Why in god's green Earth do dungeons have a timer?

[aray0002]

that and it's not even God's green/blue earth in the first place?
(More like SE's Intel Inside)

Thats some deep shit man... i bugging out thinking about it.. if i had a choice between the blue pill or red pill. Give me the F'ing Blue Pill man.

[aray0002]

Timers : well most of the replies you have rcvd are regards to beating the dungeon boss and getting out in time.

I have another gripe that has nothing to do with FIGHTING mobs.

Ever noticed the achievements you get for ( Mapping ) an area.

Well I noticed that i have a few dungeons that are not fully unlocked....because
1. Most runs spent in said dungeon are rushed and people don't go to certain areas because of either trash mobs or dead ends . Pisses me off we are 6 months into this game and i still have not unlocked some maps fully because people are in a rush .. i dont know if they do this because of timers or just plain selfish.

[LalaRu]

Timers are great!
There were a time in which my group got notice of server shutdown in 15min while doing an instance, that transformed our smooth-going pacific group, in an horde of barbarians with our tank named "Attila", and we passing over a boss and the trash mobs like a steamroller, to reach the endboss and finish him like about 1min left to shutdown.

That was epic!

[Naunet]

My advice: take your own advice and don't do it. It is what it is, if you don't like it move on.

This makes zero sense. Don't do what? Roleplay? In an RPG? Removing the timer hurts no one.

I don't see the problem with this. I went into the dungeon to get loot, not to play "mystical pirate fairy princess", with some shmuck.

Don't try to pretend that I mean to rp with random dungeon finder groups. Strawmen are unbecoming.

Please just stop. You and everyone else trying to find a problem with the timer obviously have no actual knowledge as to how servers work, and how things should be managed. So please, just stop already, you're wrong, anyone complaining about the timer is wrong, etc.

Please explain to me why a timer is necessary for FFXIV when it is not necessary by a longshot in any other MMO I've played (including some pretty heavy hitters). And incidentally, your derision towards roleplayers doesn't actually make you a better person. You're playing an MMORPG; there is no high horse here.

Because the dungeon timers are "real" problems?

Well, they are harming certain people's enjoyment of the game and are a symptom of poor planning. Yes, they are real problems.

[NorthernLadMSP]

I personally like the timers. I've really only been timed out a few times while I've been playing the game, and coincidentally, both were in Aurum Vale.

The rest of the encounters I've never had any issue clearing them within the allotted time frames.

[chocomaid]

Please explain to me why a timer is necessary for FFXIV when it is not necessary by a longshot in any other MMO I've played (including some pretty heavy hitters). And incidentally, your derision towards roleplayers doesn't actually make you a better person. You're playing an MMORPG; there is no high horse here.

Servers. Different data. Experience.

1. Those other MMO's might not have the traffic/popularity as FFXIV, so they don't need a timer since there is plenty room in their server. Forecast probably shows that traffic won't change in the foreseeable future.
2. Those other MMO's HAD PLENTY OF TIME to adapt to the traffic. For example WoW, were you there at launch? And even a couple of years in, there were queues in the log-in screen. And timers weren't a problem then since the ease of "duty finder, dungeon finder" wasn't implemented yet. You had to make your groups and actually find then go to each and every instance you needed to go to. That will automatically reduce the load on their instances since people won't just be mashing the "queue up" button while waiting, they'll have to work for it and it probably discouraged a lot of people going to faraway places for example.
3. Their servers are set-up differently, every game does.

Well, they are harming certain people's enjoyment of the game and are a symptom of poor planning. Yes, they are real problems.

You described yourself as a RPer, nothing wrong with that. I just don't see how a session can last more than 90-120 mins, and if it does go over that, why not just re-do the instance? Will it inconvenience you somehow, maybe. But guess what, it applies to both RPers and players that run the dungeon normally. There are solutions to your (vast minority) problems, and the rest are happy they are there to mitigate long queues and apply balances.

[Naunet]

1. Those other MMO's might not have the traffic/popularity as FFXIV, so they don't need a timer since there is plenty room in their server. Forecast probably shows that traffic won't change in the foreseeable future.
2. Those other MMO's HAD PLENTY OF TIME to adapt to the traffic. For example WoW, were you there at launch? And even a couple of years in, there were queues in the log-in screen. And timers weren't a problem then since the ease of "duty finder, dungeon finder" wasn't implemented yet.

I would hope that SE is not repeating the same mistakes regarding server infrastructure that other MMOs made ten years ago (same goes for other aspects of game design). An industry is supposed to learn and grow. We should not have to retread the same learning period every single time a new MMO releases. (WoW, incidentally, does not have dungeon timers, and the only times I have ever received the "instance servers full" message were during the release of ToC following Ulduar, at the peak of the game's popularity, and a couple times in Cata with the release of a new dungeon. This message disappeared pretty much after a day or two each time.)

@Tiggy below me: Nothing is stopping you from leaving a group if you decide it's too bad to continue. You are never trapped in a dungeon, with or without a timer.

I'm a little misinformed here. Can you direct me to any source stating that games have had severe issues with dungeon timers that it was immensely game breaking?

A problem does not have to be "game breaking" to be a problem. What ever happened to consumers demanding improvements of the products they purchase? We should not allow MMOs the luxury of re-inventing the wheel every time a new one releases. Hundreds of MMOs have come before FFXIV; that's hundreds of opportunities to learn better system design.

[Tiggy]

So that no matter how terrible the group is I only have to dedicate X amount of time to it before I'm allowed to move on. I do not want to be trapped in a dungeon with a group until it's finished just because they need to learn. I help people all the time, and I always stick with the group I get in the roulette. However, If I get a group who just can't do it in the time allotted then I want to be let go eventually.

[illuminapanic]

Cut

I'm a little misinformed here. Can you direct me to any source stating that games have had severe issues with dungeon timers that it was immensely game breaking?

[Morticous]

get rid of the timer problem by making the dungeons open world.. only making the bosses instanced (these can be timed.. if time is reached they do an move that basically wipes everyone)... and adding a ton of story/quests to do before entering it.. FFXI did this just fine.