Why I stopped paying for FFXIV

[Noahlimits]

To be absolutly sure it's Squares fault due to latency:
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This isn't true whatsoever. I had the highest internet speed from TWC that had low ping tests to every single website known to man except when I pinged the SE servers (throttled to 1000ms). Even if all the things above are fine, it doesn't mean it's on the SE side. As soon as I switched providers to ATT, even with a lower (worse) dl/ul speed, it fixed my lag issues. Consistent 100ms ping to the SE servers (which is a decent speed on the west coast).

TLDR: Just because the 1-4 is is true for your internet does not mean it's on SE's side.

I am glad to see these threads because as much as people want to white knight this game and pretend like everything is fine and everyone needs to l2p, people are leaving in droves. Every single person I started the game with has quit. EVERY SINGLE ONE. These are hardcore gamers that played XI and WoW for half a decade.

Not to white knight, but the people you know make up a small amount of the game population. Just like how I can say not only has every person I know IRL (who plays) stuck with the game, they got 7-8 friends to actually join in the last few months. I'm not sure how you can say people are 'leaving in droves' without any proof of it (10-15 of your friends is not a drove by definition). I'm not going to say the game is healthy/growing/perfectly fine based on my experience, because quite honestly it'd be ignorant to do so. I just hate when people state opinion as fact.

[Ryios]

The internet is turning into a collision domain nightmare, full of TONS of traffick, and 90% of it is people being on their phones 24/7 streamign video, uploading video, or netflix, hulu, streaming video rentals, you name it.

But let's blame SE. When in fact most the games that run well for people run well for people because they happen to be located where someone can get a good route to the server.

90% of the people I see complain about latency in FFXIV live on the west coast or southern US around texas etc. And when I have them do a tracert to the server, they have hops in the middle of the country taking 3seconds or more, that's not SE's fault. That's why VPN's are working for so many people.

About the only thing SE can do about it is put datacenters in 4 or more places in the US, EU, AUS, etc etc etc, which would be expensive as hell.

What really needs to happen is someone needs to find these slow hops everyone is getting routed through and figure out why everyone is getting routed through them and why they are so slow. TBH, the routing tables are messed up, e.g. where I live in virginia, I would expect my route to go north to canada, but it doesn't lol. It goes south to georgia, out west a bit, then goes straight to canada from there on about 10 hops or so to get to that point, but south... really...

[Shadex]

I realize that there are quite a few people that are not currently experiences latency issues with this game, however that does not invalidate the fact that there are also quite a few that are. Neither side can say that they are the 100%. However, Square should acknoledge the fact that there are millions and millions of gamers out there that are playing end game MMOs without this issue. To say that it is all the end users fault only to have that end user have zero issues with any other MMO they currently play is illogical. Square has server latency issues. It is a simple fact. It is wonderful that it is not affecting everyone but that fact that it is affecting so many should be make it something that Square focuses on more than they have.

[Dhex]

>> 2.1 happens - Data Center selection (did they change something in the clustering/routing?)

>> Verizon FiOS 100Gb UP 50Gb Down with random 5-10sec lag spikes; everything stops then a few seconds pass and everything goes fast forward

>> Ping to the server under 100ms to world server (Ragnarok)

>> tracert dropping packets -> 60% packet loss to the instance servers

Level3.net in Dallas/Chicago/Montreal ruining an otherwise perfect computer/ISP setup

To OP! It sucks - I've not had any issue until the last big update; now it's so bad I can't even do basic lv50 dungeons; VPN really helps out but it's an extra expense I have to bundle into my monthly subscription - which just adds salt to the wound.

[Ryios]

Verizon FiOS 100Gb UP 50Gb Down with random 5-10sec lag spikes; everything stops then a few seconds pass and everything goes fast forward

Sadly, I've heard of tons of people on Verizon FIOS having issues. I'm on comcast and I can dodge plumes and landslides perfectly, without pre moving. In fact I can run out of a plume that goes off milliseconds after I cross the line for the plume and I don't get hit.

Of all the people I here complain about lag they are on Fios, Cox, or Time Warner. Comcast Cable and DSL seems to work great for this game, but me being on comcast could just be that I live on the east coast.

DSL though is really good, pings are way lower on DSL. A friend of mine down the street get's 15ms pings to the server on dsl, doesn't lag at all, 10mbps.

[indira]

snip

DSL though is really good, pings are way lower on DSL. A friend of mine down the street get's 15ms pings to the server on dsl, doesn't lag at all, 10mbps.

DSL gives what you pay for that why i went from cox 30mbps to at&t 15mbps now i wish i made the jump years ago, cable providers connection are always jumping up and down and your lucky if your getting 10% of the connection your paying for only in the middle of the night is when your connection will be at the speeds your paying for.

[Tiggy]

I realize that there are quite a few people that are not currently experiences latency issues with this game, however that does not invalidate the fact that there are also quite a few that are.

You're right. It doesn't invalidate that fact. So lets try to troubleshoot it real fast.

Troubleshooting 101: Remove common aspects until the problem is isolated.

Situation: Player A and Player B connecting from different states connecting to the same server and zone.
Player A has no lag.
Player B does have lag.

Despite being connected to the same server and residing in the same zone we find both players experiencing different server behavior. Since player A experiences no lag it is safe to rule out the server as the problem since If it was the server it would be impossible for anyone to have a clean connection at all. Logically we can rule out the server as the primary culprit and we can look elsewhere for problemss


Both players do a tracert to the server.
Player A has no abnormalities and connects to the server well.
Player B sees a little bit of delay during some hops to the server.

Hypothesis: Server connection issues are a product of a bad connection between the player and the server.

Experiment: Use a free trial for a gaming VPN service in an attempt to get a different route to the server in order to bypass the suspected internet nodes.

Result: Player B using a VPN achieved a severe or total reduction in performance problems connecting to the server.

Conclusion: Routing issues between the user and the server prohibited player B from achieving a good connection.


You're statement made it clear that just because some people didn't have problems doesn't mean others don't. I agree with this statement, but many people are missing what that means. As I laid out above that means the servers can't possibly be the problem. Sure, the servers may need some optimization, but the problems everyone is having are very obviously not server related.

[Rekujen]

Playing from New Zealand (300 ping)
Battleping (160 ping)

VPN makes a huge difference, I always ALWAYS dodge stuff with Battleping enabled.

It's a shame that I have to pay for 2 services (ffxiv+battleping) just to enjoy this game, where as games like WoW I have no problem dodging stuff and my ping is 150 without a VPN...

Would be nice if they worked closer with ISP's to sort this problem out, unfortunately Square doesn't care so I'll have to continue paying for VPN.

[Whiz]

I am glad to see these threads because as much as people want to white knight this game and pretend like everything is fine and everyone needs to l2p, people are leaving in droves. Every single person I started the game with has quit. EVERY SINGLE ONE. These are hardcore gamers that played XI and WoW for half a decade.They reason they left is latency making the game unplayable (they can play other games fine) and SE making classically casual content only for the hardcore and making raiding content casual. (Seriously, who the fk does that?) They are sick of seeing "Please look forward to it" and excuses.

I know no one cares but I still like this game (primal fight addiction) and would like some of the people I enjoy gaming with to come back.

I hope they can get this game back on track somehow. I do really love this game and don't want to see it become a ghost town.

The game is failing and players are leaving in droves but they just bought a bunch of new servers and expanded data centers because of all the people leaving...so they decided to waste money on more servers for less people...at least wait till the population dwindles and they merge servers b4 you start with the sky is falling post.

[snakey77]

Award winning post here...

So your BEST assumption for the free weekend is falling subs? Sorry you don't get ESO beta invites

So lots of us bought 180 day subs, guess what? Still time left on those before our renew time comes up and you need 270 days for behemoth. Which means you are going to see a flood of them soon enough.

firstly it was a suggestion and hey lets edit my original post so it saves white knights such as your self the embarrassment of being wrong!!!! unless you can answer why they have a free weekend login?????