Restrict Personal Houses to 1 Per Server!

[Penthea]

If SE does decide to implement this stupid change

It's not a stupid change if housing is more evenly distributed among players. Although to truly achieve that we're going to need a lot more than this. Way more.

In an ideal system we could all have as many houses as we like. But it's not ideal. You have said before that players without houses is not your problem, this is true. But I think you forget that you technically don't own your houses, SE do. Which means SE can change the terms of housing any way they see fit at any time. Even if you think it's stupid.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I guess in the long run it won't really affect me anyway. If SE does decide to implement this stupid change, I'll just relinquish my alts house and pick it up on my second account. Throws out a little over 3 million gil but I suppose I'll do what I have to do. I'm not giving up one of my houses so it can sit ignored by whatever random person thinks they deserve it more than I do.

Suppose I should get back to work on that FC on my second account too, just in case.

Because I bet you play both accounts equally that neither house sits idle for any length of time. I also find it just a tad ironic you whine over player entitlement while you, yourself, acknowledge you're going to re-buy an alt house on a second account under the assumption it won't get used by someone who doesn't have one. Furthermore, why do you or FCs deserve multiple houses anymore than some who wants just one?

[Ayerinn]

I guess in the long run it won't really affect me anyway. If SE does decide to implement this stupid change, I'll just relinquish my alts house and pick it up on my second account. Throws out a little over 3 million gil but I suppose I'll do what I have to do. I'm not giving up one of my houses so it can sit ignored by whatever random person thinks they deserve it more than I do.

Suppose I should get back to work on that FC on my second account too, just in case.

While it might be implemented, no way they would be dumb enough to FORCE relinquishment - you just wouldn't be able to purchase more. Honestly, I wouldn't mind them implementing such a change as long as the do away with the auto demo timer...would save me $$$.

[Scardon]

I guess in the long run it won't really affect me anyway. If SE does decide to implement this stupid change, I'll just relinquish my alts house and pick it up on my second account. Throws out a little over 3 million gil but I suppose I'll do what I have to do. I'm not giving up one of my houses so it can sit ignored by whatever random person thinks they deserve it more than I do.

Suppose I should get back to work on that FC on my second account too, just in case.

Don't worry, thanks to how bad the housing system is there isn't anything you did to 'deserve it more' than anyone else that has the gil so you really can't lose it to someone less deserving.

[Siniztor]

While it might be implemented, no way they would be dumb enough to FORCE relinquishment - you just wouldn't be able to purchase more..

And from the post you can see thats all us multi home owners are asking ..If your gonna change the rule so be it..but since we broke no rules grandfaher us in lock our buying any or heck even from transfering i personaly don't care as long as im not punished for following SE rules

[Niraves]

Snip.

Actually I barely play on my second account, it's mostly just for storage and trading items/gil between my main and my alt. But I do play my alt every day or at least every other day, so the house will still see daily use which is still better than 99% of the players that own houses and then never use them except once every 45 days to reset the demo timer. Furthermore, why does someone deserve to get one of my houses just because they don't have one? It's not my problem if they didn't put in the time/effort to camp wards like I did for months to get my first house.

While it might be implemented, no way they would be dumb enough to FORCE relinquishment - you just wouldn't be able to purchase more. Honestly, I wouldn't mind them implementing such a change as long as the do away with the auto demo timer...would save me $$$.

I would be fine with the change as long as it doesn't force me to relinquish one of my houses. As for the no demo timer.. no. Just no. Thats a terrible idea in the retarded housing system that we have. If I quit the game or take a three month break, or anyone else for that matter, I should have to keep my sub if I want to keep my house. Otherwise you end up with houses sitting empty forever, owned by players who are literally never coming back.

I don't think I'm any more deserving than anyone else who uses their home, but I do get really annoyed seeing dozens and dozens of empty unused houses in Shirogane on my realm. Every house available was bought up in less than ten minutes, and over half of them are still sitting completely empty. Way more than half. I don't know why people rush to buy a house they are just going to ignore. Is it an e-peen thing? If you get a house, you should USE it. THAT is what irritates me so much about this whole issue. Yes, I have two houses. But I use both of them every single day. I'm sorry if you think its selfish or whatever, but I am not giving up one of my homes that I worked really hard to get and really hard to decorate. If that means I do have to buy it on an alt account I will.

[Searban]

I don't think I'm any more deserving than anyone else who uses their home, but I do get really annoyed seeing dozens and dozens of empty unused houses in Shirogane on my realm. Every house available was bought up in less than ten minutes, and over half of them are still sitting completely empty. Way more than half. I don't know why people rush to buy a house they are just going to ignore. Is it an e-peen thing? If you get a house, you should USE it. THAT is what irritates me so much about this whole issue. Yes, I have two houses. But I use both of them every single day. I'm sorry if you think its selfish or whatever, but I am not giving up one of my homes that I worked really hard to get and really hard to decorate. If that means I do have to buy it on an alt account I will.

And yet large part of what you have been arguing for here comes down to just that. Because they don't play with their houses enough (by your standards) or didn't put enough effort into getting one (again, by your standards). And as much as you don't care about players that don't own houses, they won't care about your claims that you deserve to own more than 1 plot if they consider you a part of the general housing problem. Which you are.

As for why some owned plots still stand empty in Shirogane, there are a few possible explanations. Some were bought by house flippers. Some were bought by people with multiple plots on multiple characters. They will return to that particular character and that particular house to decorate eventually. Maybe. And finally, the simplest explanation of them all - it has only been 2 weeks since 4.1 arrived. For some players a house will be an ongoing project of sorts. Some have less play time available and will take longer to decorate their plots. Some saved enough gil for a plot, but not enough to decorate it (hardly a difficult thing to imagine if costs of furnishing can easily surpass that of the plot alone). Did they have to rush to buy a plot? Yes. Because within constraints of the current housing system taking advantage of those brief windows when new wards are added is the only semi-reliable way to get a plot. I suspect some of the plots might have also been snatched by players that may want/need house in the future. For the same reason - there might not be a reliable way for them to buy a house at a later date, when they decide they actually want/need it.

While it might be implemented, no way they would be dumb enough to FORCE relinquishment - you just wouldn't be able to purchase more. Honestly, I wouldn't mind them implementing such a change as long as the do away with the auto demo timer...would save me $$$.

The big question here is whether it would actually be a dumb thing to do for them. Would some players get upset about such a change? Of course, but for every 1 angry owner of 2 plots there would be 1 player happy with the change. For every 1 angry owner of 3 plots there would be 2 players happy with the change. And so on. Would it cause a stir within the community? There is a stir caused by the problems housing system has already anyway. Would there be bad press? Probably. However, the bad press is also here already, drawn in by the housing crisis.

I've said it before, I might as well repeat myself: in a subscription-based MMO, where needs of many will always outweigh needs of a few, a move like this would certainly be controversial, but likely justifiable from the business point of view. I'm not saying SE will do it, but if they do I won't be surprised either.

The demolition timer is not going to go anywhere though. Not as long as the housing system is as inefficient as it is.

Now, on the general tone of the discussion here. I've been following it for some time now and as far as I can see the entire line of argument used by multiple plot owners relies on 2 claims. First, that they didn't break any rules. Second, that they don't deserve to be punished. I'm going to start with the latter.

Can we talk about what constitutes a punishment? Because at this point you're trying to label a change you wouldn't like as a punishment towards you. If they were take your additional plots away while reimbursing their full value to you it would merely be an attempt at restoring certain status quo in order to provide at least a band aid to an inefficient housing system. Sure, you could argue that you are loosing time invested into decorating your additional plots, but that's pretty much all about it. SE could even remove their housing system entirely while reimbursing players for it and no one would be able to claim being punished either.

And that brings us to the other point - the rules and whether any of them were broken. Of course they weren't. But just as you are aware that everything you've done so far was well within the existing set of rules imposed by SE you should be aware than SE can modify that set of rules however they want. That includes changing rules and applying them retroactively. They're well within their rights to do it, it's something all players accept by agreeing to EULA, ToS and every other document thrown their way when they buy a game and register an account.

[Niraves]

I don't care about players that buy houses and do nothing with them. Two weeks is more than enough time to do SOMETHING with the plot. Since the patch dropped I've made over 80 million gil just selling furniture, two of the small Shirogane Castle Walls and a few other odds and ends. Well some players don't craft, you say? Neither did I, until I decided that I wanted to start looking into housing in this game and I realised how expensive it was. So I leveled gatherers and leveled crafters and saved up every gil that I could because having a house, with all the nice furnishings and decorations that I wanted, was important to me.

I get it that some people don't have massive amounts of gil to throw into a house, maybe they spent every gil they had to buy the plot. But 51 empty plots out of 60 in a ward? That's ridiculous and it's unfair to players that wanted a house but couldn't beat the queue because of lobby errors or other factors. Every mansion in the ward my personal house is in is entirely empty. Every. Single. One. And I know, me having two houses means one other person didn't get to have one, but from what I can see there is a heck of a lot more empty houses than just the one extra one that I own. If people would stop buying houses and leaving them sitting empty, maybe there would be more players who actually use their house in the wards. That seems more like the issue with housing than someone owning an extra plot.

Honestly the entire housing system is stupid. This entire debate can all be laid at SEs feet because they are too stubborn to just get rid of the wards entirely and instance housing so its available to every player who wants to have a house. Or make the wards FC only, and make all personal housing instanced. Or do what they said they were going to do with apartments and generate more wards as needed automatically. This game makes plenty of money, theres no reason that we should be force fed the same old tired 'server limitations' crap every time we need a feature to be improved on.

[Leloa]

I really hope they don't ignore the housing problems we have now. Didn't dev say in the forums they will be releasing new wards and try to take the feedback in it? This is dumb, most houses in shirogane or other areas are sitting empty and getting dust. I hope the demolishing timer gets smaller or changed so people who dont do squat witht their plot loses them!

[Searban]

I don't care about players that buy houses and do nothing with them. Two weeks is more than enough time to do SOMETHING with the plot. Since the patch dropped I've made over 80 million gil just selling furniture, two of the small Shirogane Castle Walls and a few other odds and ends. Well some players don't craft, you say? Neither did I, until I decided that I wanted to start looking into housing in this game and I realised how expensive it was. So I leveled gatherers and leveled crafters and saved up every gil that I could because having a house, with all the nice furnishings and decorations that I wanted, was important to me.

What is your point exactly? That a player should be required have a certain level of weekly income before buying a house? Not that having a decent weekly income is particularly difficult, but it will be much lower if you aren't a crafter (and becoming a dedicated crafter requires a fairly significant investment on its own).

Honestly, long as the new plot owner intends to actively work on his house at his own pace but in foreseeable future, I don't see an issue. People that bought their plots purely maintain an empty house as a status symbol are a different matter entirely. However, if all they do is owning a single plot one might argue they simply maintain their point of access to the housing system (regardless of whether they intend to make use of it or not) which has been one of more prominent features for this game for the past few years and a fairly significant selling point for the entire last expansion. Even if we were to agree that those players are in fact one of the problems within constraints of the current housing system that doesn't mean that multiple plots owners aren't one as well. Trying to suggest otherwise is an attempt at shifting the blame at best.

On another note, there is a fairly good chance that some (I'm not going to speculate about percentages here, we don't have nearly enough data on this issue to make any assumptions on the matter) of those empty houses people notice in Shirogane are in the hands of people that own multiple plots on multiple alts because they don't break any rules.