Maybe you should start reading the thread before you say something?
And also. you get a piece of empty land, not "massive housing".
Yes, of course. If you have 9 Cld's, and do nothing, you can keep your income.
If you have 9 clds and claim a plot, you can keep your income.
That is all Bjorn said. Wow, your quote of his was the most obvious fact...no one is arguing that, and it certainly doesn't prove anything.
IF you have 9 clds, claim a plot, AND want to build a house, farm, whatever, you will probably be converting them.
That is what I am saying.
Log in every 12 or 24 hours to harvest, and you might make close to the old cld payout...who knows, but the days of the passive cld accruing from non-playing leeches is over
They told you about the housing system back before they released CLD's, so don't be suprised if:
You can claim it and the cld's still pay out, as Bjorn says, for the time being....until maybe the day MA says they ALL must be converted to farm income. After all, you bought a land deed...they can force you to use it FOR LAND. You NEVER were guaranteed payout in perpetuity.
You were promised LAND. And those sitting on tons of CLD will be either sitting on tons of land no one but you will go to on a server no but you cares about that you must maintain and harvest, or will be selling a ton of land (7k+ parcels out there?). If they don't force conversion, sure you still have the payout. But you won't have nothing else until you do work and actually play the game and collect the resources etc. (and probably have to pay on average way more than the 3-4 ped per deed you get each week just to collect the resources).
All I am saying is don't be surprised. You are not going to get some magical benefit in addition to the cld payout. You will have to work for it, and it will be NOTHING like the dreams I see of some many of you in this thread and others. I think we can all agree that MA needs to make money, needs to find new ways to increase profits, and will be doing so for as long as they exist.
Maybe I am wrong, and most of you know I will admit it if I am...but I really think too many are wearing rose-colored glasses, and seeing what they want to see...