Please Remove Housing Timers During the Covid-19 Epidemic

[Kaedan]

Basic rule of thumb if it causes a massive loss of internet infrastructure to an area or displaces people due to other structure damage, they MIGHT postpone it depending on severity. a virus with an estimated 1 week-2 week recovery time does not fit under this. you can also plan for and prevent catching it entirely unlike a hurricane or massive earthquake...

This sums it up best.

[Theodric]

Even as someone who has a house myself, I don't want to see the housing timer stopped each and every time there's some sort of disaster going on.

[Arillyn]

We all make mistakes. I didn't want to put in numbers on my post because they're quickly changing, and actually my numbers weren't even correct. Of the confirmed cases, 3.6% of people have died. And this is assuming the numbers are correct.

For all the people who keep saying that the flu is worse: if as many people get COVID-19 as people get the flu each flu season, with the current mortality rate, we would have about 1,000,000 dead people in the US alone. There is no need to panic, but please take it seriously. Take precautions and try to avoid unnecessary social contact if you're in an affected area.

Exactly. People need to take this seriously. Don't panic, but be smart, be hygienic (like you should be always anyway), but understand even if nothing has been reported in your area - assume it's in the community. Because they are NOT testing people like they should, at least in the US. For example my state declared a state of emergency yesterday and also said that my state has 500 tests currently. FIVE HUNDRED. I have friends in the medical field and they have said stay away from crowds and wash your hands because it's out there and the testing criteria is so tight right now because of lack of tests that almost no one is being tested even if they think someone has it. This is coming from nurses and docs I know who work in the ER.

[Kobalos]

In the UK folks have been panic buying loo rolls and flour XD

[LolitaBansheeMeru]

One thing. Just No lol If you survive it and have it you can still log on for a moment to get into it... and two if you don't it won't even matter so No

[Arillyn]

In the UK folks have been panic buying loo rolls and flour XD

Here it's toilet paper, disinfectant and water. The toilet paper makes me smh. Like how much do you think you are going to need if you have to self-quarantine for two weeks??

Curious though... why flour?

[wereotter]

So as someone in the Bay Area, I have to say I don't think this is needed.

The difference here and other major issues is that this one is best avoided by staying home, where your internet and gaming machine are. More often they stop demolitions when infrastructure is impacted to the point where people actually can not log on. If you're avoiding the illness, or you are ill, worst case you can pop on for the two minutes it takes to keep your house, and even if you become infected, it's most likely you'll recover before your house would be taken away. The only case I can see where people would lose their house is if they're already near the end of their timer, become infected, get hospitalized, and lose the house during that time. But in that case, there's a good chance you would have lost the house anyway.... and you're not using it enough to justify having it.

[thegreatonemal]

They also did it for Hurricane Michael a year and a half ago, as well as a few other times over the course of the game's tenure.

Yea for natural disasters that knock out power and destroy property. This isn't that. You still have access to the internet and can log in.

[SDaemon]

This info is all wrong.

Based on the WHO's numbers, the mortality rate on COVID-19 is currently around 3.2%. The seasonal flu is typically less than 1%.

While I'm not wanting to downplay the severity much. People should still take common precautions and take care of themselves. The WHO statistic your posting is the crude mortality rate which is only based on reported COVID-19 cases and confirmed deaths from it. This doesnt account for the mass of people who are infected and never knew it and other such unreported cases. Many experts have come out and said the true mortality rate is likely much closer to 1% or below. Higher than the seasonal flu but not nearly as frightening as 3.2%. Its mostly because testing for the disease has been so lackluster poor, especially here in the US where so few have bothered to be tested for it.

[QT_Melon]

Best information is directly from the source: in this case, the World Health Organization.

https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-de...-coronaviruses

This isn't just about fatality. Just because this is a recent outbreak it doesn't make it less worse than the flu. In Itally for example the outbreak caused a fatality rate from COVID 19 that is higher than China's. Italy is known for a much better health care than China.

The point is that this pandemic is NEW, there's no known cure. This makes it even more dangerous due to the fact you can be a carrier of the disease and show no known symptoms. Testing has been SLOW.

"Okay but many of us still don't die"
Which is fantastic, but there's other lingering health concerns that don't involve death. Scar tissue is another problem. So it's a valid concern to not want other lingering health effects even if they aren't particularly fatal.

It's worse for the US because the US was slow on the uptake on even testing for it to begin with. This is why the cases rose so quickly, because it was just outright dismissed.

Influenza has different strains - https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/viruses/types.htm so it's not just one type.

Yes people shouldn't panic, but there's a reason for Cancel Everything. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...ything/607675/

That being said - about the housing situation - This is a tough call. I don't think at this time it should suspend housing but who knows what will happen in the next week. Isolation means being at home where you may be playing FFXIV, but it depends on the economic situation panning out as well.

The fact it's causing other issues economically and why historians may be amusingly referring to it as "Disaster Voltron" https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/stat...03944151007232

I'm a pretty laid back person, but when I see someone just only talking about "Well it's less fatal than the flu" kind of completely miss the point why this is an important issue. It isn't JUST about death.