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.

[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.

[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.

[Zephanoa]

I can sympathize with losing the items that were in your household. I don't necessarily agree with the way SE handles the storage on that, considering they can hold mail items indefinitely. That sucks a bunch and is a bit ridiculous.

I respectfully disagree with your point of view on the notifications of demolitions. I think the system is fine as it is when it works in game and out of game to ensure users are notified that their housing will be demolished. I have a friend who has several houses on our server (pre the changes that limited housing) and he's not failed to go in to all of his houses even on all of his alts. If anyone is reading this make sure you understand the system and go read the special housing website. Make sure your email is current to your account. Don't ignore square enix emails. Check your timers. Check your notifications.

[Darrcyphfeid]

Just jumping in to confirm that something is definitely screwed up with the e-mail notifications, because as a household with three accounts on three different e-mail addresses - all of which do receive every other type of e-mail from Square Enix - we haven't received the demolition notifications the 2~3 times we should have. We haven't lost our houses, either, to be perfectly clear, but something is definitely not right on that front.

Second, I'm sorry that you lost your items. Auto-demolition may be a necessary evil with the way housing wards are set up, but there was never any excuse for items disappearing from the storage NPC after 35 days. Even less so now that so many housing items are exclusive to the Mog Station and require real money to (re)acquire.

And finally, I don't blame you for quitting. You shouldn't support a company that doesn't respect your time, commitment and money. Don't get sucked into the sunk cost fallacy tomfoolery.

[Penthea]

I respectfully disagree with your point of view on the notifications of demolitions. I think the system is fine as it is when it works in game and out of game to ensure users are notified that their housing will be demolished. I have a friend who has several houses on our server (pre the changes that limited housing) and he's not failed to go in to all of his houses even on all of his alts. If anyone is reading this make sure you understand the system and go read the special housing website. Make sure your email is current to your account. Don't ignore square enix emails. Check your timers. Check your notifications.

I think the worrying thing is that the game did not inform him that a demolition timer even existed. Well I am not sure if this is the case, I skipped through the pop-up tutorial when I bought my house because I didn't need to read it given I read everything I could about housing on wikis before getting my own. If it does come up in the pop-up tutorial message...well it's OP's fault for not reading it. If it doesn't, then SE are at fault for not making the existence of the timer clear.

That being said it's possible if there is a pop-up message informing of demolition, that may not mean it was always there. Maybe it wasn't when OP got his house. Hard to say without knowing exactly when OP got his house.

[OurMom]

Wow, I didn't know there wasn't a system to just mail your housing items back. That just seems like common sense and a given with any housing system.