Wouldn't hurt to put it in anyway. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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If you remove all the AFK players,
Then all the cities will be emty and
anyone who tries ffxiv for first time
will assume It's a dead game and leav.
I started in ShB, which had an active playerbase that was heavily influenced by the pandemic so I can't comment on past experience, but I really think you're looking at the situation through rose tinted glasses here.
People who play the game are gonna play the game, and if there's not content for them to partake in then they'll just stop logging in. AFKers are always going to sit around until whatever they want to do is active.
People AFK because they like AFKing and being seen.
I've been playing for years and have never had any desire to leave my character showing off somewhere.
At most I might park them on a bench if I leave the game running while I do other stuff, but I'm more likely to hide in an inn room if I'm idling or queuing, or especially if I'm in any kind of party that is running instanced content over and over because the inn room is quick to load and my PS4 is slow.
But they are vital to my gaming experience.
Every time i have to go to limsa i look around and think to myself "well at least i am not them" and feel better already