Regarding that Finaland Interview...

[Kirsten_Rev]

Unfortunately, this is not desirable, either. Even with infinite housing available, if folks were allowed to keep their houses no matter how long they were away from the game, pretty soon you'd wind up with whole wards consisting of one or two active players and dozens of empty, abandoned houses. Say what you like about whether or not wards are lively places, one way to ENSURE they become dead graveyards is to allow players to maintain their houses indefinitely. Of course, if we had infinite wards, the option opens up of allowing a player to RESTORE their house in a different ward, once they return to the game. Currently, that is not an option. (And, without infinite wards, I doubt it's a realistic idea.)

This would be one route to go down. I suppose I should clarify: a proper response would involve a promise to get rid of the current* demolition system as soon as possible. FFXIV, by Yoshi-P's own admission, is not built around continuous play, particularly for people who have dozens of hours a week to commit to a game. It stands to reason that game systems should avoid punishing people for sporadic subscription drops wherever possible.

I'd point out too, that most Wards are currently dead as-is. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of time I've seen people in my little corner of The Lavender Beds since I got my house, which was about a year and a half ago now. The current demolition system likely contributes to this issue, actually, as players who are 'effectively' not playing nevertheless maintain a subscription and house for fear of not being able to get one back upon their return.

I have no beef with the concept of demolition. I feel it is a necessary and desirable part of the housing system. My concern is with the method SE has chosen to measure whether a house is abandoned - whether the player sets foot in it. There are many situations in which a player would LIKE to maintain their house, but be UNABLE to do so. Injury, sickness, or military deployment being some good examples. I believe that maintaining an active subscription should be the sole requirement. If a player is paying for the game, then it's reasonable to maintain their stuff. If they stop paying, then why jump through any hoops for them?

For the same reason that they maintain character levels, mount and minion lists, Mog Station items, Glamours, etc: if returning players have little incentive to resubscribe, then the game's bottom line will suffer. Speaking personally, if any life event pushes me to abandon my subscription long enough to lose my house, I'll most likely never be coming back. It is a significant in-game possession for me; in many ways *the* most significant since, unlike character levels or gear, a house sits outside the progression treadmill. It's not in SE's interest for a short-term break to turn into a permanent subscription loss.

I'm curious as to why you think demolition is desirable, by the way. I agree that it's necessary right now from a supply limitation point of view, but there are better ways of maintaining populated wards for those who want living neighborhoods (as I said above, I strongly suspect that the current demolition system actually worsens this issue). Thoughts?

Edit / Addition:

I think it's fairly privileged statement to suggest that players be able to keep their housing if they have a life event that impacts their available play time (injury, sickness, etc.), but not make allowances for players who have financial circumstances arise that force them to cancel the subscription outright for a period of time. I certainly will always be able to afford XIV personally, but I know many people for whom that's not always the case.