The house refreshing issue just got serious.

http://chng.it/YrH5zb4xgM

signed.

Signed

After enough signatures, I will take this to Parliament or if you're American, that's the White House.

Signed

​

Signed

Signed

Signed. We need governmental responses here!

If only this wasn’t trash talk and it was a real issue that a lot of people other than staff have strong opinions about, eh Samo?

So this one gets moved to trash talk and 15 others don’t?
this is a poll/petition/whatever. If there’s 15+ threads on it then maybe it’s time for a response or action?
im just spitballing here but it’s nice to see any sort of response from y’all

Make UOR Great Again!

Jesus. This is a video game, guys. This should not be an extra stressor in people's lives.

How can we have a serious conversation about the current housing situation? This isn't rhetorical. I'm also not intentionally being contradictory (since this is trash talk).

Here's the hypothetical: If someone on the playerbase were to pull together a list of 12 questions about the state of the current housing situation, would staff be open to having a public and transparent Q&A about it?

While I don't think this would solve every problem, I think it would help alleviate some of the negativity felt toward this topic. Fuck, I'm 40. I've been here three months and just reacted to @Fenrir like I'm an entitled child. While the text wasn't childish, the emotional drive behind it was.

How can we have a structured, adult conversation about this?

I like this guy.
Maybe it’s the name....
I don’t know.
I bet he’s cute too.

@FartBarf

The "problem" with a serious conversation is that Samorite pointed out this subject has been raised and talked about ad nauseam for a long time and has threads brought up all the time. There are many threads you could go back and look at here to see how they have played out (or ask around). One of the motto's for the staff is to have a light touch and at this point the lightest touch is to leave it as is. The answer has more or less been given (in my opinion) whether flat out stated or via actions; the system that is in place has been in for years and will be the system that goes forward.

The truth is it is hard to put a genie back in the bottle and change such a large feature of the server even with notice.

For the staff the risks of making a change are pretty high, yes some people complain about the current system but it mostly keeps people that have been here a long time happy and gives a chance for someone returning from a long break. People come back all the time and there are folks out there who, when they got the itch, would come back and expect their keep to be there.

Someone mentioned (in another thread from like 2 days ago I think?) that at one point in the past a player literally threatened legal action around housing...while this is absurd and would be tossed out in two seconds it represents a legitimate issue for the Telamon. Being that even if its frivolous if someone seriously brought up legal action you are obliged to defend yourself, which costs you time, money, and can harm the ongoing status of the server. Personally if I were in those shoes I would error on the side of cation and not want to deal with maniacs like that.

That said if you want to own something large (keep etc.), premium placement, or unique you will need to spend your playtime earning gold/plat and buy it on the secondary market. That market does continue to flow and is hard to break into but if that is your goal you can get there.

I can understand this. If what you're saying is accurate, then imagine the impact it would have if it came from Chris and not you.

If it can't be a conversation, then there is no reason someone on staff can't pen an open letter on the forum outlining what's going on, why decisions were made, lock comments, and sticky it to the top. I don't have the benefit of being here for years, but I do have the benefit of being really observant. My lack of experience and time investment here means that I lack a lot of the context that some vets have internalized. What I've gleaned from just reading past posts is that even with the collective experience of the players who choose to be active on the boards, there are still a number of common questions that have gone unanswered or avoided for a significant amount of time. Because if they had been answered, it would be easier to redirect people to that specific area of the forum and call it good.

Take @Samorite's post that brought us all here. It's unreasonable to expect that post to not explode the way it did when there is so much actual anger regarding all of the empty houses. However, I think we missed the most important point of it's existence: it's a fucking olive branch. I'm convinced he's asking us for ideas so we can dictate the nature of some kind of housing compromise. But there is so much tone-deafness on both sides it turned inflammatory. And it took me the better part of 24 hours to recognize it for what it is.

I can empathize with both staff and the angry players. For the staff, repeating yourselves and dealing with unappreciative shitheads sucks. I know. I've been there. But embracing the suck is the burden of leadership. You will never be universally loved for every decision you make. But that doesn't excuse all of us from not clearly and consistently communicating with each other like grown ups, nor does it justify turning threads into battles of passive aggression (or aggressive aggression, in some cases.)

When it comes to housing, there are too many of us talking AT each other and not enough of us talking TO each other. If we are any kind of community, we can make this work. But people on both sides need to feel like they're being heard and not dismissed.

TL/DR

This is precisely my point. You're one of the most vocal members of the Fix Housing Now choir. This sort of dismissiveness isn't helping find a common ground solution.

Whether or not you're trying to inject humor into the conversation isn't clear, either. It could be the timing; it could be my current headspace.