Housing Market Demand Leading to Health Concerns

[Doozer]

snip

I'm not sure why you're telling me about botting and what SE controls. I think you quoted the wrong person.

[Penthea]

I'm not sure why you're telling me about botting and what SE controls. I think you quoted the wrong person.

Because your reaction to the behaviour that the placard encourages appears to be "see a therapist" and not "SE should remove or change a mechanic that encourages behaviour that is little other than a detriment to the player".

[Doozer]

Because your reaction to the behaviour that the placard encourages appears to be "see a therapist" and not "SE should remove or change a mechanic that encourages behaviour that is little other than a detriment to the player".

I don't think you understand things like addiction if you can't grasp what I'm saying. SE doesn't make people stand there. You could just not. I certainly don't. But some people literally cannot control themselves, and taking away the outlet will only lead them to turn their attention to something else equally unhealthy. It's important to address that unhealthy obsession at the source instead of just taking away hazards. Therapy can help with that. Get it?

Also, I understand that you and others on the forum clutch your black-and-white thinking like pearls, but we can have both. People can seek professional help for their problems that are literally affecting their health and SE can do something about the housing situation. I literally never said anything about how SE should do nothing about it. Maybe you don't agree, but I believe someone should worry about their own health first before the state of a video game. Hence why I made my first comment instead of just echoing what everyone else was saying.

[Penthea]

I don't think you understand things like addiction if you can't grasp what I'm saying. SE doesn't make people stand there. You could just not. I certainly don't. But some people literally cannot control themselves, and taking away the outlet will only lead them to turn their attention to something else equally unhealthy. It's important to address that unhealthy obsession at the source instead of just taking away hazards. Therapy can help with that. Get it?

I do get it and I understand what you are saying, but you must also understand that SE should be held accountable for the things that they encourage from their playerbase and the lengthy amount of time spent with the placard timer is certainly something awful that they do encourage.

Also, I understand that you and others on the forum clutch your black-and-white thinking like pearls, but we can have both. People can seek professional help for their problems that are literally affecting their health and SE can do something about the housing situation. I literally never said anything about how SE should do nothing about it. Maybe you don't agree, but I believe someone should worry about their own health first before the state of a video game. Hence why I made my first comment instead of just echoing what everyone else was saying.

Then I remind you that this game is rated for teens. You can't trust a child to fully understand the risks of addictive behaviour in a game. Very few have the life experience necessary for such critical thinking. Even if they understand that it is bad, they could very well be unaware of how grave the situation can be. Sure you can say parents should step in, but SE do have a certain amount of responsibility if their game is rated low enough that minors can play.

And I'm not as black and white as you think. I agree that we can have both a better housing system as well as players who do genuinely need professional help regarding their behaviour in a game (trust me I have met a few who are in serious need of help). I am just not fond of the idea that some do not appear to think that SE should be held accountable for the behaviour they encourage.

Spamming dungeons for several hours at a time is not something SE encourage because there is literally no mechanic that says "to succeed here you must do this" but with the placard timer it's literally camp for potentially several hours or don't engage in it at all. There isn't a way to realistically interact with the placard mechanic in moderation and still have a high chance of success unless you use a bot.

The fact that using a bot is the healthiest and most efficient way to engage with the placard mechanic just shows how incredibly flawed it is.

[Divinemights]

OP need to seek for professional assistance as the way he put it do makes himself looks like suffering mental issue. It is either that or he is just using this as an excuse to persuade SE. However, he did ignore the facts of first SE never encourages such behaviour and secondly time zone exists

[Doozer]

snip

Okay well, I'm not here to fight you, so pick someone else to repeat the same stuff over and over again to. I came here to explain that such behaviour isn't healthy, not argue with someone about why they think SE is responsible for someone's choices.

OP need to seek for professional assistance as the way he put it do makes himself looks like suffering mental issue. It is either that or he is just using this as an excuse to persuade SE. However, he did ignore the facts of first SE never encourages such behaviour and secondly time zone exists

Agreed.

[Kenky]

More like "we pay a sub, so SE should do what they say they'll do." The response to this outstanding issue, that has never NOT been brought up by players and described as a horrifying mistake, has been lackluster to say the least. As for your apartment argument, you're starting to sound like Emmet's speech from The Lego Movie:"
"Sure, they're smaller. It's true you can't do gardening. You're absolutely right, there's no outdoor options at all. Ya, you can't share the space with friends. Correct, there's no workshop either. Of course you have a point, the item cap is way smaller. Wait, where was I going with this?"

I do like how you solely focus on nothing but the negatives of an apartment and leave it at that, instead of actually reading the entire excerpt of why I suggest apartments. People have done amazing things, even with the limitations that Apartments bring and, with current events making it almost impossible to obtain an actual ward house, people could buy an apartment and test the waters in a controlled, patient scenario. Would you prefer to pay 500K gil and find out that decorating isn't your thing? Or break the proverbial bank by shilling out upwards of 5 million gil to come to the same conclusion?

Most people would pick the 500K. Purely because of the less losses on that point.

You don't like apartments or the recommendation that people try before they buy? That's fine and dandy for you. But don't act as if your way is the only right one and nit-pick specific parts of a statement and ignore the context.

And AGAIN. The "Horrifying mistake" that you talk about is a quick-fix to stop US from exploiting the system, like we did in the past. If we as a player base didn't show we can't be trusted with no-limitations, then we wouldn't have this issue. But personal greed came out on top and we all got slapped for the choices of a minor few. Lashing out at SE for the quick-fix they implemented is misguided hatred.

(The current system is far from perfect, but it was never meant to be a permanent fix. With SE focusing more-so on main-story content and stuff that the majority of their player base are here for, we need to be actually thankful that the Ishgard restoration is even a thing. We need to be patient, calm and collected as a group.)

[Drkdays]

I do like how you solely focus on nothing but the negatives of an apartment and leave it at that, instead of actually reading the entire excerpt of why I suggest apartments. People have done amazing things, even with the limitations that Apartments bring and, with current events making it almost impossible to obtain an actual ward house, people could buy an apartment and test the waters in a controlled, patient scenario. Would you prefer to pay 500K gil and find out that decorating isn't your thing? Or break the proverbial bank by shilling out upwards of 5 million gil to come to the same conclusion?

Most people would pick the 500K. Purely because of the less losses on that point.

You don't like apartments or the recommendation that people try before they buy? That's fine and dandy for you. But don't act as if your way is the only right one and nit-pick specific parts of a statement and ignore the context.

And AGAIN. The "Horrifying mistake" that you talk about is a quick-fix to stop US from exploiting the system, like we did in the past. If we as a player base didn't show we can't be trusted with no-limitations, then we wouldn't have this issue. But personal greed came out on top and we all got slapped for the choices of a minor few. Lashing out at SE for the quick-fix they implemented is misguided hatred.

(The current system is far from perfect, but it was never meant to be a permanent fix. With SE focusing more-so on main-story content and stuff that the majority of their player base are here for, we need to be actually thankful that the Ishgard restoration is even a thing. We need to be patient, calm and collected as a group.)

The cost is irrelevant. Money hardly matter when an average player with two retainers can easily earn millions with little effort just from quick explorations, using the green gear they invariably get as fuel for ventures. It's with availability that 14 falters, and apartments fail altogether. Are they better than nothing? Obviously. But for such a limited item that is also in limited supply, it really should be free. Especially when the game issues the player so many housing items simply from leveling. It's better than nothing, but only barely.

[Drkdays]

I'm honestly really looking forward to Ishgard! I hope they add a LOT of houses. But I just wish they'd do more now. Let players share apartments. Let us use indoor items inside (who cares if it looks a bit funky!?) Indeed, if apartments, the supposed bandaids, were less restrictive there would be way less people foaming at the mouth for a house. Apartments the way they are now are little better than a tease.

[Jojoya]

I do get it and I understand what you are saying, but you must also understand that SE should be held accountable for the things that they encourage from their playerbase and the lengthy amount of time spent with the placard timer is certainly something awful that they do encourage.

Where is SE encouraging the player base to camp placards? Please provide links to statements by SE employees encouraging players to spam click placards for up to 24 hours in attempts to purchase a house.

Oh, right. They aren't.

I think you forget the timer was a suggestion from players to stop house flippers from monopolizing the house market. Perhaps you should be blaming those players who suggested and the other players who supported the idea (how ironic if we were to go back through forum posts and find you had been one of them).

2018 was a great year to buy a house between the addition of the new wards and the timer. There were worlds with hundreds of houses available for most of that year because the flippers could no longer monopolize the market even if it didn't stop flipping altogether. The timer did its job.

Go back to the forums in 2018 and you're not going to see complaints about the timer. You're going to see complaints that world X has no available houses while world Y does, and how players shouldn't have to transfer worlds to get a house.

I don't think anyone would have predicted the surge in the player base size in 2019 that swallowed up all that housing that had been available in 2018, nor that some players would form such a strong obsession with owning a house that they would do nothing but click placards for 24 hours trying to buy.

No one is being forced to do it. There have been players posting here recently that they chose not to camp and still managed to get a house because they happened to stop to check the placard at the right time. Others could do the same if they wanted instead of camping.

You said yourself in another post last year. The timer and the way some players will camp placards is a symptom not the problem. The problem is the lack of houses compared to the number of players that want to own a house. Instead of focusing on the symptom, we should be focusing on correcting the problem.

I'm honestly really looking forward to Ishgard! I hope they add a LOT of houses. But I just wish they'd do more now. Let players share apartments. Let us use indoor items inside (who cares if it looks a bit funky!?) Indeed, if apartments, the supposed bandaids, were less restrictive there would be way less people foaming at the mouth for a house. Apartments the way they are now are little better than a tease.

If Ishgard ends up the usual housing district, it's going to increase the number of houses on every world by 25%.

I doubt SE would increase the number of wards at the same time. They'll want to see how quickly wards fill back up first. It could end up like 2018, with most worlds having some houses (if not hundreds) left available for months.

Sharing apartments isn't necessary (though it doesn't harm anything either) when every character (not just player) can have an apartment. There are apartments available on every world right now and SE told us when apartments were added that it was relatively easy to increase the number of apartments compared to increasing the number houses.

Adding apartment size options would go a lot farther toward solving the house demand than adding tenant rights. It is something that SE said they had under consideration back in 2018 though as far as I know they haven't mentioned it since.