Pushed to quit after 1,860 days subbed

[Soraki-Muppe]

I think most people at this point recognize the need for auto-demolition. Some of us certainly fault SE for the crappy design decisions that led to this need - it's still stunning to me that they'd build a system their servers are incapable of fully supporting roughly four years later - but that's a separate conversation.

The big issue at this point, the focus of this thread, is how the game (poorly) notifies you of (a) a pending demolition, and (b) the complete loss of all furniture. There is no pop-up. There's no timer visible from any standard window; you have to go digging into a sub-tab. The timer isn't even consistently visible, so someone digging in the sub-tab might not know they can even check it there. The email notifications aren't very far in advance, and are unreliable given the nature of spam filters / custom filters / sporadic email checking habits. It's very half-arsed, and there's no reason for it to be.

It saddens me that this isn't something everyone can agree on. I can understand disagreements over demolition in general, bit this? It's arguable that this is the least visible notification system in all of FFXIV. We have HUD elements for directing us to story quests and job quests; we've got pointers on maps directing us to quest objectives; we've got pop-up windows highlighting Achievements we're close to getting; we've got a series of three different messages for buying gear from an NPC that you cannot currently equip. And we've got a buried, sporadically visible timer for the demolition of what, for many, is their most treasured in-game possession. I'm honestly curious, how on earth does anyone justify defending this? Regardless of whether or not the OP (or others) could have solved the issue themselves, how is such an atrocious notification system acceptable in a game that does so much to protect people in literally every other way?

Could SE make the notification more visible? Sure they could, and I am not going to defend this and neither am I in my post.
On the OP and them using this as the reason they quit, I don't buy it. In SB there are other reasons for quitting this game, reasons for which I took a long break from this game myself and that reason is... the content DESERT!!! (To explain it with few words and a bit of screaming in the end) I mean, this expansion is the one to date with by far the least amount of content, on release and later on. So quitting over that I would understand but over a feature OP did not use for more then 80 days, but to chose that as the hill your want to die on when there are plenty of other hills to charge, well I guess that is your choice to make.

The real problem with housing in this game is imho the fact that it is not open for everyone. I think FFXIV is one of the only mmorpgs with housing where it is limited, and the only other one I can remember is a sandbox mmorpg where you build your house out in the world and having housing limited in that case is something I get, but using a instance system and still have it being limited is just... going to be diplomatic here and say bad.
If they say "its the ps4, it cant handle it" then I just have to wonder, how come other mmorpg that also exist on console manages to have housing systems that do not exclude due to low availability?

[Skivvy]

On the OP and them using this as the reason they quit, I don't buy it. In SB there are other reasons for quitting this game, reasons for which I took a long break from this game myself and that reason is... the content DESERT!!! (To explain it with few words and a bit of screaming in the end) I mean, this expansion is the one to date with by far the least amount of content, on release and later on. So quitting over that I would understand but over a feature OP did not use for more then 80 days, but to chose that as the hill your want to die on when there are plenty of other hills to charge, well I guess that is your choice to make.

What people enjoy in game is completely subjective. Why is it so easy for you to be OK with someone quitting over what you view as a content drought in SB, but it's totally unacceptable for them to quit after losing their house + all of their furnishings and collectibles that they've obtained over the last 5 years? Plenty of people have enjoyed SB thoroughly and have not felt the same about it as you. It would be silly for those people to come here and claim that your opinion is invalid and they don't buy that as your reason for quitting or taking a break.

It's not unheard of to absolutely love a game, and then have something happen to you that just puts a really foul taste in your mouth and leaves you not wanting to touch the game again. If you've never had this happen to you, then I'm happy for you as it really sucks.

[Maero]

It really is sad and shows how bad housing was implemented in that they force players in a way to log in just to retain a house. Other games do not have such a thing.
I rarely get emails from them, so perhaps the mailing system is out of whack?
I do feel bad for you OP and should you decide to leave because of this all the best of luck

[Melichoir]

Im in the kind of mindset that if you cannot be bothered to keep an eye on assets in game (always assuming theyre gonna be there), well then it kidna sucks for you. Yeah, I get that it does suck that you lost a lot of things you spent time collecting. And frankly, you should be able to get those back. Theres no reason why SE cannot log what items you had in your account and allow you to reclaim them at a later date should you wish. But as I said, if you cant be bothered to go to your house and step inside it at least ONCE a month, or even check to see if its still there every 2 months (and thus reclaim your items if need be), thats on you. With as much as you play, and as active as you are, thats not a huge struggle. I step into my house at least once every time I play (usually daily) out of pragmatism (I have vendors and other things in it for usefulness). I just dont see how you could spend so much time in game and never set foot in something you consider to be important.

[Alleo]

I got a question: why are the items being deleted off after 35 days? Can't the devs stored it elsewhere until the player retrieves them?

It's literally the efforts of the player going down into the drain with just one click on the delete button.

Especially since they are not just crafted items that people can craft again but many event items that can only be bought with real money anymore and there are even some housing items that are purely out of cash shop. So having the chance to lose all of that is just horrible. Imagine how bad it would be if they would wipe our retainers and what they sell if we dont use them enough. Or even delete our characters after a certain time.

I mean its not like there are players that probably could not play due to some real life problems and yet they might lose everything. There should be no reason to delete such items. Take away the gil if you want to create more sinks as a "punishment" for holding the items but not the items itself.

[MomomiMomi]

Especially since they are not just crafted items that people can craft again but many event items that can only be bought with real money anymore and there are even some housing items that are purely out of cash shop. So having the chance to lose all of that is just horrible. Imagine how bad it would be if they would wipe our retainers and what they sell if we dont use them enough. Or even delete our characters after a certain time.

I mean its not like there are players that probably could not play due to some real life problems and yet they might lose everything. There should be no reason to delete such items. Take away the gil if you want to create more sinks as a "punishment" for holding the items but not the items itself.

Yep. Unquestionably, this is the worst part about the housing/auto demolition.

In my own personal case, I had accepted that I was going to lose my houses due to me being on a break from the game. That was fine. But then I had to come back to the game just so I could save my items, many of them seasonal items, from being destroyed. This shouldn't be a thing.

If nothing else, I would like this to be changed.

[TaleraRistain]

I haven't read the entire thread so I may have missed someone else suggesting this, but why doesn't the system send you an e-mail in game as well? It does put a notification in your timer window, but you need to go look at that. With an e-mail to the OP's in game e-mail, this whole situation may have been avoided, since the OP would have seen it when they logged on.

[Fhaerron]

Especially since they are not just crafted items that people can craft again but many event items that can only be bought with real money anymore and there are even some housing items that are purely out of cash shop. So having the chance to lose all of that is just horrible. Imagine how bad it would be if they would wipe our retainers and what they sell if we dont use them enough. Or even delete our characters after a certain time.

I mean its not like there are players that probably could not play due to some real life problems and yet they might lose everything. There should be no reason to delete such items. Take away the gil if you want to create more sinks as a "punishment" for holding the items but not the items itself.

Easy answer, storage.

Of course I wouldn't be surprised the spaghetti code and 90's server hardware has a matter in this as well.

I'm just hoping SE will one day invest correctly in this game like it deserves after all it's tripple A cost with full price expansions, sub prices and the piles mog station is making.

But you know, small indie company.

[Skivvy]

I haven't read the entire thread so I may have missed someone else suggesting this, but why doesn't the system send you an e-mail in game as well? It does put a notification in your timer window, but you need to go look at that. With an e-mail to the OP's in game e-mail, this whole situation may have been avoided, since the OP would have seen it when they logged on.

An in-game email could be a nice addition as well, but I wouldn't want that to be the only in-game notification. The mail system is kinda wonky in game, and I believe if your mail in game is full (doesn't take a lot of messages), new mail doesn't come through. At least that's been my experience when I've ordered something. Keeping it clean wouldn't be that hard if the mail system didn't seem to always give you that error saying it can't delete the message from the server right now.. OY SE.

[Kayrie]

I think SE should MAKE sure that it REACHES all players about the demolition rules. this thing wasn`t implanted in the first place and having it made official now. you got to make sure no one have to come by a sad situation like that. SE should comply with a roll back on the item lost to reclaim. they must have that DB somewhere of items lost. that`s what they have to take care of after making such a decision =.= handle those special case please. or id lost faith in SE customer service.