How to fix 1017: BOOT AFKS

[Ameroth]

Except that's completely different. You're still sitting in your car. This is someone parking their character in a game, not playing, and then because they are there, preventing someone else from playing.

It's like parking your car at a business and walking somewhere completely different just because you wanted to be absolutely sure you had a space, which stopped someone else from parking there.

People like that get their car towed. For good reason. An AFK kick system is needed.

like I said in my response to JosiahGrey: you're right. But that is real life, and this is a video game. Bad analogy on my part.

Point is: an AFK timer is an all-around bad idea in the long-run. Maybe for now while we are having login issues. I'm willing to meet you half-way there. But in the end, I would be severly disappointed if a game I paid to have access to kicked me from the world for no reason other than I'm not currently in front of my screen.

FFXI is a prime example. I had an alt on a laptop that would sit there for literally days (usually running my bazaar). I expect no less here.

[Selsix]

like I said in my response to JosiahGrey: you're right. But that is real life, and this is a video game. Bad analogy on my part.

Point is: an AFK timer is an all-around bad idea in the long-run. Maybe for now while we are having login issues. I'm willing to meet you half-way there. But in the end, I would be severly disappointed if a game I paid to have access to kicked me from the world for no reason other than I'm not currently in front of my screen.

FFXI is a prime example. I had an alt on a laptop that would sit there for literally days (usually running my bazaar). I expect no less here.

That's the point, XI HAS a bazaar system. XIV does not. Erego? You don't NEED to be logged in 24/7. There is no benefit to it except reserving you a spot ingame that would be better given to someone else whom would actually play.

This game has no rare spawns. There is nothing to camp, no shops you have to manage yourself. In fact, staying logged in will actually only hurt you since you won't get rested EXP.

Wanting to stay logged in knowing all that? Only makes you a selfish prick.

[Elmo]

What about resetting the servers at midnight every day? Are the NA/EU servers joined or separate? I have no clue about servers or how they work but I've seen a lot of people saying they should just reset them to boot all the AFK players, allowing new people to come online.

So JP servers get reset midnight JP time, and the same for NA/EU servers providing they are separate. Would that work?

[JosiahGrey]

...like I said in my response to JosiahGrey: you're right.

WOW...that may be a first in the history of the internet. Thanks for fairly considering an opposing point of view.

BTW, I really don't care if you want to AFK on a server, as long as I can log in and have the gaming experience I paid for. It's when I'm denied service because of your behavior that this becomes an issue. If they fix this on Wednesday by expanding capacity, I'm good.

[Ameroth]

That's the point, XI HAS a bazaar system. XIV does not. Erego? You don't NEED to be logged in 24/7. There is no benefit to it except reserving you a spot ingame that would be better given to someone else whom would actually play.

This game has no rare spawns. There is nothing to camp, no shops you have to manage yourself. In fact, staying logged in will actually only hurt you since you won't get rested EXP.

Wanting to stay logged in knowing all that? Only makes you a selfish prick.

Despite your concerns and judgements, it's the principle of the matter. When they have adjusted servers to maintain an adequate capacity, there is no logic you could use on me to defend why there should be an AFK timer.

[stiglar]

My dearest Square Enix,

I have patiently defended you guys in the face of all of the server errors that have plagued us these last several days. I know it's launch and you guys have a lot of problems to sort out, but at this point, I think I speak for a large portion of the community when I say that we're tired of dueling 1017 for hours to be able to log in.

The cause of these problems, in my opinion - the fact that the game does not automatically boot players who are AFK.

I don't know that increasing data centers/world population/whatever is going to fix the problem in the long-run. Nobody logs out of the game because of the enormous difficulties they face getting back in, so you have thousands of AFKs sitting in sanctuaries around the world.

I am pleading with you guys - please implement an AFK kick immediately. The fact that this isn't already a thing is disconcerting, and I think it'll solve 90% of the problems that players are experiencing.

Thank you!

Problem is: this game is Pay to Play = You are afk in game = nobody should care becoase you bought this time !

[Gamerfan001]

>_< So tired of 1017. I wish they would listen to us.

[Shades]

SE knows this issue is discussed by the community and a Rep posted on it here: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ck-Timer/page4

If what they do to the servers in the next two days doesn't alleviate the congestion problems then they will possibly look at implementing an auto log due to inactivity.

Problem is they're really vague on exactly what it is they are doing, they're basically saying nothing beyond ya we're working on something and we're opening more worlds in the future. Lack of communication isn't really acceptable any longer.

Also I've been through launches like this, this seems like a lack of research. Aion had exactly the same problem during it's launch week (mind you they actually had a working queue system in place) the cause was people not logging out because they were afraid they wouldn't be able to log back in. Even saw people claiming that them staying logged in all the time wasn't a problem, that the 9h queues were caused by some other factor. soon as the AFK timer went live, queues dropped to less then 5 minutes on all servers at peak. AFK timeout should be a mandatory feature in modern MMOs, else you run into this situation. It happened before, it's happening now, it will likely happen again down the road.

My biggest worry is they are doing exactly what other MMOs have done during launch week, where by they end up opening too many servers, spreading the community too thin among them, and then they spend the next year seeing their player base complain about low pop servers due to concurrent user numbers dropping after the free month is up. Then there's the bad PR and hassle when they finally announce server mergers. Personally they should have prioritized the afk timer, then slowly increase servers, doing it the other way around is likely to be expensive down the line. It's all happened before.

[Selsix]

Despite your concerns and judgements, it's the principle of the matter. When they have adjusted servers to maintain an adequate capacity, there is no logic you could use on me to defend why there should be an AFK timer.

I'm not arguing that we'll need one down the road at all. Are you even listening? My entire argument is that YOU staying logged in is preventing someone ELSE from logging in. Once that's not an issue anymore? Fine. Take away the kick timer. But until that time comes? We definitely need one.

[Ameroth]

BTW, I really don't care if you want to AFK on a server, as long as I can log in and have the gaming experience I paid for. It's when I'm denied service because of your behavior that this becomes an issue. If they fix this on Wednesday by expanding capacity, I'm good.

And, considering all issues currently at-hand, I will faithfully support you on the issue. When the servers are loaded down because of short-sightedness on the producers' end (although I do understand their reasoning), it does seem unfair to block access to players who are actually trying to play while others are logged in staring at the back-end of their cait sith doll for hours on end.

When we can all login, everytime, with no issues, I believe an AFK timer would go against what I paid for.