My absence and return - thoughts on demolished houses

[Naunet]

that yoshi quote

Things like this are why I have very little respect for the devs.

Yes they did say this originally but they also listened to the playerbase. There was a massive thread asking for houses to be removed from people who stopped playing the game.

Perhaps they should have used a skill they should have developed by now, called foresight and thinking through the consequences of design decisions. There is simply no way they couldn't have seen the glaring issues with housing well before it was ever implemented live.

[Geryth]

Here you go
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/113554

So not only did they create this terrible system, they explicitly said they wouldn't before they did.

Things like this are why I have very little respect for the devs.

If more people held their feet to the fire with their money, like I did, maybe the developers would actually do what the players want/need on the matter. I know they've done a ton - having to relaunch the game as 2.0 was a big deal and they did a good job with that. But come on folks, don't let them get away with bad design too easily.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

So not only did they create this terrible system, they explicitly said they wouldn't before they did.

If more people held their feet to the fire with their money, like I did, maybe the developers would actually do what the players want/need on the matter. I know they've done a ton - having to relaunch the game as 2.0 was a big deal and they did a good job with that. But come on folks, don't let them get away with bad design too easily.

No need to take a knee-jerk reaction. Just write on the forum what you want changed and hope for the best. lol not going to quit just because there is one element of the game I don't like.
Like I said as much as I don't like the reclamation it's needed and I would be hypocrite to say it shouldn't be in, when I got my FC and personal house that way.

So not only did they create this terrible system, they explicitly said they wouldn't before they did.

SE had back-peddled on many features within the game after listening to the player-base.

[Geryth]

No need to take a knee-jerk reaction. Just write on the forum what you want changed and hope for the best. lol not going to quit just because there is one element of the game I don't like.

Difference of opinion. If it's not worth my money, I won't spend it. If it's worth it to you to pay a subscription to keep a house even though you aren't truly actively playing the game, go right ahead.

Like I said as much as I don't like the reclamation it's needed and I would be hypocrite to say it shouldn't be in, when I got my FC and personal house that way.

SE had back-peddled on many features within the game after listening to the player-base.

Of course house demolition is needed in the system they set up. In my original post I said exactly that. You like many others fail to think that it never had to be that way.

[Rinuko]

What kind of reaction did you think gonna happend? If you (one person) stop paying sub they would over night change the whole system?
I personally support the system. IF you dont pay/play - what use is the empty dead plot doing to you? For all I care they could half the waiting period.

If you cared about your house and wasnt stubborn you would login every 40 days to make sure it would be demolished. But you chose the cheap route and stubborness and prove a "point". SE don't and won't care

[Masekase_Hurricane]

Funny thing is though you never complained about the lack of houses when you had a house. You talk about putting your money where your mouth is etc or banding together, but where was your support to others who never had a house?

Yes the system needs changing, yes instanced housing needs added or some proper fix. But unfortunately reclamation needs to stay until they come up with a real fix to the problem.

[Penthea]

But unfortunately reclamation needs to stay until they come up with a real fix to the problem.

Demolition is a necessary evil. It fixes one thing but breaks another. However demolition very much works in favour of players who actively use their houses, so it is better than before in which you could not log in for over a year and still have your house.

I'd be willing to bet that SE lost more subscriptions from players who had almost no hope of getting a house than from players who lost their house from demolition.

I will add though, for like the millionth time in these forums, that 45 days is stupidly short.

[hydralus]

I will add though, for like the millionth time in these forums, that 45 days is stupidly short.

Really? I think it's a bit on the long side. Every MMO I've played that had limited housing gave you a month (EQ2, Asheron's Call), and Archeage (The only MMO in recent memory to not do instanced housing) gave you 2 weeks. Not only that but they all made you pay rent for upkeep. And Archeage had some content you couldn't do if you didn't have a house, much like gardening or airships in FFXIV, so it made even more sense to make the holding period shorter. So, I'm not seeing where the 'stupidly short' comment comes from, when this is one of the, if not the longest grace periods I've ever seen.

I was honestly shocked to learn that people were able to keep hold of housing for over a year before they finally wised up and realized that, hey, people who stopped subbing shouldn't keep this limited resource.

[Ilan]

snip

Lets see. You don't pay a sub but you want the benefits of a subbing gamer? Seems about right.

[Penthea]

Really? I think it's a bit on the long side.

I am saying this based on experience from playing mmos for over ten years. It is actually very common for active players to not log in for a month and a half.

They might have exams or school/college project to do, parents sometimes even prevent them from logging in at exam time, they might go on a work trip, they might have to go to hospital, they might be moving house or even emigrating and getting internet running could be taking long, or their gaming machine could die and they don't have enough cash to get a new one within 45 days.

What is far less common is players not logging in for 90 days, which is three months. Very active players in a mmo seldom don't log in for a quarter of a year.

Every MMO I've played that had limited housing gave you a month

That doesn't make it right though. This decision making is certainly not done in the interest of fairness to the home owner. It is instead an incentive to be more active and continue to pay your sub, or be more active and pay your sub in the hopes you can snag a house someone lost.