An Open Letter to Yoshida-san: Please Slice One Zero Off the Housing Prices

[HEC]

The price will go down every 6 hours if nobody buys.
Yes, 10mil is still a lot to gather but that is why people should work as a team to gather that money.
In light of that, relax. Things will be ok. It may take a bit longer but everyone will have a chance to get a house.

Yeah - by 0.14% !!! A HUGE "saving" really - and in almost 3 months it will drop max to half of original price - are you serious about that comment at all?? Sheeesh ...

[lebirath]

@meleena is not that i dint want to work for it.. i love playing so when the rumots said 10m (we only have 1mil) i saud we ll get there.. in pry 6-8month but we get there
but 30m!!!?!? is imo insane.. we play this game as ...well ..a hobby, they cant expect a 24/7 dedication; yes we do have life. they should take that under consideration as well that is unreasonable for ppl to be able to get smt of this patch by the time the next patch comes..
that is my opinion though.. maybe i have too much of a life.. :P

[Sapphidia]

The problem I see is that "owning the house" isnt the end of this path. The whole point of instanced housing, I thought, was that you'd buy your house fairly early and then spend time, money and resources actually furnishing it, kitting it out with expensive prestige furniture and such. That was what I was looking forward to most.. the idea of "levelling up" your house in some way and being able to use all those crafting skills we've been working on for months.
Because the FC housing is now going to be nigh-unobtainable for many months it feels that that entire part of the game is locked off for us. House furnishings were supposed to be one of the major elements of the patch that would not only give you multiple things to work towards, but also help the economy by providing more demand for crafting services.

Secondly, there's another big issue with such extreme prices on FC housing. If it was Personal Housing it would be different... but that 3 months of grinding that they're expecting people to do to afford the house... that's 3 months profit that goes towards your FC and not to you. Now hopefully there's a lot of players out there in FCs that they're so happy with that they feel like a family and thus giving 90% of their material wealth away to share with friends is fine. However, I'm pretty sure there's a lot of people in FCs that mostly like the people in it but are there primarily for the grouping opportunities or for RP or whatever, and don't have as much of a permanent feeling of fixture within it. The idea that you can grind for 3 months, give every gil you earn from daily quests to your GM, and then one minute before they're due to buy the house there's a big drama kick off and that person is GKicked or has to leave creates this slightly worrying sword of damocles effect.

Grind daily for 3 months to obtain an awesome item that you yourself keep forever to show off your dedication? That's fine. It's a prestige item, that's what they're about. But so you can own 1% of a group effort in an FC that you might not even be part of forever, that feels risky.

Of course, the other issue is that the reward ratio of these houses scales -down- with the number of players in your FC. The whole point about player housing in games isnt that you have somewhere to /afk and hang out between dungeons, because any quiet corner of a pretty city will work for that. The point is that you get a sense of home and you can customise it to your liking with furnishings. You can add your own touch and be creative. CREATIVITY is the name of the game with housing. Too many cooks spoil the broth, and if you're in a 100 member FC then unless you're the GM and pull rank I can guarantee that most people wont be remotely happy with the amount of creativity they can show in their shared house. Most players wont even get a say on whether that sofa is moved 2 inches to the left or not. The bigger your FC the more you'll feel detached from being able to actually take part in the creativity surrounding an FC house.

That would be no issue if houses didn't require such huge investment. I'm currently in a tiny FC with a mere handful of friends. We trust each other and love playing together, we'd hoped to buy a small to medium house and spend lots of time furnishing it out. Obviously the prices have devastated us (there's 4 of us and we've saved 2-3 million each since 2.0 came out, non-legacy players, but play on Balmung with 20 mill minimums). We have something to work towards I guess, but getting invested in FC Housing was the major thing we were all looking forward to this patch, as we'd all been playing other games for the past couple of weeks due to the feeling of grindiness in current endgame. What are our options? Hire more people to the FC to bring in more money, which thus reduces the fun factor of owning the house because there'll be far more people squabbling over what type of lava lamp we want to put in the bedrooms, or grind grind grind grind for weeks before we even see a one room shed in a cave.

TLDR; this amount of time and gil investment is totally out of proportion for the reward, as the enjoyment of creatively furnishing a house is highly diminished the larger your FC is, and a lot of players will also be reluctant to invest so much money in an FC that they may not be a part of forever.

[ZohnoReecho]

^ I think you need to already change FC if you have such distrust.

As said above, it's a common long term investment, an objective. Not something that you gotta get in few weeks. It may take 6 months, even 1 year. By then the prices will be halved.
If you want it, now is the moment to start gathering resources.

[Sapphidia]

^ I think you need to already change FC if you have such distrust.

Oh no, as I said, I'm in a tiny FC with people I adore. But the point is, the bigger your FC gets, the more likely there is to be a sense of drama and distrust and cliquiness. Some FCs avoid it, a lot don't. The more people you have, the easier it is to pool money for a house, but the less invested you'll feel in the final product. I guess it's a change in expectations primarily. I think a lot of us assumed that the fun part of housing would be furnishing it and being creative, rather than the binary state of Do We Have One Yes/No. When you're player #97 in a 100 player FC and contributed 1% of the money for a house, I doubt you'll get much fun factor out of that after the first week.

There's also the fact that we know Player Personal Housing is coming at some point. That -will- be a place for people to express their personal creativity and grind for something permanent they can be proud of. Seeing the prices of FC housing, how many people are going to be worried that if they don't start saving selfishly right now then they'll give up the chance for a Personal House when 2.2 arrives?

[Black_Pearl]

I think this is all bullshit, have to wait 1 years for make a stupid small house, come on. It's a game...
I don't care if in my server people have 300 milions, so suppose because some people have RMT buy gils then I'm forced to pay that ridicolous price? Do you even feel this right SE?
This is not 1.0 (to 1.23) where was more easy to make money, market is full of RMT shit and people keep undercut price on-the-fly...
Fun release a content that cannot be obtained for like 1-2 years. Thank you.

[Naoki_Yoshida]

This is FFXIV: ARR Producer/Director Naoki Yoshida. First of all, allow me to express my thanks to all of you who have offered feedback on the matter of housing prices. Needless to say, I have been following the discussion very closely.

In this post, I would like to clarify our fundamental stance toward housing prices, and offer a better picture of how players can expect prices to fall in the near future.
(My apologies in advance if this post gets a bit wordy.)

Fundamental Pricing Stance

Our fundamental stance toward housing prices was that we wanted to ensure that plots would be evenly distributed, avoiding a situation in which the wealthiest players could easily buy up all available plots of land. Please understand that while we will be adding servers and expanding housing areas as soon as we can, it is simply physically impossible for us to accomplish this easily, in a matter of one or two weeks.

If the initial price of land was easily within the means of wealthy players, one can envision all available plots of land being snatched up immediately, leaving other players—even those possessing the necessary gil—unable to purchase land for an extended period of time. Seeking to avoid this, we made the difficult decision to go forward with the pricing scheme we presented, aware that many players would be unable to afford housing for a while.

Eorzean Economy Review

Before determining the initial (or maximum) prices for land, we conducted an extensive survey of the Eorzean economy across multiple Worlds, including:

• The total amount of gil possessed by all players
• The total amount of gil possessed by all active players on each World
• The number of active free companies and members on each World
• The total amount of gil owned by all active players belonging to each free company on all Worlds
• The amount of gil entering the economy and circulating in the market on a given day in each World
• Distribution of the above (X% belonging to the most wealthy, Y% belonging to the middle class, Z% to the less wealthy, etc.)

Needless to say, RMT traders are served with immediate bans and their gil removed from circulation, so these figures are not included in the above. In addition, to account for gil generated by RMT abuses that might still be in circulation, an additional 10% or so was subtracted from the figures we arrived at.

What we realized from this survey was that the wealthiest players in each world had at their disposal an amount of gil that was considerably higher than one would imagine. In each legacy World, there are more than ten players in possession of over one hundred million gil. Even in non-legacy Worlds, there are a significant number of players with several million gil.

he Future Price of Housing

In conducting this survey, we created a forecast for gil distribution in the three-month period following the release of patch 2.1. In doing so, we anticipated that:

• Players will be seeking to earn more gil than they have thus far, and
• The overall amount of gil generated each day will be higher (in fact, considerably higher) with the release of patch 2.1

...and adjusted our forecast accordingly.

The results of this forecast, with the necessary adjustments for differences between the various Worlds, formed the basis for the depreciated "XX Days Later" prices presented in the patch notes.

With this pricing scheme, we sought a balance in which roughly 80% of all existing free companies will be able to purchase at least a small-sized plot in three months’ time.

I understand that, in taking these measures to ensure even distribution of land, we are asking for considerable patience from those players who are eager to enjoy housing right away. While I sympathize with players concerns, we believe that this is in the best long-term interests of the game.

The Regulation of Starting and Final Prices

As mentioned within the patch notes, we will closely monitor land purchases, and consider revising prices as necessary according to World population and economy. Please keep in mind that prices will decrease every six hours from the opening of the servers, and will continue to drop even during maintenance. Furthermore, plots of land released in the future will never be more expensive.

Legacy World Price Adjustments

Due to the prodigious amount of gil in circulation in legacy Worlds, we regret that current housing prices may be prohibitive to the following players:

• Those new to the game who started on legacy Worlds
• Those returning to a legacy World after taking an extended break
• Those on a legacy World who have been unable to save gil

Upon considering the feedback we have received since the release of the patch notes, we have decided to make the following adjustments:

• Land prices will start at the figures indicated in the patch notes
• From January 2014, devaluation will be adjusted every two weeks
• After three months, final land prices will match those of World Group 3

* World Group 3 (third listed in the patch notes)
Bahamut / Behemoth / Cactuar / Carbuncle / Chocobo / Diabolos / Fenrir / Garuda / Gilgamesh / Ifrit / Leviathan / Mandragora / Midgardsormr / Odin / Ramuh / Shiva / Siren / Tiamat / Titan / Tonberry / Ultros

Although this takes place over the course of three months, land prices in legacy Worlds will eventually fall to match those of World Group 3. In the event that pricing changes are made to this group, the same will be applied to legacy Worlds.

By adjusting devaluation at set intervals rather than in one go, we hope to prevent a sudden rash of purchases.

The introduction of housing will help to unify the perceived value of gil in each individual World. Furthermore, it has presented an opportunity for us to consider the lifting of restrictions on transfers between between legacy and non-legacy Worlds.

Personal Housing

While I cannot give a specific date on when personal housing will be implemented, I can say that prices will be completely separate from free company housing, and, naturally, far more affordable.

In Summary

• The final price of land on all Worlds is subject to adjustments, and may fall lower
• Over the course of three months, prices on legacy Worlds will fall to match those of World Group 3
• Personal housing will be far more affordable than free company housing

We realize that these measures will not immediately satisfy all players, especially those on legacy Worlds who are either new to the game or returning from extended absences. We ask for your patience and understanding as we strive to create a balanced housing system.

[Axidrain]

hello mr yoshida. i really appreciate u replying to the threads. one other thing tho. can u touch on the fate popup times for crystal tower? and importantly why fates? 4 of them in fact?

[Dark-Saviour]

[INDENT]Our fundamental stance toward housing prices was that we wanted to ensure that plots would be evenly distributed, avoiding a situation in which the wealthiest players could easily buy up all available plots of land. Please understand that while we will be adding servers and expanding housing areas as soon as we can, it is simply physically impossible for us to accomplish this easily, in a matter of one or two weeks.

But....
You knew this was coming.

You knew this was coming from the start.
Actually... You knew this was coming pre-2.Ø...

I just...
Why?
Why has it not been decided that the data centers should be upgraded to handle the game and all of its features in full?
Why does this continue to be such a limiting factor, and how long is this going to keep cropping up?

I wasn't likely to get FC housing anyway due to the rank requirement and the fact that, even at 'reasonable' prices, it'd be probably beyond a 1-person FC, but the thing that's been eating at me through all of this and what has made me so negative is specifically the concern expressed above; we keep running into issues because not enough investment is being made into the hardware...

[Darkshneider]

I understand.I know for a fact they are many many people with absurd amounts of gil.I know someone in balmung that has almost billion and its just ONE person!