Please Remove Housing Timers During the Covid-19 Epidemic

[MomomiMomi]

You people sure are willing to use any possible excuse to keep something you don't even use. It's so sad.

Not even going to lose my house either way. Although I do support stopping the timers, I'd prefer they just extend the timer permanently instead of constantly turning it off and on.

[DamianFatale]

You people sure are willing to use any possible excuse to keep something you don't even use. It's so sad.

You're not really Y'shtola or my mom.

[Rasikko]

The virus is a big problem in Japan but there isn't a lot of deaths, so that would explain why no action with timers have been taken. On the other hand, Japan hasn't decided to go on lockdown yet.

You people sure are willing to use any possible excuse to keep something you don't even use. It's so sad.

..Says the person using a sock puppet account to post here with an FC that owns like 1(2?) full ward and a bit of another.

[Packetdancer]

I really think this is too much of a stretch to expect them to halt the timer because of speculation that some fraction of the playerbase might not be able to afford a subscription. Or certainly too much of a stretch to start asking them to halt it now because it might happen to some hypothetical people sometime in the future.

There are a lot of people in the US who are paid hourly, and not well enough to build up a significant buffer. Where if they miss a day of work, it has a measurable financial impact on them. These are the folks who will face choices like "if I feel sick, do I stay home and take the loss of pay, or do I figure it's just a flu/cold and go in to the coffeeshop where I work anyway?"

And that's without getting into the folks where their job has just said that, due to quarantine situations, they're sending everyone home indefinitely.

Two of my in-game friends who are paid hourly have been furloughed without pay for the next month, which has caused some... let's just call it "growing financial concern" on their parts. Another friend who works at a restaurant, the restaurant's closed for sit-down dining and doing take-out only, so the waitstaff—including my friend—have been furloughed without pay for the next two weeks.

(Moreover, with folks already panicking and buying up supplies, what supplies are left in some areas—diapers, toilet paper, kleenex, hand soap and sanitizer—have spiked in price, meaning if you haven't already stocked up, just finding the supplies you might need if quarantined for a few weeks can be a bigger financial hit than you might expect.)

If this passes in one month, sure, folks might still be able to squeeze in a subscription—especially if they live in an area that's allowing unemployment insurance to cover a percentage of their normal wages if they're sent home, or if other bills are temporarily forgiven because of the situation. If the disruption stretches out beyond a month or so, though, it could get really rough for those folks financially, and subscriptions to an MMO are likely not considered a necessity. (Even if you might otherwise lose your mind while quarantined, so there's maybe an argument to be made they are...)

If the reason for turning off the housing timer when there's massive disruption of internet infrastructure due to earthquakes or whatever else is "due to circumstances beyond their control, a sizable number of players will not be able to log in and reset their housing timer", it seems like the Covid-19 pandemic has the potential to become a similar scenario. so I can understand why people are asking it.

If, as others have suggested, the only reason that the timer is turned off is because SquareEnix feels it would be gauche to demolish in-game housing when people might have lost real-world housing to an earthquake, I'd agree the scenarios are nothing alike. So it probably comes down to what SquareEnix's reasoning behind turning off the timer temporarily is.

What might make sense is not so much disabling the timer but doubling it to 90 days (even if only temporarily). If you cannot log in for three months, chances are that yes, the house is being ignored and could safely be reclaimed, so it wouldn't lead to abandoned houses owned by players who haven't logged in for years, but it also wouldn't end up with someone's lovingly-decorated house and yard being destroyed because they aren't getting paid for a month.

For my part, I'm safe; I'm privileged enough to have a salaried job where I can work from home, so my paycheck's theoretically not affected (unless the national economy completely crumbles or something). Either way, I probably keep my house. But I think about the friend who's just been furloughed for a month and who has a house she loves and has worked hard on the decorations for, and I wince a bit at the idea that if she had to let her subscription lapse for two months as a result of financial disruption, she'd lose the house. In her case, I suspect others—including me—would just pick up the tab to keep our friend around. (And keep her from going stir-crazy while furloughed and quarantined.)

But that's hardly a scenario that applies to every single person who's going to feel a financial pinch.

So like I said, I can understand where the request is coming from.

[DBriggs304]

Yeah, the media has people treating it like its another Black Death that will wipe out half of earths population. Its ridiculous the panic being caused. Panic and mass hysteria are never positive.

The media is doing what they are supposed to do. Report on it. There's nothing ridiculous about being concerned until we have an active and effective treatment in terms of a vaccine. It will be worse if mutation comes into play. That is the real threat right now and every medical facility and personnel knows this as my facility has for months.

[TheMightyMollusk]

The media is sensationalizing it for more ratings. It's what they do.

[Gemina]

No ITS NOT.
Its 20-30 times more deadlier than normal flu and about 20% of all cases requires hospitalization including oxygen intake, it also gives several times worse complications that could do permanent damage to your lungs, heart and nerve system that could carry on for the rest of infected person life. Stop being ignorant.

Sounds like you're one of the people panicking and allowing overblown facts from the media to fuel it.

Here is what the media will tell you: "Covid-19 is x10 deadlier than influenza."

I am not saying they are incorrect. Covid-19 is indeed deadlier than the flu virus. But look at it this way. If you made a penny a day, and someone came to you saying they are going to multiply your earnings 10 fold. It really isn't that significant of an increase, is it?

The damage you are seeing caused to the lungs are caused by any number of respiratory illnesses, including the normal flu. The lungs are regenerative, and are constantly repairing themselves from the everyday toxins you take in. If they did not, humans would have much shorter lifespans.

Most people who die from the flu actually die in the hospital from catching pneumonia during their visit. IN the hospital! Ironic isn't it? The very place you go to get better ends up doing you in.

Of course, I am not saying to just be complacent during this outbreak, but a lot of what you are witnessing is the very definition of a wide-spread panic, and when this globe really decides to take a crap on humanity, I would use this as a direct example of what NOT to do.

[Nedkel]

SPread out people, sars-cov-2 is just your regular flu, nothing to look at.

https://www.thailandmedical.news/new...reas-and-liver
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https://www.thailandmedical.news/new...al-super-virus
https://www.thailandmedical.news/new...r-viral-spread
https://www.thailandmedical.news/new...ausing-concern
https://www.thailandmedical.news/new...owing-symptoms
https://www.thailandmedical.news/new...and-in-culture
https://www.thailandmedical.news/new...to-be-evolving

Have fun there in europe, especially in the UK.

[QT_Melon]

Sounds like you're one of the people panicking and allowing overblown facts from the media to fuel it.

Of course, I am not saying to just be complacent during this outbreak, but a lot of what you are witnessing is the very definition of a wide-spread panic, and when this globe really decides to take a crap on humanity, I would use this as a direct example of what NOT to do.

So if I am to understand this post (where I placed emphasis on one sentence) - you would use an out of context post that was in direct reference to how "the flu kills more people" as a statement of panic? I mean, that sounds really petty...

The person you quoted isn't saying "hide yo kids, hide yo wife" but only telling people why it's a concern and not endorsing panicking but rather than jumping to cliches.

While I dislike the spectrum of people actually panicking over this and causing more disruptions to the economy doing so, I also dislike the other end of the spectrum that wants to be petty/dismissive and ignore the actual concerns spewing rhetoric that completely misses the point.

[Gemina]

So if I am to understand this post (where I placed emphasis on one sentence) - you would use an out of context post that was in direct reference to how "the flu kills more people" as a statement of panic? I mean, that sounds really petty...

The person you quoted isn't saying "hide yo kids, hide yo wife" but only telling people why it's a concern and not endorsing panicking but rather than jumping to cliches.

While I dislike the spectrum of people actually panicking over this and causing more disruptions to the economy doing so, I also dislike the other end of the spectrum that wants to be petty/dismissive and ignore the actual concerns spewing rhetoric that completely misses the point.

In turn, I can also express how much I dislike people who immediately think I am being dismissive of valid concerns. The rhetoric I spew is from a perspective that is zoomed out on the current situation, because it is the hysteria that makes me worry more than the actual virus, economy crashes, and loss to income. You do understand that panic promotes the spread; not hinders it. Correct?

Ironically, I AM saying "hide you kids", "hide yo wife". Not to protect them Covid-19 though. To protect them from those who are over-worried about it.