Critical Feedback: Housing is not for Casuals

[BreathlessTao]

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the reason they formed the housing system to the point where the people in charge of housing looked at real estate and took that, instead of making housing reasonably obtainable, since its a fantasy world and people shouldn't practically alter their lives and neglect life responsibilities all for housing, which is just a side feature. To see a FFXIV version of the the 1% rich and famous, should not belong in this game in the first place. Obtaining multiple plots reminds me of a Monopoly, staying up late at night like the opening of purchasing rooms in a new apartment complex, and a game that has near similar concepts as these things? This should be nowhere near an MMO fantasy world.

And thinking of it that way too.... a RPG. You play a hero - the hero of the entire realm, saving everyone and their mothers from certain death and destruction, on account of imperials, primals, whatever else. Should be given at least the royal suite in all city states, but at least an apartment in one, instead of being forced into the smallest, most basic inn room that has nothing but a bed and a very small armoire in it...

[NyarukoW]

.... the smallest, most basic inn room that has nothing but a bed and a very small armoire in it...

That inn room is big and spacious and nicely decorated and always maintained clean and ready to go. It could be a lot worse like the Domans or Alamighans who are homeless. This such entitlement mentality, taking for granted what is there and forgetting about them. There is also the option get a room in the FC house, and the FC house itself where you can share the stables and gardens.

[Pterois]

im a father of 4 with a day job and i busted my hump for the past 2 months to make the 4 mil mark but the time 2.4 dropped (and i hit it like 30 mins before the servers went down ^_^). everyone is well aware of the housing situation, especially if you visit the forms, and that the second 2.4 dropped you need to try and be on getting a place.

that being said got a little extra sleep earlier that night and set my alarm for 3:50am (est) and even after the zerg fest on the serves (2 hrs later) i finally got on and got a place, not the exact plot i wanted but in lavender beds like i wanted.

I write all this to show you that even someone who MAYBE gets to run a single dungeon run a day 1-2 hrs gameplay tops can still beat the housing situation with just a little preparation. Can it be a little silly? yes, but stop fooling yourself, you gonna have to do this if you want a house. what kinda zerg fest you thinks gonna happen when they introduce another location?

[CYoung187]

Come to famfrit, our subdivisions are empty.

[kaynide]

-snip-

Respectfully, I am on a Japanese server (live in Japan). This is not an option for me as I am at work until at the very earliest 8:30pm (the servers went live at 5:30pm). I am not a stranger to getting up at odd hours to do things from time to time however, that kind of behavior can not be expected from the masses. Especially for a core feature of the game- we're not talking FFXI NMs here.

[LalaRu]

Our FC is casual, we all play sometime on the day, none of us so "dedicated" to pass all the day in front of a game screen, but we now were able to buy (and bought) the big housing plot and hall.

I suspect it is more "I cannot access housing in a lol timeframe" more than "housing is unaccessible" thread.

Yes, it may happen some servers are so crowded that housing has been sold in matter of minutes (still havent see all servers housing situation, is this statement true?). But the status of that servers, were well known beforehand. You cannot, there, ever thinking to planning buy housing there and login 2 days after patch and be surprised there is no free slot. If you live on those servers and you don't like that, take your time to consider if a server switch may be good or not for you. If you choose to keep, you know how your server is.

[kaynide]

Sorry to necro thread a bit (been away for a while) but wanted to comment to Lalaru.

Yes, on some servers houses sold out in a matter of minutes. Mostly the crowded ones of course (there are several posts in this thread with other players commentary)

I was on 2 hours after the houses went up for sale and they were sold out- to me that says Squeenix drastically underestimated demand on my particular server. Having a house is not (and should not) be like camping old school FFXI HNMs and of all things in FFXIV, should not be a source of frustration.

As for moving servers- that's out. I live in Japan and the lag on a non-Japanese server is unplayable (about 1 full second delayed which is death on Titan HM or EX). The only JP server available with a fair amount of English speakers is Tonberry...so there we go.

[Black91CRX]

I'm pretty casual. I bought a small house no problem. It took 90%of my gil at the time but it was worth it in my opinion. As far as small housing being sold out, Levi still has the majority of smalls in subdivisions still available. I could've waited to buy mine but I figured I shouldn't risk it. Sorry your server sold out so fast. I'd be pretty mad too.

[Sapphic]

Wonder if it would be possible if, for example, SE added 6 new wards per city that every hour afer the patch went live one Ward unlocked, then 2 hours after the 2nd opened up, basically staggering each ward unlocking. So those working etc can log on later and then wait for the next ward to unlock on the hour to have a chance of obtaining a house.

BTW I have a house ^^

Always said in FC that a personal house should be 1 per account per shard only with full permissions automatically given to any alts created. I foresaw that some would buy multiple houses if given the chance.

[polyphonica]

Wonder if it would be possible if, for example, SE added 6 new wards per city that every hour afer the patch went live one Ward unlocked, then 2 hours after the 2nd opened up, basically staggering each ward unlocking. So those working etc can log on later and then wait for the next ward to unlock on the hour to have a chance of obtaining a house.

If you're going to do that, you might as well do some sort of lottery method whereby everyone who wants an opportunity to purchase has to put down some sort of deposit to get a ticket, and then tickets are selected at random for the opportunity to buy as supply is made available. (Perhaps you could indicate your preferred style of lot of something, and then have a sort of "first-dibs" system to buy or pass if your number is drawn.)

The one good thing about this sort of system is that it would be a good way for SE to know just how big the demand really is on the busy servers. But of course it doesn't really solve the core problem that they don't seem yet to have a way to make different amounts of housing available for different servers. So really, it'd be the same situation as now, more or less, but it would just eliminate the huge time-crunch right after maintenance. And some people would argue that first-come, first-serve is still better than a lottery.

(Incidentally, I understand this is the sort of system they use at the Eorzea Cafe in Japan, of all things, so the idea isn't new! lol )

The real story here is still the huge gap between the busy servers and all the rest. On Midgardsormr, for example, even though it's in the top of the pricing categories, there is still tons of available space of all sizes in all three areas. Suffice it to say that the newer servers, even more so, despite being nearly a 1/4 the price for the lot. The population is not evenly divided across the servers in the slightest, even though the amount of lots is the same in every case.