Pushed to quit after 1,860 days subbed

[R-Pete-G]

So after being subbed from 2.0's release, owning every collector's edition (including the original 1.0 release), with additional retainers, buying merchandise and Mogstation items, and even attending fan festivals, I'm out. I only offer that info for background, not a boast - I know many others have done the same, and more. But I'm not a casual fan - I was a fully invested, "I'm going to play this game til the servers burn down" kind of fan. And now I'm not.

Believe it or not, the GM support team I've been emailing have repeatedly insisted that I post my feelings on the forums. So here it is, despite my initial reservations about posting a "I'm quitting" rant. Hopefully I can do my best to make it more along the lines of constructive criticism, with context.

Since 2.0 launched, I had played every single seasonal event without fail. Each time I had bought all the furnishings available; outdoor as well as indoor, waiting for the day I'd finally have a use for them. And when it finally came with the 2nd wave of Shirogane wards, my bursting retainers gained a little more space as I used my long-hoarded, collectible furnishings.

Shortly after, real life things happened. There's no use going into it - I'm not looking for a pity party - but needless to say I had less and less time for FFXIV. But I stayed subscribed. I logged in to do seasonal events as they came up, grinding Yo Kai watch weapons, all of that stuff. I was doing the Cactpot every week. The simple things.

But you've probably guessed what happened. I hadn't stepped foot in my house in months. I hadn't needed to, and frankly what little time I had to play didn't need to be spent in my house. Not yet - I'd finish it when I had more time to play!

Now here's the bit that massively shook my confidence in FFXIV. When I purchased my housing plot, there was no mention of the auto-delete system. Nothing to say that I needed to carry out a certain level of upkeep, or what would happen if I didn't. And all that time I'd been logging in, where were the notifications of the pending deletion? In a part of the UI I had no reason to look at, because I was doing entirely unrelated content.

(continued in the next post)

[R-Pete-G]

When, months later, I felt the urge to go and do some decorating, I found no home. After some Googling, I found a Lodestone article - that I'd never read, or had any idea existed - explaining the system. I also read about the supposed emails I should have received. I hadn't. After opening support tickets, I've been told by the GMs that the emails had "definitely" been sent, therefore there was nothing they would do. And yet I'd been receiving other FFXIV emails just fine the entire time. Mogstation promotions, new seasonal events, patch updates - everything straight into my inbox, not spam. Why? Because I have the email address on my safe contacts list, of course! But the GMs continued to claim nothing was wrong.

Now, I didn't expect to get a house back. The lucky player who got their hands on my vacated plot probably loves that home as much as I did. Good for them. But the bit that stings? I'd not noticed before the window of time to reclaim my items had passed, so I lost all of my furnishings. Stuff that's no longer obtainable, or is now a premium Mogstation purchase. Items I had grinded seasonal events - for years - to aquire. Gone.

Not only have I been told they can't be restored - items that give me no gameplay advantage, that would not affect any other player to have returned to me - but there's no way to even list what I've lost. I have no way to know what I'd even need to replace, if I was so inclined to grind or buy it back.

I cannot comprehend the lacklustre way FFXIV notifies you about impending house deletion. It's weak, it's woefully inadequate, and if I can still be a subscribed player who's logging in on a regular basis and doesn't even *KNOW* this system exists, it's a scathing commentary on how poor that system is. And as for the furnishings only being stored for a fixed period of time - that's Square Enix squeezing every possible byte of server space out of us. As a customer who pays my subscription fee, I shouldn't have my items deleted to free that up - our retainers don't lose their inventories even when we take a break from subscribing.

So there we have it. I've done as I was asked, for all the good it'll do. I truly hope they take this feedback on board, but I don't think I'll be around to find out. I am genuinely staggered not only at the situation that occured, but the unwillingness for someone from the support team to help me. I've played MMOs since the Ultima Online days, and the combination of this insufficient system alongside the shoulder-shrugging / hand-washing of the customer service just kills any sense I ever had of being a valued player, like nothing I've experienced before.

As a decades-long Final Fantasy fan, it's a disappointing way to leave a game I'd never intended to.

[Fredco191]

You can edit the post to pass the character limit.

[Coltvoyance]

I feel your pain OP. I'm a fellow Collector edition everything, nearly 2,000 day subber and I had lost my in-game house a few weeks ago. I was in the between-patch slump like many, so I was only logging in for a little bit here and there - but still logging in.

I myself KNEW the house demolition thing existed but I didn't know I had to actually go VISIT my home. I thought logging in was enough. Well, sure enough I went to my teleports one day to GO TO my house and my house was gone from the list. I went to the plot, it was empty. I read up that I should have received emails about the pending demolition. I did. But they were in an old Email account that I still can easily, regularly access, but is no longer my main email - thus I rarely ever ever ever look at it. Turns out the day I saw the teleport disappear was the day it was demolished.

I was fortunate enough to get my money back for the plot, all of my necessary items and I moved back into my FC room. (I didn't have much stuff, money is tough for me, furnishing the house was taking lots of time.) But if I hadn't gotten all my items back, I would have been furious.

THE POINT IS THOUGH: To the OP's credit, the fact that there are no IN-GAME WARNINGS that your house is about to go poof is very, very stupid. Had there been even ONE in-game letter to my mailbox, I would have been able to save my property. But somehow thats too difficult to program? No, it's laziness and an ill thought communication effort by Square.

While this may be too far and more conspiracy theory, it seems to me like Square WANTS you to lose your property. They KNOW in-game housing is tight and they want to create the illusion that it's not a problem anymore - that it's plentiful. More people that lose their property through poor communication, the more housing is available.

I still play, I'm excited for the new patch, and the expansion next year. I've given up on having a house though... for now at least. I'll be honest, I wasn't really using it to its fullest potential, or even had the resources to fully furnish it. My pain is lessened though because I'm already the Primary groundskeeper and decorator for my FC, so it's not like I'm missing out on that experience of house management. I may try again if I feel I need to but, for now, it was just another way to spend my already meager supply of money.

I feel your pain, sucks to lose everything like that.

[Hazuki87]

Soooo in anut shell, you’re quitting because SE can’t give you back 6years of you're life because you can’t take the time to read you’re emails?

And here my husband lost his 1.0 Character after 6-7 years and was like oo well I’ll just start over. He lost EVERTHING. SE can’t give back all of it, he got just the character back no item, gear, he’ll lost all his soul stones. But a true fav never give up.. just take some time off and start over/come back.

[R-Pete-G]

I have to say, for a thread where one of the main criticisms levelled against me is that I haven't done enough reading, there's a remarkable lack of reading being done before replying. I appreciate we're now at 25 pages, but that should be a small order for those proclaiming to have read every Lodestone article and patch note since the dawn of time. </hyperbole>

Soooo in anut shell, you’re quitting because SE can’t give you back 6years of you're life because you can’t take the time to read you’re emails?

As repeatedly covered, I received no emails. A GM went through all the usual culprits with me, but as I had been recieving all other notifications (subsription renewal notification emails, promotional emails, etc), we couldn't understand why not. And a GM replied here in this very thread, acknowledging that they cannot guarantee emails are actually delivered - only sent - because of mitigating factors that might come into play before they even reach me.

No, what I don't get is how some content that OP ignored for more then 80 days made him quit. Clearly this was not a part of the game that the OP cared about, if OP did then this would not happened. If it was the straw that broke the camels back I would understand it, but as the sole reason? No way.

Let me be the first to give you a shrug and say if he was away for more than 80 days, he'd already decided to quit.

I have not decided to leave the game because my house was demolished. I did not ignore the content, and I did care about it. Due to significant real life circumstances that massively limited the amount of time I could play, I had to prioritise what I did when I logged in. Housing didn't make that list not because I didn't care about it, but because I didn't realise I needed to enter the estate every X days, and so I mistakenly believed that enjoying estate content was something that could be picked up again - along with the vast majority of the game - when my real life had changed for the better.

As mentioned time and time again, by myself and other posters who've understood what I said, the reason is the loss of my furnishings collection. And so:

If he wants to start playing again, he can start a new collection.

The reason that the loss of my furnishings collection is enough to impact my motivation to continue playing is that a lot of it is not available anymore.


Quite why it's necessary to repeatedly say "not my problem", as though anyone for a second even suggested that it was, is beyond me. I guess it just adds to the maverick, devil-may-care forum-warrior persona?

[Floortank]

This is terrible, OP, just terrible. My heart goes out to you. I would also like to ask you not to quit. You are a living history of FFXIV. Seems like all the value in your time spent in FFXIV lives in your memories, and lots of people could benefit from having you around to share your stories.

Yeah, it sucks that you lost all your event items, but what about your friends? What about the people who will miss you? What about all the cool people you might meet? Sounds like you really love this game, and probably will only just hurt yourself by leaving it.

Yes, the UI is dumb and at fault. But why punish yourself?

Think it over. None of that stuff matters, but having you around matters. Anyhoo, if you gotta leave the game, totally understandable.

[Ichirai]

Well said Floortank : you have renewed my faith in humans... you could have easily replied to the OP negatively especially since you don’t know them. You showed empathy but focused on the good in hopes of encouraging them.

[Moonfish]

I’m sorry you lost limited time items. That said, I find it hard to believe that someone who has been subscribed to this game for years - who has been hoarding housing items because he didn’t have a house to place them in - had never heard one single time about auto demolition. Where those emails went, whether they were sent or not is not even the glaring issue here to me.

On a side note, I believe auto demolition is working as intended. Someone who logs on somewhat regularly but doesn’t step foot in that house for 45 days? And doesn’t even think to visit even in the 45 days after (I believe that’s the amount of time you have to pick up your items from the npc)? Come on.

[HyoMinPark]

And doesn’t even think to visit even in the 45 days after (I believe that’s the amount of time you have to pick up your items from the npc)? Come on.

The Housing NPC will hold your items for 35 days after the demolition.

OP, did you check your email address registered to your account? SE does send email notifications 10 days and 3 days prior to your estate being demolished to the email address you have registered to your Square Enix account.