When will you really address the housing availability problem?

[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.