Forcing players to pay to keep housing is unfair.

[VeliusVire]

I actually don't really care for housing whatsoever lol I just saw incorrect usage of information and came to correct you, you guys can go back to debating whether or not it's unfair. To add to that, they /can't/ ban you because they /can't/ prove if you gave your account to anyone else, so no, it isn't implied you can be banned, it's very clearly stated 'We are not held accountable for your mishandling of information'.

[SmallHobbit]

this month money is tight

i am sorry about that!

but the ppl who work for SE are also have to pay they Bills still.
in the world of adults there is no space for voluntary, even you are on holiday they still have to keep the servers alive.
they are not shutdown the servers only because you are on holiday. are they!?

regards hobbit

[KarstenS]

You dont' get to keep your real life apartment if you don't pay rent.

Renting and buying are two different thing.

We don't rent houses ingame. We buy them. So you should compare it to buying a house in RL and not to rent them.

[Voltyblast]

As someone who had to purposely "lose their house" in order to take a break, I can relate: I bought mine during ARR where the reclaim was "never going to happen", so happy to have got it, made lots of stuff in it, only a few months ago to give it to a friend (for free of course) so I could take a break from the game. It's utterly unfair because not only I spent millions on my house, but I also have to keep a sub running in risk of losing it. Don't beat around the bush guys: the sub is basically a rent because while the reclaim is every 45 days, you basically have to get a sub at least once every 2 months and frankly it's just easier to get a monthly fee.

My suggestion? Get an apartment: they don't demolish, they cost much less and while smaller, at least you got a place to come back when you take breaks. I'm sad for losing my piece in the world but at least I got a corner for when I ever come back to play the game.

PS: Oh and how about also allowing you to post in the forums after 14 days of inactivity? I can still go to WoW and SWTOR forums after being unsubbed for long...just sayin'!

[NaesakiAshwell]

Housing on here is.. like a living breathing creature. No, not everyone is meant to have one despite popular belief. It's more of a luxury. Also, no one is a special snowflake on any server, and you do not deserve special treatment (again, despite popular belief).

I agree with this point based on how the current system works but I as said earlier this shouldn't even have been an issue in the first place. This is something that could easily be fixed if SE ever does decide to take a long hard look at the system they've put in place, because it is an unfair system as it currently stands and its no ones fault but SE for doing it this way.

Also throwing around the whole "special snowflake" just seems a bit disingenuous/incessantly petty and painting everyone the same way. Its in the same vein as people on this forum who constantly accuse everyone else of being toxic.

I hate to throw this in because people will just go "Huur duur go play that mmo then." but if other mmo's, like ESO can ensure housing for everyone then SE can more than do it as well. As others have also stated FF XI ensured a home for everyone, yeah it was only a single room but if they could do it way back then, they could certainly do it now.

Though whether they ever will remains to be seen.

I suppose all we can do now is wait for SB and the Shirogane wards and also see if they add on another 4 wards or something, that would alleviate the problem for most servers. Though the likes of Balmung and such are probably never going to have happy ending until its made in such a way that everyone can own property because even apartments have their limits(?) and thats been reached on some servers.

[Alleo]

I find it funny that Yoshida himself said that its totally fine to take breaks from the game and yet somehow us housing owners are not allowed to take true breaks for more than 45 days. At the same time he once said that housing timers are a thing of the past and that they wont include them in this game..yet here we have them and instead of blaming SE and hoping that they will change the system (like making one zone completely instanced..) we attack each other..Its kinda sad since they went back on their own words because they are somehow not able to create enough housing for everyone..and yet here we are defending them.

Also about real life examples: Here in Germany if someone bought a house and paid completely for it he/she will own it forever. Even if it just stands there without anyone living there. And about the apartments, as long as someone pays for it they can keep their apartment in real life (especially if they bought it too) even if they are only there for some weeks each year.

Ingame we dont rent our house we buy it, so theoretically if we compare this with real life we should be able to keep them even if we are not using them that much. (Heck even with the timer I barely see any free houses on Moogle. So in a way this is not much different than before the timer..where I somehow was still able to get my own little house). If we compare it with renting an apartment, paying our sub should we way enough to keep it too.

About the part that if you are sick, you should care more about your health than an virtual house. Yes this might be true in some way but still if you have a sickness where you might not be able to leave the house much and maybe even not seeing other people then a social game like this can really help those sick people. They might have put much work into the house, may have some very important memories from it (house parties and such things) and then they need to get to the hospital..this might be hard, this might be painful depending on the sickness and on top of that when they finally come back home they will have lost their house..for some its just a virtual item, for others that have it worse it might mean the world to them.

In the end there are more than one solution to this problem:
- Instanced housing. Leave the old zones as wards for those people that like it that way and maybe have a timer of one year of inactivity. At the same time any new zone should be fully instanced (give people the chance to move their house from the old to the new one). Since they are instanced people should not be able to lose it. This way you should be able to please both sides. I am completely shocked how SE still hangs onto their faulty and limited housing system. The new district could have been their chance to improve their system. I am sorry but I lost a lot of respect for the team after the reveal of the new district..

- Keep the timer, increase it to at least 90 days and instead of having the people log in and go into their house they only need to pay their sub. With that even if you are sick or away you could just pay in advance or even have someone else pay it for you. I mean the most important thing for SE is the money. Its not really that optimal for me since you still need to give them money even if you dont play the game but its still way better than having to pay money and on top of that have to go into the house itself..

- A variation of the last point could be a new sub. Like if you know that you cant play the game for like three months thanks to low payment or other reasons but you plan to play again and you dont want to lose your house, you could just pay a small fee instead of a sub. This would not give you the days for the veteran rewards and you cant log into the game at all but this fee would keep your house. It could be like 5$ per month which would be way less than a sub. With that SE still gets money, you will keep the house in a time that you just cant play or dont want to play.

I dislike my own last two points simply because this would mean that they will keep the faulty system, while still having that time counter which should have never come if Yoshida spoke the truth in the past and kept his word..yet its at least still better than the situation right now.

I know that there will be enough people that will go around and say: But I want a house and if they dont play they should not be able to keep it..yet here I would just say: "Complain about the lack of houses on the forums and maybe if enough people are complaining SE will change the system. But dont go around and punish other players that had no say in this housing system."

I am just going to be truthful: If I ever lose my house thanks to a situation that is out of my hand then this would also be the last day in FF14 for me. Housing might not be the most important aspect of the game for me but if SE punishes me with that because they somehow cant provide every player a house in 2017..well why should I then continue to pay more money? I just hope that this day wont come..and maybe just maybe one day they will admit that they made a bad housing system and rework it..until then I will voice my displeasure about it as much as I can.

[Chevronone]

Y'all in here white knighting SE's decision to tie housing to active subs would be singing a different tune if the shoe were on the other foot. You all know it.

[NaesakiAshwell]

Y'all in here white knighting SE's decision to tie housing to active subs would be singing a different tune if the shoe were on the other foot. You all know it.

Tying it to an active sub rather than walking inside would be very silly anyway, because then we'd have even more plots never opening so we can hope SE never does this.

Though I'd maybe simmer down in just flat out calling em white knights... so many online terms just becoming utterly meaningless through overuse :v

[Chevronone]

Tying it to an active sub rather than walking inside would be very silly anyway, because then we'd have even more plots never opening so we can hope SE never does this.

Though I'd maybe simmer down in just flat out calling em white knights... so many online terms just becoming utterly meaningless through overuse :v

Well the only way to walk in your house is to have an active sub, that's what I was getting at.

[NaesakiAshwell]

Speaking of housing, do we actually know yet if the Shirogane housing ward is in at launch or if its being released sometime after it?