Please expand GM functionality
The scope of what GMs can do in FF14 is unacceptably narrow, I'll quote:
Quote:
We are currently providing support for the following issues:
- Harassment by another player
- Inappropriate character name
- Spam
- Solicitations to buy or sell in-game items or gil
- Stuck within the game geometry
There is literally no item recovery capability of any kind in the entire game. GMs won't handle it, and the support via the website won't handle it. The server I'm on just crashed and when it came back up I'm now missing something I transferred off of my retainer right before the crash. It's not on the retainer anymore and it's not in my inventory. While I'm lucky and the value of the lost item is probably only around 200k, someone could just as easily lose items that are very valuable or that took a great deal of effort to acquire (+3 equipment for example).
This problem is usually invisible, but when you legitimately NEED support and there's none available it's an extremely negative experience. Someone I know lost thousands of man-hours (the combined effort of several people) of HQ material and equipment when (while thick-headed from the flu) they accidentally clicked to "release" their retainer instead of to "dismiss" it. They tried every support channel possible and were told there was no way to restore it. While you can blame the player for not being more careful, the point is that this should be recoverable. Item recovery exists in FFXI and surely in most MMOs on the market.
This is far from the only area where the GM service disappoints players. One of the most common complaints is about reporting bots. Maybe the Special Task Force form works, I honestly can't say, but what I can say is that most people do not enjoy going to the website to fill out a form about it. People want to actually talk to someone and hear that something is being done (at least that they're observing and will investigate the matter).
Customer service is an important part of the package. Please get it right.