Response to Congestion (as of Dec. 15)

[Arazehl]

So, here's a couple ideas I've had on what could be done to alleviate congestion:

1). The playerbase: IMO, anybody who finished MSQ should take a week or two off, to let others who have yet to finish MSQ log on and get that done. But no, thousands of players are logging on and staying logged on and doing stuff like grinding tomestones and other stuff while a bunch of people who can't get on for trying who wanna do the MSQ making things worse for everybody. Have some consideration for your fellow player. Endgame dungeons and gil farming can wait.

2). To SE: One thing I think should be done, is sort the queue by /played time this week and time both. For example, if there's 5,000 people in the queue, you'd sort that queue by /played time this week (you'd have to keep track of this obviously). Those who have less /played time should be placed at the front of the queue, for example if I enter the queue and I have 2 hours of /played on a Friday, I jump ahead of someone who was already in the queue who has 20 hours of /played time this week even though they entered the queue an hour before I did (but yet if there's someone else who entered the queue 15 minutes ago who also has 2 hours /played, they get on before I do). They already had 20 hours this week, they can wait. Let somebody else on who hasn't been able to play yet.

EDIT: 3). Actually, SE could enforce #1; place all characters who have finished Shadowbringers MSQ but not Endwalker MSQ ahead of those who have finished Endwalker MSQ. That way, players who have yet to get caught up get a better chance of doing so.

I could see this going over like a lead balloon. SE isn't going to favor one group of paying subscribers over another, nor should they. We ALL pay subscription costs to access the game. You think the company wants to start another rant session on these forums? Because if they did just what you suggest it would only exacerbate the current situation. Common sense dictates that much.

[Maeka]

What you want though is not voluntary, it is forced. If people decide to not play because they don't need to and allow others in then so be it. the moment you want to force it however, is the moment you get push back and you yourself look selfish.

The only reason I suggested forcing it is because people won't willingly be considerate.

/shrug

If people would be considerate of their own volition, then it wouldn't be needed.

[ArkenaeuxBelmont]

... that people like me are paying for and not getting, while I get to see others who did get on and do all their stuff hogging the queues and refusing to get off and let others through.

It's frustrating and I'm tired of it.

And yes, yes, I know, they handed out free time, but you know what? The people who got the MSQ done who are hogging the queues also got the free time even though they're no-lifing it and being on all day long. So that doesn't change anything.

Now, if Yoshi-P were to hand out an additional week, 2 weeks, etc to the people who don't have EW MSQ done (who have ShB done), then that would be different. But no, he gave it to everybody which still doesn't give us any compensation beyond what he gave to everybody. It's still unfair that people like me still can't get on while we watch everybody else having fun at max level and we can't get on enough to even get TO there.

I'm sorry you are frustrated, but it is still no excuse to penalize OTHER players. If someone wants to be considerate to others and log out so someone else can take their turn, like I have been doing, that is up to them. In no way should that be forced. That is draconian.

Emotions run high when frustration is abound during all of this, I and I think everyone else gets that. But this isn't the first time I've seen this suggestion about capping play times, assigning play times, using some artificial gate as a means to decide who gets to play or not. I'm sorry but it isn't right. I will never change my opinion on that, and I would never FORCE someone else to log out under any such conditions. If SE goes that route, all they do is trade one group's frustration for another, and possibly alienate even MORE of their customer base with such a bad practice.

SE are taking steps. It is slowly improving. All they and anyone else can ask for is patience while they further attempt to make the situation better. Already they have given out 21 free days of playtime which is astonishing in of itself. They've admitted fault on the 2002 errors. Give it another week or two now that sales have ceased, and the queues will start to decrease.

[Jybril]

The only reason I suggested forcing it is because people won't willingly be considerate.

/shrug

If people would be considerate of their own volition, then it wouldn't be needed.

In a perfect world, sure, but we don't live in that so you really shouldn't force people to do anything.
You just have to be patient really and the only advice I can give is try to get bits of play time before you work in the morning if you can.
Also try to wake up early in the mornings on weekends since the queue starts to get going at noon.

[Maeka]

I'm sorry you are frustrated, but it is still no excuse to penalize OTHER players. If someone wants to be considerate to others and log out so someone else can take their turn, like I have been doing, that is up to them. In no way should that be forced. That is draconian.

Emotions run high when frustration is abound during all of this, I and I think everyone else gets that. But this isn't the first time I've seen this suggestion about capping play times, assigning play times, using some artificial gate as a means to decide who gets to play or not. I'm sorry but it isn't right. I will never change my opinion on that, and I would never FORCE someone else to log out under any such conditions. If SE goes that route, all they do is trade one group's frustration for another, and possibly alienate even MORE of their customer base with such a bad practice.

SE are taking steps. It is slowly improving. All they and anyone else can ask for is patience while they further attempt to make the situation better. Already they have given out 21 free days of playtime which is astonishing in of itself. They've admitted fault on the 2002 errors. Give it another week or two now that sales have ceased, and the queues will start to decrease.

Yeah, that's easy for you to say.

You're at the end, you're max level, you don't have to worry about spoilers, you don't have to avoid the XIV community and its content creators like the plague, and you get to work on your endgame gear.

It's easy for you to look down at the people who can't get much of any progress in MSQ and say "It'll be okay it'll get better in the coming weeks".

Easy for you to say.

[Myrany]

It'd be better than what we got now, at least for the people who can't even get through MSQ because they got jobs and they can't log on wee morning hours.

I mean, let's face it... short of making new servers (They already said why they can't do that), there's nothing you can do to alleviate the issue. You can only do a round robin type system to let some people play and then let other people play. Since people can't be asked to be considerate, then perhaps you gotta force it.

When I was a kid there was a gas shortage in the US. My state went to if you license plate number was even you could buy gas on these days of the week if it was odd the other days of the week. The thing failed miserably. Your idea will work no better.

[ArkenaeuxBelmont]

Yeah, that's easy for you to say.

You're at the end, you're max level, you don't have to worry about spoilers, you don't have to avoid the XIV community and its content creators like the plague, and you get to work on your endgame gear.

It's easy for you to look down at the people who can't get much of any progress in MSQ and say "It'll be okay it'll get better in the coming weeks".

Easy for you to say.

So again, because I planned ahead with my real life affairs, took my time off accordingly to be able to deal with the anticipated high traffic and log in server issues, people like me should be punished because other's didn't?

All any of us can tell you is sorry. That we know the situation sucks. Some of us ARE being considerate in logging out of our own choice.

It doesn't change the fact that to cap one player because they've finished some kind of milestone while not capping another is wrong. It is not the game's fault that someone can't play during peak times.

[Maeka]

You just have to be patient really and the only advice I can give is try to get bits of play time before you work in the morning if you can.
Also try to wake up early in the mornings on weekends since the queue starts to get going at noon.

Let's see here, three times a week I have to get up in the morning: on one week, I have to get up 4AM on Saturday, 3AM on Weds, and 6:30AM on Thurs. The other week, it's Sunday instead of Saturday (the Sunday and Saturday are back to back) for work. On Thursdays, I am so dead tired that I end up crashing and it's fricken hard to get out of bed early-morning, and same goes for the Monday after the Saturday-Sunday weekend. So that leaves me with what, 1-2 days a week I can possibly get on the game?

Also, this game loves to crash randomly on my PC. It is the 1-and-only out of 30+ games in my Steam library that I have played within the last year that does. Sometimes I can log on and it crashes to desktop with no errors after 5 minutes, though last week I got lucky and did a 6.5 hour session and no crashes at all. This means that waiting in a queue is absolutely useless, because God-Only-Knows how long I can actually play until I get a BS crash. And since unlike WoW, XIV does not save your place online, once I crash, that's that. I'm done because I sure as frick don't have 5+ hours to wait on a queue (and probably get 2002'd anyhow).

It's extremely frustrating. I actually care about the story of the game, and I can't hardly interact with any of my FC, I can't really talk to my friends much, because several of them have finished MSQ, and here I am just entered Garlemald, feeling quite alone and wishing I could just get on and get caught up.

And of course I get Lv90s who have finished MSQ talking down to me going "it'll be okay it'll be okay you're just being selfish" ... yeah, that's easy for them to say.

[Maeka]

So again, because I planned ahead with my real life affairs, took my time off accordingly to be able to deal with the anticipated high traffic and log in server issues, people like me should be punished because other's didn't?

All any of us can tell you is sorry. That we know the situation sucks. Some of us ARE being considerate in logging out of our own choice.

It doesn't change the fact that to cap one player because they've finished some kind of milestone while not capping another is wrong. It is not the game's fault that someone can't play during peak times.

You keep using that word... "punished".

It's more that you're being asked to "pass your turn" and if you specifically only log on to the mornings than none of this even applies to you so I dunno WTF you're arguing about.

And to be honest, anybody who takes off work or school for a fricken video game is just ridiculous. I'm sorry, but no video game is important enough for that.

[SturmChurro]

You know what? I am done with being cordial. I am happy to take up a spot. Proud of it really. I have 4 level 90 combat jobs and counting, working on Reaper next! Then maybe in a couple days I will work on sage while thousands are sitting in queue. It's a good time. I might even try my hand at doing extremes again?