An overview of the ward system: A timeline of failure.
Since the inception of the neighborhood style housing ward, we've seen the following.
- The rise of small "Shell" FCs, comprised of anything from a handful of players (spouse teams, small friends groups) to a single person (single players tired of being unable to acquire housing, people wanting to use the workshop, RMTers/resellers).
- RMT and resale market. RMTers sell houses for thousands of dollars. Resellers purchase houses and sell them for 20x (or more) the original placard price. Depending on server and location, a small house can go for 60 million or more. Mediums 200 million or more. Larges have been known to sell for over a billion gil.
- The rise of third party software. (Bots used to placard click or ward scan and auto-run to auto-purchase a relocation were developed and keys to use them sold.)
In response to player complaints, the devs have instituted a number of bandaid Solutions. These have all been implimented as quick fixes to the problems that have arisen, but none of them are permanent solutions. - Housing demolition. Which at least opens up housing not being used by active players. Has the side effect of making it so you cannot actually take a break from the game and must be continually subscribed. (This goes against the advice to unsub and take a break to play other games.)
- The placard hidden timer, which was a variable ratio reinforcement experiment in real time.
- The removal of instant relocation. This did kill the personal housing resale market.
- The Lotto. which is arguably bot proof but hardly a solution in the long term.
- 30 day wait period to transfer FC leadership. It stalls sales, but does not stop the third party sales market.
We have been told repeatedly that increasing the number of wards is impossible, due to hardware issues.
The playerbase continues to grow. Access to housing continues to be miniscule.
There is little to no enforcement of the rules SE sets forth. Reports sent in have never be acted on. With no communication, players are left to assume SE has no desire to police housing and make sure players are abiding by their rules.
The sunk cost fallacy has to stop somewhere. It's high time to admit that the neighborhood ward style housing is a failed experiment. It costs too much in hardware space to ever be able to keep up with the demand. Time to sunset the idea and work toward fully instanced housing that all players have reasonable access to.
I'm not saying delete or remove ward housing. By all means, leave it as it is with the lotto going. But put your energies into developing a better, more inclusive housing system.
Please, Devs. Players deserve better than this.