Reclamation of Inactive Housing announced

[Fyce]

I think that SE needs to provide the following as a means for aiding casual players and those who are not able to meet getting online (military and others who are not able to access the game for long time duration): [...]

Yes, it would be nice, but that's missing the point of the system.

SE want you to use your house on a regular basis. They set that amount of time to be "at least one time within 45 days".
If you don't, they want to make it available to someone else or an FC who will hopefuly use it (if not, the cycle will just continue).

Clearly, the message they sent with that new system says that individual housing is a luxury you have to maintain/use regularly to keep. Not doing it would mean that you're not the target for that particular content.
You would have to join an active FC with a house to be free from this issue.

In short: individual housing is something for people who commit to it on a very frequent basis... which is fine considering the rarity of that ressource (plots).

[Aoxaviar]

Yes, it would be nice, but that's missing the point of the system.

SE want you to use your house on a regular basis. They set that amount of time to be "at least one time within 45 days".
If you don't, they want to make it available to someone else or an FC who will hopefuly use it (if not, the cycle will just continue).

Clearly, the message they sent with that new system says that individual housing is a luxury you have to maintain/use regularly to keep. Not doing it would mean that you're not the target for that particular content.
You would have to join an active FC with a house to be free from this issue.

In short: individual housing is something for people who commit to it on a very frequent basis... which is fine considering the rarity of that ressource (plots).

I definitely won't dispute what your saying. However, for those who are active players when they can be, will be penalized by this system due to real life.

I agree that they could join an active free company, but that diminishes the work and effort they personally put into the personal house they worked to get and make their own.

I like the basis of the system, but the big flaw is that there is not any way for players who due to real life have no way to tag their house with a "unable to log on for xx days" tag for those who need it.

[SinisterJointss]

I'm neither against nor for this, I don't really care..it doesn't bother me, but I can understand why it bothers some at the same time!

Anyway, I'll just leave this here:



One thing I do not like, is when they say one thing and do something else. First it was personal housing being separate price from FC, then it was SMN egi, now this apparently, what is next It is hard for me to follow them and take them seriously because what they say changes so much. Not saying they are horrible people, again, they are only human, I just can't really take stuff they say seriously anymore...at all.

You can leave it there all you want. It says nothing about land relinquishing. That specifically refers to housing Maintenance (repair costs for housing)

[Avidria]

I'm neither against nor for this, I don't really care..it doesn't bother me, but I can understand why it bothers some at the same time!

Anyway, I'll just leave this here:



One thing I do not like, is when they say one thing and do something else. First it was personal housing being separate price from FC, then it was SMN egi, now this apparently, what is next It is hard for me to follow them and take them seriously because what they say changes so much. Not saying they are horrible people, again, they are only human, I just can't really take stuff they say seriously anymore...at all.

In fairness, that post you linked is from 2 years ago.

They probably shouldn't have made a definite statement like "this won't happen" back then at all, as people (and their design plans) are wont to change.

Actually, in the context of that Q&A, it looks like that's an article from when (actually looks like before) they first released housing. So, at the time that this was written, his statement was true - they didn't have a system like this when housing was released.

[Ibi]

In fairness, that post you linked is from 2 years ago.

They probably shouldn't have made a definite statement like "this won't happen" back then at all, as people (and their design plans) are wont to change.

It's old, but I think most people would say their original intention was clear.

To my mind, it seems more telling that Yoshi-P's specifically referred to such systems as "a thing of the past". To me (and here's a case where I can't really argue with someone who wants to say I'm reading too much into it), that sounds pretty derisive of such a system.

Extrapolating from there (and, again, I can't argue with someone who wants to say this is an unreasonable extrapolation), it feels like this isn't a decision that they're being forced to make, rather than finding an alternative solution.

The question (which is far more important in the grand scheme of things than any bickering over housing space) is why a game that's such a huge success, both critically and commercially, isn't getting the appropriate resources to support and take advantage of that success.

[OfTheWhitewind]

The question (which is far more important in the grand scheme of things than any bickering over housing space) is why a game that's such a huge success, both critically and commercially, isn't getting the appropriate resources to support and take advantage of that success.

Just because a game is successful doesn't mean they have infinite resources. New space or servers for housing means more manpower, more time to upkeep them, more money, etc. It isn't really as simple as you seem to think it is. Not to mention how much of that is going into patches and expansions which should definitely take priority over housing. Housing is in high demand now more than ever so they had to find a solution sooner rather than later. Perhaps a better one will come along. We just don't know yet. For now this is fair and faulting Yoshi-P for something he said over two years ago when housing shortage wasn't an issue seems silly.

[Ibi]

Just because a game is successful doesn't mean they have infinite resources. New space or servers for housing means more manpower, more time to upkeep them, more money, etc. It isn't really as simple as you seem to think it is. Not to mention how much of that is going into patches and expansions which should definitely take priority over housing. Housing is in high demand now more than ever so they had to find a solution sooner rather than later. Perhaps a better one will come along. We just don't know yet. For now this is fair and faulting Yoshi-P for something he said over two years ago when housing shortage wasn't an issue seems silly.

No one's faulting him for say it. People are trying to explain why they're shocked and disappointed at the announcement of this system, based on the expectations that were set initially.

If the system had been launched with this restriction, people would have been afforded the opportunity to factor it into their decision to purchase (or not purchase) a house, but adding it on as a new factor after people have invested large sums of gil and time into their houses is a tough pill for some to swallow.

I'm also not sure it's fair to say that the housing shortage wasn't an issue. It might not have be voiced by the customers, but they've known from even before they first added housing that they weren't adding enough plots even to allow for every FC that wanted a house to purchase one.

[Avidria]

It's old, but I think most people would say their original intention was clear.

To my mind, it seems more telling that Yoshi-P's specifically referred to such systems as "a thing of the past". To me (and here's a case where I can't really argue with someone who wants to say I'm reading too much into it), that sounds pretty derisive of such a system.

The intention was clear, yes, but he was also referring specifically to a system that (at the time) didn't even exist yet. That article is part of a Q&A from before housing had actually been implemented. At the time, they may indeed have seen it as a thing of the past. But housing in this game was new, and its evident that some people (in this thread, even) actually wanted some sort of house relinquishment system and are glad that it's being implemented even if that implementation isn't ideal. Maybe they didn't want to do it initially, but evidently 2 years of having the current housing system in place and receiving feedback on it has changed that.

Extrapolating from there (and, again, I can't argue with someone who wants to say this is an unreasonable extrapolation), it feels like this isn't a decision that they're being forced to make, rather than finding an alternative solution.

The question (which is far more important in the grand scheme of things than any bickering over housing space) is why a game that's such a huge success, both critically and commercially, isn't getting the appropriate resources to support and take advantage of that success.

This decision seems to be based on player feedback and the things that people were asking for for a while now. This was announced a while back as well, wasn't it? I doubt that this will be the only step they take to try to fix the housing system (at least I hope so, anyway). Heck, this might not even be a permanent implementation, either - they could very well change aspects of it going forward. It hasn't actually been added yet, after all.

[Malevicton]

The intention was clear, yes, but he was also referring specifically to a system that (at the time) didn't even exist yet. That article is part of a Q&A from before housing had actually been implemented. At the time, they may indeed have seen it as a thing of the past. But housing in this game was new, and its evident that some people (in this thread, even) actually wanted some sort of house relinquishment system and are glad that it's being implemented even if that implementation isn't ideal. Maybe they didn't want to do it initially, but evidently 2 years of having the current housing system in place and receiving feedback on it has changed that.

Honestly I feel like that kind of makes it worse. They knew it was a possibility and were trying to actively avoid it before the system was ever in place. It was designed with the intent of avoiding this exact situation, and yet here we are.

This decision seems to be based on player feedback and the things that people were asking for for a while now. This was announced a while back as well, wasn't it? I doubt that this will be the only step they take to try to fix the housing system (at least I hope so, anyway). Heck, this might not even be a permanent implementation, either - they could very well change aspects of it going forward. It hasn't actually been added yet, after all.

It was announced around April 2014 and scrapped due to a lot of negative feedback. :P Also doesn't make them look good. Makes em look desperate and disorganized.

[Riardon]

Paying the sub or not it doesn't matter. You still have a house you rarely/never use while others wait. I also find it really hard to believe you have no time to log in for few secs/mins ONCE in a month while you are still paying. In other games that I played housing requires a monthly rent with in-game currency to keep. This makes sense if you want to keep the house. Here housing is free. You don't keep an AFKer in your party just because he pays his sub do you? Same applies for housing. If it's one login in a month then you should stop whining. We can't just keep abandoned houses their owner never ever plays just because he is paying his sub.