Deleting inbox items after 30 days, are you kidding me?

[jcschlitt]

Here's the story of how I lost billions of credits, not to a bug, but to an in-game mechanic:

I recently went on an extended vacation. Before I left, I listed 15 or so big-ticket items on the GTN, thinking I would return to a large sum of credits in my inbox. When I returned roughly a month later, I was very confused to find no emails in my inbox. I was sure I remembered listing my items on the GTN, but I decided to check my inventory and storage containers instead. I checked every character and I couldn't find my items. I couldn't remember exactly what I had, but I knew a few of the mounts and more expensive items. Confused, I submitted a support ticket, and to my dismay, I received the response below. 

Quote

I would like to inform you that if the item posted on Galactic Trade Network (GTN) are sold or not sold then they are returned via mail to the same character.
The majority of emails expire after 30 days. When a mail expires, it is removed from your mailbox along with any unclaimed attachments (including Credits).
Mails from the Galactic Trade Network (GTN) expire after 30 days and I understand that it may not sound helpful, however, there is no workaround available to pass that or to recover the expired/deleted mails or items, as you did not login on the character for over a month.

Why on earth is this a mechanic in-game? I understand deleting unread guild emails, but GTN return or sale emails should NEVER be deleted without the owner getting the chance to retrieve the items. If emails MUST be deleted, GTN emails should at the very least return the items to either the character's inventory or storage bin. Heck, I'd even be find with an entirely separate "holding bin" similar to the Item Stash. Just deleting the attachments is just wrong, and in my situation, cost me a lot of credits. 🥺

[Jdast]

I know it will sound like I'm trying to pour salt on a fresh wound but...

There is a pretty basic and logical reason why SWTOR and every other MMORPG I play or have played have time limits on mail duration.

Simply put, they don't want your in-game mailbox to become a mechanism allowing players to circumvent storage / currency cap limitations. If there are no limits, your in-game mailbox becomes a free de facto storage bank.

I know that's not what you want to hear, but there is a different perspective.

Dasty

Edited April 20, 2023 by Jdast
Stupid Typos!

[jcschlitt]

I get that there has to be limits on mail. I'm not arguing that. What I am saying is that these limits should not apply to GTN items. Those aren't "random emails" from in-game friends. Those are my items being returned to me. There has to be a better system for that. Perhaps that means emails don't get deleted for subscribers, or maybe it's as simple as returning the items to my inventory. This current system is a horrible user experience. 

[Tasaas]

1 hour ago, jcschlitt said:

Here's the story of how I lost billions of credits, not to a bug, but to an in-game mechanic:

I recently went on an extended vacation. Before I left, I listed 15 or so big-ticket items on the GTN, thinking I would return to a large sum of credits in my inbox. When I returned roughly a month later, I was very confused to find no emails in my inbox. I was sure I remembered listing my items on the GTN, but I decided to check my inventory and storage containers instead. I checked every character and I couldn't find my items. I couldn't remember exactly what I had, but I knew a few of the mounts and more expensive items. Confused, I submitted a support ticket, and to my dismay, I received the response below. 

Why on earth is this a mechanic in-game? I understand deleting unread guild emails, but GTN return or sale emails should NEVER be deleted without the owner getting the chance to retrieve the items. If emails MUST be deleted, GTN emails should at the very least return the items to either the character's inventory or storage bin. Heck, I'd even be find with an entirely separate "holding bin" similar to the Item Stash. Just deleting the attachments is just wrong, and in my situation, cost me a lot of credits. 🥺

I am sorry you lost all those creds.  Tough to learn something that way.

 

I am in a couple guilds and they give out weekly bonus creds to CQ earners.  Ever so often I get an email that is being returned to me as the user has not logged or checked email in 30 days.  I do get the creds I sent back, but I am always shocked.

Sorry about that.

[SteveTheCynic]

20 hours ago, jcschlitt said:

I get that there has to be limits on mail. I'm not arguing that. What I am saying is that these limits should not apply to GTN items.

Nor to these things related to the GTN:

• Credits coming to you because your item(s) sold successfully.
• Credits bouncing out of the GTN because of your request to buy that item colliding with mine, and my request winning: your credits go into the GTN and then bounce back out of it in a mail.  (Yes, this can happen.  It's super-rare, but I have seen it happen.  It might have been when the seller delisted the item rather than a two-buyers problem.)

20 hours ago, jcschlitt said:

Those aren't "random emails" from in-game friends. Those are my items being returned to me. There has to be a better system for that. Perhaps that means emails don't get deleted for subscribers, or maybe it's as simple as returning the items to my inventory. This current system is a horrible user experience. 

A better solution would just be to expand the "non-expiring mail" category to include mail from the GTN in addition to the current set of new-character prize mails.  (You know, the May the Fourth astromech minipets, and stuff like that.  Those mails never expire.  GTN mails should be in that list.)

[YaddleTwo]

I've had issue with this too. Emails. I think it should be a user set time limit, from a month or never. I wish i had the in game emails from friends that no longer play that sent me their contact info for one when they stopped playing but i wasn't in game at that time...

[xordevoreaux]

Think about all the people who've created accounts since launch who have put something on the GTN for sale. Since the GTN first came into being.

Now of those, I'm sure plenty of people walked away from the game without knowing, remembering, or caring they had items on the GTN, and no Steve, I can't cite sources as to how many, but I'll hazard... a lot.

Databases slow down the more data is stored in their tables. Yes, there's indexing. Yes, there's table partitioning. But for potentially billions of transactions (or more)? All those transactions stored across all time across all players since launch... that would be a lot of mail for any database to chew through to get to your stuff, and there's a hell of a lot more the database needs to support in this MMO than just warehousing player mail.

Dasty suggested the reason is to prevent players from using the mail system as an ad-hoc storage system. Some players no doubt try, and that reason would simply add to the database bloat in addition to leaving the game for a long time (or permanently).

I don't fault EA at all for wanting to protect the performance of their system by shedding old data, and they've decided "old" is 30 days.

The only thing I could suggest is an up-front warning permanently emblazoned on the in-game mail popup window stating "All player-generated mail is deleted after 30 days."

Edited May 1, 2023 by xordevoreaux

[SteveTheCynic]

2 hours ago, xordevoreaux said:

no Steve, I can't cite sources as to how many, but I'll hazard... a lot.

I wouldn't dream of asking for such sources, but I agree that it's most probably a lot.

[Djstingable]

Agreed frustration , I could see the reason for this being with player/GTN mail, but still there must be another sort of way to workaround not letting players abuse the mail system.

At least there's that justification for GTN mail, but other mail sent from the game, like unclaimed season rewards, expiring within 30 days, is extremely undesirable, as a lot of effort is put into completing season tasks and is only sent to one character , which makes it difficult to manage inventory space if all the inventory is already full and you need to claim an entire season worth of mail on one character.