Both 1.90a and 1.90b are now on Pendragon - featuring, among other things, huge DoT changes, a new cap on Theurg pets, new Earth Theurg DD lines, some Cave Shammie love, and some Mentalist love.

This week's Grab Bag is up, and one of the many questions jumped out at me...

Q) My question is about housing and the new condemned rule, I have 4 houses, 2 are from my 2 accounts (a mansion and a villa) I had 2 friends who left the game who gave me full access to there houses, I pay the rent and use them as if they are mine. The patch note said inactive accounts that have x amount on there merchants but I am paying the rent on these houses, will they collapse? I ask because I am a collector of loot and well, even 2 mansions wont store all my crap, not to mention that I basically lose 20 plat that I used to upgrade my friends' houses.

A) If the account that owns a house is closed, that house will be condemned and then scheduled for repossession to occur after 120 days regardless of the status of rent payments.

Houses are a perk paying customers can acquire to further flesh out their character. Each paying account is allowed one house per server, which comes with a certain number of limitations (certain amount of vault space, consignment merchant space, etc). Additionally, housing space in some realms is extremely limited. If an account is not paying the membership subscription, then they are not entitled to keep the house active, regardless of who else may have in-game access.

We realize that this may inconvenience some players, and we do regret that. However, this is a necessary step for us to take in order to ensure active players have equal access to housing and the features the housing system provides.

This change - and that last line, in particular - contradicts Mythic's Housing FAQ:

Q: How many housing lots are available?

A: Each housing zone contains 200 housing lots for building your homes upon. As of the launch of Foundations, we will have 3 housing zones per realm, giving players 600 housing lots per realm, for a total of 1800 housing lots. More housing zones will be added to meet housing demands, as needed.

In the past, Mythic has done as the FAQ says they would, and added more zones. This time, apparently, they have decided it isn't worth the effort. Condemning houses is not, as they claim, a "necessary" step...

While you could argue that it's not a big deal that they've stopped doing so, as the people this change will affect are not paying customers and they're not really losing anything (aside from perhaps a prime piece of real estate), this sends the wrong message. In my opinion at least, Mythic should be trying to lure former customers back to the game, as that's the most likely way they'll increase the game's population; they should not be making it even a little less appealing to come back.