PLEASE provide an option to make game days last as long as real days.

[MistakeNot]

Square Enix, PLEASE add a UI option that would allow players to change the flow of time in game to match their local time. A day in game should last 24 hours in my timezone. It should be dark in game when it is dark in my timezone, and it should be bright in game when it is bright in my timezone. Or close enough.

So you are saying that since at this time of year it is dark outside about 16 hours per day where I live, and since I (like most other players) mainly play in the evening, then it should practically always be nighttime in the game when I play?
No, thanks. I do not want to play a game with perpetual night.

[TritochHuntr]

So you are saying that since at this time of year it is dark outside about 16 hours per day where I live, and since I (like most other players) mainly play in the evening, then it should practically always be nighttime in the game when I play?
No, thanks. I do not want to play a game with perpetual night.

First off, this would be a config OPTION, so you wouldn't HAVE to use it if you didn't want it. But secondly, oh man, no, that would be awful. Matching the local day/night should simply be APPROXIMATE, i.e. it doesn't have to match exactly, just close enough to simulate a real day anywhere on the planet. More importantly, just make the days longer overall in the game.

This is also not just a matter of circadian rhythms, but the fact that I find it irritating that every time I log in, it's NIGHT in the game, or daytime but IT'S DARK AND RAINY. Like seriously, even with the SHORT days in game, I feel like I hardly ever get to SEE the day or any amount of brightness when I DO want to see brightness.

[Sida]

Matching the local day/night should simply be APPROXIMATE, i.e. it doesn't have to match exactly, just close enough to simulate a real day anywhere on the planet.

You do understand that it is impossible? The world is round and somewhere is always an opposite time of the day than somewhere else. I play with people who I have 12 hour time difference with, it would always be wrong to some. That said, the one thing bad in wow is that it always forces people to play on night time, for those who actually have work to do and can't stay on their computers all day. I even dare to say that if computer game day cycle starts to effect someone's perception of daylight hours other are spending way too much time in the light of their screen.

[TritochHuntr]

You do understand that it is impossible? The world is round and somewhere is always an opposite time of the day than somewhere else. I play with people who I have 12 hour time difference with, it would always be wrong to some.

You're obviously not a programmer. The game has access to your local time. Just click the time display in the upper right corner and it will cycle between ET (Eorzean Time), ST (Server Time), and LT (Local Time). So all the game needs to do is read your local time, and then render an approximate position of the sun in the sky relative to that. Likewise the same thing would happen on your friends' computers (which read out a different local time value) if they have this preference enabled. So it would look correct relative to their local time, while at the same time it looks correct to your local time. Yes, it means they would see the sun in a different position than you do, but we already have all kinds of things that one player sees and another can't (quest NPCs especially).

Obviously this is notwithstanding solutions for other issues. For the DoL issue, Square could just make this preference unavailable to anyone if they have a DoL class equipped.

[Rongway]

Obviously this is notwithstanding solutions for other issues. For the DoL issue, Square could just make this preference unavailable to anyone if they have a DoL class equipped.

Over-complicated solutions aren't helping your case.

This isn't a change I feel like we should be wasting dev hours on. But if we did, everyone would still be under the mechanical effects of Eorzea Time regardless of whether they wanted the day night cycle to render based on Eorzea Time or Local Time. The cosmetic passage of time shouldn't affect the availability of content for anyone; not just because of potential abuse cases but because decoupling universal events from Eorzea Time to give everyone individual events based on local time would just be too much work.

[GenBroadaxe]

You're obviously not a programmer. The game has access to your local time. Just click the time display in the upper right corner and it will cycle between ET (Eorzean Time), ST (Server Time), and LT (Local Time). So all the game needs to do is read your local time, and then render an approximate position of the sun in the sky relative to that. Likewise the same thing would happen on your friends' computers (which read out a different local time value) if they have this preference enabled. So it would look correct relative to their local time, while at the same time it looks correct to your local time. Yes, it means they would see the sun in a different position than you do, but we already have all kinds of things that one player sees and another can't (quest NPCs especially).

Obviously this is notwithstanding solutions for other issues. For the DoL issue, Square could just make this preference unavailable to anyone if they have a DoL class equipped.

This isn't a matter of being a programmer or not. What you're asking for as an "option" is something that would directly impact in game events and systems. NPC's don't do that. Weather and time both have direct server wide effects on multiple systems that are intended for multiple people to participate in. Weather and time can't be an instanced option specifically for those reasons.