Regarding only refunding 95% of losing entrant's money in the housing lottery:
Quote Originally Posted by Shibi View Post
Thinking up more and more and more punitive measures isn't a solution to this.
Nice try at Orwellian Newspeak, comrade, but no.
The money you pay for a lottery ticket is not punishment. It's the cost of entering the lottery.
The proposal to only refund part (in the example, 95%) of people's lottery "deposit" is just adding a cost (e.g. 5%) for the "lottery ticket," which cost is applied to the purchase if you win. The rest of the deposit is basically escrow money to make sure you pay if you win.

Quote Originally Posted by Shibi View Post
Refunding 95% of losing bids is not a solution.
Why not? Because you say it isn't? Excuse me if I don't find that at all convincing.

Quote Originally Posted by Shibi View Post
Housing is a major feature for a lot of players, right now it's seriously over subscribed
Much like many other successful products. Sounds like a win for SE.

Personally I think part of the problem is the pause on the demolition timers.
And this is from someone who had a medium house demolished while on hiatus.
And my spouse lost a large.
We didn't mind: it's just a game, and the rules on demolition where pretty clear.