An Open Letter to Yoshida-san: Please Slice One Zero Off the Housing Prices

[Raymeo]

If the initial price of land was easily within the means of wealthy players, one can envision all available plots of land being snatched up immediately, leaving other players—even those possessing the necessary gil—unable to purchase land for an extended period of time.

Well when you explain it that way, I completely understand. We've clearly avoided a situation in which players would have been unable to purchase land for an extended period of time!

Oh, wait...

[Nimhtaru]

The amount of nonchalant disregard for non-hardcore players I've seen surrounding this issue is astounding, and frankly disheartening. Defenders of housing prices act like it's no big deal that the content was presented in a certain way and delivered in another way that is completely out of reach for SO MANY people. I'm not saying that housing should be free, or even cheap - it SHOULD cost a lot - but it just shouldn't be SO prohibitively expensive such that people are forced into playing the game differently (grinding/farming instead of raiding/dunegeons/etc.) for literally months in order to purchase.

[EthanParcival]

Fundamental Pricing Stance[INDENT]Our fundamental stance toward housing prices was that we wanted to ensure that plots would be evenly distributed, avoiding a situation in which the wealthiest players could easily buy up all available plots of land.

So, no housing for gil starved casual players because of RMT and rich legacy players... Because its easier to hike prices of 150 plots of land rather than to just make 300 plots of land available at reasonable prices from the start.

And still no wolrd transfers! So, no housing for gil starved casual players and we can't transfer to another world where our friends play for another 3 months (and thats a big maybe)

Ok, tell you this, I'm gonna cancel my automatic renewal, play the new released content while it lasts, and come back in say 3 months time and see how things work then.

I appreciate your patience and understanding while I put my money elsewhere.

[PapesseLudovique]

Create housing neighborhood servers like LotRO. Make the houses affordable to anyone, then create tons of trophies to increase longevity. This is the only non-combat game in town. The only RPing friendly content. Don't hide entry behind a hardcore grind. We have enough hard entries in the form of dungeons/raids.
Or make each house instanced, like Rift and Wildstar. You won't have to worry about limited space.

[Roaminggnome]

What I find funny is they give an estimate months ago on how much housing would be. Then people started to save up for that housing. Then they turn around look at the total Gil and decide to change the amount for a plot based on the new amount of Gil in each server but the only reason there is more Gil is all the saving going on before the 2.1 announcement.

[PapesseLudovique]

So, no housing for gil starved casual players because of RMT and rich legacy players... Because its easier to hike prices of 150 plots of land rather than to just make 300 plots of land available at reasonable prices from the start.

Also about Yoshida's reasoning:
Yes the wealthiest FC's could buy up all the land...but why would they? Does anyone honestly see a wealthy FC buying up all the land plots? I've played numerous mmorpgs with guild housing, I've yet to see a single instance where a wealthy person or guild bought up all the houses. Its a huge waste of money. Most big guilds need that money for raiding, crafting, etc.

I really get the impression that Yoshida doesn't observe other mmorpgs, and sort of just designs them based on his assumptions.

[frostmagemari]

Fundamental Pricing Stance

Our fundamental stance toward housing prices was that we wanted to ensure that plots would be evenly distributed, avoiding a situation in which the wealthiest players could easily buy up all available plots of land. Please understand that while we will be adding servers and expanding housing areas as soon as we can, it is simply physically impossible for us to accomplish this easily, in a matter of one or two weeks.

If the initial price of land was easily within the means of wealthy players, one can envision all available plots of land being snatched up immediately, leaving other players—even those possessing the necessary gil—unable to purchase land for an extended period of time. Seeking to avoid this, we made the difficult decision to go forward with the pricing scheme we presented, aware that many players would be unable to afford housing for a while.

So.. just out of curiosity, what's to stop the Free Companies that have the available means to purchase the Large-size plots from simply spending their gil on the small plots instead? They would end up cornering a market because the smaller FC's would -only- be able to realistically afford the small housing.. then because larger FC's have the means to generate more gil, they continue on with the medium and then after they control the market, only then do they finally buy the housing that they want on the large plots?

I only mention this since someone buying up all the land is -YOUR- reasoning for making all but the wealthy unable to buy a house.

Personal housing will be far more affordable than free company housing

Really sorry, but right now, your promises amount to just about nothing; And crocodile tears won't help this time.

[Kinseykinz]

This is FFXIV: ARR Producer/Director Naoki Yoshida.
Upon considering the feedback we have received since the release of the patch notes, we have decided to make the following adjustments:

• Land prices will start at the figures indicated in the patch notes
• From January 2014, devaluation will be adjusted every two weeks
• After three months, final land prices will match those of World Group 3

* World Group 3 (third listed in the patch notes)
Bahamut / Behemoth / Cactuar / Carbuncle / Chocobo / Diabolos / Fenrir / Garuda / Gilgamesh / Ifrit / Leviathan / Mandragora / Midgardsormr / Odin / Ramuh / Shiva / Siren / Tiamat / Titan / Tonberry / Ultros

Although this takes place over the course of three months, land prices in legacy Worlds will eventually fall to match those of World Group 3. In the event that pricing changes are made to this group, the same will be applied to legacy Worlds.

By adjusting devaluation at set intervals rather than in one go, we hope to prevent a sudden rash of purchases.

The introduction of housing will help to unify the perceived value of gil in each individual World. Furthermore, it has presented an opportunity for us to consider the lifting of restrictions on transfers between between legacy and non-legacy Worlds.[/INDENT]
Personal Housing

While I cannot give a specific date on when personal housing will be implemented, I can say that prices will be completely separate from free company housing, and, naturally, far more affordable.

In Summary

• The final price of land on all Worlds is subject to adjustments, and may fall lower
• Over the course of three months, prices on legacy Worlds will fall to match those of World Group 3
• Personal housing will be far more affordable than free company housing

We realize that these measures will not immediately satisfy all players, especially those on legacy Worlds who are either new to the game or returning from extended absences. We ask for your patience and understanding as we strive to create a balanced housing system.

And that, solves more of the player issues than anything else...and IF presented along with the patch notes, would have maybe cause far less outcry. I DO still Feel after 3 months ALL worlds should have the same price point, but this is tolerable.

PS: SE, if you really were worried about the rich buying up all the plots, you shouldn't have made the LAND purchasable for a FC in the first place. The LAND should have been an epic FC quest/adventure...or a level 10 FC needed to unlock it etc. Then you could have charged primium amounts for the actual guild house, making it the gil sync. And since the houses would only be purchasable via the game system, and only after the FC earned the land...and since only one FC could own 1 plot of land, you would have erased the desire for people to 'buy out' an instance...especially since you already have the use it or lose it rule in place.

[Omedon]

Personal Housing

While I cannot give a specific date on when personal housing will be implemented, I can say that prices will be completely separate from free company housing, and, naturally, far more affordable.

Faith restored. Crisis averted. This was all I needed to hear. Thank you.

I still don't like the FC housing prices, but at least I can remain subbed, in good conscience, for personal housing.

[Yahavage]

Uh, now I read other peoples posts, and now I am curious - why not just limit the number of FC houses to one per FC? I can't imagine many would need more than 1, maybe some of the larger ones might have need of more than one base of operations?

Unless they figured people would kick off for being restricted to one per FC, lol, which is a given with this community, we kick off about everything!