Thinking this game is a bad investment

[Lambdafish]

I feel like there are too many emotions on either side to have constructive debate and these arguments usually devolve into "I want to keep my house without obligations *whine*" vs "I want a house and you aren't using yours, I want it *whine*"

Personally, I don't own a personal house, and am happy with my little room in my FC house, but I see 2 problems with the feature, which if one was fixed would make the system a million times better:

1. 45 days is not enough for personal housing (FC housing should be fine with the current system). The reason for this is that unlike FC housing, this can only be controlled by one person, and that one person is, contrary to popular belief, entitled to a break that lasts longer than a month and a half, whether it to be family, work, travelling, or just plain burned out by the game, nobody should be punished for not committing their life to the game. I initially read the system as 90 days, which seemed much more reasonable and I liked it, which would be 45 days no questions asked, and 45 days giving warnings, which should be spaced out more than getting your first email 10 days before your house is demolished.

2. Do not destroy rare items if your house is reclaimed. I think this is the main salt on the wounds, as these items sometimes cost as much as the house itself, and under the current system, these items are simply gone forever if the player decides to "have a life" outside the game, simply putting a reclaim system to get those items back when you want to buy a new house because your old one got reclaimed would mean that players wouldn't get punished as much, as they would retain all of the value that their house had without owning their house anymore.

To answer the OP, yes this system is poor, but its a system that should exist, and should be fixed so that at least one of the above is fixed, this means that empty plots become available again, and active players who have housing aren't punished for having a house.

[Ibi]

So for the love of Hydaelyn, will everyone STOP pretending like they're the victims when they're the antagonists.

Pretty sure SE is the antagonist here, and the players, both those who want but don't have houses due to a lack of sufficient resources and those who stand to lose the house they invested time and money into, are the victims.

[Twilite]

Once I was part of a very fun avatar site community, and I spent $5 a month AT LEAST to get items. I didn't have to, but I did because I like the site.
Then suddenly some bad practices happened, and I said to myself "if they do this they aren't gonna get any money"
And then BOOM that site was gone within about six months or so. I was so upset, I had invested so much time and money into that site.... but the point is I don't feel like I wasted any time or money.
t

People are gonna be pissed when Perfect World ever shuts down. They got people that have blown 100k on that game.

[Thorium]

Give me all your stuff if your quiting

[Kosmos992k]

Based on my experience in this game and others, any player who takes a break of more than 6 weeks is very, very unlikely to return. I can't put a % on it, but the number of players who return after so long of an absence is quite small. Typically they find something else to occupy their time and become disconnected from the game and their friends in it. Those that do return are those that have a specific reason for taking a break and who actual plan on returning and say so in advance.

It may seem unfair to you that your abandoned house is 'taken' from you. However think of it like this, squatters have moved in, and changed the locks while you were gone. If you do return in a reasonable time you get a lot of things back including most of the gil you spent.

It's been said that new players are the life blood of the game. OK, so in that case why would we want the deadwood of abandoned homes clogging up the system and preventing the new blood from owning their own home while they are subscribed to the game? If housing is an attractive feature, having zero plots available because unsubscribed players are holding onto plots they'll never use again is a complete turn off to new players. In which case reclaiming plots is actually a positive move.

Now, before anyone says it, I don't think the current system works, and I don't think that reclaiming abandoned homes is anything more than a band-aid stuck over a gaping wound. But it's at least a first step to something closer to a solution.

My argument is that players who are new who may be interested in this game because of housing will no longer be attracted when they learn that housing is something of a temporary and fleeting reward. These types of players are longterm investments.

Um...it's not a temporary or fleeting reward if you actually remain subscribed and play. Basically it's a case of use it or lose it.

[Greedalox]

Read 3 pages of this thread.

All I can say is... SE is damned if they do, damned if they don't. All I heard was people screaming for this to happen. Now we have people inadvertently threatening SE to quit if they don't get a lifetime doll house.

K.

[Dyvid]

Snip.

Honest and fair question for you then. Did you start playing FFXIV for the sole purpose of buying a house and if so why did you chose FFXIV instead of another MMO?

[Ibi]

All I can say is... SE is damned if they do, damned if they don't. All I heard was people screaming for this to happen. Now we have people inadvertently threatening SE to quit if they don't get a lifetime doll house.

It's almost as if different parts of the player base have differing opinions on the matter!

[Greedalox]

It's almost as if different parts of the player base have differing opinions on the matter!

Oh wow, clever shrew! I could not have figured that one out! It's almost as if "damned if they do, damned if they don't" implied that.

[Lexia]

Call it poor attitude or lack of empathy but all I hear is wah wah wah ;(