A Simple Quick Band Aid fix

[Phaty]

A simple idea, just for the early access would be to just log out players who haven't completed a quest or entered a duty after 3 hours. That would kick out the afkers, giving more room for players who are actively doing. Would hurt crafters and gathers who are just trying to play the market board, which for the early access isn't that bad.

What about crafters and gatherers that are farming and using the market board. Seems unfair to them

[Anemic]

What about crafters and gatherers that are farming and using the market board. Seems unfair to them

And people that play the game for other things aside from questing and duties. I.E. ERPers etc

[Phaty]

And people that play the game for other things aside from questing and duties. I.E. ERPers etc

Yup. Ppl forget that the active economy and active community is what makes this game thrive. Not the MSQ and duties

[Soulebreaker]

That is a terrible idea and I'm one that hasn't been able to play much because of the queue issues. You just have to accept it as first come, first serve. Limiting everyone's play time would just make people even more frustrated.

[shiroxkatsuya]

I get the frustration, but limiting a persons playtime is never the answer. You are punishing people simply because they got through the que and you didn’t. No ones playtime is more important than the next person. Also legacy players already get cheaper subs, they don’t need more special treatment.

[Fyrebrand]

Believe me, I would love to have AFK players kicked out, but Square Enix has not been able to figure this out in the entire lifespan of the game and they aren't about to find a solution now. I don't know why this is so hard, you'd think if a character hasn't moved or done anything for a long time they could give us a CAPTCHA pop-up or something to prove there's a human behind the screen. But they haven't done it after all these years, so that doesn't fill me with confidence that they are going to do anything about it now.

As for prioritizing players based on number of days subbed or Legacy status: no, absolutely not. Are you serious? We are all players and we all have as much right to be here as any other. I can understand giving priority to paying customers over free trial users, but that the only line that should be drawn.

Oh, and the idea of limiting player time does not work either. Everyone will feel stressed and rushed to do as much as they can with what few hours they get. Nobody can enjoy themselves that way, and that's ignoring the idea of people getting booted mid-duty because their time was up.

[Shougun]

Probably equally bad and I don't envy this situation lol, but..

What if SE gave players a sort of token that you could use to register a time you want to play. Once per week or something. During that time when you log in you're given priority in the login queue. Sort of a fast pass for login queues. There would be a limited number of tokens that could be registered per time frame so it's not like everyone can register the same time. If you don't want to or can't use the token, and play less than 24, or some large number, hours in a week (so you're not 'not' using them because you're probably using some third party tool to stay logged in, or that you've played plenty already lol) then you can get some compensation- maybe two items, one that boosts exp, and another that gives you a buff for 24 hours or something that boosts tomestone rewards up to X value (doesn't work on the weekly capped tomestone).

Meh though, nothing is going to be perfect and every method is going to make someone upset until the situation is sorted out, but if what is given is true then that'll be an extreme challenge (that there is simply not enough servers of the right quality / type, at least at market cost). What a difficult situation.

[PredatoryCatgirl]

Obligatory INAL disclaimer, but I'm pretty sure this would actually be breaking a contractual agreement. You pay for a sub. Aside from maintenance, you are allowed to access the game any time you want. As pissed as people are now, watch them froth at the mouth and demand refunds if you tell them they can only play three hours a day.

[PocketFox]

Force a player to log out after 3 hours of gameplay. I.E they can't que for dungeons, raids, or progress in story. Also add priority for long time subscribers, 2000+ days of subscribed as well as legacy players given automatic priority. Ban people (including streamers) using third party tech to by pass the afk automatic log out timers. Also add a queue placement priority for players that are kicked due to timing out in queue or 2002 out of queue.

Honestly quick simple fixes that could be done on SE developer end and probably something streamers don't like, but honestly, everyone pays to play this game not just streamers.

Not even getting into the ridiculousness of punishing people with an arbitrary time limit (screw your dungeon/trial, you hit 3hrs, time to go in time out), I'm just going to point out your math:

2,000 days is not quite 5 and half years. By your logic, only people who have been playing since about mid 2016 -- Heavensward 3.3 -- should get "priority". I've been playing since September 2014 -- ARR 2.3 -- so I would clear your hurdle, but why do I deserve to play more than my friend who started in Stormblood, someone who is just as dedicated and now just as established and committed as I am? What about the people who chose to or had to unsub for a while at some point? Why do they not deserve to play just as much as someone with the financial security to stay constantly subscribed for, again, five and a half years.

ETA: Another part of the problem with threads like this one is that they're all suggesting things that would amount to long term, permanent changes to the game and/or its code for what is, at its heart, a temporary problem.

[Yureina]

Kick players who are not only inactive, but any that have not changed position for more than 30 minutes.

That would be awful for me as a crafter.