Final Fantasy XI's character reactivation service lets you bring deleted characters back to life
by Seraphina Brennan 
May 30th 2009 at 6:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Business models, Game mechanics, News items, Consoles
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?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Oceaniax said on 9:11PM 5-30-2009
Something that should have been part of their service since inception, but it's nice they're doing it now.
One thing I find bizarre is, if all the data from every deleted character or lapsed account is there to be reactivated, clearly it always has been, so why would they have, in the past, purposely stopped you from resubscribing?
Reply
Hardy said on 10:46AM 5-31-2009
Better then other MMOs.
WoW for example let's your restore characters, but only after a couple weeks. Any longer then that, they say tough luck.
Oceaniax said on 12:52PM 5-31-2009
@ Hardy
True, but WoW never eliminated your characters if you decided to take the summer off, for example. That, and deleting a character in WoW (where you have 10 slots per server), is usually a less common occurance than in FFXI, where you get 1 (plus additional slots at the cost of $1/mo per slot).
My question though, was why in the world, if they retained the data, would they have not allowed you to bring back your character WHENEVER up until this point in FFXI? I mean, WoW doesn't have "bring your old characters back!" weekends, because they probably write over deleted characters after X amount of time.
FFXI has had these time limited ressurection periods sporadically for years. It doesn't sound like good business to me.
kia said on 12:10AM 6-01-2009
@Hardy.
Patently untrue. Deleted characters over level 50 are never deleted from Blizzard's system. I know of people requesting restorations on characters deleted for three years who get them back, no questions asked. Lower level toons are presumed to be less valuable and are deleted from the system after a couple of months (length of time depends on level), but so long as you get your request in before the purge they'll meet such a request without demur.
Crysdragon said on 9:32AM 5-31-2009
Having a number for an ID was another thing that was always a pain. Easy to loose if you don't play for a year or two.
Reply
Wisdomandlore said on 1:45PM 5-31-2009
Hmm, I might consider it, but I also sold all my gear (level 50-60 class gear and some other nice pieces) and gave away all my money when I /ragequitted.
Reply