Never Have I Felt My Time & Support So Disrespected In Over a Decade of Online Gaming

[MitsukiKimura]

I've been lucky enough to never miss a window in the years of playing that I've had an in game house.

But I'm also experienced enough to know that, as they say, "sh** happens". And, yes, one day there might be a time where I can't login because of unforeseen circumstances.

Also, that's 20 messages you can receive at a time. You can have more than 20 pending messages. With the currently existing system as is.

Out of the 45 days? That's giving you plenty of time if you can't manage to pay your subscription or afford internet or whatever may be the case for a entire month. I'm all for suggestions for it being better but as it is, it is not impossible nor hard to keep your property.

[Risvertasashi]

Out of the 45 days? That's giving you plenty of time if you can't manage to pay your subscription or afford internet or whatever may be the case for a entire month. I'm all for suggestions for it being better but as it is, it is not impossible nor hard to keep your property.

Well, at the moment, I think it would be more fair to allow people to recover their belongings indefinitely. Maybe keep the gil on a timelimit, but at least the unique decorations. This costs no one anything; no one is kept from owning a limited plot by allowing this.

But if you want to talk housing systems. Those MMOs that have had similar systems to FF14 have automatically added wards when existing capacity hits 80% or so. Still others have had systems where you can lose your house, but your layout and all belongings are saved - so when you do come back and find a new plot, you can simply put it down and everything is as it was before. You lose the old spot you had, but not the home itself and everything therein.

FF14 combining both a limited availability system and the complete destruction of all items/property is not unheard of, but it's was mostly seen in those MMOs of the pre-3D era and it's a bit harsh, a bit antique. But for the sake of simplicity, I don't think it's so bad to at least have furnishings/decorations delivered to the character that loses their house.

[MitsukiKimura]

Maybe instead of having it sent to the mail since that would be a giant hassle to pull them out of the mail, might suggest having a NPC that will storage it and you are free to pick it up whenever

[Gula]

And in all your decade of gaming you did not once check an email to get the demolition notice? Or look at Duty>Timers? This is all on you and your lack of attention to the thing you're launching a complaint about.

The game didn't disrespect you, you did it to yourself.

[Risvertasashi]

Maybe instead of having it sent to the mail since that would be a giant hassle to pull them out of the mail, might suggest having a NPC that will storage it and you are free to pick it up whenever

This is how it works currently, save that you have a limited time to claim your things. If SE simply extended the duration you have to reclaim your items from the NPC, that would also be a nice alternative.

[Kuro_Mao]

I applaud SE for selling us extra retainers to move all these items to ahead of time; in no guide by SE was that ever written! On the other hand, I do not 100% agree with OP, but... I believe the 45 days to pick up is flawed. That said; if you know you have to stop playing... Why didn't you take the items and move them to retainers? I'll also agree with the fact SE has not done the best job with keeping ALL the rules for housing in one spot. If you look at their housing primer is more like a 90/10, and you have to refer to notes and other areas of News for specifics. Its a video game, not an act of congress/parliament/legislation of any form. SE is appealing to a different consumer crowd now than it was in 2014. They still treat this like its 2014 in the housing aspect as opposed to the new player base we have gained. They are doing a good job, but not a great one. Offloading to instanced player housing and adding this isn't going to fix the documentation problem, or the problem overall. It is the mindset of the people with the responsibility to code this that need to. Please give them more time and budget.

[Kizei]

While you are all right that I should have (and did) understand the risk, the whole point of this thread is that I am suggesting that it should not be a risk at all.

Unexpected and uncontrollable absences do happen, and it's not always something that can be budgeted or planned for in advance. It's not always about forgetting or being unable to afford subscription, but sometimes it's being physically unable to access the game due to being displaced from your home, a broken computer, etc. It would be great to find an alternative way to play, but for some folks and under some circumstances, that just isn't going to be an option... It's as simple as that.

Again, I understand that there are reasons for these demolitions and deletions to be in place given limitations of the game. However, while I find the demolition of houses completely understandable given current game systems (the finite number of housing plots and the high demand for them,) this same logic does not apply to items. Even if though there is clearly a reason the items are being deleted, a reason for this policy to exist in the first place, I feel that whatever that limitation is should be addressed.

I knew that there was an expiration timer, but unexpected circumstances meant I could not login to claim those items. I know I made the comparison earlier, and I know there are very clear differences between how these items are bound to your character, but just imagine if you lost access to your computer and your raid gear was on the chopping block. Any reasonable player would be upset to see all their hardwork erased, no doubt, and many would be willing to put in the time to grind it out all over again, but still... The fact that it would be deleted in the first place would be a real blow to anyone, and certainly be disheartening for a while.

And, again, I cannot think of a single other game where the support team is unable (for whatever the reason might be) to restore items purchased with real money, at the very least. Having spoken with friends during this ordeal, and from my own experiences, no matter how questionable the quality of support might be in various other titles, no matter how old they are, there is always some sort of courtesy given to the customer when they lose an item bought directly from the game company for real life money, regardless of whether it was lost to player error, game bug, or other cause. World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, SWTOR, Wildstar, Archeage... The list goes on and on. Of course there are limitations, but there is some sort of compensation given to players in almost all cases I could find.

[Kizei]

In response to the comment about trading furniture that is not meant to be traded - I understand this is a concern, but I don't think it has any relevance to the topic at hand (or, perhaps, I am simply misunderstanding the point you are making with it. If that is the case, I apologize.) I could have traded my furniture before the deletion, and sure, if they did restore my Mogstation items, I could trade them after. But it's not like the act of restoring them alone has any additional effect on the economy. I am not gaining access to duplicate items I could flood this black market with, I'm only getting a replacement for the ones I lost.

I hope this reply clarifies my problem/suggestions regarding the current system. I know there is a reason it is the way it is, and I did understand the risk to begin with. I just think now, having gone through an unavoidable situation where I could not account for this rules, that some change or leniency in some cases would do a world of good.

[Kizei]

And in all your decade of gaming you did not once check an email to get the demolition notice? Or look at Duty>Timers? This is all on you and your lack of attention to the thing you're launching a complaint about.

The game didn't disrespect you, you did it to yourself.

I did check my email, and I did know the risk. But, unexpected circumstances meant I had 0 access to the game for an extended period of time. No amount of understanding or alerts from Square could protect me from that, and that is why it is so unfortunate in this case.

And before anyone gives me the "Well, if these things are going to come up in your life, maybe you shouldn't be playing a sub game or getting involved with FFXIV housing," I can guarantee that is easy for you to say until such an occurrence happens to you. This sort of absence and inability to play is not at all regular in my life, and I doubt it will ever happen again. It just sucks it happened when and how it did.

[Brynne]

Well, at the moment, I think it would be more fair to allow people to recover their belongings indefinitely. Maybe keep the gil on a timelimit, but at least the unique decorations. This costs no one anything; no one is kept from owning a limited plot by allowing this.

QFT. At least make it longer than 30 days. How about a year? Six months? 30 days is ridiculously short when someone has already missed their 45 day window - if something in their life has kept them from logging in for that long, they're unlikely to make it back in that soon.

OP, I'm sorry to hear this happened and you have my sympathy.