Pushed to quit after 1,860 days subbed

[Sigma-Astra]

Yes there will always be careless people and in the 30 plus years I did software engineering one of the things that got no argument from me was adding another message. It was one of the easier things to do and created a lot of good will from the customer. If someone inadvertently makes a mistake because they don't know, have forgotten or are just rushing to get done doesn't matter, I considered it part of my job to compensate for that. Keep in mind the products I worked on were supported and used by highly skilled IT professionals not your average consumer so they should have always known what to do yet even they made boneheaded mistakes. By your logic we should get rid of deletion confirmation messages because it doesn't matter that some careless person, perhaps even you, might need it to stop them from inadvertently deleting a one time item. I don't remember what you see when you buy a house but it is in all player's interests to be warned about the timer when they purchase. Then you might have an argument about that personal responsibility you are so fond of falling back on in your posts. Sorry but you are on the wrong side of this argument.

No, I never said to completely get rid of deletion confirmation messages and I would appreciate it if you pointed me in the right direction of where I said "please delete EVERY single message right now because I said so". I would very much appreciate you not twisting my words around in order to suit your own narrative. Thank you.

What I'm asking for is people to be held accountable for their own mistakes as well and not be so quick to judge or blame the system entirely on a gross assumption or mistake that they also made. It takes both sides here, not just one or the other. Everyone is treating and acting like it's the end of the world for one person to admit that yes, they made a simple error for the five years that they've been playing to not read up on housing information. It's not a hard thing to do to admit that maybe the OP should have taken more of an initiative in learning or asking. If they were playing for that long of a tenure, surely they could have spent the five extra minutes or so in reading patch notes or asking someone in-game about housing, even contacting the support desk in-game and trying to reach a GM to ask more questions. That's what they're there for technically, to help players in-game.

I'm sorry, but both sides are at fault here and not just SE. I don't believe in blissfully remaining ignorant about something. You have a personal responsibility that when you buy a house in XIV to keep it and pay attention towards it, and learn what you can regarding the system. And when we do have a lot of pop-up messages warning you about the timers and demolition and players still ignore them, are we still going to blame the system or are we going to finally accept that maybe people need to be held accountable for their actions as well? There could be more notifications truthfully, but at the same time, if you're playing for at least five years or better, then you really, really should be looking this stuff up.

I work in customer service as well and there's a time to allow small mistakes from a customer, and then there's a time when you need to stop holding their hands or they're going to walk all over you and expect it every time. never learning on their own.

I deal with people on a daily basis who, no matter how many signs you put up, they still find some kind of aversion towards reading them. I really don't get why people find it hard or don't want to read sometimes.

[Floortank]

Roasting someone who has had something terrible happen to them. Smh.

[Gemina]

I feel bad that the OP lost all of his stuff, but it's difficult for me to sympathize for someone losing their plot when they don't use it. Whether or not you have received notifications from SE is a moot point because of the fact that you have spent so much time away from your home for a notification to even be sent out. This tells me it is more important for you to own a plot that it is for you to actually live there. SE does not, and should not share that same level of priority.

What I do oppose though is the loss of personal items. Those should be zipped up and sent directly to the player. This is where I do have a great amount of sympathy for the OP. But I still believe that quitting a game you claim to love so much over something like this is a bit of an overreaction. I would definitely at least sleep on it before making a final decision to drop the sub.

[R-Pete-G]

... it's difficult for me to sympathize for someone losing their plot when they don't use it. Whether or not you have received notifications from SE is a moot point because of the fact that you have spent so much time away from your home for a notification to even be sent out. This tells me it is more important for you to own a plot that it is for you to actually live there.

To reiterate, no - this is not the case. I would have been furnishing it, "living" in it, if I had only had the time. It wasn't a decision I made, it was a consequence of real life. If you think that's still reason enough that I "deserved" to lose the house, you're entitled to that opinion. But it was certainly not an instance of someone sitting on a plot for the sake of owning one. I was extremely attached to it, and working on it was one of the things I was most looking forward to doing when life gave me the time to come back.

As for quitting, I'm realistic enough to know I may decide to return in the future. But for now, it is a significant factor - a collection I've been accumulating over 5 years has been largely wiped from existence, and for me those kinds of collections are one of the things I enjoy in an MMO. Losing that has, for the forseeable future at least, torpedoed my motivation to continue. And I know that the longer I'm not playing - not keeping on top of other things, collections, content - the less likely I'll feel able to return if there's too much to catch up on.

[Rymm]

First off, I'm sorry you lost all of your stuff. That simply s*cks. There is no reason not to hold items indefinitely and, in my opinion, the fact that items are only held for a limited time after a house is demoed is the single biggest flaw in the entire housing system (aside from the fact that housing is such a finite resource that it spawned the necessary evil that is auto-demo in the first place.)

That being said, I agree with the others that the majority of the fault in this situation lays at your feet. The housing system could certainly be made clearer to the playerbase in any number of ways but actively choosing to not educate yourself does not exempt you from the consequences of your actions. You said you wanted to learn the housing system as you went and, to put it bluntly, now you have. In this case, losing your house was the end result of the lesson. Should you choose to return (which I honestly hope you do) and try your hand at housing again, I'm sure you'll be acutely aware of the timers and what you need to do to maintain your home.

[R-Pete-G]

I'm finding the "choosing not to educate yourself" angle quite an interesting take. A lot of replies seem to be coming from the perspective that the Lodestone is required reading in some fashion, which I continue to think is quite the leap. I choose to educate myself in the game by immersing myself in the game. That's not something to be smugly finger-wagged at - it's a precedent FFXIV sets itself; with clear in-game tooltips, active help popups, and all sorts of explanatory features available to players. It's easy to say "You should have done X" if X is something you're used to doing. But every other in-game feature and system I've encountered has needed no such extra-curricular reading to work. To use. To not lose your hard earned possessions.

A good game should explain itself to a sufficient extent within itself. Patch notes, Lodestone articles etc, should - in my opinion, clearly the opinion of others, and as a precedent set by countless other games in the genre - be supplementary reading. FFXIV does, like any MMO worth its salt, do this for almost everything else I've ever encountered. Moreso, in fact - the torrent of "Active Help" popups that accompany any new feature is a testament to how Squenix have made this work in so many other areas of the game. That makes its absence in this situation stand out like a sore thumb.

You're right in one sense. I have learned something. And it's that my trust in Squenix to communicate sufficiently to players was too easily earned. If I were to play again, I would be reading up on things like this - not because I thought it was a reasonable expectation to have of a player, but because I doubted Squenix's capacity to make really important information available as they should.

[Coombah]

Wow another player gone , good job SE at least the cash shop and the mobile app are still up and running right?

[Gemina]

To reiterate, no - this is not the case. I would have been furnishing it, "living" in it, if I had only had the time. It wasn't a decision I made, it was a consequence of real life. If you think that's still reason enough that I "deserved" to lose the house, you're entitled to that opinion. But it was certainly not an instance of someone sitting on a plot for the sake of owning one. I was extremely attached to it, and working on it was one of the things I was most looking forward to doing when life gave me the time to come back.

As for quitting, I'm realistic enough to know I may decide to return in the future. But for now, it is a significant factor - a collection I've been accumulating over 5 years has been largely wiped from existence, and for me those kinds of collections are one of the things I enjoy in an MMO. Losing that has, for the forseeable future at least, torpedoed my motivation to continue. And I know that the longer I'm not playing - not keeping on top of other things, collections, content - the less likely I'll feel able to return if there's too much to catch up on.

And I will reiterate to you that it is clear where your priorities were placed, and maintaining your home was indisputably lower on your list. You having RL circumstances that kept you away from the game is indicative of that. At the end of the day, each of us has to place our RL responsibilities over this game. I never said you deserved to lose your home, but what I am saying is that your case is unique and SE cannot set their housing rules and regulations according to individual cases.

SE also has to think about those who are actively playing the game everyday and desire housing but currently do not own a plot, or spend time in a shared plot such as an FC where permissions to modify the property are needed. The time they set for auto demolition is arbitrary, but how exactly do you set this number that is fair for those such as yourself, and those I just mentioned?

It is also quite clear where the primary source of your grief is, and it is the loss of your items more so than your property. You can get another plot. Maybe not the same size and location depending on your server, but the sentimental value in your personal items from events long gone... believe me I am so very sorry this has happened. I know it has to feel like a dagger to the heart. But it's also why I ask that you consider that while the items are gone, they are all just objects that represent the memories you still possess.

It always pains me when someone decides to leave the community, but if the motivation and enjoyment is not there then there isn't much left that can be helped. I do hope you can find it again, and I wouldn't worry about not being able to catch up. If you do find the fire again, those who share it will always be willing to help.

[Moomba33]

It's honestly baffling to me that we have achievement pop ups that can't be turned off but no pop up for the auto demolition or item deletion.

My condolences OP. I've been playing since ARR launched and I'd be really upset if I lost all the seasonal stuff I've been collecting since then.

[Rymm]

I'm finding the "choosing not to educate yourself" angle quite an interesting take. A lot of replies seem to be coming from the perspective that the Lodestone is required reading in some fashion, which I continue to think is quite the leap. I choose to educate myself in the game by immersing myself in the game.

I'm not quite sure why you are hung up on not having to refer to outside sources to learn about the game. Do you refuse to look at https://xivdb.com/ or http://www.ffxivclock.com or any other guides/sites that make your in-game life easier?

But, regardless, if it is so absolutely necessary that you learn everything from in-game sources, I feel the need to point out that one of the housing NPCs in every single ward, of every district of the game, explains the demo timer to you if you speak to them.