Some Final Thoughts on the 2017 Shirogane Housing Release Fiasco

[Vahlnir]

this happens every housing ward addition

Yeah, it does, but I've honestly never seen so much backlash when it comes to housing. It's pretty bad. People will usually vent for a day or so then come to terms, but this just seems...different, kinda like it's finally boiling over. It's not just the NA forums either, it's all of them pretty much.

[Vahlnir]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...g-in-Patch-4.1

Figured I'd post this here. It was on the NA housing subforum.

[HyoMinPark]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...g-in-Patch-4.1

Figured I'd post this here. It was on the NA housing subforum.

Going to add my response to this in the OP as well, but:

Hello, everyone. This is FFXIV Producer and Director, Naoki Yoshida.

Patch 4.1 saw the introduction of the residential area, Shirogane, and though we are pleased to see so many players enjoying this area, we also received a great deal of feedback regarding this newest addition to housing.

While a great number of you were interested in either purchasing or relocating to a plot in Shirogane, we failed to prepare sufficient plots for players, and for that I deeply apologize.

This problem was only made worse by the increased stress on the servers from players rushing to log in after the end of maintenance. As a result, the system implemented to prevent players from abusing the relocation feature failed to function properly, preventing some players from relocating altogether.

Although this issue will be addressed in today’s hotfix, we understand this does not address the underlying issue. In light of the feedback we have received, we will be working to bolster our servers in preparation for additional wards in the Lavender Beds, the Goblet, Mist, and Shirogane by patch 4.2.

We’ve also received considerable feedback as to how they should be added, and we will be making an announcement outlining the number of new wards and how they will be sold after reviewing said feedback. To prevent speculation, we will refrain from releasing information until absolutely necessary. We ask for your patience and understanding until we can provide you with these details.

I hope we can count on your continued support, and that you all will continue to enjoy the various new content added in patch 4.1.

Thank you, Yoshi-P, for hearing our concerns, and giving us a response. I am glad that our voices were heard, even if some where on the more “rage-y” side.

While I am going to not get overly hopeful, I do hope that you and the rest of the Dev Team consider just how many wards need to be added, and look further into the portion of the active playerbase that value and want to purchase housing. I fear that only a couple wards per housing area are going to be added, and that is just not enough to meet with the demand of the playerbase.

Number talk beneath the spoiler tag:

Adding only 4 wards will net 240 new houses—with 4 housing districts, that is only 960 new houses per server, bringing the total up from 2,880 to 3,840. While better, if you took a server with a population of 10,000 characters eligible to purchase a house, that would still only give 38.4% of those characters a house. I strongly feel that the Dev Team should aim for a minimum of 50%, something that can be obtained by doubling the current number of wards from 12 to 24. See the opening post for the numbers on this.

Again, though, those numbers and percentages don’t account for Free Companies.

I also hope that you all consider implementing limitations to prevent individuals from purchasing multiple plots on the same account, so that people that do not already have a home can have a shot at obtaining one. I also hope that you all will consider the idea of adding a ward that provides only instanced personal housing with the “neighborhood-y” feel of a regular ward, but with instanced yards and interiors to, not only lighten the load of having too many continuously active wards in server memory, but to also give even more people a chance at obtaining a house of their own. I firmly believe that housing is something that every player in this game should have access to, and not something that only the most lucky of us should have.

Again, I thank you for taking the time to hear us all out, and to consider just how important housing is to a portion of the playerbase. I am going to remain cautiously optimistic in terms of the housing situation in this game, and, even though I told myself I wasn’t going to be too hopeful, I still want to believe that you and the Dev Team will do all that you can do to make us happy.

Thank you.
Hyomin Park, Cactuar Server