Reclamation of Inactive Housing announced

[Welsper59]

Oh sure, you know what we're getting into now. At the time that you purchased your house, you did not, and the available evidence at the time suggested that it was a one-time, permanent purchase.



It's possible that the people I play with are simply an oddity, but I have a decent number of friends who sub based on when SE adds new content and then unsub when they've exhausted the parts of that content that they're interested in.

There have also been many, many threads lately, both here and on places like reddit, where people have lamented being bored with the game in its present state, but not completely done with it. Frequently the advice to players who find themselves in that position is "Take a break from the game, play some other stuff, come back in 3.1!" It's more difficult to make such a recommendation now.

The focus is on the fact that you're here now. What you're saying is along the lines of a theoretical non-EU player who is currently unsubbed, doesn't come back until Nov, then complains that they couldn't take part in the free transfers off Chaos/EU servers lol. I mean, how would they have realistically known back then that Chaos would be subjected to migration? Our actions, regardless of info at the time, always put us at risk of potential change. It's like someone that buys something at full price, then finds out the next day that the retail price was halved from then on.

Again, a subscription business does not focus primarily on fickle consumers, but rather the ones who are currently subbed. If a change hurts those who are not subbed, but can possibly support those who are, there's little downside to that for anyone but said fickle player affected negatively. This is proper etiquette within the confines of real business. You don't hold back existing customers for ones who are/will not be, in this context.

People can look at it negatively all they want, but it's essentially an (unintended) reward system. If you're enjoying the game and stay subbed, you'll have nothing to worry about. If you quit for a long period of time, which is more often because you just have no interest to continue to validate the monthly sub, you risk losing housing... and, let's be honest here, is hardly the majority of the playerbase that need to worry about it with the limited spacing. Vaguely like 1.0 players who stuck it out get benefits that no one else does (reduced sub fee, exclusive mount(s), etc). Our actions tend to have unforeseeable future consequences, be it good or bad. It's more of a practice of life than it is something exclusive to this game, and one that people should learn to apply to everything.

I'll turn it around for you: let's say I've been subbing and playing for an entire year then decide to take a break for whatever reason. Why should game hoppers get any rights on my house while I am away if I'm gonna sub for another year when I'm back?

Just as I indicated for the person above, it's how things work within our limitations and a result of what we choose to do. Just because we don't like a decision, doesn't mean our dislike is the best option to take (nor does it mean the vice versa). Things change, and our decisions can have unexpected consequences for the future. If you're not a customer anymore, why would a business need to be concerned for your state of affairs within the game? I can tell you, for a fact, that no professional subscription service will feel obligated to you once you're not an active client/customer and you have no connection anymore. That's reality in general checking in. At least SE is going a bit of the extra mile and will alert people through email about such a thing happening before you lose it. This is far from the ideal solution, but what if the ideal solution is just not possible? Infinite resources have no bearings on reality, after all. If they have a vision for the game, and it works to some degree, they're going to stick with it for the foreseeable future. This vision being the current format of housing, being an actual community and not solo instances.

[Niwashi]

So you have to always be subscribed or else your 50 million gil investment that took you months of work goes up in smoke? Should they also implement a 45 day timer where your gil starts vanishing from your inventory because other players might need it? And should they also take away your retainer's levels and gear as well? What about your character name after 45 days? How about they also make your gear go down ilevel by 50 for every 45 days you are offline?

Do you seriously believe any of that is analogous to what they're doing here?

Actually, with the way they're implementing it, yes, it is pretty analogous.

I actually agree with reclaiming the housing plots, they're the limited resources. The current plan, however, is to take away not just the plot but all the money you spent on it and everything you furnished it with if you're away from the game too long. How is completely taking away the biggest investment you'll ever make in this game all that different than taking away your gil, levels, name, etc.?

If you take a break from the game, in 45 days you'll lose your housing plot. Fine. Someone else can use it. In another 35 days you'll lose EVERYTHING. Sooo NOT fine.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Actually, with the way they're implementing it, yes, it is pretty analogous.

I actually agree with reclaiming the housing plots, they're the limited resources. The current plan, however, is to take away not just the plot but all the money you spent on it and everything you furnished it with if you're away from the game too long. How is completely taking away the biggest investment you'll ever make in this game all that different than taking away your gil, levels, name, etc.?

If you take a break from the game, in 45 days you'll lose your housing plot. Fine. Someone else can use it. In another 35 days you'll lose EVERYTHING. Sooo NOT fine.

You do get 80% of your gil back.

[Eidolon]

You do get 80% of your gil back.

They take that off the table if you're off 35 days after the 45 day mark (so basically 80 days total)

Basically if you take a 3month break, you'll come back to nothing at all. At least I think that's what he was getting at.

[Niwashi]

They did wise up, chances are people that denied it at 1st had no idea how servers and server load works, they probably thought "oh, they will make many more plots" then they discovered it dosn't work that way, and now to many people want housing and there is no where near enough, SO unless someone can come up with a better solution that doesn't involve "just make more plots" here we are.

It doesn't work that way because SE has chosen to make it not work that way. Plenty of other, perhaps more competent, companies have had no trouble making it work that way on their MMOs and can provide housing for all. It's only here that we can't have that. Nothing to do with "how servers and server load works", only with how SE's servers are set up.

[Niwashi]

You do get 80% of your gil back.

No you don't. Not after that 35 day window that the Caretaker will hold it for you. Past that, you get NOTHING. And it's not even using a limited resource while the Caretaker holds it, just a tiny bit of storage space (less than your inventory). It's not the 45 day limit before demolition that's the worst part, it's the 35 day limit after demolition, because at that point, there's no longer a valid reason for it.

[Eimian_Eda]

I don't have a house.
I've wanted a house ever since I first started playing. There were some free plots but I didn't log in with 5+ mil gil so by the time I did, they were all gone.
I'm not so sure I want a house now.

Honestly, I feel the fact you have to enter your house/fc is ridiculous. Not because it's tedious or takes too much effort, but because I'm already paying for the game. I am paying for the right to own my house while I am giving SE my money. Do I think a purge now and then is good? Sure. I don't think a constant purge is a very good thing. (SE has so many issues with setting up subtime too, like the ever still so common 406 error). Make it so that as long as you have an active subtime your house is yours and I'm okay with it, I suppose.

[Zumi]

Question can I relinquish my house and get 80% back in the event I want to move to another house ?

I did not see this answered anywhere.

[Colorful]

Question can I relinquish my house and get 80% back in the event I want to move to another house ?

I did not see this answered anywhere.

They're working on a house transfer system for cases like that.

[Blissa]

What is sad is this game makes MILLIONS every month, what are they doing with the money? instead of reinvesting in the game SE is going to take away from players that have been here from the start. It took me two months to save up enough money to buy my house. On top of that it took me a month to save up enough money to decorate everything.

I play every single day and I visit my house 20+ times a day and I run a garden 24/7. God forbid I get in a bad car accident and I end up in the hospital for longer then 45 days. Or god forbid something comes up and cant afford a sub for a couple months. Then everything I worked for gets deleted and that's not right! Se needs to open their wallet and stop being greedy. Yesterday was the first time I logged into EQ2 in over 2 years. Guess what! My house is still there!

P.S. The players praising SE for this horrid fix should be ashamed! Instead you guys should be telling SE to add the housing the have been promising since 2.0!