK! Because you know what does work? Google. I googled this issue. Lots of people have it! It's not just me!

24 hours. If I cannot make this work tonight, I'm contacting Steam about getting a refund. (Er. Or, well, crap. "As with most software products, we do not offer refunds or exchanges on games, DLC or in-game items purchased on our website or through the Steam Client.")

I haven't even played the game yet, and I'm soured on it. Nice going, S-E.

Not a single drop of love,
Thistle

Edit: To contact S-E support, you need an account. $*()#_*(@#_$*@#()$*_2-

Edit 2: Exact wording of the error message, for hilariousness "If the e-mail does not arrive even after waiting a considerable amount of time, the e-mail address may have been entered incorrectly. Please try again with a valid e-mail address."

A hodgepodge of things

- I got FFXIV installed. I had to use my work email address, which I really, really did not want to do, but the game is so pretty I can nearly forgive that. After playing WoW for so long, a pretty game makes me want to cry. I spent almost a half-hour customizing my character just right. Which is something of a joke -- which "Thistle" do I mean at this point? Anyway, I made him look as much like FFXI Thistle as I could, but there's a lot of WoW Thistle in his background/personality (mostly moot, since I'm unlikely to ever RP there).

- I got my review at work. Being new to the tech writing group, I was expected to get 'gaining competency', which is what all people new to a job/position get since they're ramping up to speed. Instead I got all meets or exceeds competency. o.O Woot! Thanks RP for all the writing/editing skills I picked up through the years. Kids, if parents tell you computer games are a waste of time, point this out! But seriously, it was because of my engineering background as well -- I'm a lot more technical than the other writers, so I'm handy in that way.

- The hospital sent me a bill for almost a thousand dollars ($992). While that's a lot better than $144,000, I'm still unhappy. I sent them a reply asking what/why my insurance wasn't covering.

- Toe is healing? It's still red, but my instructions say to gently scrub off the scab three times a day, so... that'd make anything red, I'd think. The swelling is gone and it only hurts a little now and then (see also: removing the scab three times a day). I still have two days left of the antibiotics though, so we'll see what happens after that.

- Way too many medical appointments next week. x.x Tuesday is the nutritionist, Wednesday the doctor for my leg/toe, Friday my car to the shop, then Monday is the dentist. My cat needs to go to the vet soon after (delaying that as much as I can), and two other new appointments for myself, along with that darned sleep study.

- Still need to do my taxes. Every year I have to pay hundreds of dollars, so I always drag my feet. Blah. I still want to get it done with though.

- I bought a panini maker. I debated for a week, since once I have my surgery I won't be eating sandwiches anymore (I think?), but it was only $30 so if I enjoy it for four months or so it should be worth it. Eventually I'll find a new home for it and the Soda Stream twins.