The new FFXIV update is now going to kick inactive players, and that kind of sucks

Image of Final Fantasy 14 character sitting in the capital.

AFK loitering like this is now illegal in FFXIV.
Screenshot: Square Enix / Kotaku

Final Fantasy XIV suffers of success. Recently there has been an explosion of active users who are driving up the queues and flooding them FFXIV subreddit with daily threads complaining about said queues. Square Enix is ​​working on the problem, but in the meantime the latest patchthat was used during last night’s maintenance will now log out players who have been idle for 30 minutes.

To the most seasoned MMO players, this sounds like a reasonable reaction. People who are AFK (or no keyboard) for an extended period of time are by definition not playing the game, sucking away valuable bandwidth from players who want to experience it all FFXIV has to offer. But just as seasoned MMO players experiencing the game for the first time, they find out FFXIV is just built differently. And kicking idle players, no matter how sensible it is, robs players, active contestants, and AFK players alike, of their essentials FFXIV Experience.

First, let me say that removing idler gears is fine after a period of time. It’s more important to me that players have as easy access to the game as possible than a bard playing freebird on the panpipe for 12 hours. With that out of the way, part of what does FFXIV such a transformative MMO is that there is so much you can do and experience by literally doing nothing.

Continue reading: Start your day with the soothing sounds of these amazing ones Final Fantasy XIV Bards

I think my first real surprise is from Final Fantasy XIV– according to the story of course – came from his camera while idling. I flipped to do something and came back to a screen that was no longer focusing on my character, but on a little cockatrice creature just chilling in the grass. I waited a while and the scene switched to another player nearby who was fighting one of those cockatrices. The idle camera removes the UI so all I could see was this gun breaker and his spells and abilities glowing around him. And even though that player was involved in a deadly fight with a fat, angry chicken, it was still really cool that the game completely took me out of the equation and focused on other players like I was saying, “Eorzea is real a livelihood “. , breathing world and it goes on without you. Here’s what you’re missing. “

Beyond my personal circumstances, idling is an important game function that adds character and depth to the gaming experience. I logged in this morning to see a bard sitting on a stone fortification in Limsa Lominsa performing “Zelda’s Lullaby” on an endless loop while another player does the charm emote as if the two are idol and devotee together would play. And that’s just one of the millions of examples of people making their servers a wild and wonderful place while they are AFK.

Take the Jades, for example. Jades are members of a Free Company on the Famfrit server. They are all people with the same model and glamor setup and can be found in Limsa Lominsa … Sometimes they dance, sometimes they perform and sometimes they just lie there. in the a reddit thread When discussing the new patch notes, as one of the first reactions players discussed how the new rule might prevent the Jades from doing everything they do.

The way Final Fantasy XIV is designed with its emotes, glamor and performance actions – all things that can be done without constant player input – suitable for hilarious or even touching modes of expression. The dark knight’s flash mob who stood vigil for hours after the death of the berserk creator Kentaro Miura, cannot happen with the new AFK rules.

AFKers, whether they play bards, role-players who dress up as a tablecloth, or just people like me who use the sights and sounds of a breathtaking world as background noise are just as important to their servers as they are to the players. They are the fixtures of their servers, just as the personable drunk is a fixture in your local bar. Yes, they do weird, sometimes annoying shit (like puffing up queues), but if they were gone your local pub (or MMO) would be less suitable for that.

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