Housing exposes a fundamental flaw in institutionalized ethics.

[Amomomo]

JackHatchet,

Good on you in trying to argue some sense into the dense heads of these People! Unfortunately, it is difficult to get these people to understand why it is NOT ok to own multiple houses "just because they can, and because the system allows them to". Clearly keyboard warriors are strong in these players who have been throwing "reasons" whenever players like you say as much as a single word against their sim-playing/multiple-housing owning behaviour.

Sad to say, the only solution to this would be revamping the housing system from ground up, which is very, VERY UNLIKELY to happen since we cannot expect SE to spend a patch-worth of resources on a "casual content". There will be many more of these players who will CONTINUE to legitimise their ownership of multiple houses, whether it is for Sims-FFXIV or reselling for profits.

These players do not realise that in heavily pursuing their multi-house dream, they nurture the growth and greed of house resellers, blocking out new players who want the enjoy the self-same housing contents. Not many regular players can simply dish out 60-200mil just to persuade resellers to give them a chance at housing - which, in the case of 4.2, relocation/shell FCs - new ways to cheat that go on and on and on.

In terms of why moral are relevant in a video game? Well. WHY THE HELL THEN, so many players are UPSET after the failure of 4.1 housing? There are legitimate reasons why there are enough angry players that the 4.1 housing issue made headlines in various online news/forums, enough to force SE to release these new housing rules for 4.2! Reading these "reasonable" comments why players should NOT be salty about people cheating (yes CHEATING) the system to gain multiple houses set my teeth on edge.

JackHatchet, stay strong in your opinion, even though these people argue otherwise. I ensure you that many players, especially those who wants to be take part of housing features (FC/personal wise) in 4.2, will agree with you.

I simply just cannot wait until 4.2 drops, these "cheating" behaviours (esp. shell FCs) takes over 50% of the new housing wards, and the rest of the player base rush to these forums to scream their dissatisfaction and to seek retribution against these multiple house owners and their immoral reasonings.

Oh, did I mention, the real winners (house resellers) will simply smirk as they bait desperate players for immense amounts of gil, again?

[StouterTaru]

And I still don't see the ethical or moral dilemma of it, and thus don't understand the hatred. It's not inflicting harm profiting off of a need; it's someone making money off a non-essential service.

[JackHatchet]

And I still don't see the ethical or moral dilemma of it, and thus don't understand the hatred. It's not inflicting harm profiting off of a need; it's someone making money off a non-essential service.

You're asking me why greed is immoral? Good question. I don't have an easy answer.

[Amomomo]

And I still don't see the ethical or moral dilemma of it, and thus don't understand the hatred. It's not inflicting harm profiting off of a need; it's someone making money off a non-essential service.

Sigh. That's why I hate stupid people who simply throw "reasons" around and abuse it... All these comments on this thread... Sigh.

FYI I am not stuffed to even try to figure out the fancy language you are speaking. Nor trying to.

I've said my piece, if all of yall's decided to have an academic philosophical debate which is clearly derailing from FFXIV housing content, I'm out. o/

[Sakuraluna]

Well, regardless what your (that is, anyone's) ethical values are, the excuse can no longer be given that it's okay to own multiple houses on the same account, same server simply because the game lets you do it; because as of this maint, the game no longer lets you do it.

[StouterTaru]

You're asking me why greed is immoral? Good question. I don't have an easy answer.

Yeah, I guess that's the crux of it. At what point does wanting nice things become wrong, or making money getting other people nice things? Is it OK to covet a greedy person?

Sigh. That's why I hate stupid people who simply throw "reasons" around and abuse it... All these comments on this thread... Sigh.

Ask someone why they hate, and become an object of their hatred.

[Amomomo]

... because as of this maint, the game no longer lets you do it.

YES! Despite loopholes though, rip.

Yoshi-P himself, AND the upcoming 4.2 patches clearly indicates the FFXIV Dev's standpoint on housing-flipping and multiple house owning issue. They are AGAINST it.

The effectiveness of their housing rules is yet to be seen, and of course, not enough to 100% halt housing flipping and owning multiple houses lol. But it is a start, which I am grateful for.

[Warr_of_Lint]

i can't believe we're down to applying real world ethics to a video game to somehow try to understand why people buy more than one virtual home. this is getting weird.

This is certainly an interesting way to frame things. I suppose when one views this issue from a broader scope, one could argue that it would be unethical to spend money and time on videogames when those excess resources could be spent on those that have urgent and dire needs. Or in other words, it's shortsighted to complain about the inequities within a videogame, which is already a self-indulgent luxury. But my goodness how unbearable life would be if we had to sacrifice every ounce of own joy as long as someone (or something, for you animal lovers) in the world that had a need greater than our own. It is difficult to see the unfairness in things until one is personally affected--those who can should be commended; those who cannot, we shouldn't be too hard on them.

A good example for America, is that for a long time it wasn't illegal to sleep with a corpse.

I just want to make sure someone here doesn't try this; even if it isn't specially written into law that you cannot sleep with a corpse, it is probably still illegal because they made it illegal to sleep with something without its consent. They don't need to pass a new law because it was already well covered by an existing one. Back to the issue about overlooking things: instead of focusing on the specific activities, laws are most effective when they get to the crux of the issue (in this case, consent). I'm sure someone could conceive of a rule that SE could have implemented to get to the crux of the housing issue, but it's good that SE is making an effort now.

[Flashgordon1975]

The type of house "hoarder" that is unethical is in the minority.

What about those that have alts with which they play on as well and they want another house for that different persona? Remember SE makes it possible to have other characters on a server via extra payment. We hear people talking about greed of those that own multiple houses....where were these same people talking when there were plots open on all servers except the most populated? They certainly were not buying any of those empty plots.

This whole issue of greed or ethics never came up until these people decided having a house was cool and they now wanted one, in many cases these same people had other opportunities before this to purchase. What I see here is an awful lot of envy. Envy tends to lead to greed and avarice. I want what you have, I can't have it so that makes you greedy and unethical.

[Besame]

Are you implying that ethics stop existing because it's a video game? When we're talking about how one person's actions affect another--that involves ethics. It's not like it's a video game in a vacuum.

Hehe Jack, MMO players are some of the best and worst people in the world. You just have to wade through the bad and find the very small handful of good and FC/friend them. I did.