Quote Originally Posted by Niraves View Post
I don't think I'm any more deserving than anyone else who uses their home, but I do get really annoyed seeing dozens and dozens of empty unused houses in Shirogane on my realm. Every house available was bought up in less than ten minutes, and over half of them are still sitting completely empty. Way more than half. I don't know why people rush to buy a house they are just going to ignore. Is it an e-peen thing? If you get a house, you should USE it. THAT is what irritates me so much about this whole issue. Yes, I have two houses. But I use both of them every single day. I'm sorry if you think its selfish or whatever, but I am not giving up one of my homes that I worked really hard to get and really hard to decorate. If that means I do have to buy it on an alt account I will.
And yet large part of what you have been arguing for here comes down to just that. Because they don't play with their houses enough (by your standards) or didn't put enough effort into getting one (again, by your standards). And as much as you don't care about players that don't own houses, they won't care about your claims that you deserve to own more than 1 plot if they consider you a part of the general housing problem. Which you are.

As for why some owned plots still stand empty in Shirogane, there are a few possible explanations. Some were bought by house flippers. Some were bought by people with multiple plots on multiple characters. They will return to that particular character and that particular house to decorate eventually. Maybe. And finally, the simplest explanation of them all - it has only been 2 weeks since 4.1 arrived. For some players a house will be an ongoing project of sorts. Some have less play time available and will take longer to decorate their plots. Some saved enough gil for a plot, but not enough to decorate it (hardly a difficult thing to imagine if costs of furnishing can easily surpass that of the plot alone). Did they have to rush to buy a plot? Yes. Because within constraints of the current housing system taking advantage of those brief windows when new wards are added is the only semi-reliable way to get a plot. I suspect some of the plots might have also been snatched by players that may want/need house in the future. For the same reason - there might not be a reliable way for them to buy a house at a later date, when they decide they actually want/need it.

Quote Originally Posted by Ayerinn View Post
While it might be implemented, no way they would be dumb enough to FORCE relinquishment - you just wouldn't be able to purchase more. Honestly, I wouldn't mind them implementing such a change as long as the do away with the auto demo timer...would save me $$$.
The big question here is whether it would actually be a dumb thing to do for them. Would some players get upset about such a change? Of course, but for every 1 angry owner of 2 plots there would be 1 player happy with the change. For every 1 angry owner of 3 plots there would be 2 players happy with the change. And so on. Would it cause a stir within the community? There is a stir caused by the problems housing system has already anyway. Would there be bad press? Probably. However, the bad press is also here already, drawn in by the housing crisis.

I've said it before, I might as well repeat myself: in a subscription-based MMO, where needs of many will always outweigh needs of a few, a move like this would certainly be controversial, but likely justifiable from the business point of view. I'm not saying SE will do it, but if they do I won't be surprised either.

The demolition timer is not going to go anywhere though. Not as long as the housing system is as inefficient as it is.

Now, on the general tone of the discussion here. I've been following it for some time now and as far as I can see the entire line of argument used by multiple plot owners relies on 2 claims. First, that they didn't break any rules. Second, that they don't deserve to be punished. I'm going to start with the latter.

Can we talk about what constitutes a punishment? Because at this point you're trying to label a change you wouldn't like as a punishment towards you. If they were take your additional plots away while reimbursing their full value to you it would merely be an attempt at restoring certain status quo in order to provide at least a band aid to an inefficient housing system. Sure, you could argue that you are loosing time invested into decorating your additional plots, but that's pretty much all about it. SE could even remove their housing system entirely while reimbursing players for it and no one would be able to claim being punished either.

And that brings us to the other point - the rules and whether any of them were broken. Of course they weren't. But just as you are aware that everything you've done so far was well within the existing set of rules imposed by SE you should be aware than SE can modify that set of rules however they want. That includes changing rules and applying them retroactively. They're well within their rights to do it, it's something all players accept by agreeing to EULA, ToS and every other document thrown their way when they buy a game and register an account.