My absence and return - thoughts on demolished houses

[Paladinleeds]

I have to disagree here. While I agree that there needs to be more housing to accommodate the demand, the neighborhood system is what gives FFXIV housing its life imo. Being able to walk through the wards and see FCs and players houses is one of the main draws to the housing system for me. If it was an instanced system, there would be no real reason to go to it. I'd warp to my house for the melder, ect and warp out instead to spending time outside in the ward as many of my FC currently do. I understand the need for more housing, but gutting the charm of the current system for the generic, pointless variant that every other MMO does isn't the answer imo.

So would you be happy with a system that auto-generated wards as the previous ones become full? That could be a decent compromise right?

[Naunet]

I have to disagree here.

The instanced housing of Rift and WildStar couldn't be further from "generic" and "pointless". The communities around housing in both of those games are rich, interactive, and highly social - things this game's housing sadly lacks despite its veneer of community.

[uvuvwevwevweonyetenyevweugwemu]

The social interaction in the game revolves around hanging in a shopping mall and coffee shops.
But that's another topic, they can easily put a catalog npc anywhere like they did scrips exchange.
Housing sort of have community places where the resident caretaker is but it lacks activities.

[Geryth]

The social interaction in the game revolves around hanging in a shopping mall and coffee shops.
But that's another topic, they can easily put a catalog npc anywhere like they did scrips exchange.
Housing sort of have community places where the resident caretaker is but it lacks activities.

Most of the social aspect of housing is simply seeing other players in your vicinity, on rare occasion, at the summing bells and market boards around your house. If housing was instanced and summoning bells and market boards were placed outside of the instance, that piece of it would still be retained. Improved, possibly, since we would likely have more people use the same summoning bells and market boards.

[Ilan]

Player 1 bought a house. It should be there for them forever.
Player 2 has yet to buy a house. When/if he does, it should also be there for them forever.

If no houses are available, then player 2 should be free to complain about the lack of available houses, yes, but the solution to that complaint isn't to screw over player 1, it's to increase the availability of houses in general.

I personally hold conditional/temporary prizes to have no value.
If permanence is guaranteed, barring additional action by SE, player 1 has something of value, and player 2 has nothing.
If permanence is not guaranteed, however, and Player 2 takes over Player 1's house, neither player has anything of value.

Sorry but i disagree. Housing is pure luxury and not mendatory for the gameplay so its completly fine if you lose it when you are not paying anymore, not to mention the needed serverspace for all the bought but not used houses. I don't even understand why SE allowed that players can buy houses who should be for FC's only, especially when they are limited. But whatever, you can complain all that you want SE will, hopefully, ignore it anyway.

[uvuvwevwevweonyetenyevweugwemu]

-

I prefer to keep housing as it is implemented now, indoor instanced and outdoor to have something shared with public.
Have you ever seen a stage theater being held like A Stage Reborn? Indoor instances are limited to 100 people, so they
had to held several performances while 300 other people waiting and having fun outside the fc house in the yard.
Think of the shared outdoor as a lobby system. While it's okay for apartment-living city folks to have a set number
of participants for their events, those with yard would like an unset number for their events/partys either as host or guest.

Only exception for instanced housing are apartments and the community center.
There's 2 types missing instances from the resident caretaker place:
1) A gallery museum that shows every painting in the game
2) An Expo/Exhibit area for indoor/outdoor furnishings available
Can add marketboards, summoning bell, npc etc if they want but these two
instances are desperately needed so people can have ideas what they want
for their house instead of stalking all over housing.

[Pyroxene]

Snip

Honestly, take a break if you want, but if you can't spare a few minutes of ONE day out of the 45 day limit, to log in and visit your house. You're just wasting valuable resources that others could be using. Others that are still actively paying, playing and have yet to experience said resources.

As the saying goes, use it or lose it.

You've seen what it's like for someone having a house, now you get to see what it's like trying to GET one.

But most importantly, you left and even knowing what their intention was, you came back.
so I'd say it's working as intended.

I don't think SE will lose sleep over people who leave permanently over such a thing.

Welcome back btw

[Geryth]

Honestly, take a break if you want, but if you can't spare a few minutes of ONE day out of the 45 day limit, to log in and visit your house. You're just wasting valuable resources that others could be using. Others that are still actively paying, playing and have yet to experience said resources.

As the saying goes, use it or lose it.

At this point I just wish I could crawl into people's brains and mind meld what I'm saying to them so they'll understand. My break was completely separate from me quitting. I quit because I disagreed so heavily with their housing design. Do you understand I protested with my money against the design? And that, quoted straight from you, these "valuable resources" should not have been so limited and restrictive to begin with? Why do people keep making the argument about inactive players taking housing from active players? Why do people keep thinking that Square's current design is devoid of responsibility not able to be criticized? I've seen one person explicitly say they like the system because having a house gives them a status symbol. Otherwise I would think a vast majority of players don't like that they can't get a house right now (even with demolishing), and that any potential returning player isn't going to want to return if their stuff was deleted. How is this good design in any stretch of the imagination, except for those who enjoy being special snowflakes? And snowflakes by luck more than anything else.

As my saying goes - make good design decisions in the interest of your players, or lose my business. They made housing what it is because they were too lazy to do it right, or it was a cash-grab way to try to retain players. Can I spare a few minutes of ONE day out of a 45 limit to log in and visit my house? Why yes, easy peasy. At the expense of having to pay a subscription to keep my house if I'm otherwise taking a break? No, I will not pay for that design. Unlimited housing for all is what it's supposed to be. That's what I'm willing to pay for. That's why I quit. And me quitting has the unfortunate side effect of being victim to the design itself.

You've seen what it's like for someone having a house, now you get to see what it's like trying to GET one.

Can you point to any part of any of my posts that I ever said anything remotely negative towards active players unable to get a house? The whole system is terrible, on all ends of the spectrum. Again, your thinking within the walls that SE engineered as their housing system. So yes, I'm definitely experiencing the horror of their housing system on both sides. Because my hope is to rebuild my house and enjoy the game long enough that they'll fix housing, and I'm giving them money and this thread to let them know what I want to pay for and continue paying for.

But most importantly, you left and even knowing what their intention was, you came back.
so I'd say it's working as intended.

I don't think SE will lose sleep over people who leave permanently over such a thing.

Welcome back btw

Yes, I resubscribed and I even bought Stormblood. But it's been two years. Hearthstone and Overwatch have enjoyed hundreds of my dollars over that time that would have gone to FFXIV. Two years of lost time is a lot for an MMO, and makes a poignant statement to the developers.

And I think any developer would like to know why people are quitting their game, whether or not they lose sleep over it.

PS.
The next person who comments anything to the effect of "what, so you want active players to not have access to houses" is going to make my mind explode.

[Selenara]

I understand how the OP feels. I actually had a friend leaving the game and he demolished his house and he knew i had the gil to buy it he made sure i got it because it went unnoticed there was a house available. However, OP did you know when they added shared housing the same time they did the demolished. they said if you hare your house with someone and they enter it resets the timer. So if you knew someone who was a very active player and remained that way or at least 2 ppl they could have helped u retained the house. thats what me and my bf are doing when he has to get deployed. It works i promise! i did it for several friends of mine.

[Zigabar]

what, so you want active players to not have access to houses?




..


(Kidding, I just wanted to see your mind explode.)