Issues with Tech Support/In-Game Bugs forums

[Cutriss]

It's good that the forums have these two places for users to diagnose issues when running Final Fantasy XIV, but there are a few areas requiring support that do not fit within In-Game Bugs, and it seems that the Tech Support forum is not monitored enough in an "in-depth" manner so as to escalate issues to the proper agent for resolution.

Tech Support is an appropriate place for users to self-diagnose issues with configuring the game to run well on their video cards, issues with performance, controls, that sort of thing. However, a sizeable chunk of the posts in Tech Support relate to game client errors that give us almost no information with which to diagnose, troubleshoot, and resolve. As an example, my wife's PC gives the error code 20524 on updates. It's fairly clear that this is some sort of versioning/locked file error based on the workaround realized by other users, but this error is poorly documented in the client and worse, on the Support Center website as well.

I have a friend who had a working installation on his PC of FFXIV, and he recently encountered a different error when trying to log in ("11000 Version update failed.(3:40009,20013,2003)"). The ironic thing is that he was going to show the game to a friend who was interested in trying it, and now not only is there a lost sale, but my friend also no longer cares to play.

While I would like these issues resolved, I feel that it is important to establish a proper channel for these types of scenarios so that this can be resolved for everyone, both current and new customers.

[Jerec]

Firstly, I would make sure windows User account control is disabled, and Also make sure your antivirus is disabled. UAC doesn't play nice with a lot of programs =/

Some people partition drives to have very little space for their OS..if you do...make sure you have plenty of room for your my documents...or redirect to to a bigger location, and of course make sure the directory is there under My Documents.

[Cutriss]

Firstly, I would make sure windows User account control is disabled, and Also make sure your antivirus is disabled. UAC doesn't play nice with a lot of programs =/

Some people partition drives to have very little space for their OS..if you do...make sure you have plenty of room for your my documents...or redirect to to a bigger location, and of course make sure the directory is there under My Documents.

I appreciate the help, but I'm not intending for this to be a support thread. I'm more interested in addressing the policy of providing support.

[origamikitsune]

Indeed, SE support seems to be spotty at best. First, their own techs via e-mail and chat support have little to no knowledge. It took a crap top of bitching, whining, complaining, and pleading before I was connected to a FF11 (yes, 11) Tier 2 support rep who was able to finally diagnose a problem I was having. Even then it was presented as, "There isn't an official fix for this, but some of the guys here found that if you..."

Also, the technical support in the forums isn't staffed in any way shape or form by SE staff. The only time I have seen an SE rep post in the technical support forum is when they post, "This thread has been moved from In-Game Bugs to Technical Support because the Dev team feels that it is technical issue, not a game design issue."

Finally, the forums do not offer us any means by which to provide basic support; that is, sticky threads for common things. How many people click "play" and nothing happens? How many people use integrated IntelHD graphics on their laptop? How many people just need links to nVidia or AMD for more recent drivers? Yet each of these has to be handled separately as they come up and the official support site has neglected to keep up with common problems, offering only generic solutions to every problem that in most cases don't help.

/soapbox

[Cutriss]

This still needs to be addressed.