No they are not, unless you are beta-ing then you need to download, but for official game play, you need to have the CD to get the key to play.
To my point of view, they deserved to get paid, as they give full-rich-content and entertaining game to be play on, a small RM30~RM50 a month is already that good of a money worth.
me too, 
edit===

p/s: can i make a new thread? as is too long and most informations are not being pass unless people willing to browse the page

i mean for updating ; ; imagine later on when the update files grew larger and downloading at 6kb is just ............

RM30 - RM50 per month is not a small amount.
not worth it for those players who have little time to play.

should be based on time instead of lum sump per month.
say pay USD 10 get 60 hours.

if one month no finish can carry forward to next month.
like that, no need to play everyday to make money's worth.

extra char = USD1

SE sure is fat like pig

Something Is Different. No, *somethings*.

Final Fantasy XIV has a robust character creator — with emphasis on bust. We know this! But let's take a look at what to expect from FFXIV's character customization.

As seen above, players can alter their character's "type". Famitsu.com notes that this option is for players who get fussy over things like this! It does not appear that Square Enix is giving players the explicit option of selecting something like "Chest" and has this tastefully hidden under another option.



Using the right thumb stick on the PS3 controller, players can move the camera to get different views of their character.

This Sunday, Final Fantasy XIV goes into closed beta.

*snip*

That is FFXI, not FFXIV, for FFXIV is USD3, the reason is to "Why would you want an extra character when you already have a character that can do all?" although there is many reason, they give you and actually not to encourage you on the extra character, because they want you to have you main character unique.

mule = need more space to put stuffs

auction house = easier to look for better price

believe it or not some players have over 10+ mules, yep they are damn rich

well at least that applies to FFXI, not sure how FFXIV AH system works...