SUGGESTION: In-game Demolition and Reclamation Notifications

[Razla]

To be fair, that's really the customers responsibility to ensure they are getting any notifications through correctly (by email).

On reading the email it does say that you can keep track of demolition using the in-game Timer menu, so technically that should be more than enough to do something about your housing. Having a login message isn't going to help much if you aren't logging in to begin with (whether real life priorities or not).

Emails are nice, but again, as an in-game event, it's strange there isn't an equivalent in-game notification. We get notifications when our stuff sells on the marketboard - those are comparatively minor events compared with losing a multi-milllion gil cottage/house/mansion. Having to go looking for a timer is not the same as having a message pop-up saying I'm about to or have already lost my house.

(On a sidenote: I don't typically check my timers and had no idea there was a demolition timer until after the fact.)

[Razla]

Most demos are because someone isn't even logging in to play, not because they are playing stopped visiting their house. A log in message won't help those players.

At least two of my friends were logging in almost daily and lost their houses to demolition. One is a Playstation player and never got an email, but did get his gil back. The other, I'm not sure of the details. Both were most likely hardcore raiding at the time and probably distracted (i.e. outside of long raid hours, they probably logged in, got their tomes, and logged out). It may not be the majority, but it does happen.

It still wouldn't be bad to have an in-game notification in addition to the email. We get notifications for very minor things like selling things on the marketboard, and now it seems we get a pop-up notification upon log-in for achievements that are close to completion. A pop-up notification with a housing status or housing warning seems rather normal, if not the minimum, in comparison.

If someone is logging in and their house still gets demo'd, then they weren't using the house in the first place and it should be freed up for someone who will use it.

I don't disagree with this. I probably deserved to lose the house at this point. The gil refund would have been nice, but it's the item loss that really hurts. If I didn't know the house was gone, I wouldn't know to go reclaim it.

It is not a herculean effort for people to step inside their houses once every 45 days to avoid auto-demo. If it is a problem for someone, they should stick to an apartment since those don't get demo'd. 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.

The regret is real.

[NotOliverB]

Game already notifies you, what else do people want... a phone call from the company?

[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.

[Razla]

Game already notifies you, what else do people want... a phone call from the company?

How is being notified in-game about something happening in-game extraneous? That can't even be compared to a phone call.

[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.

[NotOliverB]

How is being notified in-game about something happening in-game extraneous? That can't even be compared to a phone call.

The game tells you about the 45 days. Lodestone tells you about the 45 days. Your timers menu warns you. You get warnings through emails. Is that not enough?

[Kittypryde]

Every home owner needs to have a set routine to protect their house/houses. Mine is, every day I garden, and after I collect my seeds, plants, I go INTO my house to list them on MB, or craft. I do this every day for my alts, houses. If you hardcore raid and don't craft or garden, what I'd do is, right after your static raid is over, take 45secs and warp to your house, ENTER house, then log off inside.

[Razla]

The game tells you about the 45 days.

Where?

Lodestone tells you about the 45 days.

Don't know anything about this. This is also outside of the game.

Your timers menu warns you.

I had no idea there was a demolition timer in the menu. These past few months, I didn't have any reason to check the Timers menu because I have not been doing anything I needed to track. That said, you'd have go looking for it - that is not a notification or a warning. That's something you have to go looking for.

You get warnings through emails. Is that not enough?

No. And here's why:

1) If a game is going to notify you about something happening to you in-game, the primary notification is going to be in-game BY DEFAULT. Take a step back, and consider something else. Let's say you are playing a game involved with defending fortresses. Instead of telling you in-game, while you are logged in, that the enemies are smashing Fortress 3 so that you can go defend it, the game sends you an email about it. That would be ludicrous.

I don't know if you read the content above, but my SO brought the demolition up with his MMO-playing coworkers. Here's what he messaged me: "first thing out of their mouths was basically, 'no notification on login? wtf?'

In this case, the primary and only notification (and we're talking straight up contacting you about it), is by email, which is OUTSIDE of the game.

2) The lack of dependability of email. As I brought up before, it could go to spam, it could be buried in a heavy load of incoming mail, or it could have never come through in the first place. One of my friends never got the email, and I have seen other people posting about similar experiences. That being said, why would the sole, actual notification be only by email (outside of the game) and not also upon logging in or even real-time in-game?

3) We get notifications about our stuff selling on the marketboard. Relatively minor and insignificant events. Why does it seem so unreasonable to get a pop-up notification about something major - i.e. that your house is going to or has been demolished?

[Kurando]

1) If a game is going to notify you about something happening to you in-game, the primary notification is going to be in-game BY DEFAULT. Take a step back, and consider something else. Let's say you are playing a game involved with defending fortresses. Instead of telling you in-game, while you are logged in, that the enemies are smashing Fortress 3 so that you can go defend it, the game sends you an email about it. That would be ludicrous

Housing is pretty much cosmetic and is not required to play the game though, but by your argument maybe every single thing in the Timer menu should have in-game notifications. After all, they all contain something that happens in game.