Forcing players to pay to keep housing is unfair.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

You have a house and agree with the system because you know you won't be taking a break anytime soon; so your house(s) aren't in jeopardy. I am absolutely positive that if you wanted to take a break from the game you'd do everything in your power to prevent them from falling into reclamation instead of sitting quietly.

No I wouldn't I lost my house and FC when I was on Sargantanas please don't assume. I also left the game for a year and a half due to personal reasons. Only thing I would do different is actually tell friends that the house will be available in 45 days. I also gave away all my gil and items to friends. As I knew I could make it all back if I were to return.

[MistyMew]

Reclaim is a bad band aid imo.

In todays gaming industry, do it right or don't do it at all. Upgrade se, whatever it takes to provide enough housing for everyone regardless of how long they are gone for.

Revamp to instanced housing all around. the wards / neighbourhood is a waste of resources. Allow a system to visit and explore what others create still ,but ditch the ward system. Increase the area we "own" 10 fold at least and let us design the landscape and construct.

So many limitations make the game feel very very old.

SE has done an awesome job with many other game aspects imo, far exceeding the #lolwowyouthinkyoudobutyoudont and such ...don't sell yourselves short with housing
Be as awesome as you can!

[HyoMinPark]

Additionally; "especially if they aren't even going to be an active subscriber anymore." Here's that mentality of wanting to take a break seems to be viewed at as never coming back or quitting cold turkey; or something simliar. I don't know why so many of you seem to think this way.

Incorrect, again.

If you, at any point, suspend a subscription for any service, be it FFXIV, Netflix, Hulu, whatever, you forfeit the right to any assets that subscription provides. Regardless of the time you're taking away from the game (a month, two months, six months, whatever). Your conclusion/interpretation of my comment is YOUR interpretation. It doesn't speak for mine, my mentality, or anyone else's.

The system, as it stands now, is in place regardless of active subscription or inactive subscription, and the OP was fully aware of that when they purchased their house. If the OP inactivated their sub, for whatever reason, whether they are forced to or choose to, they need to accept their housing plot may not be there when they return. Will it suck? Yes. But at the end of the day, it's a virtual house. They can always move on and rebuild, keeping an eye on the market to see if any plots open up in the future, especially what with 4.0 bringing an entirely new housing district.

I was also even more less inclined to feel sympathetic to the OP when they made their ridiculous comment about "laying in the hospital dying" and being concerned about a virtual house. Whether they were exaggerating or not, making such an exaggeration just made their argument fall completely apart for me.

The housing in this game is messed up. I completely agree there. But, the OP's money being tight isn't on SE They chose to go on holiday, which seems to be what led to the money situation. I'm not blaming the OP for choosing to indulge in some R&R, but they chose holiday expenses, something completely optional, over a subscription cost, something also optional. Change is most definitely necessary, but coming here and making exaggerated and dramatic comments (see "laying in the hospital dying"), are not the best way to try and change SE's mind about the housing situation, nor get other individuals to agree and rally with you. Give rational comments/arguments, and maybe people will be more inclined to agree.

It also doesn't help that so many other commenters kept throwing around the excuse that those that disagree only do so because they're vultures circling around the OP's housing plot, waiting for the house to disappear. I could have a plot or not have a plot and still disagree with the OP. Just made this thread devolve even further.

I honestly think it's because it has never (and perhaps never will) happen to them. So this crapola is so easy for them to say.

Why, thank you for assuming that I would never take a break from this game for whatever reason, personal or mandatory. I actually did take a two month break from it starting last year around the holidays and lasting until after 3.55's release. If I had lost my house, that would have been all on me. And guess what? I would have gotten over it. Because my reasons for taking a break were more important than a house of pixels.

The wards can stay for FCs, but personal housing needs to go instanced. That's all there is to it. We got roughly 150k plots. We got over 300k active characters and somewhere around 100k active FCs, give or take 30k. It's not that hard to figure what's causing the issue here.

I think the issue doesn't really lie with personal vs free company housing. I think one issue (that I see a lot on my server), is the same individual has multiple plots spread across alt characters. There is one person with 5 PLOTS in the Beds on my server (which they advertise in their estate info about having multiple plots lol). Their alts are mostly in solo FCs/FCs with 1-2 other members, and then a couple have personal houses as well.

I think a much needed change to the housing system, aside from just making more plots in general, is to figure out a way to limit the number of plots an account can own. I would be fine if, for instance, this person had an FC (small or large), and owned a plot for their FC, and then a personal one for themselves. But multiple solo FCs for alts? And each with their own personal house too? Unnecessary. Housing should be able to be shared account-wide with your alts present on that server.

[Ilan]

You're entitled to your opinion but I assure you it's no joke. It's a good comparison because both take a lot of time and effort to acquire. Neither is something that can be earned over night or farming a primal for an RNG drop. You have to invest a lot of work to get them. Secondly, not everyone is in an FC with house so that's not really a good reason.

You want to know something that's easy as pie? The housing system just plain sucks. It's bad. It's not the players fault that SE locks them into subbing to keep it. It's not the players fault that this patch is such a dead drought there's literally nothing to hook the player into staying around until SB. I really don't understand why this community enjoys punishing players so much over little things. Instead of supporting the system people should just acknowledge it's bad and try to band together so we can get them to improve and fix the system. Instead, we only seem to support punishments towards players. And it's not always the player "taking a break" either. The reality is, life happens. Sometimes life bites us in the ass and makes us unable to play for some time, even when we want to play. But as I previously mentioned, this community would rather punish players for having a life outside the game and dealing with reality. I mean no disrespect, but the system is straight up unfair. I compared housing with a relic weapon because how would you honestly feel if you got a message from SE saying that you would lose something you worked really hard to get solely because you weren't online for a month? It's not even like it's several months. It's a month and a half. That's only half a patch cycle.

Do you block content for paying customers if you stop playing as relic owner? No and thats why this comparison is a joke.

Yeah you spend a lot of gil for a house, we did too, but if you stop paying for the game you don't have a single right to complain about that your house is gone. The same would apply for anything where you log content for others with that. What is so hard to understand about that?

[bswpayton]

This isnt the real issue with housing cant believe this thread is still going , the number one issue with housing is why do I end up outside of my house , or apartment after I log out. Same thing with dungeons this is number one issue with housing is the fact that you feel like a visitor in your own house this issue takes a backseat to that , that kills immersion and makes it not feel like a home.

[Marcellus_Cassius]

I have to agree with the OP,

Step back and look at it as an outsider, think of it this way, this isn't Final Fantasy XIV, this is a game your friend is telling you about that you don't care about. He says, hey man, I put all this time and money into building this virtual home but if I stop playing its all taken away. In that scenario I would say, that sounds like ass no matter how you spin it. Its a bad setup, so we're left to point the finger at who's fault it is but its not the owner's or those waiting to buy.

[bswpayton]

I have to agree with the OP,

I think its easy for those without houses to defend SE, but step back and look at it as an outsider. Think of it this way, this isn't Final Fantasy XIV, this is a game your friend is telling you about that you don't care about. He says, hey man, I put all this time and money into building this virtual home but if I stop playing its all taken away. In that scenario I would say, that sounds like ass no matter how you spin it. Its a bad setup, so we're left to point the finger at who's fault it is but its not the owner's or those waiting to buy.

I have a house and if I where leaving the game Id set something up to where Id work something out wit a friend so I could maintain my home. but I dont plan on unsubbing thoughts never crossed my mind even tho it could happen. So I wouldnt exactly say its people who dont have houses many people in this thread have houses and agree with how things are set up.

[Keeroh]

snip

I understand the reasoning behind that, but I don't think it would solve much. The price for the subscription is not so high that it's unfeasible that some people could not notice they were unsubbed. For a long time. You would still have the issue of unused zombie houses, who will continue to sit unused on a plot until the card attached to the account expires.
This is gonna seem snarky, but that's not my intention: If you have something important in life that takes you from the game for that long, the house does not matter. This is a luxury asset (housing) within a luxury activity (game) - if you are expecting every business to maintain your luxuries out of altruism, then you have some unrealistic expectations.
The system could be streamlined, but it really shouldn't be changed on a fundamental level.

[Marcellus_Cassius]

I have a house and if I where leaving the game Id set something up to where Id work something out wit a friend so I could maintain my home. but I dont plan on unsubbing thoughts never crossed my mind even tho it could happen. So I wouldnt exactly say its people who dont have houses many people in this thread have houses and agree with how things are set up.

Yeah you are right, there are many people with houses that also defend SE's stance, but I did not intend that to be my point which is that in my >opinion< the way housing is handled in the game could be better. I did not mean to imply whomever defending SE is to blame, I meant to say its neither the owners nor those waiting to buy are at fault. Can't blame those that want to buy for backing a system that will facilitate access and can't blame owners for feeling like they're loosing something when they take breaks.

[CosmicKirby]

I'm sure I'll get tons of self-defeating replies on "that's how the system is, though" rather than any meaningful attitude adjustments, but ever the eternal optimist, that's me lol. Seriously, don't let up. Housing supply NEEDS to exceed demand, and no other alternative, whether it's reclamation or whatever, is an acceptable alternative. Houses free up at a bloody trickle, and everyone here wants to wax poetic about how people who aren't married to FFXIV should "prioritize better" lmao.

OK, Square decides to take the same approach as... (was it Rift, or GW2?) and adds semi instanced massive areas for housing, everyone can have one.
But in doing this, the next expansion features almost no improvements to systems, inventory, infrastructure, or any quests more complicated than talking to the next npc, no cutscenes were made that were anything past talking and standing still. Most of the art assets are reused, those teams were tied up with housing revamps.

These are the sort of choices you 'realistically' have. There's an opportunity cost in demanding such a massively extensive revamp as 'houses for everyone', and considering not everyone wants a house it's a really tough decisions to even consider some undertaking as massive as you're suggesting.