Is the game not meant to be social?

[Dr_Cheesesteak]

You can't friend request ppl who are offline. You can only send mail to friends. If someone is "Busy" you can't whisper or friend request them either.

Wth is the point of networking in this game if its so hard to contact ppl? Or is there no point in networking? I can't even contact my FC leader unless he's a friend and/or not "Busy".

[EveK]

The game definitely encourages being social when appropriate. You specifically site a variety of issues that do, indeed, discourage it. However, they exist for valid reasons. Further, they exist alongside many other elements of design that strongly encourage players to talk to each other.

The "busy" status is something players voluntarily turn on. So if they don't want people to talk to them (or send them friend requests), they have that option. If your goal is to talk to people that explicitly do not want you to talk to them, then your definition of "social" is actually harassment.

As for offline friend requests and mail to non-friends, I'm not sure how much of these decisions was low technical prioritization of development of a desired feature versus intentionally not developing it in an effort to prevent abuse like spammers sending mail to every player in existence.

There is also a free company forum feature built into the official web site. Here is yours:
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...4400366/forum/

Taking a glance at that might also do much to explain why said FC leader elects to have "busy" on.

[Naria]

The mail lock out is deliberate at least as it is supposed to be an anti RMT measure. How much it actually effects RMT I have no idea, but it probably does make it easier for them to track transactions. As was said before "busy" exists for when you don't feel overly social in the first place.

[Lambdafish]

All of this is RMT prevention. Id rather not be able to friend request while on busy than have a swarm of RMT friend request me while im busy (a while back this was a huge issue). Ask for a more robust busy function rather than what this thread is asking.

[XiXiQ]

I'd agree they make contacting individual people difficult, but I can see why they have done it given the state of the RMT spam and what lengths they go to. On the other hand, a linkshell directory would be a boon and help people find people who are like-minded or doing similar content, interested in the same things, etc. I'd like to join some linkshells on Tonberry, like people hooking up for potd 200 runs for instance, or an english speaking general social linkshell - I assume such things exist, but no way to know. And if you start one, there's no decent way to get others involved.

[MicahZerrshia]

I recently made an alt and had to turn busy on not because of the rmt spam, but because of the fc invite spam from the same few people.

At least say hello or ask.

[Frizze]

I'd like to join some linkshells on Tonberry, like people hooking up for potd 200 runs for instance, or an english speaking general social linkshell - I assume such things exist, but no way to know. And if you start one, there's no decent way to get others involved.

I cant speak for Tonberry, but on my server i often see people put up PF groups with a description of the type of LS they would like to join. I have invite power to 3 shells, and if i see anyone doing this(and i have a free minute of course) i join their group and talk to them for a minute. If theyre interested, the invite is sent. If they dont like what they hear, no hard feelings and i move on with my day. And i know one social LS that im in has a few members who put up PF groups of their own seeking new recruits whenever we fall below a certain number of characters. So if you did set up your own shell a few /shout recruitment messages in trafficked(kugane, rhalgr, limsa, etc) areas, setting up a your initial recruits with invite power, and an hour here or there spent in PF mode(maybe while crafting?) can get you to a reasonable level. These things seem to have a minimum momentum to them as well, as long as your group does what it set out to do(if i joined a crafting shell and no one talked about or could help with questions about crafting id consider that a failure and probly leave) then when you hit a certain level recruiting becomes less of an issue(for instance, being able to tell a potential recruit that you have 50+ active members who regularly call out hunt targets would certainly make your hunt LS appealing).

This being said though, a directory wouldnt be a bad feature at all. I know there have been times ive wished i could join a group devoted to X and never found an exact match. Knowing it existed(or didnt) would be a good place to start.

[Okamimaru]

You should be able to send mail to fc peeps without needing to friend them all....

[Niwashi]

I can see a reason for needing some association with another player before being able to send them mail. After all, I don't really want my inbox full of RMT spam. But having your Friends list be the only association to count for that is overly restrictive. Let us send mail to Friends, FC-mates, and alts.

Also, I see no valid reason why we can't send a Friend request to a player while they're offline, or reply to one while the sender is offline. (The same goes for the Blacklist, where the rule actually helps RMT spammers who follow a pattern of rapid connect, spam, and disconnect before you can blacklist them, though fewer of them seem to have been doing that lately.)

[AngelCheese77]

There is also a free company forum feature built into the official web site. Here is yours:
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...4400366/forum/

Taking a glance at that might also do much to explain why said FC leader elects to have "busy" on.

Ouch. /10char