Given the recent influx of new players...

[IDontPetLalas]

What about the new players, both subscribers and free trials, who cant make a character on any server because its full? Or the long queue times that some servers, mostly those from EU, are having because of the number of players online?
And I understand that this is not even close to the numbers we will have in EW, but isnt it better to try to do something now than wait until November and realize that a good chunk of the playerbase is unable to get in the game? And I mean something else that is not just gatekeeping free trial users (which generates a bad reptutaion after all).

You know, there are a number of other ways that could be considered.

For one thing, FFXIV has a very generous free trial.

Here's a few possible ways:

1- bring back a time limit for the free trial - could be shortened to let's say- a few weeks

2- limit the time per day for free trial accounts - let's say one or 2 hours per day

I'm not saying those are the best solutions, just saying that temporarily there could be a number of possible ways to allow both trial (existing and potential) and paying customers to play without going the route of an AFK timer- I've seen those circumvented in other games too.

In any case, while I do believe in prioritizing paying customers, I also see that there are benefits in the free trial players for everyone.

[artlessknave]

my queue time is like...2 minutes. maybe. I dont think it's broken 100 players yet.

[Vahlnir]

my queue time is like...2 minutes. maybe. I dont think it's broken 100 players yet.

Yeah, mine rarely goes above 50 when I log in lately which means maybe a 30-45 second wait. That number may increase though. Time will tell. Still not used to seeing a queue this late into an expansion's final content patch though. lol

[DenaturedH2O]

There seems to be a culture built around people doing continuous afk emotes for hours, or even days on end--and people know and like them even--but when we have long queue times it comes off as kind of tone-deaf and rude. I would definitely support other ways of promoting one's streams, like fellowships or a similar advertising board/forum within the game, but I would prefer to have an afk autologout system so people who actively want to play can do so more efficiently.

[Sove92]

And there it is in the patch notes.

In an effort to ease server congestion, players who are inactive for more than 30 minutes will be logged out automatically.

[Vahlnir]

And there it is in the patch notes.

That's pretty much what I expected to happen. It should help a little bit.

[IvorySamoanXX]

As a sprout (well, returning player from 2015 but it's neither here nor there), I would of assumed that there would be an auto AFK kick anyways.

Should definitely initiate it if it's something that rolls out with expansions: the pops are huge right now.

[SturmChurro]

This should be a permanent feature. I know a lot of people like to AFK for weeks on end, for some reason, but all it's doing is needlessly filling instances.

[Neoyoshi]

As a sprout (well, returning player from 2015 but it's neither here nor there), I would of assumed that there would be an auto AFK kick anyways.

Should definitely initiate it if it's something that rolls out with expansions: the pops are huge right now.

Not yet they aren't, not yet.

[technole]

Not yet they aren't, not yet.

30-minute AFK timeout has been added in 5.58.