SUGGESTION: In-game Demolition and Reclamation Notifications

[Rymm]

With 100 slots to place items and another 100 for storage, there's plenty of room for someone to store the seasonal event items they've farmed without any worry they'll lose them.

While I agree with just about everything you said, I just wanted to point out that a lot of the seasonal items are yard pieces. I've personally never tried to, but I don't think you can store yard items in the indoor storage space that an apartment provides. Otherwise, yes, if someone is logging in but can't make the time to stop by their house once in more than a month, then I agree it should go to someone who would actually use it.

I know stuff comes up sometimes but, aside from emergencies, there are steps you can take to prepare for such a thing. I just got back from a three month trip to the States. I knew I was going to be gone for longer than the demo timer would allow but that I would also be back to playing the game as soon as I returned, so I took steps to prevent losing my home. I know getting demo'ed sucks (happened to me in the past) but if housing is such a priority for you, you need to make an effort to keep it. It's coldhearted but that old quote seems applicable: "Lack of preparation on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine."

I do think that the "30 days before your stuff is deleted" timer is complete bullsh*t though. The "unused" house is freed up for other people so there is absolutely no reason not to keep the demo'ed stuff in storage for a longer period, if not indefinitely. It isn't actually physically rendered in the game world anymore, so how much memory could it possibly be taking up? That part of the whole demo process always struck me as unnecessarily punitive.

Edit:
I just wanted to make it clear that I've got nothing against the OP's suggestion of adding in-game notification. I just feel like no matter what SE does to notify people, there are still those who will miss it and then complain that they lost their house. If they add an in-game notification like the OP wants then it's only a matter of time until someone pops up saying that the text scrolled by too fast, or there was no confirmation checkbox to close the window and they didn't read it, etc. You can't force people to pay attention. At what point has SE fulfilled their due diligence?

[Razla]

Edit:
I just wanted to make it clear that I've got nothing against the OP's suggestion of adding in-game notification. I just feel like no matter what SE does to notify people, there are still those who will miss it and then complain that they lost their house. If they add an in-game notification like the OP wants then it's only a matter of time until someone pops up saying that the text scrolled by too fast, or there was no confirmation checkbox to close the window and they didn't read it, etc. You can't force people to pay attention. At what point has SE fulfilled their due diligence?

An in-game event having an in-game notification seems more like a given or even the bare minimum (missing feature vs requested add-on). It would have made more sense for them to have started off with an in-game notification and have added email later to catch the people who were no longer subscribed. (To draw a loose comparison: it would be weird to get email notifications about selling marketboard items instead of getting them in-game.)

When my SO brought up the demolition at work with his coworkers, (non-FFXIV MMO players, mainly WOWers I think), they were flabbergasted that the only notification was outside of the game.

[Rymm]

It would have made more sense for them to have started off with an in-game notification and have added email later to catch the people who were no longer subscribed.

I know it's merely academic at this point, seeing as we can't go back in time and all, but I can't agree with this statement. Email (when it actually freaking works, get on that SE!) reaches both people who are subbed and those who are not. An in-game notice would only hit the subbed players who logged on during the time-frame. This setup would have really screwed over unsubbed players and those who just didn't log in, whereas the emails give everyone a fair chance.

Like I said, I've no problem with an in-game notice. But there will still be people who miss it and still be people who will complain they weren't notified. Only way to make it 100% foolproof is if SE sends a rep to your front door to grab you by the shoulders and shout it into your face.

[Razla]

I know it's merely academic at this point, seeing as we can't go back in time and all, but I can't agree with this statement. Email (when it actually freaking works, get on that SE!) reaches both people who are subbed and those who are not. An in-game notice would only hit the subbed players who logged on during the time-frame. This setup would have really screwed over unsubbed players and those who just didn't log in, whereas the emails give everyone a fair chance.

Eek. Let me clarify this: I do not advocate scrapping email for in-game notifications - I think both are necessary.

Because this is a game, by default, major notifications about something happening to your character are supposed to be in-game at the bare minimum. Since there is the added complication of people unsubbing, the emails are necessary.

I was not saying they should have done in-game notifications to the exclusion of email - instead, why weren't the in-game notifications automatic/default along with the email? Since the bare minimum of notifications would be in-game, how did they skip from this straight to email?

When you take a step back, it sounds really bizarre for there to only be an outside-the-game notification for a major in-game event. This is why when my SO's MMO-playing coworkers heard about the incident, they said: "no notification on login? wtf?"

The lack of in-game notifications seems more like a missing regular feature rather than being an extra. Games (are supposed to) tell you in-game that something is happening to your character.

Like I said, I've no problem with an in-game notice. But there will still be people who miss it and still be people who will complain they weren't notified. Only way to make it 100% foolproof is if SE sends a rep to your front door to grab you by the shoulders and shout it into your face.

The problem is that there is no in-game notification at all, and as a game, it should have been a given/default if they were going to do notifications at all. This is a completely ordinary, regular thing that is currently missing.

One way to get around the "I didn't see it" is the pop-up they now do with KOs where you have to click and hold to confirm your response so you don't accidentally Return. And if you want to be extra sure, a nice big window with a caption in big red font. And you can't do anything until you close it.