Player Run Companies: What do we want to see?

[Vesperia]

Player Company Housing:

If this was to be implemented I was curious if it could be done in a much more player controlled way. What I personally would like to see is a developmental path. You start out in one of the 3 major cities, develop reputation and make friends. The next logical step would be to join with a company who would be creating their mark upon the world. More or less beginning their own town.

The way i see it would be creating a instanced zone that connects to one of the major cities and allowing players to create their own communities which other players can visit. Similar to the market wards but with a more open environment with player housing and shops and such.

Then incorporating more options to players the further advanced their towns become, opening up more options. Chocobo stables, ships, airships, ect.

Also ranks would be placed, the further up the chain more and more ranks and roles can be assigned. Obviously starting with a mayor, but it could grow to having generals, council members for the classes, crafting guild leaders, sponsors, and other such designations with different rewards and such.

Anyway, just some random ideas I had from some previous experiences in games and such, think it was a tales series where you got to create your own town and developmental rewards for guild progression is something wow developed with the instanced guild lobby coming from EQ. :P

No one would ever use an instanced town and even if they did, it would take people away from the three major cities, essentially creating either instanced ghost-towns or ghost-city states. You cannot make instanced townships popular/meaningful without providing an incentive to go there.

The only way to make player-run towns work is by allowing them to be built as part of the persistent world, and even then there are many drawbacks (such as urban sprawl and a lack of incentive).

Perhaps if the market wards did not exist, player-run towns could develop as a response to the disorganised market wards, wherein each town would specialise in seling items relating to a certain corner of the market.

But again, there's no point to player towns in a game like this. In order for player-built villages to gain meaning in FFXIV, SE would first have to change their whole design philosophy (which at the moment is: turn this game into WoW ASAP).

But in saying that, I guess it could be a form of frivolous fun. Not everything in a game needs to have a meaning. People play The Sims after all, sometimes just to build houses. But again, if SE did include the ability to build your own house/village, the towns would need to be included as part of the peristent world so as not to dilute the population of the rest of the game world.

[Caidryn]

No one would ever use an instanced town and even if they did, it would take people away from the three major cities, essentially creating either instanced ghost-towns or ghost-city states. You cannot make instanced townships popular/meaningful without providing an incentive to go there.

The only way to make player-run towns work is by allowing them to be built as part of the persistent world, and even then there are many drawbacks (such as urban sprawl and a lack of incentive).

Perhaps if the market wards did not exist, player-run towns could develop as a response to the disorganised market wards, wherein each town would specialise in seling items relating to a certain corner of the market.

But again, there's no point to player towns in a game like this. In order for player-built villages to gain meaning in FFXIV, SE would first have to change their whole design philosophy (which at the moment is: turn this game into WoW ASAP).

But in saying that, I guess it could be a form of frivolous fun. Not everything in a game needs to have a meaning. People play The Sims after all, sometimes just to build houses. But again, if SE did include the ability to build your own house/village, the towns would need to be included as part of the peristent world so as not to dilute the population of the rest of the game world.

I can say that my group and I would certainly use an instanced town. It would get us off the streets of Ul'dah, and give us a nice warm place to sleep at night. That aside, why would you be worried about diluting the player populace in cities? I mean, it's bad if it feels truly and entirely barren, but I imagine these changes and this content would raise the overall population of the game dramatically.

That said, having loads of players standing around in the cities isn't exactly beneficial. Apart from spec reasons, like displaying less models, less load times, etc, there's the fact that the community, as it stands, is largely a silent one. Shouting in Ul'dah doesn't land you a deep, meaningful, or long conversation. (On Mysidia, at least) In fact, I ran a little social experiment where I tried to start the community talking by shouting and chatting in Ul'dah for like 2 weeks running. The overwhelming response were tells filled with hate, that I was abusing the shout feature by talking to people outside of my linkshell, and that I was taking advantage of their eyes against their will. The community doesn't seem to desire comraderie from strangers. It seems most people keep their chats to Linkshell.

Which would make instanced cities, where you hang out with your company, exactly the same as the cities are now, just with less character models afk in random places.

[Vesperia]

I can say that my group and I would certainly use an instanced town. It would get us off the streets of Ul'dah, and give us a nice warm place to sleep at night. That aside, why would you be worried about diluting the player populace in cities? I mean, it's bad if it feels truly and entirely barren, but I imagine these changes and this content would raise the overall population of the game dramatically.

That said, having loads of players standing around in the cities isn't exactly beneficial. Apart from spec reasons, like displaying less models, less load times, etc, there's the fact that the community, as it stands, is largely a silent one. Shouting in Ul'dah doesn't land you a deep, meaningful, or long conversation. (On Mysidia, at least) In fact, I ran a little social experiment where I tried to start the community talking by shouting and chatting in Ul'dah for like 2 weeks running. The overwhelming response were tells filled with hate, that I was abusing the shout feature by talking to people outside of my linkshell, and that I was taking advantage of their eyes against their will. The community doesn't seem to desire comraderie from strangers. It seems most people keep their chats to Linkshell.

Which would make instanced cities, where you hang out with your company, exactly the same as the cities are now, just with less character models afk in random places.

Why even have the cities then? Why even have a peristent world if we're just going make the game an entrance lobby.

[Caidryn]

Why even have the cities then? Why even have a peristent world if we're just going make the game an entrance lobby.

I don't believe company run housing would make the cities any more or less useful, except perhaps the shops. If you believe the Cities would be useless entirely because less people are standing in it, I don't believe your issue is with company housing, but the game itself instead.

Now, if someone were able to succeed where I failed and manage to get Ul'dah to chat in a friendly manner on a regular basis, it would be a different story altogether. But as is, options never hurt.

[Vesperia]

I don't believe company run housing would make the cities any more or less useful, except perhaps the shops. If you believe the Cities would be useless entirely because less people are standing in it, I don't believe your issue is with company housing, but the game itself instead.

Now, if someone were able to succeed where I failed and manage to get Ul'dah to chat in a friendly manner on a regular basis, it would be a different story altogether. But as is, options never hurt.

Since when did MMOs become entrance-lobbies to instanced content?

What is wrong with everyone?

Give us persistent player-housing with an actual incentive or don't bother. Putting it in the game as a frivolous, instanced, town-simluator will be meaningless. Meaningless fluff. Nobody will use it, and even if they did use it, then that itself will be a problem simply because it takes people away from the MMO and puts them into their own partitioned-off instances (which is an affront to the fundamental definition of an MMO). People should always be in the same persistent game-world.

Besides, if you want people in Uldah to chat with you, then how about saying something interesting?