Legit curious...why are housing wards ghost towns?

I handle all retainer and marker board business at my house. I also enjoy decorating and going into others houses. I go to my house 1-3 or more times a day, even while leveling. When I start my crafting I will be crafting at my house as well. <3 housing, but the community needs equal opportunities to have the house size each person wants.

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Originally Posted by Allegor

Self explanatory title. In approximately a year of playing the only time I ever see other people is when a plot is on sale, and even when it's sold it's like the new owner is Thanos'd out of existence.

I don't get it, there are market boards, mailboxes, aetherytes, big houses are essentially designed for like 50 people inside so.....why? what makes going AFK on a main city any more appealing?

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because housing is just a status symbol for most. the actual use of it and this 'housing community' they speak of is but a myth touted by those who cannot get a house to sound more like a victim.

It depends on what I want to do. I go into my house before I log off, to repair, check retainers, and then when I log in I go into my house to check retainers. I love to decorate and fuss in my house some days, other days I may be farming dungeons so hang out at my GC so I can turn in gear for seals, buy ventures etc. Others I will be wherever I am doing turn ins for custom deliveries. Right now, I am either doing MSQ or in Crystarium. And when I want to relax and talk to friends we go to one of our houses, but we are inside, most usually.

My FC and I, hang around our FC place all the time, in fact I think we all AFK there more than anywhere else in the game. The problems though have been mentioned before, there are more reasons to be anywhere but the housing district unfortunately, I really wish they would give us a proper reason to be there. Maybe add end game vendors into the wards, that'd be fun!

I love my house, it's right in between two MBs so I never have to go far to price something. That and I am a hermit by nature.

I go to my house often. It's just a small in LB but I love it dearly. I go there to check retainers, craft, and honestly to get away from the crowds that are in the cities. It's really rare that i'll see someone else but if I do, it's usually around the Marketboard. I feel like I missed the heyday of when wards were more populated with active FCs. It took some doing but after getting my house I really hope that everyone who wants one can get one someday too. Maybe if instanced housing is added we'd have some active neighbors and that sounds pretty fun to me.

Not all housing wards are ghost towns. The ghost towns usually are the case in wards where most of the homeowners are private homeowners, so basically when there aren't a lot of (active) FC's.
The ward where my FC is in is definitely not a ghost town, there's always plenty of people there :)

Because people have more money than sense. They don't want a house because they actually want a house. They want a house because it's there and they can afford it, especially if other people cannot.

Meanwhile, literally half a dozen people are clicking a billboard seven feet away from me, with a few hundred buying RMT so they can flip a house on Reddit because they've been clicking billboards for the last 2 years and are desperate.

I'm only outside in the housing ward when i port in, need the MB or when i'm gardening (which is the main reason i got a house, Thavnairan Onions are a nice side income).
Otherwise i'm in my house to check on retainers and craft since there's a material vendor in my basement.

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Originally Posted by Allegor

Legit curious...why are housing wards ghost towns?

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Imo, the main reason is because housing should've remain a "FC only" feature.
In term of probability, big FC = more chances to have at least one FC member in the neighborhood at any moment.
But SE decided to open housing to individual players. And because of that, yards remain empty most of the time, unless the owner is connected AND teleport to his/her plot AND don't lock him/herself inside his/her house.
And to make things worse, SE answered the housing crisis by adding more districts, so players get more dispatched between more instances.

I wish there was at least one instance where houses would be for FC only.

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Originally Posted by Sotatsu

Imo, the main reason is because housing should've remain a "FC only" feature.
In term of probability, big FC = more chances to have at least one FC members in the neighborhood at any moment.
But SE decided to open housing to individual players. And because of that, yards remain empty most of the time, unless the owner is connected AND teleport to his/her plot AND don't lock him/herself inside his/her house.
And to make things worse, SE answered the housing crisis by adding more districts, so players get more dispatched between more instances.

I wish there was at least one instance where houses would be for FC only.

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I would have to agree. Keeping the 5 original wards across what are now 4 housing districts would have been plenty if they would have kept it FC only. But we can't have nice things....

I teleport to my house atleast 5 times a day, even more cause whenever I need to use summoning bell, crafting, mb or fixing my gears. Mostly 2 hours after reset time I do see couple people near housing district near my house so i guess neighbours. I don't really move too far away from my plot so I can't say for sure but I do see some people afk or using mb/bells. Their surely somewhat populated but just quiet and people doing their own thing, would be cool to have somekind of mini game/ event outside in housing district to make it more active.

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Originally Posted by RoseyDevlin

I teleport to my house atleast 5 times a day, even more cause whenever I need to use summoning bell, crafting, mb or fixing my gears. Mostly 2 hours after reset time I do see couple people near housing district near my house so i guess neighbours. I don't really move too far away from my plot so I can't say for sure but I do see some people afk or using mb/bells. Their surely somewhat populated but just quiet and people doing their own thing, would be cool to have somekind of mini game/ event outside in housing district to make it more active.

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Essentially the reason why housing wards are empty is due to lack of reason to be there apart from decorating the houses and marketboard / retainer. If they were to add in events etc in these wards it could potentially cause server issues hence they would likely need to create instanced housing before this can happen.

Its the same as how there are currently instanced zones for the ShB content, there are a ton of housing wards constantly running at the moment some with no one doing anything in them putting strain on the servers for almost no benefit. I hope they can address these issues in the eventual Ishgard housing patch somehow.