FFXIV announces Simultaneous Logout Measures, uses Machine Gun to kill a Fly

Square Enix sometimes makes good decisions. Sometimes they make bad ones. This is a bad one. Since the launch of Stormblood, Final Fantasy XIV has implemented a 30-minute AFK kick function. In practice, it's not a bad idea - densely populated servers could see thousands of people trying to log on at once, leaving many stuck in queues that could take hours to move.

However, many players have been circumventing this 30-minute kick penalty. Crafting or talking to an NPC are two ways to prevent this kick function - the game cannot log you out if you're AFK in these two scenarios. Square Enix knows about this, so they decided to implement a "Simultaneous Logout Measure."

In what is probably the heaviest-handed slap to their playerbase, EVERY player will be logged out once a day at a set time, regardless if they are not AFK or not. This is a terrible idea, as you are punishing your active players for something they are not at fault for. Sure you kill the fly that is people circumventing the AFK kick measure, but you are doing it with a machine gun, and are killing everything around the fly in the process. A much better solution would be to change the AFK kick measures, letting people who are crafting or talking to an NPC be kicked. Not this.