Forcing players to pay to keep housing is unfair.

[Dustytome]

They are instances already. Go to ward 1, then ward 2. Its the same plots. Copied 12 times. They can copy it 12 more times and double the plots.

They're zones, not instances. The houses themselves are instances, but not the wards.

[Nyerieri]

One thing I wish people would stop saying on this thread is "we only have a month". Last I checked it was 45 days. I know 30 sounds better for your argument, but it is 45.

Again, if you cant take the time to login (or even have a friend do it!) within 45 days, you don't need the house. Period.

If it was up to me, it would be 35 days for auto demolish and 25 for FC lead pass because I think SE is too generous.

[Rymm]

Why is everyone just assuming that all people who have houses don't like the timer and all people who don't have one do like it? I have a medium house in LB (technically, it's the FC house but seeing as it is my husband's and mine FC and I farmed all of the gil to buy it and did all the decorating, I think it is safe to consider it 'mine' for the purposes of this thread) and I completely agree that the demo timer is needed for as long as the system remains as it is now. Again, I say this even after losing my first house that I bought back before the demo timer was a thing and I was promised it would always be there.

The fact of the matter is, the housing system is royally screwed up and, rather than whining on the forums about the symptoms of the housing crisis, a better expenditure of time and effort would be to spend it pressuring SE to fix the fundamental problems with it. After that, there would be no need for demos any more and I would be as happy as anyone else to see them go.

[ToasterMan]

Now that cross server party finder is a thing, people have a little more incentive to go to a lesser populated world. Even then, being guaranteed a house isn't enough of an incentive to get people onto smaller servers, proven by Balmung's overpopulation even though there's plenty of houses on "Dead" servers.

I'm sorry but nobody plays an MMO to feel like they're in a ghost town. It's very off putting.

[Cadmar]

Guys. I have the answer. Since housing is causing such a problem, I feel the only solution is to remove it from the game entirely.

[Clover_Blake]

Maybe this has been said already, but apartments don't require you to pay.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

Maybe this has been said already, but apartments don't require you to pay.

And that's exactly why I'm considering letting go of my small house and just getting an apt in Shirogane once the housing there opens up. A small FC can have my old house, and I can be just as fine with an apt. Ideally, I'd like a little more space for the 200K extra I paid than a personal chamber in an FC house, but that's out of my hands.

[Cylla]

Actually SE did do that with XI, believe the timeframe was 90 days and then they deleted character data that was not subbed.

WUT?! lol This is not true one bit and I know that for fact as I had quit XI for nearly a year and still had all my level 1 characters that were just alts when I came back.

*Edit - I partly re-track my statement. There "WAS" a 90 day time frame, but SE was sued by a player back in 2009 and SE got rid of it. However, this must have been really random because I had quit back in 2004 and didn't come back until near the end of the year, still had my main character and all my alts.

[HyoMinPark]

I think it's safe to assume after 90 days (which is the total time it takes before a plot is actually demolished if I recall), if a player hasn't come back, they likely aren't coming back. Exceptions to the rule of course (military, health/wellness issues, disasters), but for the most part 90 days is a decent amount of time to say "I don't think they're coming back."

Housing demolition timer is 45 days from the last time you step foot in the house. That goes for personal and FC housing. Only difference is only the owner of a personal house can reset the timer (tenants cannot), where as any FC member accessing an FC house resets it.

He just wants a month off. And people are like "Too bad, so sad. Get homeless!"

The opening post asked for the complete removal of the timer to cater to the OP's needs. A month off (30-31 days) is well within the 45 day timer for housing. No need to remove the timer since they still have 9-10 to log in and access the house. If the OP's financial situation is so dire they have to sacrifice their FFXIV sub, I think that they should honestly be more concerned about resolving that, rather than worrying about a virtual house.

[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.