Some thoughts / Recommendations

I would like to state the point: you can criticize something in the attempts to make the game you enjoy better as a whole.

I think with the new influx if players (myself included in this) since late 2021 / early 2022 is to no shock to anyone compounding significant strain on the housing systems supply. Both in FC & individual housing. https://www.statista.com/statistics/...sy-14-players/ (don't know how credible this is as SE to my knowledge doesn't post individual account numbers / subscribers), but its plain as day to say that there are more players now than ever. 2018 10 million to now in 2022 to 25 million characters. Even if the numbers aren't 100% I'm sure anecdotally everyone can attest to the new players.

Subsequently as other people have mentioned on the forums the players want / need instanced housing to get what they desire. People may say get an apartment / a FC room or the FC house. They are not the same as owning a house, please do not conflate them as being the same as a small, medium and or large house. I agree that instanced housing will be a good resolution to this personally as it allows people to access housing without competition and an deliberately artificially scarce housing system as designed by square enix. I have seen a counterargument for the instanced housing / adding more wards as its very expensive / taxing on the back-end, which is a valid point. However, they are making more money on FF14 now than ever with the substantial increase of new players & with the continual addition to Mogstore items they are making money hand over fist.

Another alternative could be the allowance of individuals to bid on FC wards, I know that they have mentioned this is a possibility, but they gave 0 timeframes and were deliberately vague in stating they would do it on a world by world basis. I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt, however I do believe transparency is needed on a matter such as housing. As its advertised as one of the features of the latest expansion (end-walker) with the release of the new ishguardian housing district, however its only available to SOME of the playerbase due to how the housing system has been designed to be artificially scarce, when they could add more wards themselves. If you are a customer paying for a videogame you shouldn't have to settle for a feature of the game that's been advertised.

I am 100% sure I have missed key points, but I wish to discuss and get some clarity on the ideology of how they do housing. It to me just seems like a system they regret implementing for individuals (as shown by the allowance of FC to individual wards), I would just like to see some concrete stance from SE in reference to this. Again I will state as a paying customer, we shouldn't have to settle for systems such as housing and for the player base to say "its better than what it was" when it should be accessible from the start.

First of all, thank you for stating what it seems most people have forgotten. Feedback isn't always good and devs need criticism on these types of things to make their game better.

I personally love the neighbourhood style of housing in the game, and I'm no developer so I have no clue what it would take to make more of that. But the one thing I want the most is the separation of FC workshops from housing. I wish they would be more transparent on what they are and aren't considering and maybe if we could get a direct QnA on that, without any of the maybes and only a yes or a no.

I would agree that losing the neighbourhood feeling / style wouldn't be ideal as we all can appreciate the effort that someone goes through in designing their house with gardens etc to give housing more depth / personalization, but there has to be a tradeoff in my opinion. I think people would appreciate the accessibility of purchasing a house (whether that's a large, small or medium) at the expense of a neighbourhood feeling. But again my thoughts are not representative for everyone so I can't speak for others just myself. Personally I believe the way they think of housing isn't being mindful of those who are coming into the game and the belief that apartments are sufficient is (again my own opinion) a bad belief.

I've never really thought about the workshops being separate, if FCs are struggling to find a house then that 100% should be addressed as they are locked behind a artificially scarce system. The argument for moving to a FC with an existing workshop / house is a poor argument because FCs have an in game identity / friendships attached (assuming you're engaged with them and have fun).

I'd just like to see a dedicated QnA taken from all spectrums of their playerbase: EU, NA / OCE and JPN when it relates to housing because I think that each region wants something different from it but all the end goal of owning their own slice of Eorzea with clear yes and or no answers

I would go even further and say as a paying customer for the game I shouldn't have access to less of the game than others because of an artificial housing scarcity to housing that SE refuses to change/fix when other people have access to it and pay the same sub that I do.

That being said, I don't think the wards are a tenable solution for providing the ability to get housing for everyone. It locks how many medium/large plots there can be since plot sizes differ based on the house size and requires a ton of hardware to add more limited resources to the system. I think the only real answer is to stop creating more wards and use new hardware to create instanced housing for everyone to have access to. Other games have figured out how to make it work for them and I'm sure if SE had the will they could do it as well. That being said I am not saying there should be a deletion of housing wards or anything to that extreme, just start a new housing system from scratch that gives everyone the ability to have a house. If the game engine is what is holding you back, then maybe it is time to rethink using a 14 year old engine that is holding the game back.

I agree wholeheartedly that new hardware / tech should be utilized for instanced housing (im not a systems expert or anyone with qualifications so I dont know the implementation process), but again it would be a huge win if they could do this and it would have a very positive impact on a lot of players, I know it would for me as I can't imagine owning a house when there's 30+ bidders on any plots that do pop-up however infrequent. I just hope islands can statiate my desire for housing, (i'm aware it wont be the same as personal housing) until there is something done (if ever).

Tthe point of "I would go even further and say as a paying customer for the game I shouldn't have access to less of the game than others because of an artificial housing scarcity to housing that SE refuses to change/fix when other people have access to it and pay the same sub that I do." hit the nail on the head!