Reclamation of Inactive Housing announced

[Syrehn]

I've seen you debating in multiple threads supporting a reclamation system and being against instanced housing for a while. So let's make the assumption that instanced housing isn't an option and that I agree with reclamation being necessary. Given the stance you've shown and the comments you made, are you happy with -this- reclamation system? Because I'm almost certain I recall you being unhappy with other aspects of it as well, like I believe the time limit.

The reason I ask is it seems to me that you've been so busy trying to argue against the proponents of instanced housing that you've inadvertently landed yourself on the side of the argument that is supporting a system even you don't fully agree with. I also remember that you were one of the people who has stated multiple times that this is just the first step, and I'm sure they will add Ishgard housing. However, do you truly feel at this point in time that they will really add enough wards to ever solve the housing issue, even with reclamation?

I'm only asking these questions because I feel like this issue has polarized the debate on these forums, when there is at the very least a third side, if not more. Someone mentioned LotRO previously, which made me actually look into it to see if their claims were true. It is indeed a free to play MMO with four different housing areas, like ours will have once we add Ishgard, and neighborhoods/wards in each area with three different size houses you can purchase and 30 houses in each neighborhood. That game even does have a decay timer like it was said previously. However, their system allows for up to 250 wards per housing area while ours is limited currently at 16(including subdivisions).

When I think about the two in comparison, and when I look at the choices SE has made for housing reclamation, I still find myself feeling as if this has been a disappointing outcome. Seeing a massive increase in the number of wards we currently have, at least something like twice as many on top of Ishgard housing, I think would start to make a genuine change. I personally have trouble believing that such a thing will come to pass though. However, that's just my own opinion, and I would like to know yours, Syrehn.

Yes, I am content with the system they are implementing and can understand why at the current stage of the housing game it's necessary. I'm not unhappy with any aspect of it per say so I don't think that I'm "supporting a system a don't fully agree with". However, that's not to say I wouldn't support some changes that might make this better for other players. Prior to the official announcement of the Housing Inactivity/Decay Timer that released all the specifics many of us knew from prior SE comments that this was coming. The last time SE attempted to implement this system I believe the countdown was set at 30 days so I had personally expected this new revision to come with a longer decay time period to appease more players; such as 60 days. I was a bit surprised at 45 days but don't necessarily believe it's too short. That being said, as mentioned previously I wouldn't personally mind if they extended the the timer to 60 days and believe that would have been a better compromise for worried players than the current timer.

I have and still hold the stance that the Inactivity Timer is a single step to attempt to make the current system better; follow-up steps are things like Housing Transfer, House Sharing + additional wards which are still coming.

In my opinion, even with the inactivity timer, there will always be some individuals and FC's waiting to get a plot; there's never going to be a free plot waiting for every player. While it would be nice to see SE double the amount of wards currently and then add the same amount into Ishgard housing (if/when they make it), that isn't necessarily a sustainable or smart move. They could end up with double the amount of dead/inactive wards. If they spend the funds to buy all the hardware for a mass influx of wards and those wards don't fill up they could set themselves up to be taking a huge hit cost wise. They likely wouldn't be able to sell that used hardware off if that scenario were to occur either.

None of us know how much of SE's FFXIV funds are allocated to their different departments, but my guess would be the bulk of them are not directed towards housing content and doubtless ever will be. What I think that we'll see SE do, in addition to making QOL improvements to the current housing structure, is continue to gauge subscriber growth and add wards in smaller chunks as they have been doing; probably at a bit faster rate than currently. I believe the current hold up on new wards has been due to the fact that they stated they wanted to finish the Housing Transfer feature first.

[Ibi]

Also noted was that:

Automatic reclamation after 45 days is the result of testing based on player data.

What that actually means is anyone's guess, but it's probably the only information we'll ever be provided on the that aspect of the subject.

[Colorful]

Also noted was that:



What that actually means is anyone's guess, but it's probably the only information we'll ever be provided on the that aspect of the subject.

It's likely a little more than the average amount of time people take a break for, and that anyone who takes a break longer than that doesn't come back at all, doesn't play very frequently (one month per patch), or leaves for an extended period of time to the point that it isn't worth making other people's experience worse due to their absence.

Seems more than fair enough to me.

[Yshnal]

So no changes at all it seems. Clearly, the proposed system has no flaws and can't be improved at all.

Please, Yoshi-P, consider making any of the changes that have been proposed in this thread (and in the other ones too). Otherwise this is going to leave us a sour taste in our mouths. The only ones that will be temporarily happy will be those few (including people that already own a house, or more) that will be there to buy the first homes once they get reclaimed. It will be a half done job with consequences that you'll have to face in the following months; consequences that could be prevented or lessened if you could listen.

There's at least two things that can be improved and that I think that most of us agree on: no reclamation timer while you have an active sub (this would help with the majority of unexpected events that could prevent you from visiting your home), and limiting the number of homes per server per account that you can own. I don't see any reason to not implement those changes before doing anything else, before you take away anything from anyone.

[Niwashi]

If they're determined to stick with a ward system, even for personal housing, then they need a lot more wards, and it would be good if they'd adjust the balance of houses in them as well. Ever since personal housing was combined into this (intended as FC) housing system, the demand has been overwhelmingly for more small houses. Some people buy medium and large personal houses, but in most* cases it's because that's all that was available to them. The current proportions might have been good if the wards had remained for FCs only, as large FCs will often want large houses, but there are more individuals than there are large FCs, so it was pretty consistently the small ones that sold out the fastest, while on many servers large plots are still going unused.

This suggestion might make some large FCs hoping for an Ishgard setting unhappy, but proportion-wise, having the new Ishgard housing area designed with most or even all of the houses Cottage sized would do the most to help the overall housing situation.


(* Yes, I know there are exceptions. Some people want a mansion as their personal house. But in overall numbers, they seem to be the minority. Small houses are still where the biggest demand is, even if that's in large part due to there being a lot more people and FCs who can afford a cottage than who can afford a mansion.)

[NessaWyvern]

I found 8 different houses that had the fc or the characters deleted who own the house....

....soon.....

...SOON ONE SHALL BE MINE!!.....

[Khalithar]

It'd be nice to have some visible neighbors around the ward my personal house is in and the ward my FC house is in. =/

Or if this creates a new interest in houses maybe I could flip mine and sell it? Who knows.

[Crimsonwolf3400]

Thank you for the reply Syrehn.

[BreathlessTao]

It's quite funny seeing this thread being so active for so long, when it's pretty much only going back and forth between the same few arguments, over and over again.

Is this sort of "reclamation system" ideal? Not really - but the whole housing system has been way less than ideal to begin with, ever since it was implemented. Can the housing system itself be improved? Maybe, but certainly not with SE keeping their heads stuck in the sand about the "vision" of it, the neighbourhoods, while at the same time apparently not having either the resources or the funds to support it in a viable way that is proportionate to the number of actual regular players (of which figure I'm quite sure they are aware, even if they don't share it).
Is it fair that they don't want to "let go" of players for more than a month? Perhaps not, but consider these:
1) they are a business company, their first and foremost goal is to make money;
2) if you don't want to, or can't be around for such a long time, you either have much bigger worries in life, or are not really enjoying the game itself enough anyway (in both cases, why would you want to waste your money on it?), you really shouldn't sit on something that's as significantly limited in availability as this while there are thousands others out there who would actually be using it;
3) they're gonna be very generous with warning notifications, should your ownership get in the danger zone, and even if you lose the house itself, you can get back most of your investment - this is really not much different than how real life insurance works, together with the rates and deadlines and everything;
4) while losing certain furniture does suck, that really has nothing to do with either the housing or the reclamation system itself - this concept of "destroying items to preserve rarity" is an independent thing that's been way beyond stupid ever since they dreamed it up in my opinion, and in the opinion of pretty much everyone else.

All in all, considering the current housing system itself (and let's really not get lost in how backwards and inadequate it is), reclamation is a needed part of it. So much so that it really should have been introduced right at the start, that way people wouldn't be freaking out now. And it can't even be called unfair with all the details worked out for it - certainly not more unfair than the current situation, which is lots of dead plots around with multiple times as many players who could be enjoying them. Will it solve anything, ultimately? Most probably not, I do believe everyone knows that, but it's better than nothing - and it is a first step in a plan to have more housing availability, as it has also been said and pointed out several times.

On a sidenote: what really baffles me though, with this level of serious inadequacy, which they must have been aware of prior to implementing the system, why is it that no "one account - one plot" policy was introduced with it? That alone could have prevented a lot of the availability issues, seeing how many people admittedly and without any shame or consideration just buy up multiple plots, just because they can. (And some of those are the loudest in protesting against the reclamation, either here or silently, I'm sure.) Would it have been unpopular? Probably. But it would have been much more rational too, especially considering the irrationality of this system for personal housing on this scale. Yet there's still no sign of that at all.

[ElHeggunte]

On a sidenote: what really baffles me though, with this level of serious inadequacy, which they must have been aware of prior to implementing the system, why is it that no "one account - one plot" policy was introduced with it? That alone could have prevented a lot of the availability issues, seeing how many people admittedly and without any shame or consideration just buy up multiple plots, just because they can. [...]

This is part of Square's habit of giving their players the benefit of the doubt and assuming they won't be complete dicks when it comes to things that can easily be abused or manipulated at the expense of others. Kind of like a new parent who refuses to believe their child is a bully even while they're watching them make another kid eat dirt.