Housing plots need rent. Sound horrible? Consider these facts:

[GenJoe]

It's only the poor who would be messed with, not the rich. It would only further the gap between 'haves and have-nots' not close it.

That is true, upkeep would have to FORCE some people to give up their housing, that's the only way upkeep would free up plots. If it didn't, there wouldn't be a reason for it other than to pester people and that's not why we're suggesting it.
But do you really want to protect people's properties that badly? When clearly, the amount of gil for upkeep could be farmed in a matter of hours? (one or two hrs of spiritbonding should take care of it)

You seem to think that gil in this game belong to all the crafters, that is simply not true. non-crafters can earn just as much as an average crafter and indeed they do, when they NEED the gil.. The only reason I see my raider friends running around with 50k gil in their pockets is because they don't need the money at that very moment. Usually, they have a few spare materia that they could sell for some quick cash, OR they could go out and spiritbond.


The only reason crafters sit on a stockpile of gil is because some of it is necessary to cover the cost of business and crafters don't really have much of a constant source of gil sink and whatever we decide to spend money on, just happens to be cheaper for us since we can cut out the middle man. That is not to say that non-crafters are poor, they can have just as much cash flow when they want it to happen, they're just more comfortable sitting on a little bit of money if they don't need it immediately, some raiders use just as much, if not more gil than crafters. (Penta-melds anybody?) That money (10m+) still had to come from somewhere.


Way I see it, I like to think of raiders as akin to the stereotypical newly graduate in a high paying field of studies, 6 figure starting salary, but between buying an expensive car, and an expensive house and student loans, they don't have any savings.. That is not to say they're not wealthy though, they're just spending exactly as much as they're earning.
Crafters are a little different, because they need to reinvest some of the money back into the crafting in order to be successful, so saving gil is simply a necessity for them.


Now, when I say raiders, I generalize the majority of the player base that's into the dungeon crawling. Whether it be coils, primals, or just roulettes all day long. Technically, they should all have similar earning potential.
There are some people who opt out of the gil making game and I understand that, but do they really deserve to have a house without an active method for making gil? Housing is designed to cost a lot of money in this game and in order to buy one, you need to work for it.

I give props to people who save for literally over a year for a house, I commend them for the gumption, but that's really not the proper way to buy a house. Just not in this game when we're all competing for the same limited resource.

If SE designed two types of housing, instanced and non-instanced and treated houses as something of a mobile home and people could choose to move their instanced housing to the real game world where people could come to visit etc.. Then yes, penny savers would be able to have a house in its instanced form, but as long as houses are not instanced and limited in numbers, it's only natural it goes to whoever works to keep it.

It'd be just as easy to say '1 month unsubscribed = no house'. That's it. Not one month not logged in. Not one month without going into your house. One month unsubscribed. Hell, make it 2 or 3 months if people want. That'd be enough to free up housing.

Yes but in this case, you're taking people's houses away for unknown, real life circumstances that could really be completely out of their control. Upkeep would automatically enforce this anyway as nobody has an infinite amount of gil and SE could implement the upkeep system in a way where it works like a prepaid system and you have to deposit money into a separate chest in-game for months at a time.. At least with the upkeep, the fate of their own house in Eorzea is in their hands.. You foresee a long hiatus? deposit enough money in the "bank" to cover it.


Tbh though, I'd be happy with either method.. Houses need to rotate ownership, I already have my FC mansion, I could buy a new personal house anytime if I wanted to.. Why would I welcome a change in the game that would drain my money? because I can see a definite improvement in the QoL aspect of housing, neighbors! Too much of the wards are dead due to inactivity, it kinda takes away any reason for houses to be non-instanced in the first place.