An FFXIV house should be treated like a pet.

I’ve had my small plot since the day Shirogane first opened in Stormblood. I take full advantage of it, often redecorating my cottage’s interior, practicing on my striking dummy outside and AFKing on my oriental parasol bench.

My neighbours used to be a very friendly FC that would never fail to say hi and hang out on my front yard when they’d see me. It was the most heartwarming thing. Of course, I’d reciprocate and come chat and emote at their own small plot crib while waiting in PF. It felt lively as there were always people around. They ended up leaving for the Firmament in Ishgard a few months ago.

I realize now that their presence distracted me from seeing how truly dead my ward is. Even the FC mansions and houses look desolate with nary a lalafell to be seen. Most plots have the cheapest, most basic and haphazardly thrown together decor possible, like they had their fun for a day and deserted the next.

With all that said, you’ll understand how irksome it is to witness the vitriol surrounding the lack of housing, knowing the grand majority of people end up holding on to their house and doing nothing with it.

Too many people are in it just for the sake of having one. It’s even more strange that a lot shun even the idea of starting out with an appartment or FC room.

In the end, my point/advice is this : An FFXIV house should be treated like a pet. If you won’t take care of it, nor spend time with it, don’t get one.

▼ Post Scriptum ▼:

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Originally Posted by Petite

Hey all. I might have badly expressed myself. The point of my post wasn't to police how people use their house. Maybe "treated" wasn't the right word.

I was ranting on how most people who get houses end up not doing much with it, which is just a waste.

It also ends up making wards feel deserted, which is a depressing thing to see. No one wants to hang around empty suburbs. Better to chill in populated cities where things are lively because of that.

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Do you really think people here will listen to this advice?

A house doesn't pee on the furniture or poop in the hallway.

At least not to my knowledge.

I think making houses available to all players would have actually reduced the prevalence of unused houses. Without the fear of missing out always looming, people wouldn't feel as compelled to buy or hold on to houses that they have no use for.

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Originally Posted by Petite

I’ve had my small plot since the day Shirogane first opened in Stormblood. I take full advantage of it, often redecorating my cottage’s interior, practicing on my striking dummy outside and AFKing on my oriental parasol bench.

My neighbours used to be a very friendly FC that would never fail to say hi and hang out on my front yard when they’d see me. It was the most heartwarming thing. Of course, I’d reciprocate and come chat and emote at their own small plot crib while waiting in PF. It felt lively as there were always people around. They ended up leaving for the Firmament in Ishgard a few months ago.

I realize now that their presence distracted me from seeing how truly dead my ward is. Even the FC mansions and houses look desolate with nary a lalafell to be seen. Most plots have the cheapest, most basic and haphazardly thrown together decor possible, like they had their fun for a day and deserted the next.

With all that said, you’ll understand how irksome it is to witness the vitriol surrounding the lack of housing, knowing the grand majority of people end up holding on to their house and do nothing with it.

Too many people are in it just for the sake of having one. It’s even more strange that a lot shun even the idea of starting out with an appartment or FC room.

In the end, my point/advice is this : An FFXIV house should be treated like a pet. If you won’t take care of it, nor spend time with it, don’t get one.

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How do you define taking care of it?

How do you determine whether or not someone is using it?

I have yet to see or meet my neighbor of almost 2 years but I know they're active in their house because I see their furnishings change occasionally.

That doesn't keep my ward from feeling dead to me.

SE has wisely kept out of the what constitutes proper use of a house debate. Players resent developers that micromanage how the game content is used too much.

Likewise, players shouldn't have control over how other players use their house.

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Originally Posted by Pablomaldito

I think making houses available to all players would have actually reduced the prevalence of unused houses. Without the fear of missing out always looming, people wouldn't feel as compelled to buy or hold on to houses that they have no use for.

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Exactly. Scarcity inflates demand. Some obtain them thinking to profit from others desperate to get one. Some obtain them because while they don't want one now, they may want it later in the future when they are not available. And some obtain them simply for the presumed prestige of having something others can't get.

Increase supply so players can get a house when they want and those reasons to get a house disappear. There's no profit in trying to resell something another can easily get on their own. There's no need to rush to buy when the item will still be available when you want it. And there's no prestige in owning something that anyone can get.

I do agree with the sentiment of OP. When Ishgard opened, my social neighbors got better houses and I didn't. I've visited every open house in my ward, left messages on guest logs and regularly hang out, but my ward is dead. Heck, 3 of the houses have been stripped bare with messages that they're waiting for SE to restart auto-demolition. And that's why I'm so frustrated with being stuck in a dead ward and unable to move on my server. While I do want instanced housing, I'm still afraid that SE will choose to implement the monkey's paw version of it.

Really reminds me of that thread by Sage a few months back.

I owned a personal medium house, but barely ever used it for anything. I decided to let it auto demo on purpose. I was still playing the game every day, I just never entered the house. I wanted it to go to someone who would hopefully use the thing, unlike me.

Basically, I agree with the OP.

I think there's a lot of problems with saying that people should use their houses in a particular way.
If a FC is just interested in gardening and/or the workshop, then they're not necessarily going to decorate or hang out in the FC garden, but they could still be using that house every day.
Are we really saying that isn't enough and they have to decorate?

Standards of decoration vary, what one person likes may not appeal to the next. Some people are happy to spend hours glitching furnishings into the exact spot they want, others either lack the will or the expertise to do so.
Some people get the house to look the way they want and don't change it significantly after that.
Some people just want a summoning bell, chest, vendors in a private spot.
How do we set the standard? Are we going to insist houses are redecorated regularly? Are we going to insist on a minimum number of items placed? Will that really improve things?

Some people just aren't interested in socializing outside their own little group. So even if you do see people regularly, that doesn't automatically mean you're going to interact with them and form friendships.
The ward system looks good on paper perhaps, but in practice the 'community feeling' that some people speak of so fondly really isn't there for the majority of house owners.

The housing system is advertised as your own 'little piece of Eorzea', to customise and use as you see fit. While do I sympathise with the OP's position, because it is saddening to see houses apparently unused and unloved, I wouldn't support any more restrictions or conditions being added to ownership.
If we ask the devs to take houses off the 'undeserving' then we are tacitly saying that we're ok with the short supply, and most important, we're saying we'd be ok with them solving the issue by restricting ownership even more.
I am most definitely not ok with either the shortage or further restrictions.

Hey all. I might have badly expressed myself. The point of my post wasn't to police how people use their house. Maybe "treated" wasn't the right word.

I was ranting on how most people who get houses end up not doing much with it, which is just a waste.

It also ends up making wards feel deserted, which is a depressing thing to see. No one wants to hang around empty suburbs. Better to chill in populated cities where things are lively.

I used to go on housing tours with friends. We'd roam around the wards just looking at what other, luckier people had done with the homes they were fortunate enough to obtain.
I had to stop because 98% of these homes were decorated like baby's first apartment, and the bitterness was beginning to compound. Literally for every 1 home that had even an ounce of basic creative thought, there would be two dozen homes that were just a futon, a wall partition tossed without care in the middle of the room, and maybe a kitchen unit or an npc. It seriously sucks to see. I know I can't control how people decorate their homes, but I can have thoughts on it and my thoughts are that all these "muh neighborhood" people should get a neighborhood homeowners association that rolls around every couple of weeks to board up abandoned homes and resell them to people who actually play the game.

Realistically though, more houses is obviously the answer. Whether it's more wards or instanced, I don't personally care. I think the current neighborhoods are worthless though.

OP I do get what you are saying. I love housing and will happily spend hours decorating, but when I go looking for inspiration around the wards, I too can see that a lot of houses haven't been given much love and attention. Since I have friends who have lost every round of the lottery but who would absolutely love a personal house to decorate, it makes me sad to see that.

I think Jojoya's post above probably best sums up why people are keen to acquire and hang onto houses they don't really want. In a situation where there is a shortage, it's human instinct to hoard. Until something is done to address the shortage, I think we're going to see a lot of houses that are acquired and then held 'just in case'.

To be honest, I don't think the wards are ever going to feel populated or bustling. People gravitate to the city centres if they want to socialise. There is no reason for most players to ever visit the wards unless they own a house or wish to buy.
Even if a house owner spent 2 hours a day at their house (unlikely it would be that much), that would still be 22 hours spent elsewhere.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Petite

Hey all. I might have badly expressed myself. The point of my post wasn't to police how people use their house. Maybe "treated" wasn't the right word.

I was ranting on how most people who get houses end up not doing much with it, which is just a waste.

It also ends up making wards feel deserted, which is a depressing thing to see. No one wants to hang around empty suburbs. Better to chill in populated cities where things are lively.

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Wards feel deserted because in a way they are, even though the houses are used.

It's pretty hard to get 30 random players who live in different parts of the world and have different life schedules to be online and in the same place at the same time in a game that's online 24/7 and has lots of content choices - 99% of which occur outside of the housing wards.

Next time your standing outside of your house, do a generic player search and see how many players are listed as being in your housing district (the district itself, not in "Private Cottage/House/Mansion"). Then divide that number by 48. The result is how many players, including you, might be in your ward at that moment.

Example now we're entering NA prime time: I'm at my FC's house in Empyreum. If I do the player search, I get 91 results back for Empyreum. That means if I got really lucky I might be able to run into one other person in my ward. Even that's unlikely considering several of the players listed belong to larger FCs with their houses in other wards.

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Originally Posted by Avoidy

We'd roam around the wards just looking at what other, luckier people had done with the homes they were fortunate enough to obtain.
I had to stop because 98% of these homes were decorated like baby's first apartment, and the bitterness was beginning to compound.

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There is more to life than an ffxiv house friend

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Originally Posted by Battler-Ushiromiya

There is more to life than an ffxiv house friend

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Yet it is still frustrating for those that want to actively participate in a specific part of the game's content and have been locked out due to bad system design while others have gotten lucky and do get to participate.

I never see or hear from neighbors, just the VERY occasional wanderer pops in and sometimes leaves a message. This includes my FC and personal house. Take care of my house? I keep it nicely furnished and spend time in it daily so don't push it hehe.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Avoidy

I used to go on housing tours with friends. We'd roam around the wards just looking at what other, luckier people had done with the homes they were fortunate enough to obtain.
I had to stop because 98% of these homes were decorated like baby's first apartment, and the bitterness was beginning to compound. Literally for every 1 home that had even an ounce of basic creative thought, there would be two dozen homes that were just a futon, a wall partition tossed without care in the middle of the room, and maybe a kitchen unit or an npc.

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I can at least respect the "baby's first apartment" looks because there was an attempt at decorating. ｡ﾟ(TヮT)ﾟ｡
I think a lot of first-time home buyers who get houses to try and decorate them don't realize how much finagling with the system it takes to get even some of the more "basic", zhuzhed up rooms/homes. The gil cost is also not a laughing matter either for those who don't/haven't played enough to have a steady stream of gil. These kinds of things can really deflate someone's creative drive.
I don't blame anyone for using third-party tools to try and make the house-decorating system actual work for them. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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Originally Posted by Avoidy

Literally for every 1 home that had even an ounce of basic creative thought, there would be two dozen homes that were just a futon, a wall partition tossed without care in the middle of the room, and maybe a kitchen unit or an npc. It seriously sucks to see.

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That's another thing. The grand majority of players spit on the idea of owning an appartment, yet most wouldn't even be able to decorate one decently. Rooms and appartments are great ways to test if you're really up to owning a plot.

Anyways. At this point, I think the only way to make wards feel lived-in would be to make housing exclusive to FCs. Wards are so desolate, they might as well implement instanced housing because the result would be the same.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Petite

Anyways. At this point, I think the only way to make wards feel lived-in would be to make housing exclusive to FCs. Wards are so desolate, they might as well implement instanced housing because the result would be the same.

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How would making housing FC only make wards feel more lived in? (●´o｀● )ゞ ~?
People would still AFK in Limsa or the occasional other cities or end-game hubs because of convenience and the social experience. You would either have to incentivize people to stay in the wards or de-incentivize them from the cities.
(@ﾟﾍﾟ@)

Why does this sound so much like 'I don't approve of how you use your house so I think it should be taken away from you.'?

I agree with your sentiment OP but you can't order someone to design their house :P

I believe the only fix is still, proper housing servers but iirc that's impossible as the problem is the code, not the servers.

Which is weird considering they manage to add servers and new housing wards occasionally without big trouble.

But I have no idea how anything works, so better not nail me down on any of that! :P

I should go say Hi to my neighbours more.

The main problem is that decorating a house is both a gil/time sink, and also requires a great deal of creativity, something not every player will immediately have to hand. For example, because I'd put a lot of creative effort into my apartment, it took me over 2 months to decide on a build for my house, and it's only half-finished as of now, as I'm still debating what to do with the basement.