Re-enable Housing Demolition!

[ItMe]

Tis the reason I said "personal opinion" :3

Hahaha fair point.

[PennyStormfire]

After reading all of the countless reasons why it is so humane to keep the demo timer off, I have some simple questions:
Does SE allow you to log in to your account if you allow your sub to lapse?
Can you access your additional retainers if you do not pay the additional retainer fee?
If you allow your sub to the Companion App to lapse can you access any of the items that are in your spare chocobo bag?

The answer to all of these questions is a resounding NO.
Why is it then that these houses are considered sacrosanct to people who for whatever reason cannot fulfil their commitment that they made when they made the in-game purchase?
I understand showing some empathy but attempting to assign some grand altruism to SE is disingenuous at best and hypocritical on it's face.

[Penthea]

After reading all of the countless reasons why it is so humane to keep the demo timer off, I have some simple questions:
Does SE allow you to log in to your account if you allow your sub to lapse?
Can you access your additional retainers if you do not pay the additional retainer fee?
If you allow your sub to the Companion App to lapse can you access any of the items that are in your spare chocobo bag?

The answer to all of these questions is a resounding NO.

This is a false equivalence. As soon as you pay your fees again you get all of those things back exactly how they were when you left them. This is not the case with housing at all, and if you're logged out for long enough you can also permanently lose all furniture used or stored in the house that got demolished.

[PennyStormfire]

This is a false equivalence. As soon as you pay your fees again you get all of those things back exactly how they were when you left them. This is not the case with housing at all, and if you're logged out for long enough you can also permanently lose all furniture used or stored in the house that got demolished.

Nothing that you get back is a severely limited resource. All of that is clearly stated at time of purchase, just as the timer is clearly stated. My point is that pausing the timer is not an act of altruism. It is a calculated way to motivate subscription payment.

[Penthea]

Nothing that you get back is a severely limited resource.

Which is precisely why losing a house can be a huge hit. Not only does it mean it could be close to impossible to get one again, you also lose at least several million gil's worth of assets. You can even lose assets that cost real money depending on what furniture you had.

The fact that we even need demolition just shows how flawed the housing system is. Literally nothing else in the game works like this because it doesn't need to.

The problem is the lack of houses, not demolition or a lack of it. Demolition wouldn't even be a discussed subject if the game had enough or unlimited houses.

But too many players focus on being angry about a symptom instead of directing their attention to the actual cause, which is why we still have this horrendous system. The last time we got anything resembling positive change was when the community was unified in demanding real change from SE (Shirogane launch). As long as most players are complacent and/or only ask for minor band-aid fixes, that is all we will ever get.

Demolition will be turned on again one day but in the grand scheme of things this will change very little. Why? Because we don't have enough houses. There will always be players unfairly shafted by the system as long as it stays the same.

All of that is clearly stated at time of purchase, just as the timer is clearly stated. My point is that pausing the timer is not an act of altruism. It is a calculated way to motivate subscription payment.

Why can't it be both?

[Seddrinth]

The fact that we even need demolition just shows how flawed the housing system is. Literally nothing else in the game works like this because it doesn't need to.

The problem is the lack of houses, not demolition or a lack of it. Demolition wouldn't even be a discussed subject if the game had enough or unlimited houses.

If you are talking about instanced housing then yeah, no demolition needed for obvious reasons. People who lapse their subcription can always get their instanced house back when they come back to the game. But with current system of wards, you absolutely need housing demolition, even if there weren't a shortage of houses. It would make no sense to have a plot unavailable if the owner's subscription expired, because what if that player never comes back to FF14? That plot should be made available to active players again.

[Seddrinth]

COVID-19 is going to continue affecting everyone for many months, if not years to come. Does this mean that housing demolition is going to be disabled until the Coronavirus crisis has officially ended?

This isn't a viable solution to the housing problem. Adding new wards is only a temporary solution. And it will only benefit current players.

The best solution would be to re-enable housing demolition, and never disable it again. It's an essential part of keeping housing available as an option for new and existing players.

Who supports re-enabling housing demolition?

I support re-enabling housing demolition. We've already paused it for how long? Half a year? That is more than enough time as a courtesy to everyone who had to stop subscription because of Covid19. There are players who are currently subbed who want housing. It makes too much sense to enable demolition now and give some of those plots to active players.

[Ravenblade1979]

As covid is a ongoing issue and lots unable to play I need to side with those who are unable to play. I could see if they had the ability to pay their sub but just dont but in this case just leave it as it is

[Jojoya]

As covid is a ongoing issue and lots unable to play I need to side with those who are unable to play. I could see if they had the ability to pay their sub but just dont but in this case just leave it as it is

People have financial difficulties all the time. We may as well remove demoltion from the game for the sake of those who can't play for financial reasons, or medical reasons, or really whatever reasons.

Right? I mean it's only fair to them. They shouldn't have to lose something they aren't using just because real life was mean to them.

We've got someone in our FC who can't play right now due to COVID related reasons. She's been out of work since April. Her husband still works but what he earns isn't enough to pay their bills. She keeps in touch with us through the FC Discord on occasion. She's worried her family continuing to have a place to live, getting food, keeping utilities on. Once she gets back to work, anything she and her husband earn in excess of their basic monthly expenses is going to have to go toward paying off the debt they've accumulated the last 6 months. She wishes she could come back to play with us but knows it's not going to be any time in the near future and maybe not even the distant future. Life is too uncertain for their family right now.

Not once has she said "I miss my house in the game".

[Penthea]

Not once has she said "I miss my house in the game".

I'm pretty sure no one expects every single player who can't come online to miss their house or worry about it.