Tetra master and POL chat.

[Shaadjd]

I have a question if anyone knows, why were the tetra master and POL chat features removed? And is there any chance these two features may return in the future? I really loved having them around especially tetra master, although I really wanted it to be an ingame feature for FFXI.

[Kaisha]

Tetra Master was just a money sink for them that no one was playing.

POL Chat was removed since everyone just conversed within the game, and the group chats were just being abused by bots and other unmentionable topics.

[Shaadjd]

I see. I really liked the chat felt in "enchanced" the pol experience when the game was first released lol. And I absolutely loved tetra master hope they bring it back in some way or form. Does FF14 have tetra master? Or any form of POL for that matter?

[Kaisha]

FFXIV is just FFXIV. It has a basic log-in client and that's it, which I prefer, since it's hella faster than waiting on POL to load up and then mashing enter.

No card game in XIV either to my knowledge, although I wouldn't mind it having one as it'd make for a fun diversion.

[Dsherman]

I'm really not sure what the OP is saying has been taken away with the description POL Chat.

There is still a Chat feature in the POL Viewer (under Navigator, then Chat). Or at least there is in my POL Viewers.

Tetra Master service (and three other items that had Content IDs associated with them) were discontinued at the end of December 2010 most likely as a first step in the conversion of billing to the SE Account Management System.

They hadn't done ANYTHING to Tetra Master in 5 years at that point. I'm pretty sure they didn't want to put any money into converting it to the new billing system.

I think they had left Tetra Master up that long because they had some revenue coming in from it from people that had left the Content ID active even though they hardly ever played the game. It was common for the last several months to find a count of people playing that could be counted with one hand (except in periods when FFXI was down for Maintenance). It didn't cost them much to do that other than simply keeping the one server turned on and running.

Most likely, the other Content ID options they eliminated back at the end of December 2010 were also largely unused options that could still get a little revenue without costing them much until it became necessary to convert them to the new billing.

However, the POL Chat was not one of those items. It is still there.

[Alhanelem]

Tetra Master was just a money sink for them that no one was playing.

POL Chat was removed since everyone just conversed within the game, and the group chats were just being abused by bots and other unmentionable topics.
Because Tetra Master no longer used enough and cost money to operate.

PlayOnline Chat is still funcitonal. It's accessible from the bar at the top of the playonline screen (where your handle name, status of friends, etc. is shown)