Liveblog JP - Yoshi P's 4.2 Housing Plan Discussion

[Almagnus1]

Yea who knows since they wont just come out and say. Personaly im hopeing for some kind a timer on letting go of plots so flippers can't guarantee the land to buyers ending people rushing for land just to resell.

I wouldn't be surprised if they just mass banned them all.

For that matter, I wouldn't put it past SE to just take the nuclear option and ban everyone that's got more than one personal house on their account.

[Dualgunner]

I wouldn't be surprised if they just mass banned them all.

For that matter, I wouldn't put it past SE to just take the nuclear option and ban everyone that's got more than one personal house on their account.

I don't see them mass banning people for simply owning more than one house. That's a lot of revenue they'd be losing.

[Shurrikhan]

I wouldn't be surprised if they just mass banned them all.

For that matter, I wouldn't put it past SE to just take the nuclear option and ban everyone that's got more than one personal house on their account.

What is this? Seriously?

Nowhere in the terms of service nor ingame does it say that one is forbidden from owning multiple houses if they are wanting and able to purchase them. What unintended behavior of which we've heard nothing from the devs themselves would ban people next?

[Rinuko]

I wouldn't be surprised if they just mass banned them all.

For that matter, I wouldn't put it past SE to just take the nuclear option and ban everyone that's got more than one personal house on their account.

Will never happen. Nobody broke rules.
If SE wanted to have it 1 per account they would made those restriction a long time ago, i'm thinking they can't even do that in the current system without redoing it.

[Claviusnex]

So, what are the alleged advantages to a lottery system? What is it even supposed to mean, exactly?

The only advantage I can think of is it eliminates the problem of backed up login queues and other load related problems in regards to buying a house. By running a lottery they can open a window for players to apply and be assigned an entry number. At some later point they can close the application window and do the drawing. Other than applying none of it requires the player to be logged on so gives everyone an equal chance at winning (assuming even odds). They would still need to restrict applications to one per account/server to stop multi-house purchases and resellers but even if they didn't a lottery reduces the odds of someone getting more than a single house.

[SendohJin]

I've read the whole interview, I'm just wondering why anyone would tout "a process or thing whose success or outcome is governed by chance" as a means of finding equilibrium between opportunity-equality and desire-equitability.

Some people want houses a whole lot more than others and will expend higher effort and/or resources to obtain one. A lottery does not help their situation whatsoever.

SE has no obligation or incentive to care about "desire-equitability"; does it happen anywhere and it's not a bad thing?

i really want to buy the new Tesla.
i really want reservations at this restaurant.
i really want those play/game/concert tickets.

the only thing that encourages is scalping.

equal opportunity is the only thing they should be concerned about and a lottery can do that (if they limit it to per account and not per character).

what i would find interesting is if they do a lottery for every plot and each account only has 6 bids, 3 for personal and 3 for FC or if they did 3 different lotteries for the plot sizes and people can do all 3 if they want to.

[Mikki]

For what it's worth, I have a house so it doesn't matter to me but I think a lottery is a terrible idea. They need to fix the crashing that's happening when people try to log on after the server goes up.... or find some way to address it. Perhaps they should open the server and give people time to get on and things to stabilize and then they could open the housing areas a few hours later? I'm not sure but there has to be some way to approach this issue.

A lottery system may sound great to some, but I always felt like if you wanted something nice you should work hard for it. People who really want a house badly enough will try their best. They will wake up at ungodly hours, memorize a route, have back ups and alternatives in mind, etc. Many people voiced the opinion, "If I just wasn't fast enough, fine. I can accept that. But I couldn't even get my foot in the race to start because I got an error!"

A lottery system would mean anyone, no matter how much they wanted a house (or how little) could put in for one as long as they had the funds. I guess this is nice for those casual players who kind of think a house would be nice but don't want one badly enough to stay up late or wake up early or plan their schedule around it to get one. But I think this takes the feeling of control away from people. People like to feel as if they have done everything they could in order to get something and a lottery feels .... bad. You can't prep for a lottery. You can't improve your odds for a lottery. You can't work hard to make your chances a bit better.

But this is just my two cents and clearly there are people who disagree with it. But I just think they should work on fixing the log in issues and errors.

[Scardon]

Honestly there is a lot of 'benefit of the doubt' being given here. I simply don't think it will both be 'fair' for everyone AND plots not sell out quickly. I think he is either underestimating demand or overestimating what ever system they have planned as being 'fair.'

Buying via Achievements points would definitely not be fair in the slightest, not even as fair as a lottery system. Lottery system would at least be fair in the sense everyone would get a chance at a house when right now that is clearly not the case.

What really annoys me is why they aren't simply skipping to the end on this thing. Until supply of PLOTS (not apartments or even allowing gardening to everyone regardless of housing) meet or exceed demand it will continue to be a problem. Trying to keep some idea of 'exclusivity' or "its not enough I succeed, you have to fail" can not possibly be worth all this effort. Are there swathes of people who will literally unsub because other people are able to get houses?

Everyone pays a sub to fund content. Its one thing not to want to play or refuse to put in the effort to play content but housing is where no matter how hard you try you can still be blocked. Until everyone who pays a subscription has the ability to buy a plot legitimately on the server, area and size of their choice given they have the gil to do so, this will continue to be a problem.
Anything less is waste of time and resources on their part.

[Dustytome]

Given their unwillingness to let us know what their plans are to keep us from preparing for new plots, a lottery seems unlikely. You can't really prepare for a randomized system like that.

[Scardon]

Given their unwillingness to let us know what their plans are to keep us from preparing for new plots, a lottery seems unlikely. You can't really prepare for a randomized system like that.

Where do they say that? Only time I read they didn't want to reveal plans was because they didn't want to fuel speculation, not because they didn't want people to prepare.

To prevent speculation, we will refrain from releasing information until absolutely necessary. We ask for your patience and understanding until we can provide you with these details.