When will you really address the housing availability problem?

[Archaell]

Why would you want to keep a house for a game you no longer play to begin with? If the gil matters so much, resubscribe after it's demolished, pick up your 80%, then unsubscribe once again. Everyone I know that owns a house feels the same way, everyone except people throwing around the Illuminati conspiracy that they're doing it so people stay subscribed.

Not to mention that there aren't that many house owners to make it a significant source of income.

[Rahzel]

Not to mention that there aren't that many house owners to make it a significant source of income.

Unless you're WoW, 92,160 subscribers is nothing to scoff at. Assuming all plots on all servers are taken, that's 60 plots x 8 wards x 3 residential districts x 64 servers (that's how many I counted on ARRstatus). That's roughly $1,381,478 a month (assuming all are one month recurring full subs without legacy status).

Of course, that's not accounting for Free Companies which can be owned by someone that also owns a personal house, and the fact that FC houses can be refreshed by any of its members. Still, even if we halved that amount, it's not so insignificant.

That said, it was a feature that should have been in place from the beginning, and while I'm sure keeping homeowners subscribing wasn't their primary reason for implementing it, I doubt the possibility of reclamation helping to retain subs didn't escape them either.

[Archaell]

...

I kinda assume that most of the houses are owned by free companies. But income is still income no arguing about that.

The question is how many players thinking about canceling their subs would stay subscribed just to keep their houses.

[Gyson]

The question is how many players thinking about canceling their subs would stay subscribed just to keep their houses.

In other games people renew their subscriptions just to avoid periodic name wipes.

Heck, Square only guaranteed retaining your FFXI character data for up to 90 days after letting your subscription lapse. You don't think people kept resubscribing just to avoid that? Most people don't really know when they're gone for good and aren't willing to give everything away when they "leave".

[Catwho]

In other games people renew their subscriptions just to avoid periodic name wipes.

Heck, Square only guaranteed retaining your FFXI character data for up to 90 days after letting your subscription lapse. You don't think people kept resubscribing just to avoid that? Most people don't really know when they're gone for good and aren't willing to give everything away when they "leave".

At the time large archival storage was expensive. As it became cheaper, they started offloading character data onto permanent backups, and later on they offered a character retrieval service where they'd dig up an old archived character during certain times of the year. I think they rejiggered it a few years ago to be available automatically year round, because permanent character storage got so much cheaper.

[Rahzel]

I kinda assume that most of the houses are owned by free companies. But income is still income no arguing about that.

The question is how many players thinking about canceling their subs would stay subscribed just to keep their houses.

I figure (and probably inaccurately!) that somewhere between 1/4-1/3 of houses are individually owned. Just from casual observation, I'd say the majority of houses in the subdivisions (plots 31-60) on my server are owned by individuals.

Speaking as a someone who owns a house, I'd have to be 100% certain I would never return to the game ever again to at least not resub for one month and sell off my plot. And in my specific case, I probably would only sell my plot if I were certain I was never returning, because I have a really nice spot and would be devastated to lose it. This is obviously not as much of an issue on smaller servers, but I imagine it would be pretty effective on larger servers where real estate is worth exponentially more than the return on your house being reclaimed.