Decrease the demand for houses with taxes

[Dzian]

I disagree such a change would be very unpopular and unnecessary. It wouldn't really decrease the demand either players who want will still get it why should everyone as we're be punished with paying extra for the upkeep of a house. There are players who have spent a long time probably saving to get the house but they won't they would just be quiteridiculous to add a taxing to houses in order to try to manipulate people out of going for mansions.

A lot of players would be happy with a leasing system or rental system If it actually meant they could take those breaks yoshi keeps telling players its ok to do...

I'd happily cough up for upto 6 months of a lease (1 patch cycle) if I wanted to say drop my sub till the next patch release and actually take a break from the game..

it's been suggested numerous times before in various ways. such as a ventures style currency for plot leases which could be bought using gc seals or something or just paying a ward keeper direct gils.

It would alleviate some of the demand as well as many plots just sit there with an empty house that never gets touched or used.. if they were to combine such a system with something like giving apartments access to an allotment / balcany garden area you'd free up even more houses. as theres more than a few people who own a house just for the gardening..

A leasing system would work much better than the Demo system, that system is borderline useless as it's been suspended more of the games life than it has been active.

[Moon_Bunny]

Yes, let's punish the poor.

I mean, I get their point. If you're not gil-rich, you shouldn't be able to afford the largest housing available. It makes sense to me.

[KurohNeko]

We have this situation here in which everybody wants a mansion but there are just not enough of them to go around. Too many of players can afford it and so they feel obliged to get the mansion because there are no drawbacks of owning one. Demolitions help with the issue, but not enough so - introduce property taxes.

For example: Let's start with 10% of plot cost per month.

Large enough upkeep would make players more content with smaller houses or motivate them to join friends/free companies to share the load among members. Also players would be more likely to just let the houses they don't use much go to save on gil. The housing zones would be used more actively and more players would be able to touch the housing.

It wouldn't be a popular change but it has its benefits.

Yeah, no. I am not paying property taxes. I don't own a mansion btw but a small house, a cottage I think they're called. All that would do is encourage RMT bots and whales who make an insane amount of money being the only ones with the mansions due to a property tax which would cause even less people to get it as even if you win and have the Gil to get the mansion now you have to worry about making enough Gil to pay tax on it or the city-state government will seize your house evicting you for unpaid taxes That's retarded enough in real life, I don't need that in my fantasy game where we are already taxed to teleport simply as a means of draining people of Gil to balance the markets. And that "Gil" doesn't go anywhere and that is the sole function of it. Unlike actual taxes which are supposed to either go to something or in someone's pockets but don't because this is a virtual world with virtual currency in a top down centralized economy. So from a libertarian standpoint, also NO.

Will you people stop trying to come up with new stupid schemes to play the odds slightly more in your favor for something basically 100% RNG that is in short supply that will NEVER provide for everyone. There will ALWAYS be a majority without houses, just deal with it. We don't need a new buying system every single update with new terms and conditions just to change the odds a small percentile and play musical chairs of who gets the house or not. Shut up and go back to Eureka or something.

[Shibi]

For example: Let's start with 10% of plot cost per month.

It's not punative enough.

Let's go full Thunderdome here and make it that you need to be the top parse in the current savage, while the raid is in full PVP enabled mode.

Winner gets the mansion.

(And more seriously, let's stop with this "let's punish everyone with a house so I can get one instead bullcrap")

[ForteNightshade]

A taxation will accomplish next to nothing except to hurt newer players even further. Using myself as an example. I have over 300M. What system could you implement that would remotely phase me without seriously impacting the enjoyment of players with nowhere near my gil count? 1M gil per month wouldn't even dent my total. I made that back selling the Troll mount from Unreal farming. If you push that number higher, it'll make housing near impossible for most players to maintain - especially nowadays when crafting is near worthless in terms of profitability.

All this does is punish players who don't have loads of gil saved up and encourages RMT. I can guarantee you people will pay real money just to offset the rent fee.

[DamianFatale]

We have this situation here in which everybody wants a mansion but there are just not enough of them to go around. Too many of players can afford it and so they feel obliged to get the mansion because there are no drawbacks of owning one. Demolitions help with the issue, but not enough so - introduce property taxes.

For example: Let's start with 10% of plot cost per month.

Large enough upkeep would make players more content with smaller houses or motivate them to join friends/free companies to share the load among members. Also players would be more likely to just let the houses they don't use much go to save on gil. The housing zones would be used more actively and more players would be able to touch the housing.

It wouldn't be a popular change but it has its benefits.

No. Some people save up for a house, decorate it, and then prefer not to spend money on it until they do a new design project on the plot. This would just make having a house a constant commitment.

It's not real life. It's supposed to be a game. Lets not make this a bigger problem by making it a chore like paying rent in real life is.

[Jojoya]

(And more seriously, let's stop with this "let's punish everyone with a house so I can get one instead bullcrap")

If SE is not going to keep the supply of houses up to date with the demand, then something needs to be done to lower demand so those who truly want a house and would use it would have a better chance of getting one.

The lottery is almost counterproductive in this respect because it's eliminated the effort required to get a plot. How many players in the past didn't bother getting a house because they didn't want one enough to go to the effort of placard camping? All those players are now jumping on board the house bandwagon because it only takes a couple of minutes to teleport to a housing district and purchase an entry. Wait a couple of days to see if you win then repeat the next lottery if you didn't. Demand has increased now the barrier to entry is even lower.

Definitely I'd rather see SE fix the supply issue. I enjoy housing and would love to see everyone who wants a house get one (even better if it's instanced so they can get the exact house of their choice). But if they're going to fail to do that, then lowering demand for houses is the next step.

Ways to reduce demand:

Remove gardens and workshops from houses.

Add a recurring fee so players have to decide if their gil is better spent to retain their house or to save it up for future items like new emotes/hairstyles/glamours/etc. that they might want.

Someone else made comment about poor players being punished. No, they aren't being punished. They are being asked to decide what is most important to them, just as most of us already have to do when it comes to spending money in real life. They can still get housing in the form of an apartment - if they could afford to pay the purchase price for a house they certainly can afford an apartment and apartments wouldn't have the downside of demolition or a tax since there's no supply problem there.

As for another person's comment about no one is going to be interested in paying a tax without getting a return for it: garden and/or workshop says "Hi!". Growing shards a few times a week would likely cover any tax charged. A small house owner can easily make at least 20k a day with just a single Deluxe Garden Patch, 8 shard seeds and 8 bags of potting soil on most worlds, more if they use Shroud topsoil in place of the potting soil. They can make an extra 5k a day if they also grow shards in the 2 flowerpots they're allowed to place inside their house. That's close to no effort to get the tax covered and the gil they earn through other content like roulettes would still be available to buy the other things they want.

No. Some people save up for a house, decorate it, and then prefer not to spend money on it until they do a new design project on the plot. This would just make having a house a constant commitment.

It's not real life. It's supposed to be a game. Lets not make this a bigger problem by making it a chore like paying rent in real life is.

SE has already turned it into real life by leaving players without a home to return to after a long day being the WoL.

Why should only a small but lucky portion of the player base be allowed to enjoy the content while others are left out? There's no other content in the game that players can be shut out of if they've met the basic requirements for the content.

[RobynDaBank]

I mean, I get their point. If you're not gil-rich, you shouldn't be able to afford the largest housing available. It makes sense to me.

Yeah, screw the plebians who scrape together gil to be able to bid on a house and win it. Let's make all housing nightclubs that pay their rent by using gil they got from gambling, ERP and payable song requests.

[Senn]

Disagree, and I'll take it one step further and say the housing demolition timer should be removed entirely. The development team should be working to fix the housing issue, not adding timers to demolish homes or taxing players. Add more wards or make instanced housing. I hope island sanctuary introduces some kind of instanced housing for players.

[Arrius]

A taxation will accomplish next to nothing except to hurt newer players even further.

Isn't that what (FC-)Apartments are made for - A cheap one payment, zero tax alternative to houses?

It's not real life. It's supposed to be a game. Lets not make this a bigger problem by making it a chore like paying rent in real life is.

You are already paying a sub to actually keep it (since you have to visit it once every month or so from getting it demolished), so it's kinda a chore already.
Taxation would draw from the funds of your retainer you employ there until nothing is left, instead.