Forcing players to pay to keep housing is unfair.

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Originally Posted by ErryK

You could be in hospital dying and your first worry is a virtual house?

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Yeah you're right, SE should have never suspended the demotion of housing for those suffering from the Earthquake in Japan. What were they thinking about those worried about losing their virtual house. And who cares if people get deployed for more than 45 days and can't get access to their game. Shouldn't matter after all for the I want a house so bad crowd they could give a hoot.

The OP is asking to be able to drop their sub. That's an entirely different matter than those who actually pay a sub and can't access the game for a extended period of time for legitimate reasons.

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Originally Posted by Akira_Tenshi

I could be hospital dying. I have invested hundreds of hours and money into this game and if I want to be away for one short month I should be able to without being punished. The timer should be longer than one month.

It's very convienant for a pay monthly game that you're only allowed to be away for one month.

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To be really morbid, if you actually died, should the house then remain there forever?

(Yes, a less resource heavy system where everyone could have a house would be ideal.. But that is not currently the case.

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Originally Posted by raela

To be really morbid, if you actually died, should the house then remain there forever?

(Yes, a less resource heavy system where everyone could have a house would be ideal.. But that is not currently the case.

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My ghost would use a house more than some people who currently have one.

Why do these topics always devolve into self-righteous chest-beating over which players "deserve" this/that/some other thing over other players who are "less deserving"? It's a self-touted feature in an online video game. It should be available for everyone, not through some veritable hoop-jumping lottery-winning, and it's annoying to see people pontificate on how others should have things taken away rather than advocate for them to be available to everyone.

I'm sure I'll get tons of self-defeating replies on "that's how the system is, though" rather than any meaningful attitude adjustments, but ever the eternal optimist, that's me lol. Seriously, don't let up. Housing supply NEEDS to exceed demand, and no other alternative, whether it's reclamation or whatever, is an acceptable alternative. Houses free up at a bloody trickle, and everyone here wants to wax poetic about how people who aren't married to FFXIV should "prioritize better" lmao.

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Originally Posted by Tsumdere

My ghost would use a house more than some people who currently have one.

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So some people are opposed to Haunted Houses. That' simply terrible.

A mentor stole my house 30 days ago. by a MENTOR!!

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

Yeah you're right, SE should have never suspended the demotion of housing for those suffering from the Earthquake in Japan. What were they thinking about those worried about losing their virtual house. And who cares if people get deployed for more than 45 days and can't get access to their game. Shouldn't matter after all for the I want a house so bad crowd they could give a hoot.

The OP is asking to be able to drop their sub. That's an entirely different matter than those who actually pay a sub and can't access the game for a extended period of time for legitimate reasons.

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SE was being courteous and considerate. But I'm sure that the majority of those who had been directly affected by the earthquake were far more concerned about other things, like making sure their family was okay, rebuilding any destroyed property, etc.. And I repeat again: if someone is deployed, I am certain they would be less concerned about keeping their pixel house and more concerned about, I don't know, coming home to their loved ones alive and in one piece.

No one is saying they don't care about people who are so sick they're in a hospital dying, or about people who are being deployed overseas to fight for and defend their country. But some of the people commenting in this thread need to take a step back and reconsider their priorities. If a virtual house is more important to you than some of the things you keep bringing up (sickness, military duties/deployment, financial struggles), you most definitely need to refigure your priorities in life.

Honestly, I don't really get the whole "having a house in a video game" thing. For FC's it's more understandable with workshops and such. But personal houses? What's the point? I get that it's personal preference, but I just don't see why housing is such a big deal. All you do is stand there, probably waiting in que. Or is there some big secret about housing that I'm missing? I guess my opinion is that it sucks, but it is what it is. At least you get some of your money back.

I don't think anyone here is (or would) complain about SE suspending housing demos to help out a large part of their playerbase and employees when the entire country was suffering a major natural disaster. Trying to equate that with some joe-smoe who decides 'meh, I'm bored and don't want to play til the expac hits' is flawed on every level.

I also have absolutely zero sympathy for people who play actively but can't be arsed to pop over to their house once every 45 days. (I timed it and even on my sloooow loading computer it took me 46 seconds to pop from Idylshire to Lav Beds and load into my FC's house.)

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

And who cares if people get deployed for more than 45 days and can't get access to their game.

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You keep mentioning people who get deployed and I can't help but wonder if this is a problem you, personally, have faced or if it is just the most easily defensible example you can think of. In my experience (I'm admittedly not in the military,) most deployed, active duty military still have computer access and are allowed to game in their free time, if they wish. One of my first long-term RP partners was a navy ensign deployed on a ship in the Indian Ocean. And one of our guildies back in WoW was a soldier who played while stationed in Afghanistan.

If you really are absolutely unable to play any time in 45 days, then why on earth would you waste money on a sub to begin with? Real life happens and, sometimes, video games have to take a back seat to it. It's called being an adult and taking the responsibilities and consequences that go along with it. As I said before, I am well aware that these things happen and it has happened to me (to my very painful loss) but it is just something we have to pull up our big-kid pants and accept.

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

No one is saying they don't care about people who are so sick they're in a hospital dying, or about people who are being deployed overseas to fight for and defend their country. But some of the people commenting in this thread need to take a step back and reconsider their priorities. If a virtual house is more important to you than some of the things you keep bringing up (sickness, military duties/deployment, financial struggles), you most definitely need to refigure your priorities in life.

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THIS.

I think the auto demo is fine. It's just too short. Make it 3 or 6 months.

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Originally Posted by Alynn

You don't wanna pay? There's other people who would pay to have your house. In a world where housing is limited, there is no such thing as fair or unfair for you. As much as I hate the word, entitlement is what I smell from this post.

I'm sorry that money is tight though but the reality is the reality.

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I dunno.. if I have a buddy of mine deploy. It'd be nice if his stuff remained intact when he came back. In that case the absence is pretty much ensuring we all get to keep our housing in this game. I'm certain with recent events that our Japanese counterparts would likely agree with this as well.

The best thing to do is to open more districts as they fill. Limiting it to 2100 where a server likely has nearly 10x that, is not a good system. Especially since Free Companies share the same spots.

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Originally Posted by Alynn

In a world where housing is limited, ...

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But that "if" negates your argument. What the OP was complaining about as unfair is the very fact that housing is limited. Why, in a game that we're all playing, and have all paid for, can only a few of us get housing? Unlimited housing would be far more fair to everyone, and is well within SE's capabilities, but they chose not to offer it.

Given that it is limited, yes, the reclamations are unavoidable. But that doesn't excuse SE for the decision to limit it in the first place.

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Originally Posted by Rymm

If you really are absolutely unable to play any time in 45 days, then why on earth would you waste money on a sub to begin with? Real life happens and, sometimes, video games have to take a back seat to it. It's called being an adult and taking the responsibilities and consequences that go along with it. As I said before, I am well aware that these things happen and it has happened to my (to my very painful loss) but it is just something we have to pull up our big-kid pants and accept.

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That's their choice isn't it? If they elect to pay they shouldn't lose what they're paying for. And it's not a question of being an adult, it's a personal choice. You shouldn't be the one making that choice for them.

Maybe a better solution would've been to give us the apartments way back in 2.3 and kept housing to Free Companies. Hindsight and that.

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Originally Posted by Kaethra

The best thing to do is to open more districts as they fill.

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Unfortunately the current system won't allow that. They'd need to make instanced housing that isn't tied to wards.

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Originally Posted by Akira_Tenshi

I could be hospital dying.

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A friend of mine died in December 2016. He was there from the beginning. He had everything from Raids in his Haus.
At the end he built a Moggle-House. Everything was gathered and crafted by himself. The House was full of of amazing stuff.
You can imagine that it has cost him a huge amount of time and gil.
Now that he is dead this House would stay empty forever. A Museum, nothing more.
I think it was a good decision, made by SE, to demolish houses and and make it possible to others to purchase a House.
Even if it's hard to see that my friend's House now has vanished.

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Originally Posted by Dustytome

Unfortunately the current system won't allow that. They're need to make instanced housing that isn't tied to wards.

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I totally agree that instanced housing should be added to what currently exists. Apartments were a step in the right direction, at the least giving people access to the housing wards. Sadly, the implementation relative to the actual apartment design could have been a lot more than simply a clone of a FC room in my opinion.

Oddly enough one doesn't have to enter an apartment to keep it. One doesn't even have to pay a sub.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

I totally agree that instanced housing should be added to what currently exists. Apartments were a step in the right direction, at the least giving people access to the housing wards. Sadly, the implementation relative to the actual apartment design could have been a lot more than simply a clone of a FC room in my opinion.

Oddly enough one doesn't have to enter an apartment to keep it. One doesn't even have to pay a sub.

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There are also a LOT more apartments that houses, since they are essentially FC rooms.

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth

There are also a LOT more apartments that houses, since they are essentially FC rooms.

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I was personally disappointed that given the housing shortage that SE developers didn't do a lot more than simply clone FC rooms and call them apartments. They could have had more than one room, a different layout, and pleasing design. I think they missed an opportunity to make people a lot happier about owning one.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

I totally agree that instanced housing should be added to what currently exists. Apartments were a step in the right direction, at the least giving people access to the housing wards. Sadly, the implementation relative to the actual apartment design could have been a lot more than simply a clone of a FC room in my opinion.

Oddly enough one doesn't have to enter an apartment to keep it. One doesn't even have to pay a sub.

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I agree with the idea that there needs to be more housing (instanced or not), because I dislike how limited it is. I can afford a medium plot right now, but can't get one since all the wards are full on my server. However, there's a difference between the apartments/FC rooms and personal/FC housing. The apartments/FC rooms are not in such limited supply like housing plots are, so they really can't be used as a decent comparison. Apples to oranges.

People aren't sprinting towards empty apartments the day after release like they were when Wards 9-12 were added. I'm honestly very underwhelmed when it comes to the apartments. 500k for an independent FC room. They could have at least made them a little bigger. :/

All I see in this is people who don't have a house/want one are all, "It fair." while people who do have one are like, "It unfair." With only the few small handfuls who don't care either way. What this still boil down to is that Yoshi didn't do housing the right way, therefore causing all this fuss over housing. And while I respect his idea of the whole "making housing feel real", it just doesn't work. I'll never understand why they couldn't just take from XI (I.E Mog houses) and expanded from that. A 15 year old game does it right the first time vs a 4 year old game that done it wrong from the very start.

For people who didn't play XI, Mog Houses where instance housing and everyone got one. Yes, they were small and you just walked into a room, but they later expanded to having two floors...way later of course, when the game started to die out.

Point is: In this age of gaming, housing is a thing and has been for a few years now. Why they just couldn't do it right, is anyone guess. Inb4: PS4 limitations

Simple Solution:

1) Wards are strictly for FC Housing, no more Individual Player Housing.
2) Implement Instanced Personal Player Housing. There is no reason the Warrior of Light should be Homeless. You've done ENOUGH for Eorzea to be given a little real estate somewhere, where you can build a small, medium, or large house, have a garden and chocobo stables, and invite people to.
2-a) If you have a personal house in a Ward, all existing decorations and buildings are copied over to your Personal Housing Instance, exactly as they are now. The only difference is you'll have a Large plot of land rather than small or medium.
3) Remove the Demolish Timer, as it is no longer needed.
4) Profit.

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Originally Posted by whiteblade89

Honestly, I don't really get the whole "having a house in a video game" thing.

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The Sims is a popular game for a reason. I've used decorating as a stress reliever sometimes.

More practical applications are chocobo stables, bgm control (I used to teleport to certain maps to craft/idle, for example), and useful NPCs/objects directly at hand (crafting materials, dyes, catalysts for repair, repair, retainers, materia melding, aestheticion, armoire, neverending journey). If you're not in a FC with a house (or they don't have the interactive items in a convenient place), then a personal house works out well.

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Originally Posted by Vexander

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To add to this:
~Allow people the ability to upgrade their apartment and/or FC private chamber. Like increasing the size and item limit, adding a basement, and adding a second floor. Make each upgrade a major money sink, that all adds up to the price of buying a Medium House.
~Give people a way to garden in their apartment and/or FC private chamber.
~Give people who want to forfeit their house and get the "perks" of it being demoed a way to speed up the process. This way, people won't have a chance to have a change of heart half way through the countdown and more houses could open up.

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Originally Posted by Nyerieri

Set new goals, there is always something to do. If it upsets you that much, just relinquish it (or let the auto timer demo it, at least you will get some gil back). It's no ones fault but yours that you cannot log in once every 44 days.

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Can we really say that during a content dry period like in between expansions?
Just because there are things to do, doesn't mean they are good, fun, engaging, or any of the work you put into them won't be completely negated once the new expansion comes out. :B

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Originally Posted by Dustytome

Unfortunately the current system won't allow that. They're need to make instanced housing that isn't tied to wards.

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They are instances already. Go to ward 1, then ward 2. Its the same plots. Copied 12 times. They can copy it 12 more times and double the plots.

People may think they system sucks but for anyone that doesn't have a house and has the chance to purchase a house (decide this prior) have to make a decision. Are you alright with the reclaim timer (45 days) if the answer is yes then buy a house if you have a chance, if the answer is no you are not alright with the current system then don't get a house (don't buy a house and then come to the forums and complain about it). Not saying SE shouldn't make a better system but you can make a informed decision based on the information that is available.

we shouldn't compare real life to in game system. I'm sure they designed it that way for different reasons. While I understand how people get frustrated. Logging into the game and visiting a house once a month is not hard. We paying a sub knowing the concequences.

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Originally Posted by Kaethra

They are instances already. Go to ward 1, then ward 2. Its the same plots. Copied 12 times. They can copy it 12 more times and double the plots.

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"Something something server memory something something"-Various SE excuses

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Originally Posted by Slirith

"Something something server memory something something"-Various SE excuses

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Pretty much this.
The lawn furniture and house exterior options take up too much data, especially because people can log in-and-out in those areas, versus the rooms and houses where they kick you out so they don't have to keep the instance up while you're gone. :B

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Originally Posted by Slirith

"Something something server memory something something"-Various SE excuses

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I have a Harddrive or two laying around they could use to store that information on my server at least.

Remember, visual assets are stored on your computer. The location, orientation, and type is saved on the server. When you load in, the server tells your computer where to display said assets.

location is a number
orientation is another number
type is a number

Those together form a matrix, and then a few of those go into a database. I'm pretty sure my combat log file since 2015 is larger than their housing database.

people asked for it , now deal with it >.<

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Originally Posted by Akira_Tenshi

So due to me going on holiday this month money is tight and I decided I would take a break from FF for a short time plus there's little for me left to do in game. I am not aloud to do this though without losing my house that I have invested millions of Gil into. . . There is a life outside of FF and I don't deserve to lose my house for wanting to take a break.

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Thought I'd bold some of the more legit points the OP made.

If "a short break" = 30 days, but less than 45 or 60, then it shouldn't be an issue. Take that break and enjoy it. If he were just leaving the game with no intent of returning? That's different.
For those playing the "You're too attached to your house" card: How would you feel if you put time and effort into, say, leveling and gearing your character, take a break, then had to start at level 1 again? Not the same? Maybe, but how is it any different?

While it's hardly a fault of the players, I'd like to point out some of the bigger critics here being on bloated servers that have well known housing issues. (And to avoid the bunched panties debuff: I'm on Balmung too.)

I get that the system is imperfect, and I even understand and agree with the demolition aspect to a point. But a month long break and people want to act like vultures? Where's my Yoshi P "You all need to calm down" image?

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Originally Posted by Dzian

The reality is Yoshi himself said houses would not require an active subscription..

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He only said that at the very start. Once it became an issue he had no choice to start putting the reclamation timer into effect. I have a personal and FC house and if I lost either I would understand as others who play regular need them too.

Also the sub thing is just a side effect of, if you don't enter your house within 45 days you will lose it. Which is fair enough you don't use it you lose it.

I don't see the issue with the housing timer. Of course you lose out when you unsub. Its a subscription game.

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Originally Posted by ThirdChild_ZKI

How would you feel if you put time and effort into, say, leveling and gearing your character, take a break, then had to start at level 1 again? Not the same? Maybe, but how is it any different?

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Actually SE did do that with XI, believe the timeframe was 90 days and then they deleted character data that was not subbed.

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Originally Posted by LaylaTsarra

Yeah you're right, SE should have never suspended the demotion of housing for those suffering from the Earthquake in Japan. What were they thinking about those worried about losing their virtual house. And who cares if people get deployed for more than 45 days and can't get access to their game. Shouldn't matter after all for the I want a house so bad crowd they could give a hoot.

The OP is asking to be able to drop their sub. That's an entirely different matter than those who actually pay a sub and can't access the game for a extended period of time for legitimate reasons.

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So being able to drop their sub and keeping their house is more important than getting the correct medication and treatment? Priorities.

Also, one person in hospital hardly compares to an entire nation being affected by natural disasters...

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Originally Posted by ThirdChild_ZKI

How would you feel if you put time and effort into, say, leveling and gearing your character, take a break, then had to start at level 1 again? Not the same? Maybe, but how is it any different?

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That's a flawed statement because the in-game system allows people to retain 80% of their spent gil on the plot, as well as all indoor and outdoor furnishings within 35 days post-demolition. A better comparison would be that you'd need to relevel from 58 to 60, and regain all your skills from Job quests.

In the end, nothing is really lost except time...

The OP must think there isn't a player housing market out there and that SE is going to lose out if they don't listen to their demands.

There are hundreds of players on populated servers that want their greedy hands at your house if you don't want to "pay" the sub upkeep cost.

It's like real life, you don't pay your taxes, you'll lose your real house too.

I'm for removing the housing demolition timer entirely.

Yeah, I login everyday, but there were periods I forget to even go to my own house and one day I got the demolition timer cancelled when I went-in. That's how aloof I was. I'm always at FC or apartment.

I think it's safe to assume after 90 days (which is the total time it takes before a plot is actually demolished if I recall), if a player hasn't come back, they likely aren't coming back. Exceptions to the rule of course (military, health/wellness issues, disasters), but for the most part 90 days is a decent amount of time to say "I don't think they're coming back."

He just wants a month off. And people are like "Too bad, so sad. Get homeless!"

I mean, let's not beat around the bush here. This is an issue of the haves and havenots being at odds. Of course havenots are ready to swoop in and take it if someone's gone at length, and by rights that's fair. But he wants a month off.

http://i65.tinypic.com/2qs53mf.jpg
^I found it! \o/