Forcing players to pay to keep housing is unfair.

[LaylaTsarra]

You could be in hospital dying and your first worry is a virtual house?

Yeah you're right, SE should have never suspended the demotion of housing for those suffering from the Earthquake in Japan. What were they thinking about those worried about losing their virtual house. And who cares if people get deployed for more than 45 days and can't get access to their game. Shouldn't matter after all for the I want a house so bad crowd they could give a hoot.

The OP is asking to be able to drop their sub. That's an entirely different matter than those who actually pay a sub and can't access the game for a extended period of time for legitimate reasons.

[HyoMinPark]

Yeah you're right, SE should have never suspended the demotion of housing for those suffering from the Earthquake in Japan. What were they thinking about those worried about losing their virtual house. And who cares if people get deployed for more than 45 days and can't get access to their game. Shouldn't matter after all for the I want a house so bad crowd they could give a hoot.

The OP is asking to be able to drop their sub. That's an entirely different matter than those who actually pay a sub and can't access the game for a extended period of time for legitimate reasons.

SE was being courteous and considerate. But I'm sure that the majority of those who had been directly affected by the earthquake were far more concerned about other things, like making sure their family was okay, rebuilding any destroyed property, etc.. And I repeat again: if someone is deployed, I am certain they would be less concerned about keeping their pixel house and more concerned about, I don't know, coming home to their loved ones alive and in one piece.

No one is saying they don't care about people who are so sick they're in a hospital dying, or about people who are being deployed overseas to fight for and defend their country. But some of the people commenting in this thread need to take a step back and reconsider their priorities. If a virtual house is more important to you than some of the things you keep bringing up (sickness, military duties/deployment, financial struggles), you most definitely need to refigure your priorities in life.

[Rymm]

I don't think anyone here is (or would) complain about SE suspending housing demos to help out a large part of their playerbase and employees when the entire country was suffering a major natural disaster. Trying to equate that with some joe-smoe who decides 'meh, I'm bored and don't want to play til the expac hits' is flawed on every level.

I also have absolutely zero sympathy for people who play actively but can't be arsed to pop over to their house once every 45 days. (I timed it and even on my sloooow loading computer it took me 46 seconds to pop from Idylshire to Lav Beds and load into my FC's house.)

And who cares if people get deployed for more than 45 days and can't get access to their game.

You keep mentioning people who get deployed and I can't help but wonder if this is a problem you, personally, have faced or if it is just the most easily defensible example you can think of. In my experience (I'm admittedly not in the military,) most deployed, active duty military still have computer access and are allowed to game in their free time, if they wish. One of my first long-term RP partners was a navy ensign deployed on a ship in the Indian Ocean. And one of our guildies back in WoW was a soldier who played while stationed in Afghanistan.

If you really are absolutely unable to play any time in 45 days, then why on earth would you waste money on a sub to begin with? Real life happens and, sometimes, video games have to take a back seat to it. It's called being an adult and taking the responsibilities and consequences that go along with it. As I said before, I am well aware that these things happen and it has happened to me (to my very painful loss) but it is just something we have to pull up our big-kid pants and accept.

No one is saying they don't care about people who are so sick they're in a hospital dying, or about people who are being deployed overseas to fight for and defend their country. But some of the people commenting in this thread need to take a step back and reconsider their priorities. If a virtual house is more important to you than some of the things you keep bringing up (sickness, military duties/deployment, financial struggles), you most definitely need to refigure your priorities in life.

THIS.

[LaylaTsarra]

If you really are absolutely unable to play any time in 45 days, then why on earth would you waste money on a sub to begin with? Real life happens and, sometimes, video games have to take a back seat to it. It's called being an adult and taking the responsibilities and consequences that go along with it. As I said before, I am well aware that these things happen and it has happened to my (to my very painful loss) but it is just something we have to pull up our big-kid pants and accept.

That's their choice isn't it? If they elect to pay they shouldn't lose what they're paying for. And it's not a question of being an adult, it's a personal choice. You shouldn't be the one making that choice for them.

[ErryK]

Yeah you're right, SE should have never suspended the demotion of housing for those suffering from the Earthquake in Japan. What were they thinking about those worried about losing their virtual house. And who cares if people get deployed for more than 45 days and can't get access to their game. Shouldn't matter after all for the I want a house so bad crowd they could give a hoot.

The OP is asking to be able to drop their sub. That's an entirely different matter than those who actually pay a sub and can't access the game for a extended period of time for legitimate reasons.

So being able to drop their sub and keeping their house is more important than getting the correct medication and treatment? Priorities.

Also, one person in hospital hardly compares to an entire nation being affected by natural disasters...

How would you feel if you put time and effort into, say, leveling and gearing your character, take a break, then had to start at level 1 again? Not the same? Maybe, but how is it any different?

That's a flawed statement because the in-game system allows people to retain 80% of their spent gil on the plot, as well as all indoor and outdoor furnishings within 35 days post-demolition. A better comparison would be that you'd need to relevel from 58 to 60, and regain all your skills from Job quests.

In the end, nothing is really lost except time...

[alimdia]

So being able to drop their sub and keeping their house is more important than getting the correct medication and treatment? Priorities.

No one is saying keeping a house is more important than getting medical treatment or worrying about deployment, but you are aware people will come back to the game after sorting out whatever situation they have, right? And when they come back their house will be gone if it took longer than 45 days.

I'm not against the auto demolition system, but 45 days is too short, and either proposal to increase the timer or change the system so it takes into account whether your sub is active or not would be welcome over what we have right now.

The current system is punishing players for taking short breaks, and created a subset of this community with players who actively want to take housing away from other players.

[HyoMinPark]

I'm not against the auto demolition system, but 45 days is too short, and either proposal to increase the timer or change the system so it takes into account whether your sub is active or not would be welcome over what we have right now.

The current system is punishing players for taking short breaks, and created a subset of this community with players who actively want to take housing away from other players.

Unfortunately, I feel like basing housing demolition off of active subscription isn't exactly the best idea because it's open for potential "abuse." I took a break around the holidays last year, and returned for 3.55a, but I'd left my sub active (I was really only planning to take off a week or two, but it ended up being longer, and I did sign in briefly for the Heavensturn event for like 20 minutes). So, what if someone decides that they want to take a 6 month break, but leave their sub active just to keep a house? Not only are they wasting money, but they're not even playing the game, much less using the house. And there are others that would just keep playing as normal, but not even use their house. I'm firmly against letting people just keep things that they aren't even using just because they want to keep it (yet, can't be arsed to even step into it every 44 days). Especially if the items are as limited as housing (which isn't the fault of any group of players, but a poor design choice on SE's side). I feel that the ones that decide to abuse that feature would just ruin it for the rest of the playerbase, regardless if the number is small or large.

How many days would you propose would be a good time frame? I think the 45 days is decent enough, but extending it to 60 could possibly also work. I think 90 would be pushing it; max I think should be 75. That's two and a half months. Plenty of time for those that just want to take a casual break from the game due to lack of content or burn out or whatever personal reason, and still maintain their estate.

People that are called away from the game due to extenuating circumstances for extended periods of time (be it work, deployment, illness, natural disaster, etc.)....I know none of that stuff is really within their control, but SE can't and shouldn't offer special catering to those individuals (that probably sounds cold, but that's not how I'm intending it to sound). Especially considering the player's leave time will vary based on circumstances (they could be away for six months on business, or be deployed overseas for a year or more), and why should SE cater to such varying lengths of time? It becomes unfair because not every player receives the same grace period on housing demolition.

If one person gets special treatment, then everyone will start to demand the same treatment. And if they don't get it, Reddit and the forum will blow up with threads complaining about it.

[alimdia]

Unfortunately, I feel like basing housing demolition off of active subscription isn't exactly the best idea because it's open for potential "abuse." [...]

Thing is those people are still paying the service just as if they were actively playing, their money is still funding the servers hosting these houses, in my head I see no difference between someone who keeps their sub active while on break, someone who only logs in to enter the house once every 45 days and someone who is actively playing but again only using their house maybe once a month.

As for the days, I think you're right that 75 is a nice spot.

[Niwashi]

I feel like basing housing demolition off of active subscription isn't exactly the best idea because it's open for potential "abuse."

Housing demolition exists so that players who have left the game don't keep holding those plots in perpetuity, leaving the housing wards as ghost towns of former players. But players who have left the game aren't going to keep their subscription active. (Well, maybe briefly if they forget to turn off auto-renewal, but not for long at any rate.) The ones who are still paying their sub are still continuing the game, and should have the same rights as any other active player.

The "abuses" you describe are nothing of the kind. Sure people could keep their house without making good use of it, but they can already. You don't have to do anything more with it than step inside. (You can also already lose an estate while making regular daily use of it if your use is outside in the garden and you're not keeping careful enough track of that demolition timer.) Demolition isn't about giving plots to people who will use them better.

If the 45 day demolition timer only counted how long you went without an active subscription, and the NPC who holds your goods for you after demolition did so permanently, for the sake of players who take breaks longer than that, it would be a much more balanced and fair system. But SE would still need to deal with their housing shortage issue. Even if their design doesn't allow for keeping houses for all past players (as instancing them could), they do need a system that can readily accommodate all currently active players.

[HyoMinPark]

Housing demolition exists so that players who have left the game don't keep holding those plots in perpetuity, leaving the housing wards as ghost towns of former players. But players who have left the game aren't going to keep their subscription active. (Well, maybe briefly if they forget to turn off auto-renewal, but not for long at any rate.) The ones who are still paying their sub are still continuing the game, and should have the same rights as any other active player.

The "abuses" you describe are nothing of the kind. Sure people could keep their house without making good use of it, but they can already. You don't have to do anything more with it than step inside. (You can also already lose an estate while making regular daily use of it if your use is outside in the garden and you're not keeping careful enough track of that demolition timer.) Demolition isn't about giving plots to people who will use them better.

Tying housing demolition strictly to just paying your subscription would just make it even easier for people to continue to hold on to plots they aren't using. If it is so hard for people to just ENTER their estate ONCE every 44 days, then I really don't think that they should even be owning one. Because to do so literally only takes a minute out of your playtime, and if you can't be bothered to do that then... I'm sorry, but it makes absolutely no sense to me to invest so much time in saving up anywhere from 4 to 50 million gil (which can take some considerable time and effort), and then buy a house and NEVER MAKE GOOD USE OF IT.

You say that demolition is to prevent the wards from turning into ghost towns of homes that were owned by people that left the game ages ago, and not about giving up the plots to people that would use them, but that is kind of what the demolition is about: kicking those who didn't bother to enter their house for 45 days, and giving those who want to purchase a plot the opportunity to do so. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that the next owner would actually use it, and I know there's nothing that can really be done about that other than kicking them as well if they also don't bother to enter it once every 45 days.


It's also worth pointing out that the OP wanted to keep their plot, but at the same time, take a break and NOT have an active subscription. If housing demolition was based on active sub time, and houses were demolished if people didn't pay their sub in 45 days (like you suggest), then the OP would probably have still lost their plot anyways. Since they were complaining about "feeling pressured" to pay money monthly for the game in order to keep a house.