Latest comment from Yoshida regarding Housing + Inventory space issue

[Lazearus]

Housing is a personal achievement. Do you know how I have come to that conclusion? The game's director said it is. People really need to understand that. This game's housing is a gil sink and something you're are supposed to dedicate TIME towards getting it. If you want casual housing this is not the game for you.

But Yoshi also said this in the Letter from the Producer:

Q: I've noticed a lot of the systems recently introduced to the game require a lot of time to complete (The Hunt, Zodiac Weapons, etc.). Do you plan to focus on such time-consuming systems and features in the future?
A: Considering that both patches 2.2 and 2.3 introduced new systems to the game that require considerable amounts of time to complete, I understand how it may appear that the game's direction is steering toward overly time-consuming activities. However, just as I've mentioned in previous interviews, we consider FFXIV: ARR to be akin to a theme park, and we're working to provide a wide variety of activities for players to enjoy............... it may seem as though we're shifting focus toward time-consuming systems, but rest assured this is not the case, and we plan to strike a balance with party-based activities as we move forward.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...809-11-2014%29

How are theme park MMOs supposed to be grindy? And the buying of housing shouldn't be used as a gil sink. Expensive paintings, furniture, interactive decor sold from npcs are proper gil sinks.

And if you decide to get a house for bragging rights, how would people without access to gardening plots get their own gardening stuff (and other future content linked to housing) if they are gated behind the high gil prices or the lack of housing lots available?

If SE wants housing to be a personal achievement, they're gonna end up with many beautiful but unused houses eating up space on their servers. It's better if they make it more affordable and increase the variety of activities that can be done in there. That way the server space will be put to good use.

[Vaer]

How are theme park MMOs supposed to be grindy? And the buying of housing shouldn't be used as a gil sink. Expensive paintings, furniture, interactive decor sold from npcs are proper gil sinks..

Theme parks have always been grindy, though.

Anyways, that quote looks like it is directed at battle content, not fluff.

Fluff in this game has always been time consuming and probably always will be if the people in charge of it don't change. Housing, mounts, minions, etc.

They decided to go with a "all gil at once" approach instead of what most MMOs do which is upkeep. In other MMOs with "open world" housing if you stop paying for it, your house is eventually foreclosed and someone else can use the spot. They shot themselves in the foot with this one. They thought of it automatically being removed due to inactivity but people didn't like that.

[Nalien]

How are theme park MMOs supposed to be grindy?

You're kidding, right?

Theme park MMOs are based purely on creating a grind; that's how they keep people around while they build new rides. This is why MMO developers need to start embracing sandbox aspects, no matter how hard they work, players are always going to burn through content faster than they can make it, and the grind they use to slow players down just gradually annoys players. Sandboxes let players create their own content, though that's usually easiest with PvP which most players here seem to hate. If we had something like a massive FCvFC PvP area (with FC alliances), that could be considered a sandbox; we'd create our own rivalries and our own stories, the developers just need to make us the box and it'll keep players entertained for ages.