If it was an issue with payment, you'd be able to get to the character select screen, but character's name would be grayed out or something similar and unavailable for selection since the Content ID would need renewed or whatever. I've no idea what exactly would be causing you to crash at the Character Selection, but I imagine it has something to do with FFXI's numerable incompatibilities with various hardware (thank you PS2 limitations!). For example, I know some graphics cards have trouble running FFXI without using hacked drivers. It's a good place to start looking.