Lack of housing plots are a huge factor in the buying / selling of Gil.

[Elim]

House prices really aren't that bad if you're a crafter, sell carries or buy/sell "hot" items. Also a group of crafters/sellers (a FC) can easily raise enough gil for a house(even to buy it from another player). I don't know anyone who buys gil and I doubt it's as common as you think. I'm sure once in awhile a lazy player buys gil for housing... but if they're lazy then they'd probably do it for all kinds of reasons, not just housing.

[Sicno]

House prices really aren't that bad if you're a crafter, sell carries or buy/sell "hot" items. Also a group of crafters/sellers (a FC) can easily raise enough gil for a house(even to buy it from another player). I don't know anyone who buys gil and I doubt it's as common as you think. I'm sure once in awhile a lazy player buys gil for housing... but if they're lazy then they'd probably do it for all kinds of reasons, not just housing.

That applies for normally buying a house. OP is talking about house re-selling, which happens at exhorbitant prices because there are normally no available plots, they're way more expensive than the regular prices (I saw someone at Adamantoise trying to sell a small house for about 8-10M in party finder). And then the buyer has to pay the real price of the plot on top of it.

But I agree with Blood-Aki, lazy people are gonna buy gil just because they're lazy and they want as much help as can get handed to them. Housing is just one of the many things they must spend their money on, it's not the core of the problem.

[Elim]

That applies for normally buying a house. OP is talking about house re-selling, which happens at exhorbitant prices because there are normally no available plots, they're way more expensive than the regular prices (I saw someone at Adamantoise trying to sell a small house for about 8-10M in party finder). And then the buyer has to pay the real price of the plot on top of it.

But I agree with Blood-Aki, lazy people are gonna buy just because they're lazy and they want as much help as can get handed to them. Housing is just one of the many things they must spend their money on, it's not the core of the problem.

It also applies to re-selling. I'm not sure why it wouldn't? If you know how to make gil, buying from another player isn't that bad. I bought a plot from antoher player, and I've also sold plots. I agree that the lack of plots suck though. I just don't agree that housing, or re-selling plots, play a big factor in RMT.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

It also applies to re-selling. I'm not sure why it wouldn't? If you know how to make gil, buying from another player isn't that bad. I bought a plot from antoher player, and I've also sold plots. I agree that the lack of plots suck though. I just don't agree that housing, or re-selling plots, play a big factor in RMT.

Anything that requires a big amount of money plays a factor in RMT.

Especially crafted gear, because its better.

[Colorful]

snip

How do people afford those carries anyway? Last I heard, A1 Savage goes for 30 million+ gil. On Reddit there are plenty of run sellers who claim that their clients don't even have a single one of their crafters leveled up, so it's likely a lot of people who buy runs also buy gil (other than crafters or those who have found a niche item to profit from). If buying gil wasn't so common I don't know how the people operating the bots would be able to afford new accounts to bot their gil, or spam their RMT. Some of them may be hacked accounts, but I doubt people are getting their accounts hacked willy nilly (unless they're really stupid when it comes to downloading files and whatever).

I'm glad that I'm on a JP server, I don't even remember the last time I got a PM from a gil seller (if I've even got one since moving here).

[BreathlessTao]

House prices really aren't that bad if you're a crafter, sell carries or buy/sell "hot" items.

....and if you're not, you shouldn't even think about wanting a house, because you're just a scrub and scrubs should be glad for just being able to play the game at all, right? Point is: too many people are not in any of those groups.

SE really screwed up the housing system, on several levels. Lumping it together with FC housing was really a huge letdown. Availability has been and will forever be way more than simply "inadequate". Prices have been ridiculous, and it doesn't really matter that they aren't anymore, because there are no plots left to buy - it doesn't really matter that they aren't anymore, because current owners can and do ask outrageous amounts of gil just to give up their plots, which then also have to be bought, of course. The fact that there is no restriction whatsoever on how many plots someone can buy up is incredibly bad. The fact that there is no proper ownership transfer system is hilariously awful. The fact that abandoned plots don't get automatically relinquished is incredibly stupid.

Yes, they are putting some band-aids on the whole housing system in patch 3.1 - how much time after the feature has been out? A year? Or even more? Yes, it's a good thing, better than nothing for sure - but the fact remains: it's way too late. The damage is done, and the whole thing has bled out more times than once by now, it's like kissing the dead princess and hoping she'll live once again.

Is housing the main reason for people buying gil? Probably not. Is it one of the main reasons? For sure. Save for carries in current end-game content, it is the single most expensive feature in the game. People don't need tens of millions of gil for other things, and that's another fact.

[Elim]

....and if you're not, you shouldn't even think about wanting a house, because you're just a scrub and scrubs should be glad for just being able to play the game at all, right? Point is: too many people are not in any of those groups.

O.O I don't know why you think people are scrubs if they aren't in any of those groups. Everyone, even the most casual of casuals, can though. If they decide to. Some casuals do nothing but craft and are super rich!

I agree that the housing system is not the best one out there, even if l enjoy it.

[Ametrine]

O.O I don't know why you think people are scrubs if they aren't in any of those groups. Everyone, even the most casual of casuals, can though. If they decide to. Some casuals do nothing but craft and are super rich!

I agree that the housing system is not the best one out there, even if l enjoy it.

Another method of making insane cash is farming those super popular minion drops that are worth 1mil+. I have a fellow FC member that did that while grinding his tomes. I've made enough for an Owlet just selling the junk my retainers bring me and materia. So much materia.

The thing is, I really don't care for crafting. I'm leveling my gatherer jobs, but just sitting in place next to a retainer bell with 10 other people making various crafting noises is grinding in all sorts of ways that make it aggravating. Those Blacksmith noises, especially, hurt my teeth. @_@