Please Remove the Inactivity Timer

[Elamys]

And lastly, for housing to -BE- an efficient gil-sink (by SEs standards at least), then there needs to be a limited number of them so people would try to throw as much gil as they can at it.

I'm sorry, I think there's some misunderstanding on what a gil sink is. It has nothing to do with anything that moves gil from player to player. A gil sink takes gil out of the game completely. You "pay the game." When you buy a housing plot or an apartment, that gil is completely removed from the game. It's gone. There doesn't "need to be a limited number" of them for people to buy them, beyond the extremely small amount of players who won't buy something others can get.

Because, again, having extra money to "throw at" buying the plot doesn't make the gil sink work. The plot is a fixed price that only goes down as it remains unpurchased, and the only reason the prices goes down right now is due to the random timer, before it was always at max price. A medium grade 1 plot is 20 mil maximum and will only every be 20 mil maximum. Having 40 mil won't increase my chances of getting it. It won't get me extra stuff. If I spent 40 mil on a medium plot, then that means I probably spent 20 mil on the plot itself and gave 20 mil to someone so I could relocate there. Which means 20 mil was actually removed from the economy, and 20 mil went to another player.

How many players are fabulously wealthy, but can't buy a plot, and therefore have nothing to invest that gil into?

I get it's in vogue to hate on WoW around here, but it does have a good gil sink model with the Black Market Auction House and a number of very expensive mounts and minions, like the brutosaur. The stuff on the BMAH is limited, but things like the brutosaur are not. At most they might be gated behind a reputation. There's a wide enough variety of them now that most people can find at least one thing they want to strive for, and they don't have to worry about the number being limited.

[Kenky]

Housing needs to be limited to ensure there's a demand. Meaning people would be more inclined to pay the plot cost, regardless of what the cost was. That's what I was getting at. If you read the full post, especially regarding the recommendation on "auctions", then you'd have a better take on it.

So long as there is a demand, SE can jack up the pricing on all plots and people would still go out of their way to get one. That's how much worth and weight the community put on a bunch of code that has no real benefit (outside of FC ownership) beside growing onions.

[Edax]

Housing needs to be limited to ensure there's a demand.

Since there will always be a demand regardless, there's little reason to try and ensure the demand.

That's how much worth and weight the community put on a bunch of code that has no real benefit (outside of FC ownership) beside growing onions.

Player engagement is the most important benefit of which houses do provide in a practical sense. Scarcity isn't the prime cause of the demand (and if it was that would be a really shallow reason spend gil).

[Vahlnir]

Housing needs to be limited to ensure there's a demand. Meaning people would be more inclined to pay the plot cost, regardless of what the cost was. That's what I was getting at. If you read the full post, especially regarding the recommendation on "auctions", then you'd have a better take on it.

So long as there is a demand, SE can jack up the pricing on all plots and people would still go out of their way to get one. That's how much worth and weight the community put on a bunch of code that has no real benefit (outside of FC ownership) beside growing onions.

But you are still missing the point. A higher supply would meet the higher demand, therefore become an actual gil sink which removes gil from the game entirely. There will always be a demand. However, if they keep to their current route, there will never be enough supply...which won't remove gil from the economy. Or it won't remove enough to really matter. Housing should NOT be this limited.

[Kenky]

But you are still missing the point. A higher supply would meet the higher demand, therefore become an actual gil sink which removes gil from the game entirely. There will always be a demand. However, if they keep to their current route, there will never be enough supply...which won't remove gil from the economy. Or it won't remove enough to really matter. Housing should NOT be this limited.

You're missing the point that housing was never meant for every single player A higher supply would help the three or four (if that) servers that are fit-to-bursting (because the players are too damn stubborn to move to a less congested server, despite SE making it easy to keep friends and contact nowadays) while ensuring that the servers that barely have any purchased plots become even more of a ghost-town, wasting resources.

You want a house so badly? Move off a server that's always congested or play by the rules set to you. Not demand a fundamental system be changed because you were unlucky. Especially when the current system is doing its job as it's supposed to do. nobody has an edge, nobody has a higher % to get the house. It's all down to timing and being there at the right moment.

Can't get any fairer than that. If you think otherwise, then stop deluding yourself.