My absence and return - thoughts on demolished houses

[kamenkuro]

The loss of items is a thing that's explained in game. During the FC house move I lost a lot of stuff too because I wasn't around. It gets sent to a place where you can recover the items, then there's a limited time to retrieve the items. You have 90 days to make sure you don't lose any of those items. This is explained in game. It can't stay there forever for the sake of server memory. It's all on you.

[Geryth]

The loss of items is a thing that's explained in game. During the FC house move I lost a lot of stuff too because I wasn't around. It gets sent to a place where you can recover the items, then there's a limited time to retrieve the items. You have 90 days to make sure you don't lose any of those items. This is explained in game. It can't stay there forever for the sake of server memory. It's all on you.

"Server memory" is a lazy excuse, and players should never be punished for not wanting (or in many cases unable) to play for a few months. It's really simple - if you punish players for unsubscribing, the chances of them returning are lower. That's what this is all about.

[kamenkuro]

Regardless, it was still blatant information available to everyone. Most people don't care as much about gil as you apparently do so it won't be a deal breaker if they leave for 90 days and lose things that won't help them in the long run. You can get an apartment for gardening small things with a chocobo stable. If you can't keep up with the more expensive house then just go with an apartment, it won't shove you out and toss you stuff into the incinerator after 90 days. 90 days is a good long time. Between 90 days if you don't have $15 to pop in and grab your stuff then you maybe shouldn't be playing.

Either get an apartment and take as long as you want to come back or just resign yourself to the responsibility that comes with buying a house in this game.

[Geryth]

Regardless, it was still blatant information available to everyone. Most people don't care as much about gil as you apparently do so it won't be a deal breaker if they leave for 90 days and lose things that won't help them in the long run. You can get an apartment for gardening small things with a chocobo stable. If you can't keep up with the more expensive house then just go with an apartment, it won't shove you out and toss you stuff into the incinerator after 90 days. 90 days is a good long time. Between 90 days if you don't have $15 to pop in and grab your stuff then you maybe shouldn't be playing.

Either get an apartment and take as long as you want to come back or just resign yourself to the responsibility that comes with buying a house in this game.

Apartments are nice band-aid fix.

I have $15 dollars, it's not that I was strapped for cash in any way, I just wanted a break. It probably wasn't even going to be a 45 day break, to be honest. The developers released a bad design, and I felt that it wasn't worth paying for. I don't want to spend money on a game that punishes its players like that.

Back to the apartments, players now have options for housing without being punished for playing. I still believe they need to fix that for real houses, but whatever. But that doesn't change the fact that I did get the full punishment for their bad design, and having been punished for their bad system so severely makes me question whether or not I should ever give them more money.

[kamenkuro]

This has been noted to be one of the most lenient and versatile housing systems in an MMO. It's not their fault you didn't read the rules. Apartments are there for people that couldn't get houses and people that can't handle the responsibility of owning a house. There's very little SE asks of you to take care of a house. Heck, you can get around that by having friends help you. That's like saying it's unfair too have to water plants everyday to keep them alive. It's silly how you're blowing up over something so inconsequential to the grand scheme of things.

[hydralus]

... having been punished for their bad system so severely makes me question whether or not I should ever give them more money.

So what would it take in order for you to resub?

[hijifa]

so you understand why they need to demolish houses, and you're still complaining?

instanced housing? thats literally what people DON'T want in a housing system.. people want actual plots, actual space, and an actual neighbourhood. many other games have fully instanced housing and those feel like a single player housing simulator rather than housing in an mmo. ffxiv has 1 of the better mmo housing system.

secondly, housing is luxury, something you never need in the game, and something that only 10% of players have, while like 80% of players want, theres a huge demand for them.. as someone waiting to buy a house, i can't wait to see plots get demolished lol..

[Geryth]

This has been noted to be one of the most lenient and versatile housing systems in an MMO. It's not their fault you didn't read the rules. Apartments are there for people that couldn't get houses and people that can't handle the responsibility of owning a house. There's very little SE asks of you to take care of a house. Heck, you can get around that by having friends help you. That's like saying it's unfair too have to water plants everyday to keep them alive. It's silly how you're blowing up over something so inconsequential to the grand scheme of things.

Are we talking about the same thread? I did the rules. And I understood them perfectly. I knew them well in time to save my house, if I wanted. My problem is that the rules are terrible, awful rules. Let me pre-empt the obligatory "but what about other players who want houses" argument and say that demoing houses was better than inactive houses taking all the slots. They should have changed the whole system, and not made housing so limited. So holding houses hostage to a subscription was the laziest, worst solution they could have come up with to their original problem of having no houses available for subscribing payers. So since they went the lazy route, I quit giving them my money.

And apartments weren't a thing 2 years ago when this all happened.

What am I blowing up? I'm telling Square that I want to give them my money, but I'm hesitant, and I'm telling them why. The seems pretty consequential to a game developer to know what people want and don't want to pay money for.

So what would it take in order for you to resub?

I don't know - apartments might be enough. Maybe I give it a month to see how the new xpac is. But the sting of all my stuff getting deleted is hard to get past.

But I would drop a 6 month sub immediately if they posted that they are working on improvements to the housing system so that they are permanent for everyone.

[Geryth]

so you understand why they need to demolish houses, and you're still complaining?

instanced housing? thats literally what people DON'T want in a housing system.. people want actual plots, actual space, and an actual neighbourhood. many other games have fully instanced housing and those feel like a single player housing simulator rather than housing in an mmo. ffxiv has 1 of the better mmo housing system.

secondly, housing is luxury, something you never need in the game, and something that only 10% of players have, while like 80% of players want, theres a huge demand for them.. as someone waiting to buy a house, i can't wait to see plots get demolished lol..

I would take instanced housing over a "neighborhood" any day, especially if that was the only way to get permanent housing. How often do you see neighbors? Converse with them? Have them over for dinner, perhaps?

Please, I walked through many housing wards just this week to see what was available and what houses look like these days, I hardly saw a soul in any single one of them, despite every single house being occupied. I walked up to fully occupied apartment and there were zero people at the summoning bell and market board outside.

Instanced housing would hardly be any lonelier than the ward/district model.

[Roegan]

But the sting of all my stuff getting deleted is hard to get past.

I think this is why many people, myself included, are getting confused about the purpose of your post. You've made it personal, you've written here with your personal story and laced it with your personal anger and upset as opposed to coming here and just saying like "hey this system is kinda balls. Any plans on changing it?" or maybe some of your ideas for that. The reason people are confused is because its felt like a large part of this thread has been anger/upset over your own deleted house (which i do understand) but it has kinda invalidated a lot of your argument about understanding the reasons and stuff. You appear to be arguing on two different planes and it makes for very confusing reading as they are opposing sides.