3.3 & 3.4 Housing Updates

[Delilah Scythewood]

Has SE confirmed that there will be only one Apartment per city?

 

Looking at the screenshots of where they are located, it's the blocked off road in each housing area.  As long as they have the server capacity, SE could be putting one in each ward (and subdivision).  

 

 

 

I couldn't replicate the angle... but that is definitely the same spot in the Mist.

 

 

 

Goblet

 

 

 

 

Lavender Beds

I figured those buildings were going to serve some kind of purpose down the line.

[Kilieit]

Balmung is officially "not everyone will be happy with housing" as apartments are limited to 1536 per world (512 in each city state: Limsa, Ul'dah and Grid)

 

Are you kidding =_=

 

There goes that solution, then, lmao.

 

Just make them instanced and 1/character with a demolishment schedule... please..........

 

Every single instance is also linked to server nodes dedicated to them. Dungeons or just quest instances. They have dedicated and limited server slots running at the same time.

 

This is also why when they released Stone Sky Sea, so many players tried to accessed it at once that there was a server congestion and most people couldn't access.

 

You will run in the exact same issue. System wise, there is absolutely zero difference.

 

As a technical problem, I can think of other MMO's who have solved it - older ones, too.

 

It's not impossible. Which means with enough development time (and money), it'd probably be feasible.

 

They're just not doing it... so of course it's going to be frustrating when they come out with something every few months that's supposed to "solve the problem once and for all" and then doesn't.

 

Housing is a big enough part of endgame, especially on a roleplay server, that any system which makes it "limited edition" is going to remain unliked. It's meant to be a money sink and an economy stimulant - but that doesn't work as effectively if only a small portion of the population can even access the thing they're supposed to be spending money on in the first place! It'd be like if only the first 512 people per grand company could get the best raid weapons per patch, and no one else after that was even allowed to enter the instance to have a go.

 

Make the high gil cost the barrier that prevents "just everyone" from having one (just like the time sink is what prevents "just everyone" from having the best raid weapons) - not the fact you don't have a high-end computer and a really fast internet connection and a flexible work schedule and really, really good luck.

 

I would honestly be okay with much, much higher gil cost for housing of all kinds, if it meant that there would potentially be enough plots generated for everyone if everyone somehow managed to hit that gil requirement. I mean, and/or make you pay gil-rent to keep the instance! That would be fine too! At least it would give you a solid goal to work towards, the culmination of which isn't based on your favour with Nymeia (or scalpers).

 

Ugh.

[ExAtomos]

No outdoor space, but there is a lobby and chocobo stables available.

._.

[Gabineaux]

What if someone, say, started to put up PF ads asking to buy a house 'please contact me yadayada'. And then systematically reported the sellers showing up, mh?

 

Just a thought.

 

They do this already but there is nothing to report? No one gets banned unless something is relinquished and gil is exchanged. I guess they might get a slap on the wrist but keep this in mind, it is also against the rules to buy as well as sell.

 

There's a reason the reddit for Balmung is so dry. Everyone tries to bait people. Barely any houses are moving at all but boy when they do.. 175mil for the last medium house in the mist I saw sold. (I actually knew of the fella who bought it. Grabbed my head and went WHY OH GOD WHY to the guy who bought, but it was something he REALLY wanted..) That's what happens when this kind of stuff goes down. It went further into the black market and the prices only went up for the risk. Why haven't they turned the timer back on yet? THAT I do not understand at all.

 

Here is a reddit thread I found particularly interesting:

 

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/4qb9s7/plot_sale_results_in_ban/d4s52jk

Someone sold a small plot for 6mil. With 4 airships for 6mil and got a 24hr ban? 6mil total for all of that. The gil is gone, but people are somewhat unclear on what happened to the plot. The GM even agreed that it would cost someone far more than 6mil to make those 4 airships. Hilarious.

 

I think it's kind of cruel to report someone for this kind of stuff if they are selling you a plot for 6mil, which to me, is a completely reasonable price. ESPECIALLY with four airships. There was NO profit made there. For a ridiculously high price, I get it. But if nothing is exchanged, and a GM is in a bad mood? You could get in trouble too. Especially since it seems like they are just TAKING gil away from buyers, not returning it.

[Edda]

Why haven't they turned the timer back on yet? THAT I do not understand at all.

Because of the earthquakes/subsequent flooding in Japan. It's both out of respect for those who have lost homes, and a courtesy to those who may not be able to access their in-game houses due to these natural disasters. It's good press and customer relations for Square Enix to do so, as Japanese players are their target audience and priority.

 

It's also a very Japanese thing, i.e. Titan being entirely cut from 1.0 due to the earthquakes in Japan around that time. All we can do is wait.

[Caspar]

Why haven't they turned the timer back on yet? THAT I do not understand at all.

Because of the earthquakes/subsequent flooding in Japan. It's both out of respect for those who have lost homes, and a courtesy to those who may not be able to access their in-game houses due to these natural disasters. It's good press and customer relations for Square Enix to do so, as Japanese players are their target audience and priority.

 

It's also a very Japanese thing, i.e. Titan being entirely cut from 1.0 due to the earthquakes in Japan around that time. All we can do is wait.

That I can kinda understand, as well as the whole Leviathan thing. I mean, he's literally Earthquake Man, Robot Masters style. It would definitely make many people a bit upset, even if it was not intentional.

 

I suppose they could just keep it off there, but I think that would just provoke complaints of favoritism.

[Arty]

They clearly showed the buildings that appear in each ward and subward. And they said it's 512 per building, not per city. Which means that it's NOT 1536, but over 36000 apartments per server (every ward and subward has the building which has 512 apartments).

 

Basically, they are adding the equivalent of a ward to each housing district, and filling it with FC houses (FC houses have a limit of 512 rooms per house).

 

So please, everyone stop panicking.

[Valence]

B-but we are over 50.000 in Balmung 

 

 

I think it's kind of cruel to report someone for this kind of stuff if they are selling you a plot for 6mil, which to me, is a completely reasonable price. ESPECIALLY with four airships. There was NO profit made there. For a ridiculously high price, I get it. But if nothing is exchanged, and a GM is in a bad mood? You could get in trouble too. Especially since it seems like they are just TAKING gil away from buyers, not returning it.

 

I don't think it is cruel. A small plot is what? 3M? The guy is making double that price, which makes the victim pay 3 times more than they would normally have. It can definitely be seen as extortion, and house sellers can already make a good margin with such prices. Granted, they sure probably ask a lot more now as you say, with the overall atmosphere and prices climbing up and all, but I really, really fail to see that as cruel. I would do it everytime, no matter what.

 

If it was just making you pay the value of all the inside items and airships, and that only, I wouldn't mind. Were all those 4 airships fully upgraded and all? Or just the basic ones?

 

I find it a bit cruel though on the behalf of the GMs not to at least reimburse the buyers, even if it's a bit of a Darwin Award here. Okay, they got to be the fools, they bought even if it goes against the rules, sure. But at the same time... well yeah. It's probably to teach them a lesson so they don't do it again. It's a bit harsh sure, but to cut on the selling market, cracking down on buyers and thus, market demand, is a good way to choke the market.

[Kage]

They clearly showed the buildings that appear in each ward and subward. And they said it's 512 per building, not per city. Which means that it's NOT 1536, but over 36000 apartments per server (every ward and subward has the building which has 512 apartments).

 

Basically, they are adding the equivalent of a ward to each housing district, and filling it with FC houses (FC houses have a limit of 512 rooms per house).

 

So please, everyone stop panicking.

This is unconfirmed as we do not know if each ward/subward gets it.

 

Especially as atm Balmung is the server with the highest active population at only 20k. Considering how the devs have always aimed at satisfying the near lowest common denominator, they're not aiming to satisfy Balmung's needs.

[Gabineaux]

B-but we are over 50.000 in Balmung 

 

 

I think it's kind of cruel to report someone for this kind of stuff if they are selling you a plot for 6mil, which to me, is a completely reasonable price. ESPECIALLY with four airships. There was NO profit made there. For a ridiculously high price, I get it. But if nothing is exchanged, and a GM is in a bad mood? You could get in trouble too. Especially since it seems like they are just TAKING gil away from buyers, not returning it.

 

I don't think it is cruel. A small plot is what? 3M? The guy is making double that price, which makes the victim pay 3 times more than they would normally have. It can definitely be seen as extortion, and house sellers can already make a good margin with such prices. Granted, they sure probably ask a lot more now as you say, with the overall atmosphere and prices climbing up and all, but I really, really fail to see that as cruel. I would do it everytime, no matter what.

 

If it was just making you pay the value of all the inside items and airships, and that only, I wouldn't mind. Were all those 4 airships fully upgraded and all? Or just the basic ones?

 

I find it a bit cruel though on the behalf of the GMs not to at least reimburse the buyers, even if it's a bit of a Darwin Award here. Okay, they got to be the fools, they bought even if it goes against the rules, sure. But at the same time... well yeah. It's probably to teach them a lesson so they don't do it again. It's a bit harsh sure, but to cut on the selling market, cracking down on buyers and thus, market demand, is a good way to choke the market.

 

Any full set of airship parts will cart you over 6mil, even if it's just bronco across the board on 4 ships. Just selling those parts on the market instead of using them would get you more than 6mil. The mats are cheap, yeah, just gathering all that crap and wrangling 3 people to stand there while you put it all together is.. well it takes a lot of time and effort even for more than one person. And if he had prototypes all unlocked, all sectors unlocked, that's just a gil printing factory that uses FC points you can get from running expert and handing the stuff you don't use in. It doesn't take much points. You don't need a full FC to keep that train running. That alone is worth more than 6mil. Insert FC points, take out gil. That 6mil would pay for itself in a couple of weeks depending on RNG/parts/sectors covered. If you want to factor all of THAT in, gil for gil, that price tag is going to end up a lot higher than 6mil depending on parts.

 

You can also consider this. Small houses were more than 3mil before. 10mil? Were they 10mil? Or were they 15mil before? It may have also depended on the class of the plot. It would have heavily depended on which ward he was in. Remember, plots used to be expensive. So if anyone wants to make their money back on what they spent on their plot older than ward.. what, 9? 10? They simply cannot. Their gil is gone forever. Even waiting the timer out, someone who spent 80mil on a large plot will get a piddly 25mil(roughly? WAY LESS? 10MIL? No no it's 80%.) back. So the possibility that this person paid 15mil for the plot, then perhaps a lot more than that on airships is very real. Then he got BANNED for 6mil? That's not cruel? Just because he had a plot and didn't want to give away his hard work for absolutely nothing (which I think he kind of did anyway for 6mil) he deserves a ban?

 

If you ask me, 6mil is still STUPIDLY reasonable. Especially when right now, on Balmung, a small plot goes from 20mil, to 60mil. Yes, 60mil. If you find a small plot for 6mil on Balmung from another player willingly HOLY CRAP you are lucky. If you want anything that isn't in the Goblet you are looking at 40-60mil for a small plot. Plain and simple. And that sucks. It really sucks. The more I think about it, the more I think merging smaller servers and offering free server transfers off of Balmung would be the answer. But I think the ps3 is really limiting that? I guess? Or merging low low pop servers is the mark of a dying mmo and nobody wants to hear about that/see that happen.

 

And.. Why would a GM reimburse a buyer? Why is the buyer the victim? They wanted the plot? They handed over the gil? They reported the seller? No one in these transactions has the evidence to fully report anyone to get any action done besides the buyer or the seller. Why would the seller report the buyer when they got their gil? That makes no sense. And if they just pat the buyer and let them keep their gil, that's encouraging the market on one end and not the other. If there's buyers, there's sellers. I understand why they're doing what they're doing but it's really ...not very effective. And if they trick sellers and ban them, especially in these cases where it's actually very VERY reasonably priced plots, it's so bad for their business as an MMO. That's going to piss people off EVEN MORE than they already are on both sides of the fence. It's only pushed the shit off of party finder and onto tumblr/reddit/third parties even further. So much so, that there's hardly anything in game there to ban at all besides an in game relinquish and snap re-buy. All they have to go on now is a large exchange of gil from one name to another, and the same names relinquishing and re-buying. But who has the time to stalk the reddit, connect the names, stalk the wards, and report these people as an outside looking in? I think the way the GMs could catch them now, IF they cared to, was to look at someone trading 1mil 40+ times. The same way they catch RMT. ....I have given people more than 6mil for a loan before and never gotten banned though. Something weird went on there.

 

The more more MORE I think about it.. The guy felt stiffed for 6mil? Changed his mind? The buyer said LOL TOO BAD? So the seller reported him? Or the buyer felt, I SPENT TOO MUCH WHEN THE PLOT IS 3MIL? ...DID HE GET HIS PLOT BACK THOUGH? No one says ANYTHING about what happens to these plots. NO ONE. I've sent PM and nobody replies. Do the plots just go up on open market? I have no clue! ...Because if these plots go up for open market, people will definitely start keeping a closer eye on that reddit.

 

 

....ALSO... does anyone know if you can have a personal house AND an apartment yet? LOL. Because man, I hope they MAKE you choose. It will just not make sense if they allow you to have both.

[Kage]

So far it is unknown whether or not people with personal houses can get an apartment.

 

There is another live letter so more is to be revealed in that Sept live letter.

[Gabineaux]

I already posted that earlier oops. but WHY WOULDN'T THEY GIVE US THIS INFORMATION. I WANNA KNOW. I must know. I also want to know if there's a penthouse. I want to know if I can go on a balcony and have a garden. I guess not.

[Kellach Woods]

So far it is unknown whether or not people with personal houses can get an apartment.

 

It'll probably count as owning property so I'd say it won't be allowed just because you can't own more than one house.

 

But hey, SE's surprised me with stupidity before!

[Kage]

So far it is unknown whether or not people with personal houses can get an apartment.

 

It'll probably count as owning property so I'd say it won't be allowed just because you can't own more than one house.

 

But hey, SE's surprised me with stupidity before!

 

For all we know, since the apartment sounds like an FC house equivalent you may be able to own an apartment like you can with a personal room and a personal house.

[Valence]

 

Any full set of airship parts will cart you over 6mil, even if it's just bronco across the board on 4 ships. Just selling those parts on the market instead of using them would get you more than 6mil. The mats are cheap, yeah, just gathering all that crap and wrangling 3 people to stand there while you put it all together is.. well it takes a lot of time and effort even for more than one person. And if he had prototypes all unlocked, all sectors unlocked, that's just a gil printing factory that uses FC points you can get from running expert and handing the stuff you don't use in. It doesn't take much points. You don't need a full FC to keep that train running. That alone is worth more than 6mil. Insert FC points, take out gil. That 6mil would pay for itself in a couple of weeks depending on RNG/parts/sectors covered. If you want to factor all of THAT in, gil for gil, that price tag is going to end up a lot higher than 6mil depending on parts.

 

I concede that point then. I am no cafter, even if I think crafters tend to be a bit entitled at times and inflate anything out of proportions.

 

 

You can also consider this. Small houses were more than 3mil before. 10mil? Were they 10mil? Or were they 15mil before? It may have also depended on the class of the plot. It would have heavily depended on which ward he was in. Remember, plots used to be expensive. So if anyone wants to make their money back on what they spent on their plot older than ward.. what, 9? 10? They simply cannot. Their gil is gone forever. Even waiting the timer out, someone who spent 80mil on a large plot will get a piddly 25mil(roughly? WAY LESS? 10MIL? No no it's 80%.) back. So the possibility that this person paid 15mil for the plot, then perhaps a lot more than that on airships is very real. Then he got BANNED for 6mil? That's not cruel? Just because he had a plot and didn't want to give away his hard work for absolutely nothing (which I think he kind of did anyway for 6mil) he deserves a ban?

 

So? Because if I buy a stock of materias for 500k, and suddenly they lose half of their value on the MB, I should be entitled to get my missing 250k back? If I buy raiding food someday, and they skyrocket the day after, I should relinquish all the money I gained out of it? Because it's not fair? If I buy a gear set that is super expensive, then quit the game, and come back one year later when said gear has become cheap as dirt, I should throw a tantrum at buyers because they are not paying the full price I paid one year before?

 

Isn't that the rule of the market by definition? I'm afraid it would be very naive to expect otherwise.

 

If you ask me' date=' 6mil is still STUPIDLY reasonable. Especially when right now, on Balmung, a small plot goes from 20mil, to 60mil. Yes, 60mil. If you find a small plot for 6mil on Balmung from another player willingly [b']HOLY CRAP [/b] you are lucky. If you want anything that isn't in the Goblet you are looking at 40-60mil for a small plot. Plain and simple. And that sucks. It really sucks. The more I think about it, the more I think merging smaller servers and offering free server transfers off of Balmung would be the answer. But I think the ps3 is really limiting that? I guess? Or merging low low pop servers is the mark of a dying mmo and nobody wants to hear about that/see that happen.

 

That's probably very reasonable yeah. But that also shows that most players still don't grasp what's the crux of the matter. You pay for illegal shit. No matter how nice and reasonable you are with your prices, you risk being curbstomped by the law.

 

I think the only case that could be made here is that Yoshi-P and SE never were exactly very clear on their stance on the matter. So, if you bought before, you can still have the excuse not to have known.

 

Now though... Everyone knows what they risk. They still choose to invest? Well then, reasonable or not, they got what they deserved. You can disagree with the system, or agree, it doesn't change the end result. Trying to cheat and complaining after when you get caught? Please.

 

Sure, that's not extremely fun when it happens to the people that deserve it the less, yeah.

[Gabineaux]

See, the market economy and the housing economy are very different things. The market is very fast. I can see 5 items up, buy them up, and resell them the same day for double the price and that's perfectly fine and well. Or I can buy 3 items, price them very very high, wait for someone to undercut me and then I can undercut them and make a profit over a week or so. Not against any rules at all. I'm not talking about buying a house just to flip it for a profit. That guy didn't get a profit. Sure ok yes it's against the rules, so ban him, but why aren't the actual house flippers who already have 900mil+ from doing this NOT getting banned? I don't know where any profit relinquishing came from. I'm not sure where you were going with that.

 

Then we got the people buying smalls for 20mil, selling for 60mil the same week. Keep an eye on reddit and you can see the same plot go up and down as someone tries to flip it again and again. 160mil a medium, far more for large and that is absolutely ridiculous. We all know there are people out there who buy only to flip. And they never flip cheap. How do you get proof of it to report it unless you're part of the deal and therefore on the chopblock yourself? Nothing is being done about those transactions. No one at SE is batting an eye. Why not? Why should anyone have to report a transaction of over 40mil gil at all? That doesn't show up on their side and raise any red flags of RMT? Why aren't they reinforcing their own rules? Why do we have to report them/have them report one another in the first place? You can try, certainly you can try, but you risk yourself reporting them by making a party finder saying you're buying. But HOW are these large masses of gil going by unnoticed? They just ..don't care. I don't know what else it is. Because houses are moving still. And for far more than they ever did before the 'NO HOUSE SELLING' rules came around. 15-20mil used to be standard for small houses but not anymore.

 

I mean the last time I had to report someone for using slurs in a dungeon I literally had to look up the guy's server on lodestone for the GM. The chatlogs, timezone, location of my character was not enough. The GMs don't have the tools for this? They can't open up the lodestone and check the character's name for the server, and where that character was at the time? What kind of customer service are we paying them for? I've never been asked on any other mmo to do half of the GM's work for them. But it certainly somewhat explains why they also don't really care about all of this house flipping going on. Hopefully we get as many apartments as we think we're going to and here's hoping they're a little more than just private rooms.

[Yssen]

See, the market economy and the housing economy are very different things. The market is very fast. I can see 5 items up, buy them up, and resell them the same day for double the price and that's perfectly fine and well. Or I can buy 3 items, price them very very high, wait for someone to undercut me and then I can undercut them and make a profit over a week or so. Not against any rules at all. I'm not talking about buying a house just to flip it for a profit. That guy didn't get a profit. Sure ok yes it's against the rules, so ban him, but why aren't the actual house flippers who already have 900mil+ from doing this NOT getting banned? I don't know where any profit relinquishing came from. I'm not sure where you were going with that.

 

Then we got the people buying smalls for 20mil, selling for 60mil the same week. Keep an eye on reddit and you can see the same plot go up and down as someone tries to flip it again and again. 160mil a medium, far more for large and that is absolutely ridiculous. We all know there are people out there who buy only to flip. And they never flip cheap. How do you get proof of it to report it unless you're part of the deal and therefore on the chopblock yourself? Nothing is being done about those transactions. No one at SE is batting an eye. Why not? Why should anyone have to report a transaction of over 40mil gil at all? That doesn't show up on their side and raise any red flags of RMT? Why aren't they reinforcing their own rules? Why do we have to report them/have them report one another in the first place? You can try, certainly you can try, but you risk yourself reporting them by making a party finder saying you're buying. But HOW are these large masses of gil going by unnoticed? They just ..don't care. I don't know what else it is. Because houses are moving still. And for far more than they ever did before the 'NO HOUSE SELLING' rules came around. 15-20mil used to be standard for small houses but not anymore.

 

I mean the last time I had to report someone for using slurs in a dungeon I literally had to look up the guy's server on lodestone for the GM. The chatlogs, timezone, location of my character was not enough. The GMs don't have the tools for this? They can't open up the lodestone and check the character's name for the server, and where that character was at the time? What kind of customer service are we paying them for? I've never been asked on any other mmo to do half of the GM's work for them. But it certainly somewhat explains why they also don't really care about all of this house flipping going on. Hopefully we get as many apartments as we think we're going to and here's hoping they're a little more than just private rooms.

 

It is incorrect to say that no one at SE is batting an eye when they called for people to report house flipping and selling plots for profit in a live letter. Clear as day in a live letter. SE is not to blame for you not doing as they asked when someone violates the terms of service. Further, the fact that a similar behavior is allowed on the market board, does not mean that house flipping is in anyway justified when they have said "We don't like this, don't do it." It is specious reasoning to say that they don't care at all when they have bothered to clarify the point in a live letter, and given a method of action that you as a player can take to help them solve it. One can come up with as many reasons as they like as for why a behavior against the ToS might be justified in their eyes, at no point does this truly justify anything. It also doesn't change the fact that a behavior is against the ToS. 

 

One's personal experiences with a GM do not encompass the entire experience of everyone who has reported anyone for any reason. I'm sorry you have had a negative experience with a harassment claim, but that does not justify people breaking the ToS at any point. Houses are moving still, sure. People still buy gil with real money and bully people with parsers, too. People speed all the time on the road irl, but saying "everyone else was doing it" is not a defense that holds up in court, ever. Someone getting away with something is not an indication that SE doesn't care. It is just an indication they haven't been caught yet. If they are not being caught because you refuse to report the people doing it for reason x, then you have given them tacit approval. In doing so, it can be argued that you become part of the problem. 

 

Snatching up a house to inflate the price to make a large level of profit when relinquishing the plot is about the same sort of act as when that douche bag bought the rights to an AIDS treatment medication and jacked the price up. Yes, you can argue that it is simple supply and demand, and that it is all SE's fault for a flawed housing system. This does not make the action right. Particularly when the people who created and own the game say it is wrong. Flawed systems do not absolve an individual from making bad moral or ethical decisions.

[Valence]

See, the market economy and the housing economy are very different things. The market is very fast. I can see 5 items up, buy them up, and resell them the same day for double the price and that's perfectly fine and well. Or I can buy 3 items, price them very very high, wait for someone to undercut me and then I can undercut them and make a profit over a week or so. Not against any rules at all. I'm not talking about buying a house just to flip it for a profit. That guy didn't get a profit. Sure ok yes it's against the rules, so ban him, but why aren't the actual house flippers who already have 900mil+ from doing this NOT getting banned? I don't know where any profit relinquishing came from. I'm not sure where you were going with that.

 

Then we got the people buying smalls for 20mil, selling for 60mil the same week. Keep an eye on reddit and you can see the same plot go up and down as someone tries to flip it again and again. 160mil a medium, far more for large and that is absolutely ridiculous. We all know there are people out there who buy only to flip. And they never flip cheap. How do you get proof of it to report it unless you're part of the deal and therefore on the chopblock yourself? Nothing is being done about those transactions. No one at SE is batting an eye. Why not? Why should anyone have to report a transaction of over 40mil gil at all? That doesn't show up on their side and raise any red flags of RMT? Why aren't they reinforcing their own rules? Why do we have to report them/have them report one another in the first place? You can try, certainly you can try, but you risk yourself reporting them by making a party finder saying you're buying. But HOW are these large masses of gil going by unnoticed? They just ..don't care. I don't know what else it is. Because houses are moving still. And for far more than they ever did before the 'NO HOUSE SELLING' rules came around. 15-20mil used to be standard for small houses but not anymore.

 

I mean the last time I had to report someone for using slurs in a dungeon I literally had to look up the guy's server on lodestone for the GM. The chatlogs, timezone, location of my character was not enough. The GMs don't have the tools for this? They can't open up the lodestone and check the character's name for the server, and where that character was at the time? What kind of customer service are we paying them for? I've never been asked on any other mmo to do half of the GM's work for them. But it certainly somewhat explains why they also don't really care about all of this house flipping going on. Hopefully we get as many apartments as we think we're going to and here's hoping they're a little more than just private rooms.

 

 

What makes you think they don't ban some of them when they catch them? Do you personally know all of those house sellers to confirm that? The same way, you are taking one single example of how badly any system can turn with some poor soul selling his house 6M and getting banned. That's a bit disingenuous I think.

 

As said just above, it's a bit like saying because one guy stealing pocket money to an old lady in the street got into prison while a few groups doing a heist never got caught means by all logic and necessity that all little thiefs always get stomped and not the dangerous guys pulling big heists... What kind of logic is that? One example or two don't make a generality.

 

Unless you have proofs of course. What we would call a consistent and sufficient pool of stats to show otherwise.

 

In any case, why would SE only ban the smallest offenses and not the big ones? Because they are mean bullies?

[Gabineaux]

It is incorrect to say that no one at SE is batting an eye when they called for people to report house flipping and selling plots for profit in a live letter. Clear as day in a live letter. SE is not to blame for you not doing as they asked when someone violates the terms of service. Further, the fact that a similar behavior is allowed on the market board, does not mean that house flipping is in anyway justified when they have said "We don't like this, don't do it." It is specious reasoning to say that they don't care at all when they have bothered to clarify the point in a live letter, and given a method of action that you as a player can take to help them solve it. One can come up with as many reasons as they like as for why a behavior against the ToS might be justified in their eyes, at no point does this truly justify anything. It also doesn't change the fact that a behavior is against the ToS. 

 

One's personal experiences with a GM do not encompass the entire experience of everyone who has reported anyone for any reason. I'm sorry you have had a negative experience with a harassment claim, but that does not justify people breaking the ToS at any point. Houses are moving still, sure. People still buy gil with real money and bully people with parsers, too. People speed all the time on the road irl, but saying "everyone else was doing it" is not a defense that holds up in court, ever. Someone getting away with something is not an indication that SE doesn't care. It is just an indication they haven't been caught yet. If they are not being caught because you refuse to report the people doing it for reason x, then you have given them tacit approval. In doing so, it can be argued that you become part of the problem. 

 

Snatching up a house to inflate the price to make a large level of profit when relinquishing the plot is about the same sort of act as when that douche bag bought the rights to an AIDS treatment medication and jacked the price up. Yes, you can argue that it is simple supply and demand, and that it is all SE's fault for a flawed housing system. This does not make the action right. Particularly when the people who created and own the game say it is wrong. Flawed systems do not absolve an individual from making bad moral or ethical decisions.

 

If I report someone and have no chatlogs and no evidence they simply tell me I've reported something without enough information for them to do anything. I'm not saying it's justified I'm just saying wow, 6mil he's getting a ban but 200mil, 175mil, sliding by with astroglide home free. I got nothing to report. I have nothing but a name and why should I report someone if they're happy with their purchase? I'm appalled they paid that much and they thought it was fine, but my god. How did that much gil get by the GMs?

 

Also, there's mountains of RP fcs that bought their houses for outrageous prices. Do we rally up and report each and every one of these fcs? Because it was against the rules? I'm not sure what happens to these plots. The live letter said these transactions are reversed but reddit has said the gil is gone... do we risk it?

 

 

See, the market economy and the housing economy are very different things. The market is very fast. I can see 5 items up, buy them up, and resell them the same day for double the price and that's perfectly fine and well. Or I can buy 3 items, price them very very high, wait for someone to undercut me and then I can undercut them and make a profit over a week or so. Not against any rules at all. I'm not talking about buying a house just to flip it for a profit. That guy didn't get a profit. Sure ok yes it's against the rules, so ban him, but why aren't the actual house flippers who already have 900mil+ from doing this NOT getting banned? I don't know where any profit relinquishing came from. I'm not sure where you were going with that.

 

Then we got the people buying smalls for 20mil, selling for 60mil the same week. Keep an eye on reddit and you can see the same plot go up and down as someone tries to flip it again and again. 160mil a medium, far more for large and that is absolutely ridiculous. We all know there are people out there who buy only to flip. And they never flip cheap. How do you get proof of it to report it unless you're part of the deal and therefore on the chopblock yourself? Nothing is being done about those transactions. No one at SE is batting an eye. Why not? Why should anyone have to report a transaction of over 40mil gil at all? That doesn't show up on their side and raise any red flags of RMT? Why aren't they reinforcing their own rules? Why do we have to report them/have them report one another in the first place? You can try, certainly you can try, but you risk yourself reporting them by making a party finder saying you're buying. But HOW are these large masses of gil going by unnoticed? They just ..don't care. I don't know what else it is. Because houses are moving still. And for far more than they ever did before the 'NO HOUSE SELLING' rules came around. 15-20mil used to be standard for small houses but not anymore.

 

I mean the last time I had to report someone for using slurs in a dungeon I literally had to look up the guy's server on lodestone for the GM. The chatlogs, timezone, location of my character was not enough. The GMs don't have the tools for this? They can't open up the lodestone and check the character's name for the server, and where that character was at the time? What kind of customer service are we paying them for? I've never been asked on any other mmo to do half of the GM's work for them. But it certainly somewhat explains why they also don't really care about all of this house flipping going on. Hopefully we get as many apartments as we think we're going to and here's hoping they're a little more than just private rooms.

 

 

What makes you think they don't ban some of them when they catch them? Do you personally know all of those house sellers to confirm that? The same way, you are taking one single example of how badly any system can turn with some poor soul selling his house 6M and getting banned. That's a bit disingenuous I think.

 

As said just above, it's a bit like saying because one guy stealing pocket money to an old lady in the street got into prison while a few groups doing a heist never got caught means by all logic and necessity that all little thiefs always get stomped and not the dangerous guys pulling big heists... What kind of logic is that? One example or two don't make a generality.

 

Unless you have proofs of course. What we would call a consistent and sufficient pool of stats to show otherwise.

 

In any case, why would SE only ban the smallest offenses and not the big ones? Because they are mean bullies?

 

I actually do personally know three people who flipped houses frequently to make 300mil+ and I don't find it my business to report them as I have no in game evidence to report. I have nothing. I have no chat logs, no screenshots, I have nothing in-game and they do not take out of game information. If they took out of game information as fact, everyone would just report the names on the housing reddit and that would be that. I have 'hey look at that guy sold this plot for x amount of gil to this player' and they could go 'um ok'. I assume I'd need a lot more than that to get anything done. I'd probably need chat logs, relinquish date/time, and I just don't have any of that information. In one of these cases, I'm friends with the person. I'm not going to report my friend. With such large masses of gil being moved I am legitimately impressed nothing has been done to their account at all. Like I said before, GMs should be able to see this gil moving and they should be doing something about it.

 

I mean, maybe they DO ban some? But ok, who? Where? I keep my ear to the ground when it comes to housing because goddamn, I want a large house, and I've never heard of any high rolling flippers getting banned yet. Just careless people who do their dealings in game. And if they're banned, what happens to their plots? Are they going to be on the timer when it comes back? Why give them that courtesy if they're banned? ..But wait, their bans are situational. Sometimes it's just a 24hr ban, or week, or month. It's not always a permaban. I want to say bans depend on how many prior offences someone has on their account. Sometimes your ban depends what kind of mood the GM is in. You can report win trading which is also very much against the rules and sometimes the GM doesn't even read the ticket and just tells you it's not against the rules to pvp. So honestly, I shouldn't be surprised.

 

I do squint at the GMs. I don't hate the players, I hate the game's system. Everyone knows about the one fella who has a FC house on each character with fully decked out airships in each house.. and he also has a personal large. Honestly, I don't feel the need to report him. Why? It's not his fault the game let him do that. Why should I be upset with him when I should be more upset with the game for letting that be possible in the first place? I also have to consider that FFXIV is run with a skeleton crew. Everyone at SE is working on FFXV. They have barely anyone manning the stations on this poor MMO that deserves so much more attention. And all the attention they do give it is going in all the wrong places.. DOUBLE CROSS HOTBAR. DOUBLE CROSS HOTBAR.

[Pascaleret]

It is incorrect to say that no one at SE is batting an eye when they called for people to report house flipping and selling plots for profit in a live letter. Clear as day in a live letter. SE is not to blame for you not doing as they asked when someone violates the terms of service. Further, the fact that a similar behavior is allowed on the market board, does not mean that house flipping is in anyway justified when they have said "We don't like this, don't do it." It is specious reasoning to say that they don't care at all when they have bothered to clarify the point in a live letter, and given a method of action that you as a player can take to help them solve it. One can come up with as many reasons as they like as for why a behavior against the ToS might be justified in their eyes, at no point does this truly justify anything. It also doesn't change the fact that a behavior is against the ToS. 

 

One's personal experiences with a GM do not encompass the entire experience of everyone who has reported anyone for any reason. I'm sorry you have had a negative experience with a harassment claim, but that does not justify people breaking the ToS at any point. Houses are moving still, sure. People still buy gil with real money and bully people with parsers, too. People speed all the time on the road irl, but saying "everyone else was doing it" is not a defense that holds up in court, ever. Someone getting away with something is not an indication that SE doesn't care. It is just an indication they haven't been caught yet. If they are not being caught because you refuse to report the people doing it for reason x, then you have given them tacit approval. In doing so, it can be argued that you become part of the problem. 

 

Snatching up a house to inflate the price to make a large level of profit when relinquishing the plot is about the same sort of act as when that douche bag bought the rights to an AIDS treatment medication and jacked the price up. Yes, you can argue that it is simple supply and demand, and that it is all SE's fault for a flawed housing system. This does not make the action right. Particularly when the people who created and own the game say it is wrong. Flawed systems do not absolve an individual from making bad moral or ethical decisions.

 

Dude, are you kidding me? How is flipping a pretend video game house for pretend internet money even remotely close to someone jacking up the price of AIDS medication???

[Yssen]

It is incorrect to say that no one at SE is batting an eye when they called for people to report house flipping and selling plots for profit in a live letter. Clear as day in a live letter. SE is not to blame for you not doing as they asked when someone violates the terms of service. Further, the fact that a similar behavior is allowed on the market board, does not mean that house flipping is in anyway justified when they have said "We don't like this, don't do it." It is specious reasoning to say that they don't care at all when they have bothered to clarify the point in a live letter, and given a method of action that you as a player can take to help them solve it. One can come up with as many reasons as they like as for why a behavior against the ToS might be justified in their eyes, at no point does this truly justify anything. It also doesn't change the fact that a behavior is against the ToS. 

 

One's personal experiences with a GM do not encompass the entire experience of everyone who has reported anyone for any reason. I'm sorry you have had a negative experience with a harassment claim, but that does not justify people breaking the ToS at any point. Houses are moving still, sure. People still buy gil with real money and bully people with parsers, too. People speed all the time on the road irl, but saying "everyone else was doing it" is not a defense that holds up in court, ever. Someone getting away with something is not an indication that SE doesn't care. It is just an indication they haven't been caught yet. If they are not being caught because you refuse to report the people doing it for reason x, then you have given them tacit approval. In doing so, it can be argued that you become part of the problem. 

 

Snatching up a house to inflate the price to make a large level of profit when relinquishing the plot is about the same sort of act as when that douche bag bought the rights to an AIDS treatment medication and jacked the price up. Yes, you can argue that it is simple supply and demand, and that it is all SE's fault for a flawed housing system. This does not make the action right. Particularly when the people who created and own the game say it is wrong. Flawed systems do not absolve an individual from making bad moral or ethical decisions.

 

Dude, are you kidding me? How is flipping a pretend video game house for pretend internet money even remotely close to someone jacking up the price of AIDS medication???

 

In that it is that one is using the exact same thinking to justify and proceed with the action. One takes advantage of a flawed system to the detriment of others in a community. While knowing (i hope) that what they are doing is wrong, but proceeding anyway because profit. This would be why there was the qualifier of "about the same."

 

But if you have an argument for how snatching up a house soley for the purpose of exploiting other player's want of housing for a massively inflated profit isn't using the same sort of douchebag logic as the above example, i'm open to hearing your argument. Yar.

[Gegenji]

I suppose you could argue that such a comparison is skewed because - as mentioned - it's involving a much more dire issue (AIDs vs. personal housing) that affects real currency (Cash-dollars vs. gil) that could be used for more, real life tangible things needed (Food, rent, utilities). Meanwhile, housing in-game was designed as a gil sink, and that gil likely isn't going to be going much elsewhere other than other non-critical items (i.e., the true endgame of glamour fashion).

 

So, while there may be a similarity, the differences are equally outstanding. And comparing virtual housing to AIDs medication does nothing more than add unneeded shock value to the situation. And polarizes conversation.

[Valence]

 

If I report someone and have no chatlogs and no evidence they simply tell me I've reported something without enough information for them to do anything. I'm not saying it's justified I'm just saying wow, 6mil he's getting a ban but 200mil, 175mil, sliding by with astroglide home free. I got nothing to report. I have nothing but a name and why should I report someone if they're happy with their purchase? I'm appalled they paid that much and they thought it was fine, but my god. How did that much gil get by the GMs?

 

Maybe the 6M dude got enough evidence gathered against him and not the 200mil dude? Maybe depending on the GM in charge and their mood, the answer can vary a lot? Maybe the high rolling house sellers are you know, actually good at hiding their thing when the smaller ones probably don't even know what they are doing?

 

Lots of things can happen, and the problem is, you are talking mostly without knowing half of the actual details and pulling vague examples that only you can talk about here.

 

 

 

I actually do personally know three people who flipped houses frequently to make 300mil+

 

That's exactly what I was telling above. You know three people. Out of... lots. Maybe you haven't heard about high rollers being banned. Maybe some still get banned. Who's to say that you can't miss anything?

 

See, the thing is, after a few years in the industry, I see so many people claming various things on game forums like, they think that feature X or Y is shit, or that facts are A and not B, and that everyone thinks to agree, so why is the company not doing anything against it, etc etc?

 

They think they know about everything, have all the data, when in fact they just kept paying attention only to their own echo bubble and circle of friends or personal network to the point where they naturally think that this is representative of the whole situation.

 

And then you take a look at the actual stats that the playerbase has no access to, with actual numbers to back it up, and see that those people are actually a minority, or talk about very vocal but very minor parts of the community.

[Melkire]

[Hardhat On]

 

Edited the topic title to better reflect the development of the discussion. Still a housing discussion, but it's grown to encompass 3.4 in addition to 3.3, so there~.

 

[/Hardhat Off]

[Yssen]

I suppose you could argue that such a comparison is skewed because - as mentioned - it's involving a much more dire issue (AIDs vs. personal housing) that affects real currency (Cash-dollars vs. gil) that could be used for more, real life tangible things needed (Food, rent, utilities). Meanwhile, housing in-game was designed as a gil sink, and that gil likely isn't going to be going much elsewhere other than other non-critical items (i.e., the true endgame of glamour fashion).

 

So, while there may be a similarity, the differences are equally outstanding. And comparing virtual housing to AIDs medication does nothing more than add unneeded shock value to the situation. And polarizes conversation.

 

The conversation has been polarized since the issue first came up, nothing new there. The fact that the situation spiraled to a point where an official statement had to be made in a live letter directly by the game's lead developer is... kinda sad. I mean, people are STILL trying to justify the action after being told "no. this is not okay, we don't want this and will take action against it." That is even sadder. 

 

What you do when you have no fear of consequence, when you are dealing with a small, less dire matter, is where making a right or wrong decision truly counts. Yes, the matter is less dire than something critically needed, but if you are the same logic a douchebag used to commit a terrible, and much more dire act to commit justify committing a smaller, less important act, you are still a douchebag. You are just being one for next to no real good reason other than "because I can, and I believe I can get away with it." Picking apart the semantics of an argument does not change the argument. The action is wrong, the action is against the ToS, and no real justification for it exists beyond "I want to be a douchebag and make exploitative profit at the expense of others, regardless of ethical, moral, or ToS related factors." There is no grey area here anymore, and that is sorta the point.