Forcing players to pay to keep housing is unfair.

[CosmicKirby]

Again: it is not a valid argument to claim that it's not worth fixing something because few people use or like the current crap system. That is why it needs to be fixed.

Aside from that, fully fleshed out secondary systems are what maintain subscribers. A housing system that can engross players for years building unique environments (a la WildStar) is a serious help for player retention.

It's an 'incredibly' valid argument in the business world. Nintendo could have either poured even more money into 'fixing' the Virtual Boy, or they could have cut their losses and stopped supporting it. Guess what they did?

MMORPGs with really good housing, aren't so successful the entire industry tries to emulate them. They all try to emulate WoW. There's a reason for this.

[Maero]

I just got a house in ESO yesterday, instanced housing soooo i had no issue.

[Zojha]

Nintendo could have either poured even more money into 'fixing' the Virtual Boy, or they could have cut their losses and stopped supporting it. Guess what they did?

I would just like to point out the irony of this statement on the Final Fantasy XIV forums in the context of the history of Final Fantasy XIV.

That is all.

[Vivi_Bushido]

I disagree with op.
Right now it's not great. but in 5 years time and FFXIV is dieing. people will still want housing. But you want non active players for 3 years to still have there house in case they come back.

Sorry big pictures. I sub I keep my house.

I don't think anyone really disagrees with that. The problem is that right now, 45days is to small of a window. We don't want it increased to a span of a year or greater. That would be ridiculous. We just want a little bit more breathing space than 45 days. At least 3 months is more than enough time.

[PocketVolcano]

If you ever played Wildstar, you may understand why their housing (while amazing) lacked a real sense of location. You had "neighbors" at random, and were literally floating alone in the sky.

There is nothing "lacking" here

[alimdia]

What you don't seem to understand is how our devs work. Their main concern is the MAJORITY.

No, their main goal is providing a theme park game with attractions for any kind of player, otherwise this game wouldn't have raids at all if less than 10% of the players do them, no pvp either, nothing but play dress and tomestone grind.

Not to mention housing is casual content so if we go by your point there's even more of a reason to fix housing, it's content for the majority.

[Naunet]

This game is very casual friendly. Why? Because they are the MAJORITY.

Housing is the epitome of casual content. I know many players in WildStar who have played for two and a half years yet barely level their characters - or only leveled to 50 to access some decor that's on rep vendors - because they spend pretty much all their game time in housing. When those ~*~*hardcore*~*~ raiders quit, it's the casual players who stick around. It's the folk buried eyebrow deep in housing plans who maintain subscriptions.

I don't know why you have a hate-on for housing.

There is nothing "lacking" here

Nor here:

[Aylis]

There is nothing "lacking" here

As for the floating alone thing...taken from Chad Moore's last State of the Universe letter

" And lastly, we’re planning to release the long-awaited Communities feature later on this year, which will allow players to come together in housing plots and collaborate in new and exciting ways. Having already played with this feature myself, I can tell you that it’ll open up a whole new world of creative possibilities for our dedicated housing designers and their unlimited imaginations. I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!"

[Niwashi]

I get what you are saying truly, but if they didn't do this new players would not have the opportunity to get housing and your neighborhoods would begin to stagnate as players who have quit would leave massive areas of housing empty and unused.

That's why I agree that with any sort of zone/neighborhood/ward style housing system, some sort of inactivity timer needs to be implemented. The problem here is more in the specifics of how it's implemented.

It should be set up exclusively for the purpose of reclaiming housing plots from players who have quit the game, while anyone who has not quit the game is protected from losing their investment in the feature.

Changing the rule from 45 consecutive days of not entering the house interior to 90 consecutive days of not having a subscription to the game would be just as effective at freeing up housing plots from former players (since every player who quits the game will hit both of those conditions). But one of them allows those who are still continuing with the game to take short breaks from time to time, while the other doesn't.

So just changing that rule about when reclamation takes place would go a long way towards improving the system. But even then, there should be features in place to mitigate the loss for players who come back after losing a house. Instead of giving players just a few extra days to get back 80% of their gil and some small subset of their housing items, allow them permanent access to getting back that 80% of the gil and ALL their housing items, no matter how much later it is that they come back.

And by far the most important part of making an inactivity timer work for players who buy houses and risk possibly losing them is the initial problem with SE's housing system as a whole. There have to be enough houses for everyone. Reclamation isn't a fix to the shortage issue. It's a feature that requires that shortage to have already been fixed before it can work properly. If someone loses a house and then later comes back to the game, they have to have access to getting another house to replace the one they lost. When that's guaranteed to be available, and all their housing items are safely (i.e. permanently) held by the Resident Caretaker, then the loss of a plot is a minor issue easily fixed, and not the sort of thing that's going to drive people away from the game.

[CosmicKirby]

I would just like to point out the irony of this statement on the Final Fantasy XIV forums in the context of the history of Final Fantasy XIV.

That is all.

And?

Doing what they did was most certainly a heavy risk. A risk companies tend to not pursue. An exception to a trend indicates there's a possibility but not necessarily a good enough chance to make a wise investment in.
It's still a valid point, that a drastic focus on a failing product could just result in not saving the situation. And in context to the line of discussion, would come at the cost of implementing features in this game that are the reason why most people play and enjoy the game.


Also that is not ironic, though humorously coincidental.
If I had said something like, "No company would ever support a failing product." Then that would be ironic.