Reclamation of Inactive Housing announced

[Crimsonwolf3400]

Thank you for the reply Syrehn.

[BreathlessTao]

It's quite funny seeing this thread being so active for so long, when it's pretty much only going back and forth between the same few arguments, over and over again.

Is this sort of "reclamation system" ideal? Not really - but the whole housing system has been way less than ideal to begin with, ever since it was implemented. Can the housing system itself be improved? Maybe, but certainly not with SE keeping their heads stuck in the sand about the "vision" of it, the neighbourhoods, while at the same time apparently not having either the resources or the funds to support it in a viable way that is proportionate to the number of actual regular players (of which figure I'm quite sure they are aware, even if they don't share it).
Is it fair that they don't want to "let go" of players for more than a month? Perhaps not, but consider these:
1) they are a business company, their first and foremost goal is to make money;
2) if you don't want to, or can't be around for such a long time, you either have much bigger worries in life, or are not really enjoying the game itself enough anyway (in both cases, why would you want to waste your money on it?), you really shouldn't sit on something that's as significantly limited in availability as this while there are thousands others out there who would actually be using it;
3) they're gonna be very generous with warning notifications, should your ownership get in the danger zone, and even if you lose the house itself, you can get back most of your investment - this is really not much different than how real life insurance works, together with the rates and deadlines and everything;
4) while losing certain furniture does suck, that really has nothing to do with either the housing or the reclamation system itself - this concept of "destroying items to preserve rarity" is an independent thing that's been way beyond stupid ever since they dreamed it up in my opinion, and in the opinion of pretty much everyone else.

All in all, considering the current housing system itself (and let's really not get lost in how backwards and inadequate it is), reclamation is a needed part of it. So much so that it really should have been introduced right at the start, that way people wouldn't be freaking out now. And it can't even be called unfair with all the details worked out for it - certainly not more unfair than the current situation, which is lots of dead plots around with multiple times as many players who could be enjoying them. Will it solve anything, ultimately? Most probably not, I do believe everyone knows that, but it's better than nothing - and it is a first step in a plan to have more housing availability, as it has also been said and pointed out several times.

On a sidenote: what really baffles me though, with this level of serious inadequacy, which they must have been aware of prior to implementing the system, why is it that no "one account - one plot" policy was introduced with it? That alone could have prevented a lot of the availability issues, seeing how many people admittedly and without any shame or consideration just buy up multiple plots, just because they can. (And some of those are the loudest in protesting against the reclamation, either here or silently, I'm sure.) Would it have been unpopular? Probably. But it would have been much more rational too, especially considering the irrationality of this system for personal housing on this scale. Yet there's still no sign of that at all.

[ElHeggunte]

On a sidenote: what really baffles me though, with this level of serious inadequacy, which they must have been aware of prior to implementing the system, why is it that no "one account - one plot" policy was introduced with it? That alone could have prevented a lot of the availability issues, seeing how many people admittedly and without any shame or consideration just buy up multiple plots, just because they can. [...]

This is part of Square's habit of giving their players the benefit of the doubt and assuming they won't be complete dicks when it comes to things that can easily be abused or manipulated at the expense of others. Kind of like a new parent who refuses to believe their child is a bully even while they're watching them make another kid eat dirt.

[BreathlessTao]

This is part of Square's habit of giving their players the benefit of the doubt and assuming they won't be complete dicks when it comes to things that can easily be abused or manipulated at the expense of others.

Yeah...sort of...exactly. But why continue down that road when it's being proven time and time again that it doesn't work (not like they want it to anyway)? It's...ugh. :|

[Niwashi]

what really baffles me though, with this level of serious inadequacy, which they must have been aware of prior to implementing the system, why is it that no "one account - one plot" policy was introduced with it? That alone could have prevented a lot of the availability issues, seeing how many people admittedly and without any shame or consideration just buy up multiple plots, just because they can.

A lot of this is coming from people who buy plots intending to sell them at a profit. SE hadn't anticipated that practice. They'd thought that a system which doesn't actually allow players to sell to each other would prevent people from doing so. (The reason we can't sell a house directly to another player was to prevent scalpers from driving the prices up higher than SE's already inflated initial prices.) Apparently they lacked the foresight to figure out that the severe shortage of available plots would lead people to pay someone simply for releasing a plot to the market when they're ready to buy it.

[StouterTaru]

The issue of people with multiple houses on account has made a slightly larger dent on housing than lots purchased but never had a house built on. Level 1 character can't buy a personal house, rank 1 FC can't buy an FC house. People that say housing reclaim will do nothing in the grand scheme, while saying removing multiple houses on the same account a magic bullet baffle me.

I have multiple personal houses, and I am all for the reclaim system (although I was for reclaim based on subscription, not going in the front door)

[Toguro]

Its a shame because if your gaming PC or PS4 breaks and you need to send it away to be repaired(My PS3 broke once, it took 2 1/2 months for it to come back) and it takes over 45 days for your game to come back... Dat house gone.

No control either.

[BreathlessTao]

A lot of this is coming from people who buy plots intending to sell them at a profit. SE hadn't anticipated that practice. They'd thought that a system which doesn't actually allow players to sell to each other would prevent people from doing so. (The reason we can't sell a house directly to another player was to prevent scalpers from driving the prices up higher than SE's already inflated initial prices.) Apparently they lacked the foresight to figure out that the severe shortage of available plots would lead people to pay someone simply for releasing a plot to the market when they're ready to buy it.

Yep... I'm aware of that - that's exactly what I'm questioning. How did nobody on the entire team even think of this? It's mind-numbing.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Its a shame because if your gaming PC or PS4 breaks and you need to send it away to be repaired(My PS3 broke once, it took 2 1/2 months for it to come back) and it takes over 45 days for your game to come back... Dat house gone.

No control either.

2 and a half months?! Mine took 2 weeks...

Not that I use it much anymore.

[Dree-Elle]

Its a shame because if your gaming PC or PS4 breaks and you need to send it away to be repaired(My PS3 broke once, it took 2 1/2 months for it to come back) and it takes over 45 days for your game to come back... Dat house gone.

No control either.

I guess I can thank my lucky stars that I decided to knuckle down and go for the 6-month auto-renewing sub, then. Though, to be honest, if I were away from the game for that long, I wouldn't be in the hospital, I'd be dead.