Housing exposes a fundamental flaw in institutionalized ethics.

[MizArai]

The statement in the live letter was also very clear.

You're right, it was. This is from the official translation of the live letter. It seems pretty clear.

"Players will be permitted to own only one private and one free company estate per World per service account. Please note that if you currently own several plots, you will not lose those plots. This restriction will be applied per World, so owning a plot in one World will not affect the purchase on another World. Owning an apartment won’t be considered as owning an estate, so you may purchase without any concerns."

[Mahrze]

The statement in the live letter was also very clear. I don't know what you want out of this.

There's plenty (and I do mean plenty) of times when Yoshi-P says something that is significantly or totally different than what we end up getting. Iirc, he even came out on an interview saying to not be quoted because the dev team can't always keep what he promises. So, I wouldn't fixate myself too much on anything unless its "printed" on full patch notes.

[MizArai]

Also, just realizing they are keeping this per world, so the argument that they want people to only own one house is still out the window. You can still buy multiple houses, you just have to put in even more effort to play them on different world.

[Acilith]

Also, just realizing they are keeping this per world, so the argument that they want people to only own one house is still out the window. You can still buy multiple houses, you just have to put in even more effort to play them on different world.

And honestly on some servers that's not difficult to do. Resell vendor items on the MB for a little while and you can easily get enough for a small, at least that's what I've been doing. Extremely low effort.

[TaranTatsuuchi]

Right, the system was built that way, but you could argue that the original system built was flawed.
...

The flaw in the system was, and remains, the number of houses available, not the ability of someone to buy more than one. When SE built the housing system they made the deliberate choice to allow players to own an FC house and a personal house on each character; this was not a loop hole, this was a purpose built feature of the system.
...
The root of the problem is the number of houses. SE refuses to put in enough houses to meet demand and creates an artificial scarcity because of it. The ONLY solution to this will be to release more houses, anything else is a bandaid that really doesn't fix anything, it just changes who's going to be upset about it. The ethical solution is for SE to create more wards or instanced housing, not taking it away from others.

There's plenty (and I do mean plenty) of times when Yoshi-P says something that is significantly or totally different than what we end up getting. Iirc, he even came out on an interview saying to not be quoted because the dev team can't always keep what he promises. So, I wouldn't fixate myself too much on anything unless its "printed" on full patch notes.

Originally.
Housing was for FC's only.


They planned for personal housing that would be seperate and cheaper than the FC housing.
They did not deliver on that until the recent apartments...
Those apartments should have been the original implementation of personal housing.


They went with the quick and easy implementation of just allowing singular players to purchase FC housing.
That mistake has haunted the housing system ever since.


It's not just that there's too little housing...
But that the personal and FC housing was mixed together and both are limited resources.

If the apartments had been the inital implementation of personal housing, then we probably would have been in a better situation at this time.

[DeaconMoore]

I love ethics, because they can change so wildly between person to person. What one person views as right may be wrong to another. To cut it short, housing exposes how obvious it is that some people's ethics are based on whether they system or rules allow them to behave in such a way. An action isn't inherently right or wrong, unless the rule say so.

For example. A lot of people think it's ethically ok to own multiple houses. Not because of any ethical reasoning, but because the rules say it's ok. "I'm not breaking any rules, therefore my behaviors are correct."

--------------------

Ethics can be extremely tricky to define, but I like to think on them. When I think of the housing issues. I don't think about "What I can get away with according to the rules," but rather, "what would be the most ethical way to handle this situation? How should I behave as a person in society."

The truth of housing is that it is limited. It's a limited resource. So ethically speaking, could I really justify having additional houses for alts? Is it "the right thing to do?" When you get down to the black and white of it--there's no logically way one can reason owning more than one house other than pure selfish greed.

And I think that's what really bothers me about all the people trying to defend houses for their alts. I don't think it's the act itself, but rather that these people have disillusioned themselves to believing their behavior is ethical simply because the rules say "it's ok."

It's s a dangerous thought-path to have. To base right and wrong based on what the rules tell you rather than taking the time to think-critically on the matter. It wouldn't bother me so much if people just owned up to their selfish desires and admitted that they're taking houses away from other people, and they're greedy and they want to keep what they worked for. You know? That's fair, right?

But I think it's morally wrong to be greedy, and then pretend like it's not wrong.

Thanks for the laugh. Now go do the ethical thing, stop being greedy, and release your house so a homeless FC can use it already.

In the mean time tell SE to stop being unethical and get their stuff together to release unlimitied housing for everyone already. Games much older than this one managed to pull that off no prob and their communities don't have to fight over housing.

[JackHatchet]

I'm surprised everyone kept this post up the entire week. I only expected it to last the weekend.

Given how much emotional investment everyone seems to have in this issue it's amazing that Square-Enix has turned a blind-eye to the problem for so long. If anyone has handled this whole catastrophe wrong--it's certainly Square-Enix.

[Kohdo]

Gonna take the bait.

Stop playing Morality Police and get over it. It's a pixel house in a video game. Save your gil, wait for a plot to open and seize the opportunity like literally every other prospective buyer and stop demanding the system be changed because you came in at the end of the queue and think you've somehow been wronged.

This constant "what about me" whining from part of the community over housing is getting really tedious.

[Mahrze]

I'm surprised everyone kept this post up the entire week. I only expected it to last the weekend.

Given how much emotional investment everyone seems to have in this issue it's amazing that Square-Enix has turned a blind-eye to the problem for so long. If anyone has handled this whole catastrophe wrong--it's certainly Square-Enix.

Not really a blind eye, because they are aware of it. The situation right now is at a cross point that whichever road they take.... someone won't be happy.

Their best course of action would be to remove wards all together and make housing instanced with a few generic backgrounds to add some flavor.

[Kohdo]

Not really a blind eye, because they are aware of it. The situation right now is at a cross point that whichever road they take.... someone won't be happy.

Their best course of action would be to remove wards all together and make housing instanced with a few generic backgrounds to add some flavor.

An instanced housing system alongside the ward system would be nice, although I imagine server limitations would be given as the reason that can't be done. I'd rather not replace the current system as many people enjoy the community feel of non-instanced housing.