Forcing players to pay to keep housing is unfair.

[Cylla]

All I see in this is people who don't have a house/want one are all, "It fair." while people who do have one are like, "It unfair." With only the few small handfuls who don't care either way. What this still boil down to is that Yoshi didn't do housing the right way, therefore causing all this fuss over housing. And while I respect his idea of the whole "making housing feel real", it just doesn't work. I'll never understand why they couldn't just take from XI (I.E Mog houses) and expanded from that. A 15 year old game does it right the first time vs a 4 year old game that done it wrong from the very start.

For people who didn't play XI, Mog Houses where instance housing and everyone got one. Yes, they were small and you just walked into a room, but they later expanded to having two floors...way later of course, when the game started to die out.

Point is: In this age of gaming, housing is a thing and has been for a few years now. Why they just couldn't do it right, is anyone guess. Inb4: PS4 limitations

[Vexander]

Simple Solution:

1) Wards are strictly for FC Housing, no more Individual Player Housing.
2) Implement Instanced Personal Player Housing. There is no reason the Warrior of Light should be Homeless. You've done ENOUGH for Eorzea to be given a little real estate somewhere, where you can build a small, medium, or large house, have a garden and chocobo stables, and invite people to.
2-a) If you have a personal house in a Ward, all existing decorations and buildings are copied over to your Personal Housing Instance, exactly as they are now. The only difference is you'll have a Large plot of land rather than small or medium.
3) Remove the Demolish Timer, as it is no longer needed.
4) Profit.

[raela]

Honestly, I don't really get the whole "having a house in a video game" thing.

The Sims is a popular game for a reason. I've used decorating as a stress reliever sometimes.

More practical applications are chocobo stables, bgm control (I used to teleport to certain maps to craft/idle, for example), and useful NPCs/objects directly at hand (crafting materials, dyes, catalysts for repair, repair, retainers, materia melding, aestheticion, armoire, neverending journey). If you're not in a FC with a house (or they don't have the interactive items in a convenient place), then a personal house works out well.

[Mimilu]

Snip

To add to this:
~Allow people the ability to upgrade their apartment and/or FC private chamber. Like increasing the size and item limit, adding a basement, and adding a second floor. Make each upgrade a major money sink, that all adds up to the price of buying a Medium House.
~Give people a way to garden in their apartment and/or FC private chamber.
~Give people who want to forfeit their house and get the "perks" of it being demoed a way to speed up the process. This way, people won't have a chance to have a change of heart half way through the countdown and more houses could open up.

Set new goals, there is always something to do. If it upsets you that much, just relinquish it (or let the auto timer demo it, at least you will get some gil back). It's no ones fault but yours that you cannot log in once every 44 days.

Can we really say that during a content dry period like in between expansions?
Just because there are things to do, doesn't mean they are good, fun, engaging, or any of the work you put into them won't be completely negated once the new expansion comes out. :B

[Kaethra]

Unfortunately the current system won't allow that. They're need to make instanced housing that isn't tied to wards.

They are instances already. Go to ward 1, then ward 2. Its the same plots. Copied 12 times. They can copy it 12 more times and double the plots.

[Lexia]

People may think they system sucks but for anyone that doesn't have a house and has the chance to purchase a house (decide this prior) have to make a decision. Are you alright with the reclaim timer (45 days) if the answer is yes then buy a house if you have a chance, if the answer is no you are not alright with the current system then don't get a house (don't buy a house and then come to the forums and complain about it). Not saying SE shouldn't make a better system but you can make a informed decision based on the information that is available.

[AngelicSence]

we shouldn't compare real life to in game system. I'm sure they designed it that way for different reasons. While I understand how people get frustrated. Logging into the game and visiting a house once a month is not hard. We paying a sub knowing the concequences.

[Slirith]

They are instances already. Go to ward 1, then ward 2. Its the same plots. Copied 12 times. They can copy it 12 more times and double the plots.

"Something something server memory something something"-Various SE excuses

[Mimilu]

"Something something server memory something something"-Various SE excuses

Pretty much this.
The lawn furniture and house exterior options take up too much data, especially because people can log in-and-out in those areas, versus the rooms and houses where they kick you out so they don't have to keep the instance up while you're gone. :B

[Kaethra]

"Something something server memory something something"-Various SE excuses

I have a Harddrive or two laying around they could use to store that information on my server at least.

Remember, visual assets are stored on your computer. The location, orientation, and type is saved on the server. When you load in, the server tells your computer where to display said assets.

location is a number
orientation is another number
type is a number

Those together form a matrix, and then a few of those go into a database. I'm pretty sure my combat log file since 2015 is larger than their housing database.