Can someone tell me why everyone is upset about the logout timer?

[Bluesnacks]

@OP
You haven't played a lot of games where there were 5 minute timers. Just saying.

@others
Oh well, there's a timer now, deal with it

[Keres]

To answer your question, from what I’ve seen these are the main concerns.

1) People are concerned they will be logged out while waiting in duty finder. I don’t think anybody really knows if this will happen. SE might consider your character ‘active’ while registered in Duty Finder. Although I don’t idle while waiting in the Duty Finder, I understand this could be an inconvenience to people.
2) Some people don’t want to miss out of any LS/FC chatter and /tells when they AFK to run errands, make dinner, etc. For these people a half hour too short a time.
3) Others have gotten used to using MMOs as pseudo chat rooms for their LS. They want to come back from work and see what everyone has been up to. To the best of my knowledge this primarily an FFXI and FFIV v1.0ish thing. I know it was normal in FFXI since you had to AFK to bazaar stuff in town.

4) People want to AFK in town wearing their leet gearz.

[Kewhi]

Have you anything to back up your conclusion that AFKlers where the reasion for it?

I can't believe this requires an explanation, but here it goes. Every time you receive a 1017 error or are placed in a queue, that obviously means the server is currently full. If there are people in the game who have been AFK for hours, or even days, then how are they possibly not part of the problem? If one of those AFK players were not in the game, then obviously that means that another active player would be able to log in. Removing the AFK players alleviates a lot of server stress which does several things:

1. Allow ALL players to log into the game more easily
2. Reduces server lag and unnecessary strain
3. Removes the need for SE to perform further costly, unnecessary upgrades to their servers

[Cylla]

It really a catch 22 here. Back when we really needed this timer was when there was server issues, but now there is none (at least I haven't ran in to any or any of my fc/ls mates have) so now we don't need it. SE was late in putting this in, but now it here and as annoying as it may be to some people, SE most likely won't take it out. They should do what they did in XI and that give us the option to turn on/off auto disconnect.

[Violent_Vengeance]

It really a catch 22 here. Back when we really needed this timer was when there was server issues, but now there is none (at least I haven't ran in to any or any of my fc/ls mates have) so now we don't need it. SE was late in putting this in, but now it here and as annoying as it may be to some people, SE most likely won't take it out. They should do what they did in XI and that give us the option to turn on/off auto disconnect.

Just going to quote myself from a different thread.

This is far from a pointless feature. They still have a hold on digital sales so there's really no saying what it will be like when they resume them and there is another large influx of players.

[MalcolmReynolds]

life happens. my FC can do do WP in 35 min, keep in 40 minutes and kill all trash mobs. When we have an hour left for boss and Joe goes "hey guys, wife called she needs me to do something", well we let him do something to keep the wife happy. In the mean time we'll do some stuff around the house etc.

All i'm saying is sometimes there's a legit reason to be afk, other times there's not. In instances, which are timed, I would hope they'd remove that. How many times do people wait in an instance for 30 minutes TO get a new healer because the previous guy left? Should they get kicked too?

No they shouldn't I suppose, but if it'll be for the greater good (getting the real AFKers off) then I'm all for it. How often does it happen where you run an instance, wait 30 minutes for a new healer (while just walking away from your computer BTW) without the group disbanding? And still having enough time to finish the run. It's a pretty weak argument. If you're waiting for someone to join the group, chances are you'll be coming back every few minutes to check. Just move your character a step forward and problem solved.

[Moth]

The issue of the server being full has been fixed, so I don't understand why they implemented this auto-timeout feature in the first place. It is pointless. Also, when I am queuing for a duty finder for my DRG, it takes a little while to get one, lately it takes longer than 30 mins. Now i'll have to be worrying about running around every 20 mins so I don't get timed-out of the que.

I like leaving my character up in the world at night just because it is what I've always done in MMOs. It's just another aspect that makes this game not feel like an MMO anymore, just some dungeon spammer.

[Noata]

If you followed what the letters and maintenance notes stated, the server capacity put the AFK Timer on hold. Yoshi says he wanted to allow players to log in and enjoy the game and pushed all development to increasing server numbers. he said, Later we will implement the AFK Timer, which servers a purpose whenever a person is kicked for being afk. its not intended to fix "Cant Log On" its intended to fix "staying Logged On", which by side effect allows more people to log on.

Really more MMO's have an AFk timer then don't. its a standard feature it seems they overlooked.

[Cylla]

Just going to quote myself from a different thread.

I suppose we shall see what happens when that times comes.

[Ratm3000]

Because you are paying for the service, hence you should be able to do whatever you want (AFK). SE needs to get better servers, F2P MMOs have better servers then SE. You are basically telling them it's alright for you to have bad servers will still pay for them.