Do you feel that you have the "right" to AFK bot, or take other necessary measures?

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

If the AFK botters were making the existing problem worse you would see long queues during non peak hours, which does not happen. The number of players that are doing this would not make a significant enough difference in the grand scheme of things because the number of people trying to play during peak hours is simply too massive. Do they make an existing problem worse, probably but it is likely not to the extent that people believe it to be. Other wise you would be seeing issues during non peak hours if this was making a significant difference.

If you base the numbers on what you can find online, the number of players that play per day is about 3.5 million. The number of players subscribed is almost 30 million. Now assuming the servers are all at max capacity 24/7 the fault lies in the fact that the server space was never capable of supporting all subscribers before the exodus or after the exodus. I would say the game supports roughly 6-7 million player capacity for it to be capped 24/7 which again is still not enough space to support the full subscription base before or after the exodus. Fortunately the servers are not at max capacity 24/7 they typically reach max capacity from around 2:30pm EST(11:30am PST) until about 12:30am PST(3:30am EST). You can easily log in outside that window of time which shows that AFKers, are not significant enough to prevent players from playing.

You can make this same arguement about free trial players that log on in the morning and may still be playing during peak hours that they are taking up a slot for you to play. If they were booted off the server once peak hours hit, there would not be any not noticeable difference. Sadly that is where the witch hunt started was stopping all free trial players.

Witch hunting and pointing fingers will not change that the servers have not been able to support the number of players that are subscribed to the game.

The number of subscribers is not 30 million, that's just registered accounts.

Active subs generally hang between 600-800k, with a large jump over the past summer to over 1 million roughly going off unofficial census data.

Probably did hit around 3-4 million for Endwalker though.

[HazyAssaulter]

If the AFK botters were making the existing problem worse you would see long queues during non peak hours, which does not happen. The number of players that are doing this would not make a significant enough difference in the grand scheme of things because the number of people trying to play during peak hours is simply too massive. Do they make an existing problem worse, probably but it is likely not to the extent that people believe it to be. Other wise you would be seeing issues during non peak hours if this was making a significant difference.

If you base the numbers on what you can find online, the number of players that play per day is about 3.5 million. The number of players subscribed is almost 30 million. Now assuming the servers are all at max capacity 24/7 the fault lies in the fact that the server space was never capable of supporting all subscribers before the exodus or after the exodus. I would say the game supports roughly 6-7 million player capacity for it to be capped 24/7 which again is still not enough space to support the full subscription base before or after the exodus. Fortunately the servers are not at max capacity 24/7 they typically reach max capacity from around 2:30pm EST(11:30am PST) until about 12:30am PST(3:30am EST). You can easily log in outside that window of time which shows that AFKers, are not significant enough to prevent players from playing.

You can make this same arguement about free trial players that log on in the morning and may still be playing during peak hours that they are taking up a slot for you to play. If they were booted off the server once peak hours hit, there would not be any not noticeable difference. Sadly that is where the witch hunt started was stopping all free trial players.

Witch hunting and pointing fingers will not change that the servers have not been able to support the number of players that are subscribed to the game.

Every single person logged in to the game completely AFK botting for the day, keeps the available space on the server down by 1. When the server is full, every person AFK'ing is keeping the queue up by 1. Not only that, but people who do this are *completely* skipping the queue line when they come from work and start playing during peak hours.


The number of people doing this is high enough that it congests housing and inn room instances, even during non-peak hours of the day. Trying to trivialize the issue is farcical. Every person doing this is having a tangible effect on another person.

[Cadmar]

Here’s the thing, as long as the queue times are longer than the afk timer, I don’t fault anyone for doing this. I personally won’t but it’s also not my place to tell others what to do.

[IdowhatIwant]

Every single person logged in to the game completely AFK botting for the day, keeps the available space on the server down by 1. When the server is full, every person AFK'ing is keeping the queue up by 1. Not only that, but people who do this are *completely* skipping the queue line when they come from work and start playing during peak hours.


The number of people doing this is high enough that it congests housing and inn room instances, even during non-peak hours of the day. Trying to trivialize the issue is farcical. Every person doing this is having a tangible effect on another person.

No, I am saying the difference is not going to be great enough to change anything. It actually does not take a lot of players to congest housing.

[VictorTheed]

I personally stayed logged in if I'm afk unless I know i will be afk for an hour or longer, then I will log out.

I'm not to concerned about the bots in this game cause nothing they do affects my game time, but I know crafters hate em and I can see why.

But the bots buying up all the PS5's piss me off and I want those ones taken down so I can finally get a PS5.

[ZedxKayn]

I think it's definitely the consumer's right if it's what it takes for them to access the game they are paying for.

It's a no winner situation though, since the problem is not, has never been, and will never be that people are using macros and such to AFK, but that the servers simply do not have the capacity to accommodate the current population.

[SturmChurro]

I afk quite frequently, so I can prepare food, eat, etc.. Usually not for more than 10-15 minutes, but I have had to run back to my PC to move my character. I do not feel bad about it. I log out before primetime (EST) as well.

Using a bot program is a no, as it's against the ToS, but the right to AFK? Yeah, I pay just like everyone else. I am just fortunate that I can get in and play early.

[eaudaemon]

No, I sit in my 2+ hour queue and play the last 2 hours I have of the game before going to bed since have work the next day.

And you know what? I'm not upset about it, devs had given people a BIG heads up about this particular issue months before, so I fully understand that this is going to be the norm for a few weeks.

[Vahlnir]

I afk quite frequently, so I can prepare food, eat, etc.. Usually not for more than 10-15 minutes, but I have had to run back to my PC to move my character. I do not feel bad about it. I log out before primetime (EST) as well.

Using a bot program is a no, as it's against the ToS, but the right to AFK? Yeah, I pay just like everyone else. I am just fortunate that I can get in and play early.

Yeah, I've admittedly done something similar on a few occasions, but it is usually when I've had to afk for for whatever reason with every intention of returning before I am kicked from the server. I'll just return periodically, run my character around a couple times and then afk again. I'm not using any third party programs, unless my brain and hands count as one. Somehow. Like you I don't feel bad about it though.

[SeverianLyonesse]

This really amounts to how ethical a person is. FF XIV's version of the shopping cart (since, it seems, making an AFK macro is about as easy as putting a shopping cart away and not as complicated as say, botting).

Do you care more about yourself, or others? Is your life so empty and lacking in valuable pasttimes that you would rather erode an online community just to play a video game?

Outside of a few streamers who make a livelihood off the game, no one really *has* to be playing this game the moment it comes out. It's not like it won't be available to play in a week, a month...

It really baffles me the level of obsession some people have for certain media. It's quite literally fanaticism, and outside of having a community to participate in it doesn't really bestow any real-world benefit (and in cases like this, not even the community is benefiting them because they are actively circumventing and undermining said community).