Quote Originally Posted by Jojoya View Post
It's true that not every FC with 4 or fewer total members (including FC Master) is a failed FC.

It's also true that not every FC with 4 or fewer members is a legitimate FC. Many are shells used to exploit the housing system to sate personal greed.

A FC that drops to a single member (the FC master) immediately after acquiring a house and stays that way is not "exchanging members". Please don't pretend it is. That's a player being inconsiderate of others, especially when that's not the only FC with a house they have on their account.

I doubt "being considerate" was ever a phrase listed as being part of the housing concepts when they were developed. If being considerate was a core philosophy for housing, SE would be doing something about the exploiters. You probably should stop pushing it as such.

I don't agree with the person you quoted that small FCs should have their houses taken away but SE needs to take a closer look at how the housing system is being exploited by some individuals through use of small FCs and how that is blocking access to the content for others.
I agree that they need a better system in place, the lottery is a good idea...on paper, but in practice, it falls short of what it was supposed to be. Very short. The fact remains that much of the data that SE is using for their decision making is based off the Japanese servers, which are larger and older than the EU, NA, and now OCE data centers. Many of the groups on the Japanese servers are not huge in terms of numbers, and are fairly dedicated and small groups that only use the FC housing as another benefit/means of entertainment with the perks you get from the FCs. And while shells are a problem, if you notice I mentioned that it should be taken into consideration that not EVERY small FC is a shell or failed FC. Calling a free company that has at max 4 members a failed FC is fairly dismissive of those who are content to just work with a small group of trusted friends or companions in game. No one was talking about people who just drop to a single member in an FC this is explicitly about those small groups being called 'shells' when they aren't. We don't have all the data on which FC's are 'shells' and which are just small groups, which is why generalizing smaller FCs as shelled or failed is not only rude but legitimately takes away from people who are actually working on building themselves up by lumping them in with those that are exploiting the system.

You misunderstand when I said being considerate towards others is the reason the housing system was built the way it is. No one can see the future, and therefore, they cannot predict what measures will be used against the system they were hoping would give everyone a fair chance at housing. I disagree that they put so much emphasis on FC housing and they should have left it mixed. Furthermore they need to implement that an FC can only attempt at *one* plaque per lottery.