When will you really address the housing availability problem?

[Gyson]

Of course they're interested in retaining players, but I also believe the players leaving couldn't care less about their house to the point that they'd force themselves to pay $15 a month for a virtual house. I do find it funny how people throwing out that idea are the same ones who still play, and care for the game, of course you're going to think of it like that.

I've mentioned this a few times now, but whenever an MMO is doing a sweep to reclaim character names from players who haven't logged in for a significant period of time, said company sends out emails (usually more than one) warning all their old customers about the upcoming name-wipe. They go through the trouble of doing that because it works in bringing people back - it's another chance at grabbing a subscription/microtransaction fees and an opportunity to show them what's changed since their departure.

It's been said here many times, but (again) many people who leave an MMO for extended periods don't always know with 100% certainty if they'll never be coming back. If they knew they were absolutely never coming back they'd probably give away all their stuff and delete their characters - most don't do that when they "leave".

As long as that chance of returning exists in their minds, they do make at least a minimal effort to make sure there's an intact character to return to. If that means logging in for a minute every few months to keep their data safe, then, yes.. players absolutely do that. Many will rationalize the occasional subscription fee as long-term data storage. It's only when they are 100% convinced that they'll never return that they stop watching over their old digital assets - and eventually it gets to that point but for most it's not when they first "leave" the game.

One of the reasons SE is going through the trouble of sending *multiple* warning emails to departed home-owners is because they know each one of those emails digs further and further under the skin of an inactive player. "Your house is going to be deleted.. return soon!", "Your house is days away from being deleted, don't let it slip away!", "Your house is scheduled for demolition tomorrow.. log in now to save it!" - while I don't know what the actual emails will say, you can be certain they will not be simple notifications and will instead be aimed at placing a measure of fear in the inactive player.

The 45 day period is using data from SE, if a player has left for 45 days it's likely they either never come back, or come back much later. Tell me, which is more important, satisfying current customers by freeing up plots, or holding it for players that aren't paying because "I might come back in a year, maybe, so I'll keep hitting this renew button until I do come back, if I do"?

To a business, bringing lost customer revenue back is always going to be prioritized over and preferable to providing a virtual location for existing customers to play house. There should be zero doubts in your mind about that. I can tell you what those warning emails are absolutely not going to say:

"Hi! As housing space is in short supply, in 45 days we'll be reclaiming the property you used during your time with us in FFXIV, so that it may be instead available to an active player in need of a home. In order to help provide our current active customers with as many homes as possible, we encourage you to avoid entering your FFXIV house in the next 45 days until this process has completed. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter, and thank you for your understanding!"

Pretty sure they'll be aimed more at retaining the absent player and less at encouraging them to help active players get a new home. Anyone have an actual example of the emails we can look over?