Free Login Event completely undermines inactive housing

[AnnietheCat]

On a personal level, though, I hate living next to defunct houses. It makes my neighborhood feel empty and depressing to see houses with zero furnishings, outside or inside, and 0/3 members online for months at a time.

You're right about this. But as it stands, there's no real reason to hang out in the housing wards. There's no benefit to it. Lower level players have leveling to do, and endgame players would rather be where all the other endgamers are, which is Idyllshire now. I don't know what the wards could offer that would be enough incentive for players to hang out "at home", but I'd definitely like to see something come of it.

[Archaell]

You're right about this. But as it stands, there's no real reason to hang out in the housing wards. There's no benefit to it. Lower level players have leveling to do, and endgame players would rather be where all the other endgamers are, which is Idyllshire now. I don't know what the wards could offer that would be enough incentive for players to hang out "at home", but I'd definitely like to see something come of it.

There is the reason to meet your neighbors. At least when you live next to active FC houses there is always somebody in front of the market board waiting for duties, crafting or RPing. Also now people gather there for the Hard Diadem.

I can see how the housing can feel dead when you live in "a private neighborhood" or abaddoned square, but it should get better after the inactive players free their spots.

[AnnietheCat]

There is the reason to meet your neighbors.

None of my neighbors, either around my FC house or my private one, are ever there. No one gathers for Diadem or RP on my server(they just use the pf and be done with it). And that's still not a real benefit. Who's to say you're actually going to /like/ the people who live around you? Housing on Siren is really, really dead. Like I said, everyone gathers in Idyllshire now and they rarely, if ever, have a need to port "home". I can find any number of my neighbors there when I stop in for scrip exchange, but they're never in the housing wards.

[Beckett]

I don't really care about talking to or interacting with my neighbors, my beef is with the fact that they clearly aren't using the houses, never have and never will.

I don't need to see them constantly hanging out in the housing area, but I would like to see furnishings in their yard and maybe inside as well. These people with barren landscapes are bringing down my property values!

[Eadyn]

Yeah! How dare they let people have one last chance to play the game and decide whether or not they want to resub before they lose their house and everything specially crafted in it on Christmas Day? Clearly SE is crazy, these people should lose their house if they don't visit it every day. Because I like to camp outside people's houses and try to take what someone else spent millions of gil on because I was late to the game! Also, everyone that bought a house before me is an opportunistic bot and they don't deserve their house because I want it.

[AnnietheCat]

snip

No one here is saying remotely close to the hyperbolic nonsense you're using.

I, for one, oppose the reclaiming feature and think that no one should lose what they worked hard on. But I also realize there are people with houses that haven't played since partway through ARR and that if they never come back then their houses would just sit there. SE doesn't plan on fixing the bullshit they gave us, and this is the only hope of some to have access to housing. So yes, it is unfair to those who have waited all this time for a house. If someone is only going to log in for a free weekend or free month or whatever, knowing they don't plan to resub, this does undermine the reclaim feature. Yes, I have a house, and my fc does too. But if I were to unsub without intent of coming back, I wouldn't want people to be locked out of a plot or two because of it. That's unfair. So if this is what SE is giving us, we have to make the best of it. It's bullshit, I know, and the destruction of rare items is complete and utter bullshit, I know, but this is what we've been handed. I've said it before and I'll say it again, SE gave us a pile of shit and called it chocolate ice cream. So if you'd like, rail against SE for their bullshit, but don't take it out on people who have been locked out of housing since early this year. If someone unsubs with no intent on returning(and I've seen many) and they log in to a free log in period for the sake of resetting their timer, it's really really unfair to those people who are still actively subbed. No one is demonizing people who actively own their houses. And you don't have to go to your house every day. hell, every 30 days would keep your house. Players are just understandably irritated with those who are unwilling to give up their houses even if they don't play or use them.

And it's understandable that no one is willing to give up their plots. Without a sell back feature, there's no point in just giving it up and people are opting to just stay away from their houses for 45 days just to get 80% of their gil back. Something that would massively improve the housing situation would be a combination of a sell back feature, removing the binding nonsense from basic furniture and only have it apply to rare furniture; they could even make it so that rare furniture can't be put into a company chest(like with some items we already own) just to stick to their bs excuse of "maintaining the rarity". People would be more willing to give up their unused plots under those conditions. But as the system is, who wants to lose their millions of gil and ridiculously expensive furniture?

TL;DR: SE dropped the ball, and I can see both sides of the argument. But the fact of the matter is that this is what we were given, so it's all they got. There are teensy tiny changes they can make to improve housing for everyone, but they consistently refuse to listen to reason where housing is concerned. This isn't the fault of people with houses(except those who abandoned their house or have multiple houses on a single server) or people without; this is the fault of SE for giving a finite resource and telling us this is the best they can do.

[Eadyn]

Hyperbolic as it is, you cannot deny that many have insinuated that people don't deserve their house just because they were unable to remain subbed to the game.

People who have houses are demonized because they might not use them how the homeless would. Around the launch of Heavensward my internet was taken out by a freak storm for a month and I could say if this system was active then, my house which has emperor's throne and other valuables would have been taken from me when I could not log into the game. Penalizing people who cannot log in, or are choosing to take a break because of personal reasons is not the solution. Asking for demolition timers (another topic mentioned this) or getting up in arms because it might be another month before a house is taken is pretty much agreeing with the current actions taken to fix housing.

I agree that the housing situation is ridiculous, but people should continue to badger SE about adding more wards until they do it. Not cross their fingers hoping for someone else to lose their house.

Additionally, people were asking for housing reclamation well before SE announced it. They asked for this system to be put in place.

[Beckett]

Hyperbolic as it is, you cannot deny that many have insinuated that people don't deserve their house just because they were unable to remain subbed to the game.

People who have houses are demonized because they might not use them how the homeless would.

I have never seen anything even close to this, in game or on the forums. The current system is incredibly unfair, both to people who own houses and to those that want to. SE has put a system in place that attempts to pit players against each other and, for the most part, the community has not fallen for it. I suggest you take your own advice and aim your vitriol at SE, who deserves it, and not your fellow players.

[AnnietheCat]

...

As has been stated multiple times in this thread, had you bothered to read it, we all understand that sometimes shit happens and you just can't get back to the game. The irritation is aimed at both SE and those who use alts and buy multiple houses per server just because they can. Many people, more than those asking for this feature, have spoken up against it. The vocal minority on the forums have been requesting it for ages, and SE said they would never do it because it was outdated. Many people without houses are against the reclaim feature and many WITH houses have been holding SE accountable for this nonsense they gave us. Like I said, I have my own, and yet I sit in the housing forum lending support to people with and without houses, and reminding people that the blame is on SE and not on the players. I want /everyone/ to have a house if they can afford one. Not just the few of us who were lucky to get there when there was still plots available. So you're being combative for no other reason than you're bull-headed and refusing to see any other perspective.

[Kaiser-Ace]

To quote Braniak, Ultron, The Terminator, Agent Smith, and The Borg,

You are only delaying the inevitable.

This will keep a few houses but the truely deserted accounts will still not cafe. It was likly done for the FF XI cross over event and to promote the new relic Quest, but if the abandoned plots, I'd wadger over half will still disapear. Then with no event to protect them they to will be forced to pay to stay. And the next cut off will be before 3.2's launch window.