2nd night unable to play because of LONG queue times

Title is self explanatory. I've seen streamers with over 10,000 in queue. When I get home from work at 4pm EST, I immediately log in, and Im stuck at 2000+ queue. I am only able to play a couple hours a night due to work on the weekdays. I haven't been able to log in since early access launched during the weekdays.

We buy the game and we also get charged a monthly rate for the servers and their upkeep. This issue has been happening for MONTHS. Back when the WoW refugees first came over, that was the first red flag. Queue times started back then. Not as bad as today, but there were still queue times. The FF14 team knows how many people preordered Endwalker, there was your 2nd redflag that something like this was going to occur. Still nothing. I understand Yoshi gave us free gametime, but that really doesnt solve anything. The revenue you guys got from all the WoW refugees including myself is insane.
Theres shortages and then theres raising the price of something due to demand. I highly doubt you guys can't find hardware to fix this issue. It's probably just expensive and you guys dont want to pay that much.

I deeply enjoy FF14, but theres nothing worse than not being able to play a game that the developers release but being unable to play due to "increased player base." That's not an excuse when you guys had those red flags that I mentioned for months.

I don't mean any of this to be disrespectful, but I am a paying customer unable to play your game.
Queue times are not the gamers problem, it's your guys problem. This should have been fixed by now.

The ques are rather long have to agree with you there, been stuck on 1500 the last 30 min

You know how long you have to wait for a Steam Deck or PS5?
SE has to wait for their servers the same time or even longer.
Semi-cundoctor shortage has a very hard impact on all industries but especially on IT-Hardware.

Try another world maybe?
Some have shorter queue than others
Not a perfect solution i know, but still it may help
I hope that you get to play soon

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Originally Posted by Sekurity

Title is self explanatory. I've seen streamers with over 10,000 in queue. When I get home from work at 4pm EST, I immediately log in, and Im stuck at 2000+ queue. I am only able to play a couple hours a night due to work on the weekdays. I haven't been able to log in since early access launched during the weekdays.

We buy the game and we also get charged a monthly rate for the servers and their upkeep. This issue has been happening for MONTHS. Back when the WoW refugees first came over, that was the first red flag. Queue times started back then. Not as bad as today, but there were still queue times. The FF14 team knows how many people preordered Endwalker, there was your 2nd redflag that something like this was going to occur. Still nothing. I understand Yoshi gave us free gametime, but that really doesnt solve anything. The revenue you guys got from all the WoW refugees including myself is insane.
Theres shortages and then theres raising the price of something due to demand. I highly doubt you guys can't find hardware to fix this issue. It's probably just expensive and you guys dont want to pay that much.

I deeply enjoy FF14, but theres nothing worse than not being able to play a game that the developers release but being unable to play due to "increased player base." That's not an excuse when you guys had those red flags that I mentioned for months.

I don't mean any of this to be disrespectful, but I am a paying customer unable to play your game.
Queue times are not the gamers problem, it's your guys problem. This should have been fixed by now.

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Consider yourself lucky, because I am transferring to your server from Gilga queue is 6-8k at 4 pm EST, I would kill for 2k queue, you are on one of the least congested servers.

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Originally Posted by Legion88

You know how long you have to wait for a Steam Deck or PS5?
SE has to wait for their servers the same time or even longer.
Semi-cundoctor shortage has a very hard impact on all industries but especially on IT-Hardware.

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The shortage is not an acceptable excuse. Did you receive a PS5 or streamdeck without a semi conductor? Of course not. Those consoles are on back order. They had plenty of warning signs that there would be a crazy amount of players playing the game, yet they still launched the early access.
The reason why its hard for consoles to get made is because if they really wanted to, they could get those semi conductors, but it would bump up the cost of the console a decent amount and then people wouldn't buy it because it would be expensive. FF14 has made a considerable amount of money from the wow migration. Is not like there are physically no semi conductors. If you want them, you can get them, but the price for them is super high due to demand. My opinion, it doesn't matter about the price FF14 has to pay. They got enough money to spend, they should get them in at 5x, 10x, or 20 times the cost since they release endwalker and people are unable to play.
God forbid being a paying customer wanting to use the product I purchased.

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Originally Posted by jadeblade

Consider yourself lucky, because I am transferring to your server from Gilga queue is 6-8k at 4 pm EST, I would kill for 2k queue, you are on one of the least congested servers.

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Um.....ok? So I should be lucky that Im unable to play because of my 2000+ queue, but I should consider myself lucky that Im unable to play because of an 8000+ queue? I stated in the original post that there are people with even crazier queue times. Regardless of how many thousand person difference in the queue, queue times of any length more than 10 minutes is unacceptable.

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Originally Posted by Sekurity

Um.....ok? So I should be lucky that Im unable to play because of my 2000+ queue, but I should consider myself lucky that Im unable to play because of an 8000+ queue? I stated in the original post that there are people with even crazier queue times. Regardless of how many thousand person difference in the queue, queue times of any length more than 10 minutes is unacceptable.

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No doubt this is unacceptable and your point is valid, just saying you get it better than most of us, which isn’t that much honestly

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Originally Posted by jadeblade

No doubt this is unacceptable and your point is valid, just saying you get it better than most of us, which isn’t that much honestly

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Agreed. With streamers just sitting in queue with 10k+ queue line, it only hurts the game because new people to the game watch streamers play, and when all they see is the queue and streamers rightfully complain about it, they won't bother giving it a shot.

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Originally Posted by Sekurity

The shortage is not an acceptable excuse. Did you receive a PS5 or streamdeck without a semi conductor? Of course not. Those consoles are on back order. They had plenty of warning signs that there would be a crazy amount of players playing the game, yet they still launched the early access.
The reason why its hard for consoles to get made is because if they really wanted to, they could get those semi conductors, but it would bump up the cost of the console a decent amount and then people wouldn't buy it because it would be expensive. FF14 has made a considerable amount of money from the wow migration. Is not like there are physically no semi conductors. If you want them, you can get them, but the price for them is super high due to demand. My opinion, it doesn't matter about the price FF14 has to pay. They got enough money to spend, they should get them in at 5x, 10x, or 20 times the cost since they release endwalker and people are unable to play.
God forbid being a paying customer wanting to use the product I purchased.

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No... they simply are not available.... It's obvious you aren't part of the IT industry. I've been waiting on a single server for months now. I'm expecting my server to ship out hopefully in the next 3 weeks. What they're waiting on?: No CPUs available. CPUs are just one part of the semi-conductor shortage effects.

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Originally Posted by Banggugyangu

No... they simply are not available.... It's obvious you aren't part of the IT industry.

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No, I am not part of the IT industry. But I am one of the people in charge of procurement. There are ways to purchase items rather than going on amazon.com. Still not a valid excuse.
My message you quoted is still viable.

Yeah I'm not sure what I'm meant to do at this point other than cancel my sub and forget about FFXIV.

Spent 3 hours of my only day off this week making sure I was watching the queue so I could rejoin it if I was dropped.

I got to the front of the queue finally and - 3001. Try again later. It won't even let me join a queue.

An "extra seven days" is a bit of a slap in the face at this point. It's not an extra seven days. Tomorrow will be the seventh day that I haven't been able to play. I haven't been given anything extra at all.

I've paid upfront for 30 days of service. It's nearly been a week since that transaction and I still haven't received 1 of the 30 days I've prepaid for. And SE still have my cash - they haven't refunded a cent so why are people framing it as free game time or a sub refund? They could add 180 days, it doesn't really matter if I can't login.

I don't know what's worse - SE's response of "I'm keeping your money and I can't confirm if/when you'll get that 30 days of service", or people defending that kind of practice when we have consumer protection laws in place that outlaws this kind of consumer treatment in most industries....just never gaming.

I completely understand there are practical realities preventing them from resolving this situation and that's fine. That's not the issue.

The issue is continuing to sell your products and services when you know you're not able to supply them. You can still purchase FFXIV w/ all expansions, load a sub right now and you won't even be able to create a character, let alone play the game. Why are they accepting new customers when they can't even service their current ones?

Obviously we're a global community. In my country this kind of thing is illegal, so seeing people defend it is awful and worrying sign for the future.

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Originally Posted by Legion88

You know how long you have to wait for a Steam Deck or PS5?
SE has to wait for their servers the same time or even longer.
Semi-cundoctor shortage has a very hard impact on all industries but especially on IT-Hardware.

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I am so immensely sick of seeing this cop out excuse. Stop white knighting something that was forseen years in advance. Ive been playing the game for 2 months and just browsing the forums and talking with people, ive been informed that these issues have been here since stormblood launch. The game has got more traction since then and shadowbringers blew it up even more. LAST YEAR i recall a friend complaining about login times. They new this expansion was the last of this storyline and people would be swarming to play it. Yet alone the wow players and new players. This should have been addressed at least the moment of endwalker creation. We pay a box price and sub for a game that cant even be played. Stop looking like a complete idiot defending them due to a shortage that happened in the last 5 months. Its how you let companies get to the point we are now with SE servers and Blizzard with their storytelling......

It's not even a valid comparison, at least in my country.

It's not possible to order a PS5 when there is no stock - you can register your interest sure, you cannot place an order and pay your cash upfront: it's illegal to take money for an item if that item isn't already in your possession and you don't know when the item will be provided to the customer (i.e. you're not a position to reasonably confirm when the customer will receive the item).

Meanwhile I've paid for connectivity to their data centres so I can play their game, received nothing in return and no ETA on when I should receive it - just excuses.

This is actually a lot more comparable to an ISP selling you gigabit fibre broadband, but not having enough IP addresses available so you can't actually go online anyway. Again, THIS would be illegal.

There aren't similar consumer protections in place for software sales, or there are but they're not enforced, so software companies don't care to treat us better, and they won't until regulation steps in and forces them to.

These issues need to be taken care of now. Not Later. Not a month from now after our subs renew and it's too late to refund the money we spent on EW itself. Now. This is NOT an isolated issue. This is NOT a few people whining or trying to act entitled (though you are entitled to something you pay money for on a moral level and some places a LEGAL level). It is happening to a LOT of people. They claimed they were trying to fix things and its STILL happening. Some people who didn't have 900002 or 3001 or 2002 issues before the "fix" are now having the issues AFTER the supposed fix. No one knows wtf is going on because no one EVER RESPONDS PROPERLY. The moderators that respond here give us nothing more than a copy and paste response linking to the page on the Loadstone that says "Yeah we got lag and DC problems." Ok? Are you actually going to FIX these issues? Maybe the moderators are not told any info on this. If not then at least TELL US YOU DONT KNOW. Stop leaving people in the dark about all the crap going on.

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Originally Posted by Greenshaw

I am so immensely sick of seeing this cop out excuse. Stop white knighting something that was forseen years in advance. Ive been playing the game for 2 months and just browsing the forums and talking with people, ive been informed that these issues have been here since stormblood launch. The game has got more traction since then and shadowbringers blew it up even more. LAST YEAR i recall a friend complaining about login times. They new this expansion was the last of this storyline and people would be swarming to play it. Yet alone the wow players and new players. This should have been addressed at least the moment of endwalker creation. We pay a box price and sub for a game that cant even be played. Stop looking like a complete idiot defending them due to a shortage that happened in the last 5 months. Its how you let companies get to the point we are now with SE servers and Blizzard with their storytelling......

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Thank you. I started to feel like Im alone in this.

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Originally Posted by Sabnz

It's not even a valid comparison, at least in my country.

It's not possible to order a PS5 when there is no stock - you can register your interest sure, you cannot place an order and pay your cash upfront: it's illegal to take money for an item if that item isn't already in your possession and you don't know when the item will be provided to the customer (i.e. you're not a position to reasonably confirm when the customer will receive the item).

Meanwhile I've paid for connectivity to their data centres so I can play their game, received nothing in return and no ETA on when I should receive it - just excuses.

This is actually a lot more comparable to an ISP selling you gigabit fibre broadband, but not having enough IP addresses available so you can't actually go online anyway. Again, THIS would be illegal.

There aren't similar consumer protections in place for software sales, or there are but they're not enforced, so software companies don't care to treat us better, and they won't until regulation steps in and forces them to.

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Preach it! Thank you.

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Originally Posted by ApeKing

These issues need to be taken care of now. Not Later. Not a month from now after our subs renew and it's too late to refund the money we spent on EW itself. Now. This is NOT an isolated issue. This is NOT a few people whining or trying to act entitled (though you are entitled to something you pay money for on a moral level and some places a LEGAL level). It is happening to a LOT of people. They claimed they were trying to fix things and its STILL happening. Some people who didn't have 900002 or 3001 or 2002 issues before the "fix" are now having the issues AFTER the supposed fix. No one knows wtf is going on because no one EVER RESPONDS PROPERLY. The moderators that respond here give us nothing more than a copy and paste response linking to the page on the Loadstone that says "Yeah we got lag and DC problems." Ok? Are you actually going to FIX these issues? Maybe the moderators are not told any info on this. If not then at least TELL US YOU DONT KNOW. Stop leaving people in the dark about all the crap going on.

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Very true. They've had plenty of warning, yet nothing was done except the stale unacceptable reply of "Its due to shortages."

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Originally Posted by Sekurity

Very true. They've had plenty of warning, yet nothing was done except the stale unacceptable reply of "Its due to shortages."

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It's a acceptable reply they were asking 30%-50% of asking price and it was denied. Even if they got the servers the only servers that will get fix is jp just due to the logistics of update servers during a pandemic.

Don't get me wrong. I understand about the chip shortage. Yes it is hard to get ahold of things now. But this should not have been a problem to begin with, as they should have planned ahead of time. The disaster that was Stormblood should have been an eye opener. The is game is popular, and they didn't have enough hardware or management to keep up with it. Guess what: Shortages were not NEARLY as bad then as they are now. They've had more than 4 years to prepare for that happening again. They didn't. Now fans and customers are paying for that in time, patience AND money.

People get complacent. People make mistakes. We are human. But when shit goes wrong and its YOUR fault, you own up to it. And telling me to be quiet and give me 7 free days of a service I cant even use is NOT owning up to it.

Stormblood did open their eye and because of that Shadowbringers was incredibly smooth. However, the game saw an explosive growth in population with WoW refugees that threw their population predictions out of the window. Unless you would have preferred that they prevented people from buying the game which would have probably cause another similar backlash, there is no real solution to this. The solution is server hardware but there is no supply for them to purchase. Unless you want them to magically conjure up servers, then they best they could do beforehand was to warn people that this would likely happen, which they did a month ago.

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Originally Posted by Yahallo

Stormblood did open their eye and because of that Shadowbringers was incredibly smooth. However, the game saw an explosive growth in population with WoW refugees that threw their population predictions out of the window. Unless you would have preferred that they prevented people from buying the game which would have probably cause another similar backlash, there is no real solution to this. The solution is server hardware but there is no supply for them to purchase. Unless you want them to magically conjure up servers, then they best they could do beforehand was to warn people that this would likely happen, which they did a month ago.

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You can defend them all you want friend. They are still responsible for this mess and we are still being shafted. No amount of white knighting will change that.

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Originally Posted by ApeKing

You can defend them all you want friend. They are still responsible for this mess and we are still being shafted. No amount of white knighting will change that.

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Legally I don't think there responsible eyes of the public yes legally no

I was in for a while then while in Frontline I got a server disconnect error .. 3001 error can't get back in and way too late in the evening to try and get back into a queue that may last 2 hours or continue to give me the 3001 error

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Originally Posted by Jukebox12

Legally I don't think there responsible eyes of the public yes legally no

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THAT depends on your country. The USA has nothing like that sadly.

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Originally Posted by ApeKing

You can defend them all you want friend. They are still responsible for this mess and we are still being shafted. No amount of white knighting will change that.

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This isn't white knighting. This is understanding circumstances and being reasonable. I heavily criticized them during Stormblood (Raubahn EX yo), but in this situation, there were no good solutions. There are times when criticisms are deserved and this isn't one of them. People are underestimating the chip shortage and its effects.

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Originally Posted by Yahallo

This isn't white knighting. This is understanding circumstances and being reasonable. I heavily criticized them during Stormblood (Raubahn EX yo), but in this situation, there were no good solutions. There are times when criticisms are deserved and this isn't one of them. People are underestimating the chip shortage and its effects.

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You do realize there are more issues going on than just lack of servers right?

Never before have I seen such a blatantly obvious example of ignorance and entitlement from a group of individuals. I'm legitimately confused if I should be angry you're all this ignorant, amazed at how easy it is to tell absolutely none of you lot have any idea what you're actually talking about, or if I should simply feel sorry for you that you seem legitimately convinced you have any semblance of a good point being made here.

You paid for the pre-order of a game, you got the key to add the early access, and you'll get the key to add the game itself. Product paid for, product received.

You paid for the subscription of FFXIV to play it. You have it. Can't actually play yet? That's why you're getting free sub time, 7 days worth, or more depending on if issues continue. It's actually hilarious to me you lot actively avoid mentioning that part just to make your points seem more dire and impactful, when anyone with the ability to actually read the dev post understands more free game time will be added if congestion continues (which it's pretty obvious it will be continuing). SO, you're being compensated for paid subscription time not being delivered.

Angry you don't get to log in 'RIGHT NOW, RIGHT THIS SECOND, I PAID MONEY!' ? Unsubscribe. That is your legal right. Which brings me to the next hilarious thing that makes it so blatantly obvious you lot have absolutely no clue what you're talking about - your uses of the term 'legal'. There is 100% nothing illegal about any of this, and if you legitimately believe there is? That just proves how completely ignorant to the situation you are.

Please. Please. By all means, unsubscribe and leave the game if any of this is what you actually believe. You get to continue believing you're somehow right, and we get to continue enjoying this game and these amazing developers without the cringe-worthy stain of your presence here anymore. Please? I'd love that.

If not? Actually have a real point to make next time.

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Originally Posted by ApeKing

You do realize there are more issues going on than just lack of servers right?

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All of the problems people are having come from the root issue of not having enough servers. 2002's during queue is the most common complaint from what I've seen. Why is that happening? Connection instability/packet loss while in queue. Which probably means network collisions are happening. Why are we seeing this more often now than before? Because a lot more people are connecting, keeping us in the queue for a longer period of time, which greatly increases the chance of network collisions. What is the solution? Either less people play or more servers.

The recent 3001 outage where people couldn't even queue? That's when the login cap is somehow exceeded according to the explanation they gave us. So again, either less people play or more servers are added.

All of these issues can be traced back to the lack of servers. Which means there are no real solutions due to the chip shortage.

For the most part I've been very patient with the game. We were told there would be server issues and long queue times. The one thing I always hated was the constant booting during queue times. This causes a person who wants to play to sit there for an hour or two just to try to get in. If we are persistent, we eventually should get in. Today was the one that actually hurt.

I did all prior steps and waited in queue for 2 1/2 hours. When I "eventually" got in, I took 3 steps forward and got an error code and was booted out. I got back into the game as fast as possible to see a 4k queue again.

Regardless of everything like knowing the servers might have problems and the like, the fact is I sat there trying to get in for 2 1/2 hours and I can't wait another 2 1/2 hours because I have work in the morning like I'm sure most people do.

It's sad that this is happening. It gives the game a really bad feel and look. Especially for new players. I hope they do something quick. I was upset enough, that I had to vent here about it and I do feel better after posting this. The initial anger is gone, but I'm definitely leaning more to "this is unacceptable" at this point.

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Originally Posted by Yahallo

All of the problems people are having come from the root issue of not having enough servers. 2002's during queue is the most common complaint from what I've seen. Why is that happening? Connection instability/packet loss while in queue. Which probably means network collisions are happening. Why are we seeing this more often now than before? Because a lot more people are connecting, keeping us in the queue for a longer period of time, which greatly increases the chance of network collisions.

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A lot of the packet loss is being caused by a bad hop happening in San Jose California. This has already been proven and NTT themselves have admitted to it. Craploads of people trying to play exacerbates the issue but it has nothing to do with chip shortages. It's ALSO one of the issues Square has yet to deal with or even really acknowledge. Just telling people to use a a direct connection and not wifi (which does't solve the issue)

This is mainly for everyone. The angry folks and those who are white knighting the company. I don't pick a side exactly but I do believe people need to understand each other a bit better.

I'm sorry, Square defenders. You have to see it from a consumer point of view too. I understand being overly upset over something you were warned about is, in itself, a bit ignorant. You do however have to consider that not everyone follows interviews. I know of people who decided to play the game simply because it's called Final Fantasy. White knighting the company and ignoring, or demeaning the plight of everyday folk who have a 9-5 isn't okay either.

Understandably, the developers have made a great attempt to keep their customers happy. It's not working however, and they do have a responsibility when selling a product. It's not wrong for people to be upset about these issues. Not everyone is informed, not everyone has all the time in the world to try and play, and to be fair, this goes beyond the server problems. Which brings me to the following.

In no world is it okay to spend 2 hours plus waiting to play and then being booted out once you're in, only to be at the back of the line. I saw someone get booted from the game when doing a dungeon only to try and log back in to what you can assume; back at the beginning of the queue. She tried once more and it happened again. I have not seen her try to log in since. It's really sad and because of this, I see both sides.

To touch on the free time. Honestly, 7 days of free play time doesn't do anything for those who can't get in. If you are unable to play for the 7 days, it's more of a minor reimbursement than anything. Of course, this is only the money or financial part. It doesn't count for the anger people feel when they get kicked out. Going further, some would say time is more important than money and that can't be given back.

In short. I think there are people who have every right to be upset, and I do believe some people may over exaggerate. I also believe the company has good intentions and I can only assume they are doing their best. People do however have the right to complain about something they purchased and are unsatisfied with and lessening their plight to shield a company is never okay.

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Originally Posted by Quickspade

This is mainly for everyone. The angry folks and those who are white knighting the company. I don't pick a side exactly but I do believe people need to understand each other a bit better.

I'm sorry, Square defenders. You have to see it from a consumer point of view too. I understand being overly upset over something you were warned about is in itself a bit ignorant. You do however have to consider that not everyone follows interviews. I know of people who decided to play the game simply because it's called Final Fantasy. White knighting the company and ignoring, or demeaning the plight of everyday folk who have a 9-5 isn't okay either.

Understandably, the developers have made a great attempt to keep their customers happy. It's not working however, and they do have a responsibility when selling a product. It's not wrong for people to be upset about these issues. Not everyone is informed, not everyone has all the time in the world to try and play, and to be fair, this goes beyond the server problems. Which brings me to the following.

In no world is it okay to spend 2 hours plus waiting to play and then being booted out once you're in, only to be at the back of the line. I saw someone get booted from the game when doing a dungeon only to try and log back in to what you can assume; back at the beginning of the queue. She tried once more and it happened again. I have not seen her try to log in since. It's really sad and because of this, I see both sides.

To touch on the free time. Honestly, 7 days of free play time doesn't do anything for those who can't get in. If you are unable to play for the 7 days, it's more of a minor reimbursement than anything. Of course, this is only the money or financial part. It doesn't count for the anger people feel when they get kicked out. Going further, some would say time is more important than money and that can't be given back.

In short. I think there are people who have every right to be upset, and I do believe some people may over exaggerate. I also believe the company has good intentions and I can only assume they are doing their best. People do however have the right to complain about something they purchased and are unsatisfied with and lessening their plight to shield a company is never okay.

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Sadly no one on either side is gonna give up until things are stable again...

I think preventing people from buying the game would have been once incredibly nice thing to do, actually. To say on the purchase button that the game would congestion that would prevent play for at least (enter time here) may have deterred people from spending the money. Alas, they are still a company that wants to make money. Not saying they're evil or anything but people also have to learn to care for their fellow consumers and stop defending corporations. Stating one's dissatisfaction is the one weapon most fans have for something to be fixed or be done better. I'm sure they're trying, but it's not good enough for many.

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Originally Posted by ApeKing

A lot of the packet loss is being caused by a bad hop happening in San Jose California. This has already been proven and NTT themselves have admitted to it. Craploads of people trying to play exacerbates the issue but it has nothing to do with chip shortages. It's ALSO one of the issues Square has yet to deal with or even really acknowledge. Just telling people to use a a direct connection and not wifi (which does't solve the issue)

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If there is an issue with NTT, I don't think SE can publicly announce that/throw them under the bus. Doing so would be unprofessional and would more likely cause problems than it would solve anything. Also, "craploads" of people playing does have things to do with the chip shortage. From what I can pull up, the NTT issue has been going on for around a month at least, however, our current issue with 2002's only popped up after Endwalker's release when the incoming traffic to the data center increased dramatically. The increased congestion is the root cause of it and the only solution that SE can actually personally do is get more servers and that currently is not possible.

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Originally Posted by Quickspade

This is mainly for everyone. The angry folks and those who are white knighting the company. I don't pick a side exactly but I do believe people need to understand each other a bit better.

I'm sorry, Square defenders. You have to see it from a consumer point of view too. I understand being overly upset over something you were warned about is, in itself, a bit ignorant. You do however have to consider that not everyone follows interviews. I know of people who decided to play the game simply because it's called Final Fantasy. White knighting the company and ignoring, or demeaning the plight of everyday folk who have a 9-5 isn't okay either.

Understandably, the developers have made a great attempt to keep their customers happy. It's not working however, and they do have a responsibility when selling a product. It's not wrong for people to be upset about these issues. Not everyone is informed, not everyone has all the time in the world to try and play, and to be fair, this goes beyond the server problems. Which brings me to the following.

In no world is it okay to spend 2 hours plus waiting to play and then being booted out once you're in, only to be at the back of the line. I saw someone get booted from the game when doing a dungeon only to try and log back in to what you can assume; back at the beginning of the queue. She tried once more and it happened again. I have not seen her try to log in since. It's really sad and because of this, I see both sides.

To touch on the free time. Honestly, 7 days of free play time doesn't do anything for those who can't get in. If you are unable to play for the 7 days, it's more of a minor reimbursement than anything. Of course, this is only the money or financial part. It doesn't count for the anger people feel when they get kicked out. Going further, some would say time is more important than money and that can't be given back.

In short. I think there are people who have every right to be upset, and I do believe some people may over exaggerate. I also believe the company has good intentions and I can only assume they are doing their best. People do however have the right to complain about something they purchased and are unsatisfied with and lessening their plight to shield a company is never okay.

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I am looking at it from a consumer point of view. Under normal circumstances I would be joining in on the criticism, but I also know that the chip shortage is a thing and that the devs have made a very good faith effort in informing people. Most other games wouldn't even have done what the FFXIV devs have done so far; they just ignore the criticism, even when deserved. In this situation, I see Yoshi P and the devs answering to criticism they don't really deserve when you consider all the factors at play. I personally feel that it is an individual person's responsibility to be informed if the information was submitted in an easily accessible manner.

I cannot condone people essentially demanding that they magically conjure additional server hardware out of thin air. During Stormblood, I criticized them for Raubahn EX because I felt that criticism was deserved; the criticism they are receiving for Endwalker I do not feel are deserved when you consider the chip shortage and how the ongoing pandemic has affected supply chains. There are also no practical solutions to the problem that I can think of. Since the issue is caused by the vast number of people trying to log in, the only real solutions are more servers or less people playing; with only the former they can theoretically do and that is currently impossible.

The most likely "solution" is honestly just waiting for less people to play. The expansion surge in players never lasts forever. That will likely come sooner than SE being able to buy more hardware.

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I'm sorry, Square defenders. You have to see it from a consumer point of view too. I understand being overly upset over something you were warned about is, in itself, a bit ignorant. You do however have to consider that not everyone follows interviews. I know of people who decided to play the game simply because it's called Final Fantasy. White knighting the company and ignoring, or demeaning the plight of everyday folk who have a 9-5 isn't okay either.

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These aren't 'interviews,' they are literal transparent explanations - far more detailed than anything I have ever seen from any company, let alone a game developer -, the links to which are right there on the launcher. There have been honest apologies given, sincere regret shown as a team has worked their hardest to get something out against the odds. I'm not demeaning the plight of folks who have a 9-5; I'm in that same boat, I've been in those same lines. I understand it sucks.

I'm calling out the entitled behavior of people whose only input on any of this is a voluntary small charge and recurring payment that can be paid for in less than a single work day. Hell, in a lot of places, a single work day can pay for an entire year. I am calling out the ridiculous stances of people who think themselves so important, huffing and puffing about an inconvenience that won't even last that long.

They're already blocking their free trial players from playing. There was a period of time earlier this year where you literally could not buy the game unless you wanted it on Mac.

I don't have to stop defending a corporation - I don't care about SE. I do, however, care very much about the team that brought us FFXIV, because they are single-handedly responsible for doing the absolute impossible.

If I have to choose, I'm absolutely going to stand by the team that continued to work through C-19 and brought us consistent updates while other games did jack. I'll stand by the developers who continued working while one of their own battled cancer and went through chemo while continuing to create the beautiful music we know and love. I'll stand by the team that hosts livestreams where they tell us their plans and what they're aiming for while answering Q&A from their players. I'll stand by the team whose actual job is this game, and not the people who think that their $15 a month somehow entitles them to more than access to a sandbox that they do not own and don't have to upkeep.

You're in line? So am I. You got kicked? So did I. This isn't my first rodeo, and while I can absolutely understand the frustrations, I've been here long enough to know that the queues will be small to non-existent in a couple of weeks (if even), and that there is absolutely no MMO that hasn't experienced this same issue on a launch - minus the launch during a pandemic that caused a massive shortage of critical parts that will not be rectified for another year if not more.

There's far too many entitled people who seem to completely miss that this team is the reason a disaster of a game hasn't just survived, but has thrived and become the competitor they ran to when other companies set themselves on fire. I have no reason to admire the consumers - I have every reason to admire and respect this team, and I will continue to sympathize with a team that is doing their best with one hand tied behind their back due to circumstances outside their control.

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Originally Posted by Rahst

Never before have I seen such a blatantly obvious example of ignorance and entitlement from a group of individuals. I'm legitimately confused if I should be angry you're all this ignorant, amazed at how easy it is to tell absolutely none of you lot have any idea what you're actually talking about, or if I should simply feel sorry for you that you seem legitimately convinced you have any semblance of a good point being made here.

You paid for the pre-order of a game, you got the key to add the early access, and you'll get the key to add the game itself. Product paid for, product received.

You paid for the subscription of FFXIV to play it. You have it. Can't actually play yet? That's why you're getting free sub time, 7 days worth, or more depending on if issues continue. It's actually hilarious to me you lot actively avoid mentioning that part just to make your points seem more dire and impactful, when anyone with the ability to actually read the dev post understands more free game time will be added if congestion continues (which it's pretty obvious it will be continuing). SO, you're being compensated for paid subscription time not being delivered.

Angry you don't get to log in 'RIGHT NOW, RIGHT THIS SECOND, I PAID MONEY!' ? Unsubscribe. That is your legal right. Which brings me to the next hilarious thing that makes it so blatantly obvious you lot have absolutely no clue what you're talking about - your uses of the term 'legal'. There is 100% nothing illegal about any of this, and if you legitimately believe there is? That just proves how completely ignorant to the situation you are.

Please. Please. By all means, unsubscribe and leave the game if any of this is what you actually believe. You get to continue believing you're somehow right, and we get to continue enjoying this game and these amazing developers without the cringe-worthy stain of your presence here anymore. Please? I'd love that.

If not? Actually have a real point to make next time.

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Never before have I seen such an unintellectual trying to sound brilliant while putting down people who have the right to be upset and express their frustration to the company responsible. You are the second person claiming "entitlement," yet is completely oblivious to what that word actually means and the situation in general. We are consumers, who bought a product, who cannot use the product, due to the long queue times. How is that entitlement? How else is the company supposed to judge how severe this issue is if people don't do what they are supposed to do and post on the forums in a respectable way.
Yes, I do expect to use the product right when I hit play. I will accept roughly a 15min queue or less. If SE set the afk log out time to 15 mins because that was their limit. That's the limit they get. Anything longer than that is unacceptable.
What you've shown here has gone way beyond white knighting. With this being your first post, I can't wait to follow up on your future posts. I mean, WOW!
You do understand what public relations means right? The whole "shortage" nonsense is just that. There are ways to still get what is needed to fix this issue, they just don't want to spend the money. There is a reason why companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for PR. Its the manipulate the easily coerced like yourself into acceptance.
So if you would Sir Rahst, think before sperging out with another delusional rant again, the world would be a better place.

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Originally Posted by Quickspade

For the most part I've been very patient with the game. We were told there would be server issues and long queue times. The one thing I always hated was the constant booting during queue times. This causes a person who wants to play to sit there for an hour or two just to try to get in. If we are persistent, we eventually should get in. Today was the one that actually hurt.

I did all prior steps and waited in queue for 2 1/2 hours. When I "eventually" got in, I took 3 steps forward and got an error code and was booted out. I got back into the game as fast as possible to see a 4k queue again.

Regardless of everything like knowing the servers might have problems and the like, the fact is I sat there trying to get in for 2 1/2 hours and I can't wait another 2 1/2 hours because I have work in the morning like I'm sure most people do.

It's sad that this is happening. It gives the game a really bad feel and look. Especially for new players. I hope they do something quick. I was upset enough, that I had to vent here about it and I do feel better after posting this. The initial anger is gone, but I'm definitely leaning more to "this is unacceptable" at this point.

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Yeap. In my original post, I was specifically talking about just the queue times. Its even worse when people spend all that time just to get in the game just to get dc'd, or getting that error while in the queue line for hours, then having to get back at the end of the queue long.

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Originally Posted by Nulstat

I'm calling out the entitled behavior of people whose only input on any of this is a voluntary small charge and recurring payment that can be paid for in less than a single work day. Hell, in a lot of places, a single work day can pay for an entire year. I am calling out the ridiculous stances of people who think themselves so important, huffing and puffing about an inconvenience that won't even last that long.

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Here's another person claiming entitlement. Does anyone using this word not understand what this means? We are consumers, who paid for a product, who cannot use the product, due to long queue times. Because of this, we do what we are supposed to do and voice our opinions on the forums in a respectable way. How else is the company to judge how severe they should take an issue if people don't stand up and make it known? In what way is that entitlement?
In one of my previous posts, I stated the shortage isn't an excuse.
Theres a reason why companies pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for public relations. Its to coerce consumers into acceptance. Just because theres a so called "shortage" of hardware, does not mean its non existent. There are other ways to purchase items other than amazon. These prices are for sure much more expensive to due to supply/demand. But they exist. I am one of the people in charge of procurement at my job. I would know.
No one is arguing with you that this game is special. The queue times prove that. But this isn't the first time it's happened. Instead of preparing for this well in advance, they've let it go, and here we are today.

Also, paying for the initial game and the 15 a month, I do expect everything to work as intended. The monthly charge are for the servers, maintenance, and upkeep of said servers. When SE got the incredible surge of WoW refugees months ago, there was their first red flag. When preorders started, that was their second. From FF14 veterans, apparently this situation ALWAYS happens with an expansion release. Fast forward to today. Here we are. Dreadfully long queue times. For some reason, you claim this to be entitlement? Such a silly and incorrect observation.

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Originally Posted by Yahallo

Stormblood did open their eye and because of that Shadowbringers was incredibly smooth. However, the game saw an explosive growth in population with WoW refugees that threw their population predictions out of the window. Unless you would have preferred that they prevented people from buying the game which would have probably cause another similar backlash, there is no real solution to this. The solution is server hardware but there is no supply for them to purchase. Unless you want them to magically conjure up servers, then they best they could do beforehand was to warn people that this would likely happen, which they did a month ago.

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The shortages are just that. SHORTAGES. They are out there. Granted, the cost may be 5x, 10x, or even 20x the normal price, but they are out there. With all the money they've received from the WoW migration, that was their first red flag. Then when preorders launched, that was their second. Fast forward to today, here we are. Another expansion release, even worse queue lines that normal. FF14 claimed this hasnt been the first time this occured. This has happened with every expansion. So what else is the consumer supposed to think other than they aren't fixing the issue.
Theres also reasons why companies spend 100k+ dollars on public relations. Its to coerce consumers into acceptance. The shortage excuse is just that. They have the money to buy the hardware they require, they just dont want to pay the ridiculous skyrocketing prices for it.