Quote Originally Posted by Shibi View Post
Not sure Jojo, maybe your experience just hasn't been great?

I know back in the dim dark past when I was in someone elses FC the house was very important for us. We gathered there and were all great friends.

Our own genuine FC house is very important to us (and we worked very hard for that), and opposite us are a very friendly raiding FC who pop up for expansions, and all seem to gather in the plaza area between us.

I've also seen a lot of fresh genuine FCs who advertise in their ads they are grinding towards a house.

Just because one doesn't notice one's FC neighbors when you run from your gate to the front door, doesn't mean they are not there.


I do consider that no matter what we believe though, SE sees them as important and will retain the split. And that of course - going back to the original point of the discussion - still adds evidence to me that a FC door inside the citystate won't free up houses.
I doubt don't that a FC house is important to some players and FCs. I do question how important one is to all players and FCs.

My own experience is that the FCs I've been in wouldn't have been any less social in the absence of a FC house. One of the FCs I was in actually spent a fair amount of time hanging around the outside of the Thaumaturge's Guild together even though we could have done it at the FC house. It's the members that create and grow the community, not the house.

The experience you shared has a factor that I think a lot of FCs these days don't have - you worked together to be able to get the house. How many FCs truly work together to do that as opposed to just one or two members footing the entire bill to purchase the plot? How many players never had to sit through the wait to get a house because the FC already had one at the time they joined?

I see FC advertise their recruitment AND mentioning a house as well but how many will end up joining those FCs because of the house? How many of those players discover the FC chat is quiet and people don't do anything together? That the house just kind of sits there unused because only the officers have permissions to decorate, garden, etc.?

Some FCs are good. Some aren't. If the FC is good then great. But as I said above, it's not going to be a house that turn a fair to bad FC into a good one,

I agree that regardless of reasons, the ward split is here to stay.

When it comes to the effectiveness of giving workshops an access point at the Grand Companies or other location, I think it would make a small difference though probably not as large as some might hope. Any house going to a player or FC that actually wants the house itself instead of just wanting access to another workshop is a plus.