First article about the House pricing.

[Shinebox]

So you're basically saying that it's ok for a game that requires a monthly fee to require a playstyle that many don't find fun in order to enjoy relevant and highly anticipating features.

I'm thankful for the fact you don't make games. With my luck I'd end up having to review them.

I'm thankful I don't make games too. You can't make everyone happy. I'm supporting their decision to make housing expensive to avoid land from selling out. We already have a ton of clones in the same armor, do we want everyone in the same house too? It's not bad design, it's just not for everyone and housing on my server is the most expensive of all the NA datacenters.

I will take their word for it on this one. They turned a pile of garbage into a successful MMO. You're a blogger/reviewer.

[Abriael]

I'm thankful I don't make games too. You can't make everyone happy. I'm supporting their decision to make housing expensive to avoid land from selling out. We already have a ton of clones in the same armor, do we want everyone in the same house too? It's not bad design, it's just not for everyone and housing on my server is the most expensive of all the NA datacenters.

If they don't want land selling out, they add more housing instances. As they actually promised to do, mind you. The premise of housing zones in Final Fantasy XIV has always been (as Yoshida explained himself multiple times) that when instances fill up, new instances are created.

Other MMORPGs with much more complex housing manage it without a hitch.

The "everyone in the same house" scenario is simply improbable, as housing has a rather relevant level of customization.

I will take their word for it on this one. They turned a pile of garbage into a successful MMO. You're a blogger/reviewer.

That doesn't make them infallible. The world of game development is chock full of experienced/successful developers that end up doing large blunders. When this level of outrage happens, smart developers start hearing the Priority One Blunder Alarm blaring into their brain.

Some of them listen to their playerbase and correct those blunders quickly.

Some don't, and it normally doesn't end well for their business.

[Shinebox]

If they don't want land selling out, they add more housing instances. Other MMORPGs with much more complex housing manage it without a hitch. The "everyone in the same house" scenario is simply improbable, as housing has a rather relevant level of customization.

That doesn't make them infallible. The world of game development is chock full of experienced/successful developers that end up doing large blunders. When this level of outrage happens, smart developers start hearing the Priority One Blunder Alarm blaring into their brain.

Some of them listen to their playerbase and correct those blunders quickly.

Some don't, and it normally doesn't end well for their business.

I respect your opinion on this. Honestly. I just think too many people might be losing faith a little too quickly. Also, the amount of people who did not plan for this are now in panic mode because they did not realize how expensive housing would be. I would agree with adding more land but then you run into the problem of a saturated market. Then, eventually you have empty plots of land and housing becomes less noticeable/significant or less of a status symbol.

One thing we wanted to avoid was situations where free companies wanted to build a house but couldn't because the land was sold out. We also examined all of the free companies across all Worlds, how many members there were, and how much gil each member possessed. We've been proactively removing RMT, but there is still a bit of RMT gil left in the economy which we've accounted for when creating the pricing.

In patch 2.1 you'll be able to generate a bit more gil. Battle classes can earn an average of 15,000-18,000 gil per day, and with role bonuses in the Duty Roulette this can exceed 20,000 gil. Doing this several days a week you can save up quite a bit of gil, and if all FC members do the same, it will become a considerable amount. We estimate that by doing this for around three months you should be able to purchase land.

For new users playing on Legacy servers, there were questions about how they would be able to purchase land as it's much more expensive, so moving forward we will be making adjustments to the lower limits. The prices listed in the patch notes are the high prices, and there have been comments that no one will buy them, but again, we will look at conditions and look into reducing the lower limits. We'll be keeping a close on eye on how everyone is making gil and on the economic conditions for each World.

We understand that the initial prices for housing are extremely high, but this is a patch filled with a lot of content, so as you are having fun and enjoying everything the price will come down.

I took note of the land selling out portion. It is the VERY first thing he said. He responded to the community with these statements which is a completely different approach for SE (being a customer of theirs for over 10 years). Like I said I will give them the benefit of doubt on this one. I have not been disappointed thus far.

I also think it would be fair to include their statement at the end of the article. Other sites tend to do this with products so readers can see the developers/business are actually listening.

[Abriael]

I respect your opinion on this. Honestly. I just think too many people might be losing faith a little too quickly. Also, the amount of people who did not plan for this are now in panic mode because they did not realize how expensive housing would be. I would agree with adding more land but then you run into the problem of a saturated market. Then, eventually you have empty plots of land and housing becomes less noticeable/significant or less of a status symbol.

Empty plots of lands don't really hurt the view. You can always add artificial filler if needed. Other developers never had problems with it.

Again, this isn't the first time housing is implemented in a MMORPG. It only is the first time housing is implemented in a MMORPG (at least to my knowledge) with this kind of overinflated prices.

I took note of the land selling out portion. It is the VERY first thing he said.

And that conflicts with everything he previously said on it. Which is part of the problem. Since when housing has been announced he has repeated over and over that when land would run out, more would be added.

I can very well add his statement, and that's a good suggestion, but it won't help much, as it's an extremely unsatisfactory statement for those that aren't happy about the outcome. Not to mention that he completely misses the point, since the lower limits aren't the problem. The initial price is.

[Atheena]

I'm thankful I don't make games too. You can't make everyone happy. I'm supporting their decision to make housing expensive to avoid land from selling out. We already have a ton of clones in the same armor, do we want everyone in the same house too?.

Not our fault SE fails to create difference in gear and other stuff! They are capable of doing diversity like in FFXI! We are not a blogger or viewer but a Loyal Customer who voices their opinions! Every other MMO's including older ones who implemetend housing afterwards and allowed day 1 access, The housing is a vanity item that some people actually wanted. SE is trying too hard to control the economy instead of letting it run it's course. I subbed up again trying out tomorrow's patch but if it's not to my liking then i will have no choice but to not only boycott this game with my coin, but also to boycott their upcoming products like Kingdom Hearts and Final fantasy Next Gen!

[Wizzar]

I can see alot of Free Companies closing up to join bigger FC's in the future, just because so an so's FC has a house. This will end some friendships. Members will be leaving there FC's to join bigger etc....