Why Removing Houses from inactive is NOT a solution.

[Titor]

new wards are added, that's what. Population of a city increases? You expand housing. changing housing to instanced now would piss people off to no end and I wouldn't blame them.

That is what I/we are mostly pushing for. Why would you be so opposed for having warded zones for active players but moving inactive players to instances? It is better to have any house than no house. If the inactives come back they get their house, but in an instance to themselves until a spot opens in a ward. This is not a high server cost since it is just data storage which is really really cheap nowadays.

But it would not be nice to lose your house entirely. Especially if your house is a large on a high population server and costs 90m gil.

[JubjubTubs]

The people opposed simply should just admit that they have a fear and are afraid of leaving the game one day and knowing that 'their' 0101101 items that SE actually owns will be destroyed. Jubs believes not a single one of you against the removal of inactive account houses has any care in the world about what those people who don't play anymore think. It is all personal, it is all selfish... whether it be preserving thy self or a means to yell that their system is better than.

Jubs has made about 8 or so friends from simply walking around Jubs ward during the boom of lowered costs + PS4 release. Friends Jubs wouldn't have made otherwise. Thus getting involved with LSs likely wouldn't have gotten involved with otherwise... and making more friends from those LSs.

Con of instanced housing - You isolate yourself from everyone you don't know and all you have are your close friends. The avenues to make new friends close up while playing, wait for it... a freaking MMO. derpderp

[Dererk]

That is what I/we are mostly pushing for. Why would you be so opposed for having warded zones for active players but moving inactive players to instances? It is better to have any house than no house. If the inactives come back they get their house, but in an instance to themselves until a spot opens in a ward. This is not a high server cost since it is just data storage which is really really cheap nowadays.

But it would not be nice to lose your house entirely. Especially if your house is a large on a high population server and costs 90m gil.

Because then money has to be taken away for new content to put new servers in for this so no yes they messed up on housing I say get rid of private housing disband all the 1 player fc. Other wise just stop because people care more about new content than housing and if they say different their lieing.

[JoolzS]

Neira got it partially right. My previous FC bought a house in a desired area on a desired plot a few weeks after housing was added (on a not hugely populated server at that time). Our FC only EVER met people from other FCs who had houses near to the summoning bell nearest to our house. I will admit that I made some long term friends from having a house in that area, but that was sheer chance. I've made other long-term game friends from waiting on a relic FATE (and I don't think anyone thinks those were a good idea).

The FC that was friendliest with my old FC, because we shared a summoning bell (this was before they could be put in the house), left the server, and sold to another. They weren't particularly friendly to people outside of their FC, so it died off.

Just putting more people into the current housing areas isn't going to make them more community minded. I wandered into Idyllshire tonight to show off a glamour to a friend, and the /sh chat there was just nasty. Someone asked in shout what pentamelding was and got told to "google it", and "How did you get this far without knowing?". There is no community in the housing areas because there is very little community in the game outside of linkshells and FCs.

[Neira]

But I will ask you anyway - what are you a proponent of, in terms of solving the housing problem? Purely instanced housing? That would remedy the problem, at the cost of nuking any semblance of community.

Alternatively, if you're one of those build more ward types, what would you say when those wards filled up with dead houses, too? How far do you think that could go, exactly? SE obviously wants to build more wards, but it appears they've asked themselves this same question, and decided quite understandably that the costs of paying for non-instanced housing that players are not using are unjustifiable.

I'm a proponent of SE fixing their system, whatever system they use, to make it functional. If they have to go instanced, then they have to go instanced. If they have to build more wards, then they have to build more wards. If they have to remove truly dead lots(purchased for months without a building placed or the owner is a deleted account), then they have to remove dead lots.

But there needs to be a -drastic- overhaul to their current system that they are simply not addressing. There are only enough homes for less than 2% of their subscribers, FCs excluded, and considering that it's an advertised game feature(which is hard to proclaim since the vast majority can't participate), they need to do something to fix it. Their current plan is preposterous, and even assuming there was 100% eviction, which we all know won't occur, you will still only have enough homes for less than 2% of their subscribers and you could generously claim the previous 2% had their fill at best, leaving 96% of the subscribers out.

On top of that, from the sound of it, their criteria isn't to remove houses that are truly dead, but houses that belong to inactive users, which reeks of having the ulterior motive of forcing players to renew their subscriptions more often just to keep the property they earned. That isn't even anywhere close to a fix, and while I am not against deleted users losing their homes or lots that are vacant for a period of time being retrieved, it's ludicrous to think that they should take away a home that someone earned in their game due to a period of absence. The fact that the system is so cutthroat that they would even propose the idea, and worse, many of us are already turning on each other over the idea, should be nothing more than an indicator of how little thought and development went into personal housing.

My only desire at this point is to see SE use their resources wisely to find practical solutions to earn ALL of our subscription fees. Because in free enterprise, businesses are regulated by the CONSUMERS, us, and since we are all currently the ones getting the shaft, I would like to see us stop fighting amongst ourselves and let SE know that our funding of their business comes with expectations. And among those expectations is that whatever systems they introduce for content be accessible by all users who subscribe, not just the lucky 2% who made it there first.

[Titor]

The avenues to make new friends close up while playing, wait for it... a freaking MMO. derpderp

Ok, riddle me this. In my housing ward there are some really trolly/rude people that have caused me to have to keep my house locked since they would constantly troll it. I was trying to be nice, extending welcomes and even gifts to them when they had joined the neighborhood, but they refused to reciprocate or even appreciate the kindness. I really wish that I could move wards, and plan to if they ever allow us to move housing.

I have made plenty of friends due to other resources in game, but my housing 'neighbors' have been quite unpleasant, much to my chagrin.

Would I rather have instanced housing shared with my friends rather than those I am near now? Well, yeah. There are no opportunities for friendships around me in my ward, I tried.

[Shirobi]

If they start with the awful idea of removing inactive players' housing, i hope they apply it equally to inactive FC houses. Set a threshold for the number of players an FC has for the size of the house it can buy, etc.

If private house owners are to be punished, punish FCs as well!

[Shirobi]

the ulterior motive of forcing players to renew their subscriptions more often just to keep the property they earned.

Bingo, we have a winner!

[JoolzS]

On top of that, from the sound of it, their criteria isn't to remove houses that are truly dead, but houses that belong to inactive users, which reeks of having the ulterior motive of forcing players to renew their subscriptions more often just to keep the property they earned.

This, so much this. Nearly everything they have done in HW so far feels like a subscription grab. Timer, upon timer, upon timer for everything, and now "keep subbing or lose your house(s)".

[Eyjabria]

This, so much this. Nearly everything they have done in HW so far feels like a subscription grab. Timer, upon timer, upon timer for everything, and now "keep subbing or lose your house(s)".

Indeed. And the "Oh no, our servers would crash if we gave everyone more inventory slots. But we have additional retainer service available in our cash shop to help with your inventory issues now that you have a zillion more new items to carry around after the addition of Inventory Management Fantasy XIV: Heavensward™ expansion."

Why don't they just make the housing system purchasable/rentable via Mog Station. They probably will.