Reclamation of Inactive Housing announced

[Ibi]

Except he never said there would be no land relinquishing system. He said there wouldn't be a maintenance system. Stop twisting what he said to fit your argument.

I'll use the actual words and provide the details, so you can't (mistakenly) accuse me of twisting anything.

The exact example Yoshi-P cited was Ultima Online, and the exact wording we were provided was that it "had a system where your house would break down if you didn’t log in after a while in order to have you continue your subscription".

As far as I can see from the the information I can find online, Ultima Online does not require you to buy the plot, the only purchase you make is the house itself. With that in mind, the house in UO is analogous to the plot+house in FFXIV.

Going into the specifics:

Condemned Houses

Your house will become condemned under the following conditions:

If your account becomes inactive (ie not paid for). In this case there is a 90 day grace period after which the house will begin to decay. If the account is reactivated before the final stages of decay the house will refresh at the following server up.

Houses which are condemned do not fall immediately, they go into a decay cycle having 6 stages and taking five days in total. These stages are:

1. Like New
2. Slightly Worn
3. Somewhat Worn
4. Fairly Worn
5. Greatly Worn
6. In Danger Of Collapsing

When a house reaches the IDOC stage house will become set to ‘private’ and all access will be removed. Provided it has no rental vendors, it will drop after 5, 10 or 15 hours, the house and all add ons will disappear.

UO: If you are unsubscribed for 90 days, your house will start to decay. After five days of decay, it will reach the IDOC condition, and will disappear 5-15 hours later.

FFXIV: If you don't access your house for 45 days (regardless of subscription status), your plot will be relinquished.

In other words, a house breaking down in UO (the system to which Yoshi-P was referring when he said they would not implement such a system) is effectively the same thing as relinquishing your land in FFXIV. In both cases, you no longer have the house or the land it was on, and must start over.

[Ayerinn]

I love the people using in game analogies that affects nothing but personal progression - gil, characters, gear, minions, GC rank, blah blah blah.. Unfortunately due to the implementation, housing affects everyone on the server, not just you, and therefore needs to be treated differently. I do agree with all the people that suggest a paying subscription should keep your housing plots whether you visit it or not, however. You are paying to rent the server space that the plot resides and thus it should be yours to do with it what you wish - if you stop subscribing for X amount of time then the shared resource can be used by someone else.

[RiceisNice]

...

Other costs for housing means anything that requires you to pay for a house, which includes maitenence fees. You're hyperanaylizing everything and most likeily stretching/twisting it beyond the meaning of the word.

If you want to debate the meaning behind maintenance (where you are...well maintaining a healthy status of the house) is still a completely different context of being evicted.

Or if you want my personal, word-for-word perspective, there is no maintenance fee. You are not paying to maintain the house, and certainly you're not paying to prevent it from being evicted either.

[Avidria]

I'm neither against nor for this, I don't really care..it doesn't bother me, but I can understand why it bothers some at the same time!

Anyway, I'll just leave this here:



One thing I do not like, is when they say one thing and do something else. First it was personal housing being separate price from FC, then it was SMN egi, now this apparently, what is next It is hard for me to follow them and take them seriously because what they say changes so much. Not saying they are horrible people, again, they are only human, I just can't really take stuff they say seriously anymore...at all.

In fairness, that post you linked is from 2 years ago.

They probably shouldn't have made a definite statement like "this won't happen" back then at all, as people (and their design plans) are wont to change.

Actually, in the context of that Q&A, it looks like that's an article from when (actually looks like before) they first released housing. So, at the time that this was written, his statement was true - they didn't have a system like this when housing was released.

[Neira]

Other costs for housing means anything that requires you to pay for a house, which includes maitenence fees.

Right... um... ANYTHING that requires you to pay for your house... such as... subscribing? But don't take my word for it, YOSHIDA SAID THE WORD SUBSCRIPTION HIMSELF!

You're hyperanaylizing everything and most likeily stretching/twisting it beyond the meaning of the word.

No, I'm reading, quite plainly, what is right there. Also, what do you mean "most likeily" stretching/twisting? That would imply you are either unable to comprehend what you're reading for yourself or decided not to try. I'm not commenting on anything that is shrouded in secrecy, I'm commenting on a direct quote for all to see.

If you want to debate the meaning behind maintenance.

No, I don't want to debate the word maintenance. It was a TWO PART QUESTION. Even your own first statement...

Other costs for housing

...indicates that you see both the first question about maintenance and the second question about other costs.

Or if you want my personal, word-for-word perspective

No, in the name of all that is holy, no, I do not. You've shown quite clearly what your perspective is worth.

This is also the last time I'm responding to this particular topic beyond simply sharing the quote again. I understand that English is not the first language of every user on these forums, and I can't fault everyone for being unable to understand what is being said. However, I'm going to go insane if I keep trying to respond to these comments.

[RiceisNice]

...
This is also the last time I'm responding to this particular topic beyond simply sharing the quote again. I understand that English is not the first language of every user on these forums, and I can't fault everyone for being unable to understand what is being said. However, I'm going to go insane if I keep trying to respond to these comments.

Then quit doing so. The only person that's trying to exasperate everything (including themselves) over a statement from well over two years ago is yourself. You're trying to overanaylze a statement that was made before housing had even set in and while things change, the statement is not black and white as say "personal housing is different from FC housing" and you're not doing anyone favors by criticizing other people's interpretation like you are now. Everything is open to player interpretation and even then, the developers themselves, time and time again, even contradiction themselves (sometimes with a two year statement, sometime as early as a month) that it's hard to take everything they say for face value.

[Ibi]

In fairness, that post you linked is from 2 years ago.

They probably shouldn't have made a definite statement like "this won't happen" back then at all, as people (and their design plans) are wont to change.

It's old, but I think most people would say their original intention was clear.

To my mind, it seems more telling that Yoshi-P's specifically referred to such systems as "a thing of the past". To me (and here's a case where I can't really argue with someone who wants to say I'm reading too much into it), that sounds pretty derisive of such a system.

Extrapolating from there (and, again, I can't argue with someone who wants to say this is an unreasonable extrapolation), it feels like this isn't a decision that they're being forced to make, rather than finding an alternative solution.

The question (which is far more important in the grand scheme of things than any bickering over housing space) is why a game that's such a huge success, both critically and commercially, isn't getting the appropriate resources to support and take advantage of that success.

[Riardon]

BTW, housing is not free. It can cost an exorbitant amount of money, especially if you bought it back in the day.

In other games it's limited and expensive plus it has a monthly rent. Free is nothing. Community here asked for this and they got it. After that they said new housing areas and plots are coming. I guess we have to wait to judge don't we?

[Aoxaviar]

I think that SE needs to provide the following as a means for aiding casual players and those who are not able to meet getting online (military and others who are not able to access the game for long time duration):

With the emails that they will be sending out to private and/or FC players, provide a link to take a person to the site that will allow them to either reset the clock as a way of "checking in" to the estate, or something along those lines.

In the USA, people can hold mail with the USPS if they are going to be gone for short or long periods of time. Why not have SE setup a way for a player and/or FC to be able to do the same?

This would allow for players to be able to put a start position on or reset the 45 day timer remotely in lieu of being in game. For those who unsub and those who are not able to access the game for long periods, this is a win-win for aiding those players who have worked (or grinded in some cases) to get that house and now keep it.

As for the time period of 45 days, I think it is a good one.

Let the love and hate begin!

[Fyce]

I think that SE needs to provide the following as a means for aiding casual players and those who are not able to meet getting online (military and others who are not able to access the game for long time duration): [...]

Yes, it would be nice, but that's missing the point of the system.

SE want you to use your house on a regular basis. They set that amount of time to be "at least one time within 45 days".
If you don't, they want to make it available to someone else or an FC who will hopefuly use it (if not, the cycle will just continue).

Clearly, the message they sent with that new system says that individual housing is a luxury you have to maintain/use regularly to keep. Not doing it would mean that you're not the target for that particular content.
You would have to join an active FC with a house to be free from this issue.

In short: individual housing is something for people who commit to it on a very frequent basis... which is fine considering the rarity of that ressource (plots).