Stop asking for a playtime cap; you don't know what you're doing

[NanaWiloh]

Agreed its not SE job to baby sit and make sure players be reasonible with their play time.

[Waaltar]

When I see stuff like YouTube showing me streamer Zepla is already finished Endwalker MSQ, I'm raging and basically ready to endorse this or anything else.

My preferred solution is aerial bombardment of everything everywhere all the time.

Palpatine for Chancellor!

70USD only for episode (part) 1, not the full game. They don't know how many parts they will released.

True. I did say games are "mostly" a better value now, sigh. What is it about remakes that makes them a total cash grab and value sink? Like, the ongoing saga of the recent GTA remakes being total laughable garbage is far better than the games themselves.

[Waaltar]

A cap would do virtually nothing to help with queues at peak playtimes anyway. Virtually everyone is going to be trying to login for the same 8 hour period.

Simply cap the amount of primetime people can play instead of any other sort of cap.

For now, the people who can't log in are in effect subsidizing the people who can log in.

[IDontPetLalas]

It's interesting. First of all, I see OP throwing out the slippery slope argument however I see no reason or evidence that it applies. For example, how would another game that is perhaps 1/10 the population of FFXIV justify a cap to its population "Oh we have suddenly become the most popular game and we don't have enough servers". See how well that will go over with their customers, even if it's a new expansion, typically launches are planned well in advance and congestion is temporary even IF they have one planned during this time of semiconductor backlog.

Secondly, putting a cap on playtime through various means doesn't bother me at all in these exceptional circumstances, likely by capping time through a 24 hour period. I don't care when you play but yes I do think that capping how much you play for the next couple of weeks is going to be fair to everyone. Normally if you want to play for 22 hours out of 24 I would care less, none of my business. Now, after probably around 7 hours (cumulative) you'd get a one hour warning before being logged out.

[SeverianLyonesse]

Cap it, I want to see these forums burn.

I want to see the gaming community get a life. Whenever I see these "muh freedom" posts, I am reminded that it is frequently just a last line of defense "on principle" for consumptive habits that otherwise don't really have a good justification (and are often, at best non-constructive and parasitic, and at worst actually harmful to society).

Cap them all, please. Streaming services too. Make media companies more accountable for the millions of hours they waste of citizens' attention spans that could be spent bettering themselves and their communities. Any non-educational media has become the worst sort of gambling, endlessly, passively cycling through content that affords very little, if any, real world benefit to the consumer.

[ForteNightshade]

Simply cap the amount of primetime people can play instead of any other sort of cap.

For now, the people who can't log in are in effect subsidizing the people who can log in.

This would be disastrous. Say you put that cap at three hours of playtime before a forced log off. People will naturally try to sync with their friends per my earlier post... except now that entire 3-5pm EST window is shifting towards 6-7pm, thereby resulting in a massive surge of players all bombarding the Lobby Server at once—more so than they already are. Not to mention this basically destroys any Savage static.

You say you're furious because Zelpa finished the MSQ already. I have as well. She likely did the same thing I did. Got up at ungodly hours and/or barely slept just to keep playing at non-peak hours. Why should we be punished because our schedule allows for that? None of this is fair but the fault entirely lies with Square Enix and their poor infrastructure not with players who happen to have non-peak timeslots available to them.

I want to see the gaming community get a life. Whenever I see these "muh freedom" posts, I am reminded that it is frequently just a last line of defense "on principle" for consumptive habits that otherwise don't really have a good justification (and are often, at best non-constructive and parasitic, and at worst actually harmful to society).

Cap them all, please. Streaming services too. Make media companies more accountable for the millions of hours they waste of citizens' attention spans that could be spent bettering themselves and their communities. Any non-educational media has become the worst sort of gambling, endlessly, passively cycling through content that affords very little, if any, real world benefit to the consumer.

Bluntly stated, who are you to determine how I or anyone else chooses to spend their free time? This is essentially the same nonsense people were spewing about others using their PTO days for Endwalker. How dare they choose to use their earned vacation days on a hobby. No, no. They need to dedicate that time to "better themselves in the arbitrary manner I deem acceptable."

What absolute entitled nonsense.

[Keridwyn]

I want to see the gaming community get a life. Whenever I see these "muh freedom" posts, I am reminded that it is frequently just a last line of defense "on principle" for consumptive habits that otherwise don't really have a good justification (and are often, at best non-constructive and parasitic, and at worst actually harmful to society).

Cap them all, please. Streaming services too. Make media companies more accountable for the millions of hours they waste of citizens' attention spans that could be spent bettering themselves and their communities. Any non-educational media has become the worst sort of gambling, endlessly, passively cycling through content that affords very little, if any, real world benefit to the consumer.

Who hurt you?

[SturmChurro]

...

A lot of what I've been reading - for the past week - does just feel like people lashing out towards players who are able to rearrange their schedules to log on and play during non-peak periods. A playtime cap would accomplish little.

[Alxyzntlct]

It's interesting. First of all, I see OP throwing out the slippery slope argument however I see no reason or evidence that it applies. For example, how would another game that is perhaps 1/10 the population of FFXIV justify a cap to its population "Oh we have suddenly become the most popular game and we don't have enough servers". See how well that will go over with their customers, even if it's a new expansion, typically launches are planned well in advance and congestion is temporary even IF they have one planned during this time of semiconductor backlog.

Secondly, putting a cap on playtime through various means doesn't bother me at all in these exceptional circumstances, likely by capping time through a 24 hour period. I don't care when you play but yes I do think that capping how much you play for the next couple of weeks is going to be fair to everyone. Normally if you want to play for 22 hours out of 24 I would care less, none of my business. Now, after probably around 7 hours (cumulative) you'd get a one hour warning before being logged out.

I agree with all of this. Well said!

[Yencat]

A lot of what I've been reading - for the past week - does just feel like people lashing out towards players who are able to rearrange their schedules to log on and play during non-peak periods. A playtime cap would accomplish little.

This whole situation sucks, but it's kind of funny how quickly the discourse shifted from "lol why are you all mad, it's just a delay and why would anyone take time off for an expansion launch anyway? there's always server issues" to absolutely raging about how some people managed to move their vacation time, or like you said are able to rearrange their schedule to play.