Stop asking for a playtime cap; you don't know what you're doing

[PredatoryCatgirl]

You need to realize something: FFXIV is currently the industry leader. Everyone is looking at this game to see what it does so they can mimic it. So what's going to happen if they cap playtime and people don't unsub in droves? Every single MMO will now have this bullet in their gun for every server overload ever. Can't buy new servers for a while? Cap playtime. Don't want to spend the money? Cap playtime. ISP bandwidth a problem? Cap playtime.

And no, a "reasonable" cap like 12 hours won't help, because once they get away with that, the number creeps downward. Today its 12, tomorrow its 10. Soon its revolutionary when someone caps your playtime at 5 hours instead of the industry standard 3.

I feel like I'm standing here at the moment when players said en masse "hey, I'd pay real money to get an advantage" and loot boxes were born. This is also an overwhelming negative for the entire MMO industry. Don't give them an easy way out to spend less money and give you less for the same sub. You can't buy servers today. You will be able to soon. Don't ask for a permanent nerf to your experience in response to a temporary problem.

[BaconBits]

Cap it, I want to see these forums burn.

[Shironeko_Narunyan]

Let's not start telling people how much they can or can't play. We're not China here.

[DrFlesh]

yeah, what's next, $70usd games on pc?

[ForteNightshade]

I'll quote myself from another thread on why this whole "playtime restriction" wouldn't even accomplish what some people think it will.

Actually, it isn't. And will likely cause further problems.

First and foremost, the dev team would have to take time away from working on legitimate fixes to implement a system whereas every single character who logs in has an eight hour countdown which will then reset should they log out early. That is no small task, especially for a temporary solution. Now you'll have people being forced to schedule queues to sync up with their friends, resulting in even more people potentially trying to log into the game at the same time. Keep in mind, what has been causing the Lobby Server to buckle isn't just the amount of people but the sheer volume all at once. Players who want to play with friends who can only log in during peak hours will log out only to immediately get back into the queue with said friend(s).

Taking this a step further, if they didn't implement an immediate reset to your countdown timer as your statement of "instantly getting kicked right back out" suggests. They essentially makes it impossible for people to play outside specific times. I, for example, couldn't log into the game during the morning when queues are basically non-existent and still be able to play with my friend who gets off at 7pm my time. Instead, I'd be getting into a queue I haven't actually been apart of, adding to aforementioned volume. In other words, peak hour log in attempts would become significantly worse—especially once Savage releases and every single raider is syncing up their log in to be during peak hours.

Between the work involved implementing such a restriction and the likely ramifications for doing so. It just isn't realistic.

In laymen terms, peak hours is where the fundamental problem lies and playtime restrictions of any kind would funnel even more players into that specific "red zone," thus only exacerbating the problem such a system aims to remedy.

[MsQi]

Funny how players seek to punish other players for SE's mistake.

[DrFlesh]

Funny how players seek to punish other players for SE's mistake.

because 90% of this game population are white knights so square is never held accountable for their crap management skills, is easier to try and shift the blame to wow players, covid or the mosquito that bit
yoshi-p ass last week

[Arundel]

yeah, what's next, $70usd games on pc?

Square already done this -> FFVII remake episode 1 on EGS costs 70USD/80Euro.

[DrFlesh]

Square already done this -> FFVII remake episode 1 on EGS costs 70USD/80Euro.

i forgot the /s

[xbahax92]

I think the phrase, "you dont pay my sub" has a true value this time around.