Reclamation of Inactive Housing announced

[Sovi]

Thank you SE! It is nice that you have listened to our wishes and are trying to do something to help us get houses. You can't please everyone but the fact that I might be able to get a little house now and farm a little garden gives me something to hope for!

[Chewy2nd]

It should be upped to 70 or so days for private housing, 45 days is a little short for private, fine for inactive FCs though.

[Neira]

My FC provides a house to 37 players. So, a single house plot is giving the benefits of housing to 37 people.

Why would you exclude that fact and only take individual housing into account? You are basically saying that only individual houses counts as "housing". It doesn't make any sense.


Besides, these (inaccurate) numbers can very much be used as "so it only impacts a very small part of the community. Meh. Not a big deal."

And my FC has three active players and four personal houses among those three, on top of a FC house. So that's five plots consumed by three people. The reality with statistics is always a lot murkier than the theory behind it. Without access to the knowledge that SE has, we can't say exactly how many people own personal homes, how many own FC homes, and how many without either have money for a home.

However, to the point, I only take personal housing into account because the only numbers we can go by are subscribers and number of homes. It isn't exact by any means, and I'm not trying to pretend it is. However, it does reflect the maximum potential number of homes necessary to give everyone a personal house(5,000,000) and the number of houses currently in the game(92,160), to give us an approximate figure to work with.

Also, since personal housing is the system that has been botched since inception by SE, the system they decided not to actually design and instead just lump it on top of FC housing, and the system that is causing the shortage of homes, I think it is also the best point to address. If they took away every personal house in the game right now, FCs could live happily in the wards without a lack of plots for a very long time I would imagine.

Finally, all three of us have homes that look dead as we're rarely at them and mostly use them for gardening, or not at all in the case of the person who owns two, and I'm the only one that has any potential of quitting and losing it(because I'm tired of SE). Just thought I'd point this out since I'm sure a lot of people will be upset to read that first paragraph, since, in a nutshell, nothing in this change is going to stop three people from legitimately owning five homes, and that's five less plots any of you will be able to use. Go ahead and thank SE, they don't care, they just want your money.

[Nalien]

I'm glad that people have the chance to get housing from others that have legitimately become inactive. I've vouched for reclamation in the past, as a homeowner, but having experienced just how short 45 days is, I don't think it's an appropriate amount of time to consider for demolition.

I think it would be fine initially. Right now the priority should be demolition those abandoned plots, the ones which have potentially just been sitting empty for up to a year, and a shorter countdown facilitates that nicely. Actual players will presumably be enjoying 3.1 when this comes into effect, so stopping by their land during that time shouldn't be a problem. In the long run though, I agree, 45 days is too short, I think 3.11 should perhaps come 45 days after 3.1 and should bump the countdown up to 90 days, or something like that.

That way we get the benefit of a nice timely eviction for all the non-players who've potentially been using up entire Wards worth of plots, without the long term implications of a fairly short eviction timer.

[Ayerinn]

This sounds like a completely reasonable implementation (80% refund is a surprise)with the exception of the timer - it should be increased to 90 days - 45 days is too short although it does keep people subscribed (meaning houses stay in the hands of regularly paying customers,) but I guess that is the point now, isn't it. Time to make more alts!

[Tsunenori]

On a positive note at least, there's someone in the Lavender Beds Ward 2 Subdivision on Excalibur who bought a plot and never built on it. It's been that way for a looooooong, long time.



With any luck nonsense like that will be cleared up with this. Next to my FC's house is a house that has been inactive for at least a year as well. I am glad these plots will be freed up for people, I just hope this is the first step of a bigger fix as well.

[Risvertasashi]

I'd been loyally subbed since 2.0 beta, and only just recently unsubbed for a month, but would have been considered "inactive" for 2 months. I took this break as a palette cleanser, a chance to enjoy other games and really give myself the luxury of sinking time into something other than FFXIV. I've since come back refreshed, but only after a period of inactivity that would have forfeited my house. Had I taken this break around the new reclamation rules, I'd have had to log in on the last day of my sub just to walk into my house, then resubscribe in no later than 44 days to ensure I kept my house. The point of taking a break is to refresh yourself, not to feel the clock ticking down on your virtual estate's demolition.

I'm glad that people have the chance to get housing from others that have legitimately become inactive. I've vouched for reclamation in the past, as a homeowner, but having experienced just how short 45 days is, I don't think it's an appropriate amount of time to consider for demolition.

You do realize that, to prevent it, all you have to do is log in for 5 seconds during your sabbatical? And you'll get emails reminding you if you forget.

[Chewy2nd]

I wonder if they will factor house sharing into private properties? Would be only fair if they did.

[Aphel]

I find it funny that not a single complaint has been raised in the JP forums, yet over here people are absolutely seething.

[Neira]

I wonder if they will factor house sharing into private properties? Would be only fair if they did.

Just thought I'd point this out for you.

Estates Subject to Demolishing
Private housing that has not been accessed by the owner within forty-five days.