Why is AFKing so popular in FFXIV?

[Doozer]

One reason may be the long time it takes to log back in if you leave.
Here's a little comparison, with phone app authhenticator:

FFXIV: 64 seconds (phone out and unlocked) Had to enter both password and auth code.

WoW: 34 seconds (Did not have to enter password or auth code, which is only needed when IP address changes)

Maybe its just me, but staying logged in so you don't have to spend ~60 seconds logging in is... weird. If you're going to come back fairly quickly then it's fine, but like "oh I don't want to spend a minute logging in tomorrow so I'll just leave my game running overnight" like what?

Maybe you guys have more money than me, but I can't afford to let my computer melt because it's running an MMO for 8+ hours unattended.

[MPK]

Gotta flex those end game items some how

[Lium]

Eh, it doesn’t matter. I don’t AFK myself, but to each their own. I don’t really worry about what other people are doing unless it somehow impacts me.

[SturmChurro]

No, I don't. I've played about 10 MMORPGs seriously going back to the days of UO. I've never seen a game where long-duration (re: in excess of 2 hours; sometimes enormously) AFKing was such a widespread phenomenon. Hell, most MMORPGs kick you after 30-60 minutes of inactivity, so this isn't even possible there.

There's a difference between AFKing to take the dog for a walk, or AFKing to go get a coffee, or AFKing to cook dinner, or AFKing to take a deuce... and AFKing an entire night. The former is something we all do; the latter isn't.

What MMORPGs exactly have you played seriously? I have seen large amounts of people afking in most hub oriented games I have ever played, not even just MMORPGs.

Eh, it doesn’t matter. I don’t AFK myself, but to each their own. I don’t really worry about what other people are doing unless it somehow impacts me.

A lot of peopel complain about load times or whatever in Limsa, and also people afking in their afk spot, so it apparently impacts a lot of people in this game. You see it all the time.

[Shougun]

I personally login, do stuff, and log out, I tend not to idle- feels weird to just leave an application on and not use it. If I need to heat the house I can just use the heater rather than leave my PC humming, but that's just my imo lol.

I'd be up for letting SE populate my character in the game world as a sort of npc though, always thought if they were worried about areas needing more 'life' that letting players optionally do stuff might be cute (like the system reads if an area is dead or not, perhaps evaluation over time and not just a instantaneous snap shot, and then will have a few random tasks and potential triggers happen). Come back and find out you raised someone in the wild, got a commendation for it, helped light the streets of Ul'dah and got some free GC teleport tickets, whatever else. Might get a friends request when you come back , although retainers sort of do this and I think that's neat.

[Vahlnir]

I don't really see AFKing in FF XIV anything special. People do that all the time in other MMOs. Sometimes people just have to get going without having the time to log out, others prefer to stay logged in and some like to show off their character. The difference with FF XIV compared to some other MMOs, in my opinion, is that there's no auto logout feature 24/7. Either way, I don't really see why this needed to be brought up. People AFK. Who cares?

[Esmoire]

Used to AFK at my residence or places I have work to do (like Ishgard during restoration) but creepers would stalk me and do creepy custom emotes or send me creepy tells while I was away... Now I am more inclined to shut down FFXIV when I am not playing to avoid harassment.

[Lium]

A lot of peopel complain about load times or whatever in Limsa, and also people afking in their afk spot, so it apparently impacts a lot of people in this game. You see it all the time.

This is why I log off in an inn room or my FC's house. Things load a lot faster when I log back in.

[Naoki34]

I'm seriously not being snide - more just curious what the motivation is. I know that the game not forcing you to log off is a big part of it, but there has to be more to it than that. I like playing dress-up probably more than most people; I like showing off. But when I am not actively doing something, I tend to shut off the client simply because I am a) going to walk away and do something else non-PC related, or b) am going to play another game, in which case I'd rather not divert memory resources to something I'm not actively playing.

This isn't to say that I never AFK myself - far from it. But there are a lot of times when I will visit, say, Ul'dah, and see a person doing some emote or something, and then come back 3 or 4 hours later, and they're still there, doing the exact same thing. Hell, on Balmung, there's a person who somehow manages to kill their character in the Ul'dah aetheryte room (not the feign death emote - I mean actually a dead character), and just leaves it there for like 8-10 hours straight (a group of us have taken to calling her the 'resident dead prostitute'). Another guy in Limsa Lominsa has attained minor fame for wearing a giant mog suit and then using a double and doing the vanu vanu dance for something like 18-20 hours a day - as far as most of us can tell, it is the singular function of his account.

Again, these people aren't hurting anyone, etc., and I'm not here to excoriate them. But, rather, I just want to know: why? Why don't you just turn the game off?

Because :
- Retainer 1/h
- Alert: Gathering node - Eorzea time (you need a lot of comp for craft HL)
- My connections allows it & It's better to stay connected than to reconnect + queue

[Coletergeist]

I AFK to smoke pot and get blitzed lol. Then I literally "people watch" in Thanalan or something, and I sometimes get high and travel to Balmung for shits and giggles.

I read some rp here and there when bored, but too shy to actually interact with people.

At other times, people are using Discord while roleplaying other than doing it in game as well.

I'm consistently on Discord for social events and happenings going on in the game world of Eorzea.