"Vacate Chambers" without Estate Access

I'd like to see something done about this too. I don't run an FC, but I DO enjoy what the concept of that (and housing) has to offer as of so far. But the fact that somebody- anybody- can pull this kind of stunt on any number of people is ridiculous. A lot of what I had to say was already said, but the point stands: this game is 15$ a month, and the FC/housing are a HUGE aspect of the game.

So please, I'm hoping this doesn't turn into an 'under the rug' issue where you brush off player sensitivities and tell people to find another avenue of the game to enjoy.

As a former member the FC in question here, (Quite recently former member, as I was one of the lucky ones that vacated before I was held hostage.) I agree. In order to prevent this sort of madness again, this needs to change. And GM's are there to help people who need it and if this is the result of GM's being lazy, there should be something done about that as well. Use the "Vacate" option... well... Pay attention, GM's.

This is horrible, I was just reading this on tumblr and honestly this needs fixing ASAP.

Members of FC shouldn't be held hostage just because FC leader decides to be a jerk. I hope something like this never happens again.

this is pretty jacked up and should probably be echoed out to general discussion as a PSA. people thinking of getting a personal room should -probably- hear about this.

This is very important and should be looked into and fixed as soon as possible!

I read about this and I was horrified by the events. To my knowledge, the public support of others on the server helped 'complete' negotiations (I think some of the demands were met) and I still hope that the leader faces some type of repercussions. That is absolutely abusive behavior.

On the other hand, I'm just happy for those who were prisoners were eventually freed.

I encourage that this thread be moved to the General Discussion area though, for more exposure. The housing subforum doesn't get nearly enough traffic and I believe this issue needs that.

This image was made (not by me) to explain in picture form how this happens.
http://41.media.tumblr.com/e09d49f6a...w4wo1_1280.png

This was all over my tumblr feed ALL last night and all this morning, and not only as a lover and player of this game, but as a leader of a FC myself, I am absolutely appalled and enraged by this person's behavior. Had I a character on Balmung, you can bet I would have been sitting on the front step with the other protesters. This person has abused a feature that the devs obviously never imaged could be used in such an abusive way, and it is unfortunately up to the devs to make sure no one else can do it again (and as much as I hate to say it, now that it is known that this is possible, there will be other people who will attempt it in the future). Thankfully, being able to lock people out of the house serves absolutely no purpose that other permissions options can't handle (such as preventing furniture theft by restricting furnishing access).

As disappointed as I am in the GMs who handled this situation, I know it does not reflect all the GMs, but I do hope that the GMs will take this as a lesson in how important it is to take your time and listen to the players' problems, particularly when more than one is coming forward with the same problem.

This is a terrifying flaw, and absolutely needs to be addressed asap. How many times has this happened that didn't have the benefit of social media to draw attention to it? This is entirely unfair to anyone in an FC and anyone who buys a room.

Edit: Whoops, looks like Shofie beat me to it and I didn't notice at the time. (Or we made threads at the same time. :V) Sorry, forum mods. T_T I'm getting rid of my link to my thread over on General.

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Originally Posted by heiligeharmonie

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The issue is (and I touched on this on Tumblr) is that GMs are basically customer service representatives, and there wasn't anything they could have really done in this situation. They do not have the power to force a guild leader to unlock the house, and they do not have the power to force a guild leader to vacate her position. As horrible as what she did was, she didn't do anything she wasn't allowed to do. So the issue here isn't what the GMs could have done (because it wasn't much, if anything), but rather, that this needs to be fixed so it cannot become an issue again in the future.

The whole situation stinks though, but hopefully now that it's a known issue, we can get it resolved.