Forcing players to pay to keep housing is unfair.

[Dustytome]

I actually entered my house a couple of weeks ago and am now getting a 10 day notice!?

Make sure to check Timers after entering your house again to make sure the timer was reset. If it didn't, it should still show a notice in there for the housing demo. Some people have run into a bug where that timer wasn't resetting and I'm not sure if it's been fixed yet or not. If the house itself isn't bringing you enough enjoyment, then you may be better off letting the system take it and getting 80% of your gil back (remember, 35 days to collect it after the house blows up).

If you're one that wishes to take long breaks from the game when you've gone through the content you enjoy, the ward housing isn't for you. An apartment would be your best bet, but I know the low item limit and it being a carbon copy of an fc room is a let down. Until full sized instanced housing is a thing (if ever), your choices are:
- chaining yourself to signing in and entering a house once every 45 days.
- giving up the house and settling for an apartment.
- pretending housing doesn't exist.
- find a game that can provide decent housing for all players.

[Nexxus]

Housing should have a tax system where you have to pay gils every week/month to keep it.
There's a ton of people that can't have house because of other's that keep their timer up despit the fact that they do not use their house anymore.

[HyoMinPark]

Like I said I fully understand why this system is in place but there are many reasons why players may not be able to play for a month. I could be hospital dying. I have invested hundreds of hours and money into this game and if I want to be away for one short month I should be able to without being punished. The timer should be longer than one month.

If you're in the hospital dying, I would sincerely hope the least of your worries would be a virtual house.

If you can't pay the sub to keep your house (which, if you were only away for a month, that's still less than the 45 day demolition timer), others gladly will. If it got to the point where you financially couldn't pay a sub for an online game, I would hope you'd have bigger concerns (i.e., having no money) than a virtual house. Yes, it sucks that housing is limited. But it would also suck if people could just unsub repeatedly for extended periods of time (I'm talking months at a time, not just the occasional week or month here and there), and still be able to keep their housing plots, even though they aren't using them.

I remember in the ward my previous FC house was located, there was a plot owned by someone who bought it the day new wards were released. They never logged in after that. Never even built anything on the land. So it sat there for MONTHS, unused, and others who wanted a house couldn't take the UNUSED plot because the timer had been suspended. Extremely frustrating.

Sure enough, on the 45th after the timer was back, a new individual finally got that plot, and actually used it.

[Airget]

It's not unfair, it's more unfair for players who play and pay to play can't access a house from a person who was lucky to get it first but then decides they don't want to play for a few months. So then why have the house? Being able to take off for a month and change is more than fair when it comes to housing.

30 day warning, 45 you lose it, play it safe make it 40 days you have to resub.

So let's put that into perspective. 40 off, 30 on, or 30 off and 30 on, there are 365 days in a year, 12 months, so we can look at this 2 ways.

We can do 6/6 6 months on, 6 months off at 30/day sub fee or we can do 40/30 which is 70 days which is about 5 months and 15 days leftover in the year. So by those standards, if we did entry that's 13 a month, or 78/yr and with 5 months it's 65/yr. If you choose Standard 30/day then it's 15 a month making them, 90/yr and 75/yr.

Now honestly look at your personal income and if you can't at least pay 65-90/yr to keep the house, then it might just be possible you don't have the lucrative income to play an MMO in the first place. Cause there are plenty of things that cost way more than a measly 65-90 dollars to keep an account subscribed to keep your house. Going out to dinner for 2, that can net 20-30 + tip. Going to a sport's event? Bout the same price. Plane tickets? 200+ so honestly whenever I see complaints like these and do the actual math of how much money you would need to set aside just to keep the house to me it just comes off that you just don't have the money to play and it keeping your housing was that important you could easily set aside 1 dollar a day and have 365 dollars, or 50 cents and have 182.50 or a quarter a day and have 91.25. . .

So ya, a quarter a day is enough to stay subscribed to FFXIV on an every other month basis. Drop in the bucket compared to what you may end up spending your money on. Pass on the beer, pass on the snacks, drink tap water instead of Gatorade, there are ways you could easily save up money if you make proper personal sacrifices of other things you might enjoy if keeping the housing is that important.

[Stormbad]

IMO, I think we need to swing the other direction. The fact is, there are significantly more buyers than there are houses.

If a house has not been entered by the 30th day, I would allow people to add money to the plot's escrow account and for every 25% of the house price put into the account, it shortens the timer by a day. Once the autodemolish kicks in, the previous owner will be given the default 80% of the plot price plus whatever money got put into the "demolish sooner" escrow fund. A very motivated buyer could put enough money to demolish the house by the next day while allowing a significant compensation to the previous owner.

This also allows very motivated buyers who have been looking to buy a house to accelerate the process.

[LaylaTsarra]

A paying subscription is all that should be necessary to keep your house. The idea of entering it needs to go away.

[Rymm]

A paying subscription is all that should be necessary to keep your house. The idea of entering it needs to go away.

I'll just repost what I wrote in the other thread about this:

this seems like a terrible idea. The whole demolition timer is put in place to open up houses to people who will actually use them. If you are playing but can't even be bothered to take all of 30 seconds once every 45 days to teleport to your house and step inside, then you need to step back and ask yourself in total honesty if you really need the house at all.

Don't get me wrong, I would love for SE to get their act together and actually fix housing so that everyone can get a house with no worry about a demo timer but, until they do, the system is about as fair as it is going to get- trying to make sure that houses go to people who actually use them.

[ManuelBravo]

It's more than fair system really, why should people have to suffer if your not using it. They give plenty of chances, email notifications, and has loop holes.

[Nyerieri]

IMO, I think we need to swing the other direction. The fact is, there are significantly more buyers than there are houses.

If a house has not been entered by the 30th day, I would allow people to add money to the plot's escrow account and for every 25% of the house price put into the account, it shortens the timer by a day. Once the autodemolish kicks in, the previous owner will be given the default 80% of the plot price plus whatever money got put into the "demolish sooner" escrow fund. A very motivated buyer could put enough money to demolish the house by the next day while allowing a significant compensation to the previous owner.

This also allows very motivated buyers who have been looking to buy a house to accelerate the process.

I like your thinking. Except I wouldn't reward the player. I've always been in the small majority that thinks the 45 days is way to long.

[Vidu]

A paying subscription is all that should be necessary to keep your house. The idea of entering it needs to go away.

In 45 days you cant be bothered to step into your house ONCE? If thats really the case - why have a house at all?
It always baffles me that people who own houses and have active subs miss the demolition timer when all that it would require is the 2 minutes it takes them to teleport to their house and enter it...

It also prevents plots from staying empty - in order to enter your house, you have to build it first.