How has every other major MMO solved the problem of downtime other than FF14?

[Stormpeaks]

Is that so? I genuinely don't recall one going over that time, so I'll just take your word for it. What I'd like to actually see is for things like sub timers (and to a greater extent timed things like plants) to simply freeze while the game's offline, but this is definitely better than nothing.



Damn, great community coming through!

I'll disagree with you just for one thing, the whole "maintenance day = lost day of subscription" goes for other mmo's too, at least for WoW, as I play both games

[Avoidy]

I'll disagree with you just for one thing, the whole "maintenance day = lost day of subscription" goes for other mmo's too, at least for WoW, as I play both games

I don't enjoy or play WoW, and the MMOs I was referring to with timed systems that don't progress while the game's offline weren't WoW. Interestingly, they were actually kind of bad MMOs in other areas, but they still managed to get the whole "you only pay while the game is up" aspect correct.
It's worth remembering that at one point WoW was so bad that its players were actively funneling into XIV and salivating over how good A Realm Reborn was in comparison. Its directors also steal employee breastmilk and treat their players like gum on the bottom of their shoe. So to say "well yeah, that sucks, but WoW does it" is kind of... eh. Yeah, WoW does do that. And that game bled players for years before finally getting it together again. Let's strive for better.

[XiaoShengwu]

Is that so? I genuinely don't recall one going over that time, so I'll just take your word for it. What I'd like to actually see is for things like sub timers (and to a greater extent timed things like plants) to simply freeze while the game's offline

forgive me for intruding in this...but um...

while i might not know anything about the submarine aspect....PLANTS on the other...can ..just be put into your storage....and it freezes the timers.

..........just....thought i'd mention it.

[Avoidy]

You pay for a lot of things you can't use 24 hours a day. It might be semantics, but Netflix should only charge for 16-18 hours a day, not 24. Need that sleep.

That's not the same thing as this. A downtime period is one where I can't use the product because the game is down for reasons that are entirely on the company's end. What you're describing, my decision to sleep, doesn't warrant a refund because it's not netflix's fault that I can't access their service while I'm asleep. I don't know how else I can put this. In any case, I'm tired of splitting hairs over this bullshit, PEACE.

forgive me for intruding in this...but um...

while i might not know anything about the submarine aspect....PLANTS on the other...can ..just be put into your storage....and it freezes the timers.

..........just....thought i'd mention it.

This is actually cool but WEIRD that it works lmao

[Musashidon]

Only thing that's wild imo is that your subtime's still ticking even while the game's down for the day.

dang who's actually gonna read all that. this is such low bait.

[Avoidy]

Just to clarify because I dont want it taken the wrong way, I wasnt like trashing your take or telling you "YOU RE WRONG", I was just mentioning that it seems to be the norm in MMO's to count maintenance days as actual "playing days" as if there's no maintenance so the sub just keeps rolling, now for my own opinion I personally dont think it's a good practice, that's for sure lol

Nah I get what you mean. I'm slowly learning from this discussion that the couple of games I've played where this wasn't the case might have been the exception and not the norm.
As a fan of MMOs in general, seeing this sort of thing become normalized is depressing as hell. Like, you're literally paying for time that you can't even use and it's just a day so it shouldn't be a big deal to just add the day onto your time but they don't do it because they know people are just used to getting billed for time when the game's not even up. And for people who aren't used to it and justifiably don't want to be charged for a day where they cannot log in, there're dozens of people who will defend it or downplay it like "it's just a day bro" even though it's about more than the length of time. It's about the principle of having access to the service you paid for.

But I digress. The state of the MMO gamer does not surprise me anymore. Like a frog slowly boiling in water, over the decades we've just grown used to worse and worse business practices. Refunding a lost maintenance day from a 15 dollar sub would "cost" 50 cents but it'd satisfy the principle of the matter. Imagine if you work all week but Monday's your only day to play, and now you can't. That'd suck. But at least if they refunded the lost day, you'd feel a little less shitty about losing access to something you spend money to use. But they won't do it, because it's been normalized. People who ask for what used to be the bare minimum are accused of trolling because it's 2023 and they're all just used to getting screwed over or something.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Nah I get what you mean. I'm slowly learning from this discussion that the couple of games I've played where this wasn't the case might have been the exception and not the norm.
As a fan of MMOs in general, seeing this sort of thing become normalized is depressing as hell. Like, you're literally paying for time that you can't even use and it's just a day so it shouldn't be a big deal to just add the day onto your time but they don't do it because they know people are just used to getting billed for time when the game's not even up. And for people who aren't used to it and justifiably don't want to be charged for a day where they cannot log in, there're dozens of people who will defend it or downplay it like "it's just a day bro" even though it's about more than the length of time. It's about the principle of having access to the service you paid for.

But I digress. The state of the MMO gamer does not surprise me anymore. Like a frog slowly boiling in water, over the decades we've just grown used to worse and worse business practices. Refunding a lost maintenance day from a 15 dollar sub would "cost" 50 cents but it'd satisfy the principle of the matter. Imagine if you work all week but Monday's your only day to play, and now you can't. That'd suck. But at least if they refunded the lost day, you'd feel a little less shitty about losing access to something you spend money to use. But they won't do it, because it's been normalized. People who ask for what used to be the bare minimum are accused of trolling because it's 2023 and they're all just used to getting screwed over or something.

You pay for a lot of things you can't use 24 hours a day. It might be semantics, but Netflix should only charge for 16-18 hours a day, not 24. Need that sleep.



Plus, it's a known thing that maint is included in sub time. Has been for every sub mmo I've ever played, going back decades. It's not a new thing. It's ancient.

[P0sitr0nic]

You must be new. Back in the LK days of WOW, 24 hours was considered LIGHT.

[PercibelTheren]

I've played other games with very long maintenance times and honestly, I prefer if they take longer but make sure everything works. I remember RIFT updating within a few hours, going back on and having to go down again to hotfix gamebreaking bugs.