Presently there's an aggressive campaign advertising a house selling discord in both Party Finder and shout chat in major cities. (At least on Balmung on Crystal DC.)
It is a scam. If you join the discord, there is no channel you can talk on. Just a very opaque ticket system. They will ask you for a down payment. Once they have it, they will boot you from the server. You will not get a house. You just give away millions of gil to a scammer.
SE is about to get inundated with tickets and complaints about this latest scam. They could possibly save a lot of players this heartache if they just gave housing to everyone.
If you see it in PF, report it. If you see it in shout chat, report it. Tell your friends and family not to fall for it.
Edit: They are paying people 100k to advertise. Warn folks you see shouting it that it's a scam. Then report.
New Housing Scam: Beware.
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09-19-2022, 12:18 PMNepenthaNew Housing Scam: Beware.
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09-19-2022, 12:45 PMArrhin
Full disclosure: I have a house, have had one since housing was released.
By the f@cking Twelve. Yoshi el al need to get on this housing BS and stop screwing around. It's been literal years, and we all said that Wards were gonna be a problem FROM DAY ONE. Instanced housing needs to be implemented asap, and Daddy Yoshi needs to be made aware that XIV as he imagines it does not exist, the dream has died. I mean on a more positive note now that the scammers are onboard taking advantage of the desperate house seekers, SE may be forced to come up with something effective. On the other hand they have a pretty bad track record with scammers too.. Sweet Twelve the dream IS dead.. /pdead -
09-19-2022, 01:05 PMSweeeet
I completely agree that more housing is needed. I love the fact that housing isn’t individually instanced (wards are, houses aren’t). I played ESO for a hot minute while waiting for 6.2 and the instanced housing is lonely and pathetic. However, there is just no reason for SE to not create more wards in each district. These are imaged on virtual servers and implementing more wards isn’t a a daunting task and could be done rather easily. Does it take more server space? Yes! BUT they have far more subs now than they did 3 years ago and what have we gotten since then? Same amount of wards as all others for the release of Empyrium and people are still fighting to get a house. It just simply doesn’t make sense. I’ve not even heard them hint at expanding wards… radio silence. As history dictates, even if they mentioned tomorrow a planned expansion of wards… we’d still be looking at a 2+ year wait. :(
Let people buy a house! For the love of The Twelve, please?? -
09-19-2022, 03:18 PMShibiAs much as most of us (except Marvin) would love SE to add more houses, or do something smart like adding instancing, or even letting people rez furniture on their island, it's not going to happen any time soon.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sweeeet
So, until then, the next best chance of a house is in a few months for NA players will be when the new servers are added. And unlike Materia, you have DC travel, so you won't have to deal with a glut of sub-70,000g onions. -
09-19-2022, 05:57 PMAlycenNew servers is not the solution, please stop suggesting it. Nobody should be expected to transfer servers for this.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shibi
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09-19-2022, 07:23 PMShibiI will BOTH keep suggesting it, and I will keep lobbying SE to improve the absolute crazy stupid system they created because I am pragmatic and realistic.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alycen
We *can* push SE to better the situation and at the very same time prove it's needed by filling up those new servers.
Oh look, SE say - in your case - the new servers are empty, we don't need to do a thing.
Oh look, SE say - in my case - the new servers are also full, hmm, maybe our vision of housing isn't so great after all.
Which is better? Your way or my way? -
09-19-2022, 07:34 PMAlycenIt is incredibly demoralising to see people who come here to make a suggestion and constantly being shut down every time with "Oh look, the solution is out there, transfer servers!".Quote:
Originally Posted by Shibi
If new servers are indeed the solution SE intends as the way to fix the housing scarcity, then we should be making it loud and clear that it isn't acceptable.
The two are not mutually exclusive, I agree, but constantly shutting down people's entirely reasonable discussions with "Just wait for/go to the new servers" is only wearing down the voice pushing for this change, not SE to actually implement said change.
Lastly, do remember that this isn't a competition, we are on the same team. -
09-20-2022, 01:12 AMOizen
Square Enix could quite literally kill the entire housing RMT market with one change yet they're like "nah this is good for the game"
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09-20-2022, 01:14 AMPablomaldito
If you really want to have a house on a time scale that isn't measured in years, then doing so on a new server (whether by transferring or leveling an alt) is the only viable choice in the current system - and it looks like the current system is all we're getting in the foreseeable future.
You can go back over half a decade on these forums, and you'll find the same conversations we're having now. People have been talking about fixing the housing shortage for years. More wards, instanced housing... none of those ideas are new. In the face of SE's absolute unwillingness to provide enough houses for the players, the advice to get a house on a new server is really the only viable solution if you want a guaranteed house while you're still not sick of the game.
Hoping that SE will actually fix the shortage is best addressed with one of my favorite quotes from the movie Bad Santa
"Wish in one hand and s**t in the other one. See which one fills up first." -
09-20-2022, 02:03 AMNepentha
The scammer is now advertising in PF on Primal servers. If you see the PF, report it. If you see shout chat about it, report report report.
Warn friends and family not to fall for this scam, their discord is already getting new members. -
09-20-2022, 02:12 AMSiniztor
Im one of those for years...keep your damn wards but offer isnanced to (EQ2 has both)..which i have a feeling the island is ..its just in beta stage.. were testing it now.. I so wouldnt be suprised if in 7.0 if you island maxed and you meet the ranks you can add a house you can deco 4mil-20mil-60mil s/m/l only reason i see to have the island hooked into the housing server and not the normal open world or duty server
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09-20-2022, 02:39 AMJojoyaI hope those that have already been scammed are reporting the server to Discord. Using Discord to run scams is very much against their ToS, just as it's against the game's ToS.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nepentha
Nothing to stop the wards from being the portal to the instanced house plots. They're already the portal to the instanced apartments.Quote:
Originally Posted by Siniztor
The game can have both if SE would choose to make it happen. -
09-20-2022, 03:56 AMNepenthaBeen encouraging people to report to Discord and SE. Who knows what'll come of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jojoya
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09-20-2022, 10:22 PMworldofneilI agree that adding more wards would be ideal, but unfortunately it's not as easy as you're suggesting. Each ward is a zone that is active and running all the time* and on any one server that means there are always 240 housing zones running, which is considerably more all the other zones combined.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sweeeet
Even though the wards are all 5 basic designs, they're all different because of customisation of houses and gardens so although they might look the same, from a technical viewpoint they're all separate.
We're up to 77 worlds now so that's 18,480 zones that are running all the time, just for housing. Even if they just added 6 more wards (12 with subdivisions) that's 60 more zones to run per server and 4,620 more zones over all the worlds.
Now I don't know how many wards they can run per server, but they've said in the past about optimising the servers to fit more wards on so clearly they're at the current capacity or close to it. Could they put in more hardware? Probably. Do they want to? Probably not. It's not just the initial cost of the hardware/installation, but ongoing cost of maintaining and even things like electricity usage will factor in.
Unfortunately the reality is that they'll drip feed in extra wards over a period of years because they know that whatever they put in will never be enough, but that they still have to make some effort.
*Even if they shut the zones down when not in use, there's likely at least some people going in and out of them regularly that the performance hit for continually starting up/shutting down is worse than just leaving it running, -
09-20-2022, 10:42 PMSweetestLilyGenuine question. How are people still selling housing? Didn't they implement a 30 day wait time to be able to transfer the ownership of the house to someone? (I'm not in the housing market as I already have my plot and don't know how these things work anymore.)Quote:
Originally Posted by Nepentha
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09-20-2022, 10:59 PMNepenthaThe way sellers have adapted is to have the potential buyer join the FC and wait the 30 days out. Payment varies. Some sellers require a down payment of some sort (10 to 50%, some sellers will say it's non refundable if the buyer decides to back out), others don't.Quote:
Originally Posted by SweetestLily
Once the 30 days is up, it's the same as it was before the change. An in game contract is stated and agreed to, payment is made, FC leader passed over to the new owner. Done.
Note: I know this by observation. I do not buy or sell houses.
Edit: So I figured I'd explain how people are being scammed by this discord.
1. There are no channels where public discussion is allowed. You cannot speak to other members of the Discord. (Make new friends they advertise, lol. How? You can't talk to anyone!)
2. You have to interact with their ticket system. Which is not public, no one can see it outside of you and the scammer.
3. They will not give you any information on the location of the house. If you ask for a ward they'll claim they can't because people will report them to get them banned. You will not be invited to an FC. You cannot see the house in person. They will not be able to provide you with any proof there's any house at all. You're expected to just trust them.
4. They will request a down payment. In the case of one person who was scammed, they wanted 175 million as a down payment on a large house.
5. Once they've gotten you this far, they'll have you go to a mannequin and purchase an item for the down payment amount.
6. When the down payment is made in game, they will then remove you from the server. The scam is complete. -
09-20-2022, 11:47 PMThemarvin
Everyone who put in a ticket for the scam also admits to that they are willing to go around SE's system to buy property, and technically in conflict with the ToS.
THERE IS no easy way to get a house. -
09-20-2022, 11:50 PMNepenthaThere's nothing in the ToS that says you cannot buy or sell housing. You just can't buy housing with the intent to resell it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Themarvin
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09-21-2022, 01:22 AMJojoyaJust as a general response in addition to Nepentha's more detailed explanation:Quote:
Originally Posted by SweetestLily
In what way is a 30 day wait a deterrent? That's still getting the house on their current home world where their chances of getting a house via the lottery are virtually none and they have no desire to move to a new world to get a house.
There had been hope that maybe SE would finally start enforcing their rule about intent to resell by tracking suspicious FC activity and that held back some of the resellers when the lottery was introduced. Now that it is clear SE is still hands off when it comes to abuses of the housing system, the resellers are back to near full steam with only the need to beat the lottery standing in their way.
The 30 day wait might cut down FC losses due to compromise of member accounts (that had been a serious problem) but in the end it's had the lack of effect on housing resells that some of us predicted prior to the lottery and 30 day wait being implemented. There is something that players want and only a limited number is available. Those who enjoy profits moved in to become the sellers of said item. As long as the system limits access, it's not going to change. -
09-21-2022, 01:36 AMNepenthaIt's slowed things down, which was really the only intent behind it. Before then, you could easily get a house, sell it that very same day and then rinse and repeat 24 hours later.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jojoya
Now with lotto taking away the bot aspect that increased chances of winning a plot, plus the 30 day wait, sales have pretty much been a crawl. You wait 30 days, finally sell off the house and then have to wait another 30 days to opt into the lotto and pray you're the winner. Some have thrown in the towel. Others are muddling through which is to be expected. The only thing that'll actually put a stop to housing sales is if SE provides enough housing to meet the demand.
Until then, the housing market will continue to be a thing.
I mean, let's take Reseller Abba. Abba has 12 characters on two accounts they use to create Free Companies, buy houses on them, and then resell them.
They make 3 FCs in a day, level them up to 6 in about 30 to 40 minutes. Prior to the changes, they'd just use some automated bot tool and send their characters out to placard click. With the bot, their chances of winning an open plot are almost 100%.
A house comes open in the Goblet. They win it using a bot. Remove all but one character. They advertise it somewhere for sale. Find a buyer immediately. The buyer pays either as RMT or gil, FC master is transferred to the buyer, the deal is done and money in the bank. Abba then waits 24 hours to form a new FC. Meanwhile they have two others waiting in the wings to keep this going. (I watched this happen in real time with a certain RMTer who stopped selling houses after the changes went into effect.)
Now let's take Abba again, with the 30 day and lotto in effect. Abba still has 3 FCs ready to go. He wins the lotto on all 3 in the early stages because there's a lot of houses open. Can't find a buyer. Too many houses are still up for lotto, no one is yet interested in his houses.
Months later, housing is dwindling and now Abba manages to find a buyer for one of his properties. Probably not for as much money as he used to get before these changes. He has to wait 30 days and pray the buyer doesn't back out before then. The buyer stays, pays him in whatever they agreed to, he passes over FC Master. The next day he forms a new FC, levels it to 6 and... sits on it. He has to wait 30 days to re-enter the lotto on that new FC. He still has 2 other properties to sell. Waits, goes through a few buyers starting a sale and then cancelling it cause 30 days is a long time for a person to sit and think about what they're doing. Or possibly win a house on an alt somewhere. In this same time period he might have already won and sold some 15-20 houses before the changes, but now he's only managed to sell 1 successfully.
So yeah, it's a definite deterrent. But again, nothing short of making sure housing is plentiful enough to meet demand is going to stop reselling. -
09-21-2022, 02:02 AMSweetestLilyHow is it NOT a deterrent ??Quote:
Originally Posted by Jojoya
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09-21-2022, 02:05 AMSweetestLilyThank you for the response.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nepentha
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09-21-2022, 02:18 AMMultihouseHoarderThere you ARE!!! I missed you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Themarvin
Easy way to get house(s)
1) create alt
2) level alt to 25
3) have friend create 3 alts
4) create FC
4) add those alts to your FC
5) wait 30 days
6) enter lotto where FCs are readily available
7) claim house
VOILA magic - soooo sooooo easy.
How to get house where you specifically want it
8) sell house(s) make gil
9) buy house where you want it -
09-21-2022, 03:14 AMJojoya30 days isn't a long time. The player is unlikely to get a house on their own in that same period of time.Quote:
Originally Posted by SweetestLily
Not a deterrent. -
09-21-2022, 05:46 AMSweetestLilyThe poster who replied to me already broke down why it is a detterent, but I'll let you argue with yourself.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jojoya
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09-21-2022, 06:06 AMSilverbaneNot to the buyer, perhaps.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jojoya
But people generally choose between money-making activates according to the temporal rate of return on investment.
So for the sellers, the slower turn-over, and thus lower temporal rate of return, in selling FC houses may cause them to redirect their efforts to other activities that make money faster for the same level of effort.
Perhaps that really qualifies as "less incentive" rather than a "deterrent," but the practical effect in a free market is typically the same. -
09-21-2022, 05:58 PMJojoyaSales occurring at a slower pace doesn't not necessarily mean that the 30 day waiting period was an effective deterrent. The slower rate could be related to the need to either beat the lottery or finding someone willing to sell their FC house cheap enough to be profitable.Quote:
Originally Posted by SweetestLily
It would be interesting to see what state things would be in if the lottery was not implemented while the waiting period still was. Would sales be as slow, or would they be closer to the original speed we saw prior to 6.1?
Regardless, we know that real money sales are continuing. It's evidently not as much of a deterrent as some hoped.
The 30 day waiting period doesn't lock the seller in stasis, unable to do anything else. They could be engaging in those other money making activities with other currency at their disposal while waiting for the house sale to complete.Quote:
Originally Posted by Silverbane
What way is there to turn 3-4 million gil into several hundreds dollars in real money faster? I honestly can't think of anything other than selling the gil directly and I doubt the gil seller rates are high enough to be considered a comparable return.
As for the effort required, it's really not significantly different than before the lottery and the 30 day wait. Now it's send the former placard clicking army out to enter the lottery. That's not significantly more time consuming. Either the reseller wins or they don't. If they do, they're putting the same effort into finding a buyer as they used to. The buyer still has to be invited to the FC. They still have to be promoted to FC Master. The only difference is now there's a period of time between the joining and promotion, and all parties involved are free to do other things during that period, including make more money. -
09-21-2022, 06:26 PMDerpSnakeOh hey, it's Marvin' Time!Quote:
Originally Posted by Themarvin
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09-21-2022, 10:13 PMNepenthaShe has a hard time admitting she may not be right, don't worry about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by SweetestLily
The fact is, the lotto + 30 day waiting period have slowed down sales, which was the intention. Because nothing short of making housing plentiful enough to meet demand will actually stop it. I know at least one RMTer threw in the towel when the lotto and 30 wait kicked in. That's a win in my book. -
09-22-2022, 12:36 AMDaeriion_AeradiirWell, there is. But its not the solution people want to hear.Quote:
Originally Posted by Themarvin
Looks at OCE & new EU servers teeming with houses.
Of course, that's not an option for most people since most don't want to skyrocket their ping or leave behind friends to get a house. There'll also be a super easy solution in the form of the new NA DC this November where there'll be tens of thousands of houses across the worlds combined up for grabs. But then you get into everyone hoping someone else will bite the bullet and move there who has a house so they can stay put and bid on the person's now vacant plot, resulting in anyone willing to move getting free pickings at houses without any loss besides maybe leaving their FC (DC travel, world visit & cwls means leaving behind your friends is irrelevant.) while those who stay may see some plots open up but will still be in contest with the hundreds of others also too stubborn to bite the bullet and leave lol.
But it'll be the simple reality. I doubt Square will be releasing or working on instanced housing in any way shape or form in the near future, so those willing to move will get a titanic advantage. -
09-22-2022, 02:57 AMJojoyaA single seller going out of business doesn't shut down an industry, which is what players are after. There are still other sellers out there. That doesn't sound like a deterrent. That sounds like someone not interested in changing as their industry changes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nepentha
The original statement I was responding to only mentioned the 30 day waiting period. You keep bringing up the lottery.
So which is the real deterrent- the lottery or the waiting period?
What would the the resale market look like right now if we had lottery but no waiting period?
What would it look like if we had the waiting period but placard camping instead of the lottery? -
09-22-2022, 03:43 AMSilverbaneSuch admissions add nothing; any sane person understands that they can be wrong about stuff. And such admissions are a bad idea in the forums: they just give the dishonest posters, of whom there are a plethora, a launching pad from which to claim you admitted that you were wrong, even when you did no such thing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nepentha
Or you can just create an alt on the new DC, go for a plot with the alt, and leave your existing character back "home" to try for another plot from someone who moved.Quote:
Originally Posted by Daeriion_Aeradiir
Also, the plots that open up on existing worlds will mainly be the less-desired plots, mainly smalls, so more people than you might think may move (or create new alts). I adore small plots myself, but that's apparently not the norm. -
09-22-2022, 04:44 PMJojoyaI don't have a problem saying I'm wrong when someone provides enough information to show that I'm wrong.Quote:
Originally Posted by Silverbane
That hasn't happened here. We're getting a single anecdote from one person saying that they know a seller that quit because of the lottery and the 30 day waiting period, not because of the 30 day waiting period alone.
I'd agree with someone saying the lottery is a deterrent, and lottery + 30 days is a stronger deterrent. I don't agree that the 30 days by itself is a deterrent, and that was the original statement I was arguing against.
So again the question: if resellers were only dealing with the 30 day waiting period and we were still under the placard camping system, would the resellers still quit? If the answer is no, then the waiting period isn't a deterrent. -
09-23-2022, 09:27 AMdspguy
If subs drop and they think housing is the cause, we'll see something happen. Otherwise, housing is a cash cow. When auto-demo is turned on (ha!) it is a guaranteed $96M/year to SE. And they wouldn't even need to add content.