RENT: A Better Housing Solution

[Preypacer]

That's over a month, a very fair amount of time for a break.

Sincere question... A "very fair amount of time" according to whom? And under what circumstances? That's kind of a difficult call to make, I think.


Anyway, what I wanted to add to this thread is that people are focusing their energy in the wrong direction, I think. Rather than going at each other over who has the right to hold on to a house for how much time, we should be asking Yoshi-P - very loudly - "Why the hell, many months on now, is it still even a problem? Why are the solutions being implemented little more than band-aids and not actual fixes?"

I realize more wards are being added, along with apts. Apts are a separate thing, apart from the Housing system - they're not a fix. Adding more wards is only a temporary fix. Once those fill up, we're right back where we are now.

The problem is, the housing system was poorly planned, poorly implemented and needs to be completely revamped and re-designed from the ground up, in a way that will accommodate demand on-the-fly, or far closer to it. "But! But their resources!". What about them? That's their problem to sort out, not the players' to just "deal with".

Mind you, I say this as someone who's fortunate to have a FC house. I was lucky and snatched up a property that was available right at the time I was looking. But this isn't just about me. I'm not going to say "Got my house! Sucks to be you who don't!". I was raised to have this (apparently) rare thing called "empathy", and to realize that the universe doesn't begin and end with me "having mine".

The reaction of people who'd like an in-game place for themselves and/or their FC is absolutely understandable and completely justified. Things like suggesting a rent payment (which is actually not a bad idea - several other MMOs have had this, and it does work well, IMO) is every bit as valuable as anyone else's. The suggestions of ways to maybe help them become available more rapidly/readily is absolutely understandable. The real point, IMO, is that such suggestions/solutions shouldn't be necessary.

Someone mentioned LoTRO's housing system earlier, which XIV's shares a lot in common with - at least in concept. Execution? lol! No. In LoTRO, new neighborhoods were created as existing ones filled up. Only the absolute most populated servers did they ever "run out" of neighborhoods, and that took a very, very long time to happen. And LoTRO's housing system was created years ago, on far lower spec hardware.

And if anyone's going to defend XIV's housing by claiming how "advanced and complex it is"... hold that thought. Before you say anything, go check out the housing systems for Wildstar and Rift. Look at all they entail. Go look at EQ2's housing - a MMO that released a month before WoW. Look how much EQ2's housing entails, and how each player can get not just *one* house, but *multiple*, if they wish. I don't care what you think of those games, I don't care what their current status is. We're talking housing here, not popularity. Then come back and try to tell me - with a straight face - about how complex XIV's housing system is, and that the extreme limitations on it are justified.