How do people play for 3 years without a house?

[Galaktica]

The problem with all the people defending this shithole of a system is this: it's predicated entirely on the notion that everyone who wants a house is always online at the same time which, and this is gonna sound weird, is ludicrous.

Let's take this week as a hypothetical. You've been anticipating this for months, you're ready to buy a house. The week before the patch drops, your home catches fire or is ruined in a flood. Now, call me crazy, but the last thing you're going to be thinking about in that situation is "aww, damn, now I won't be able to get a virtual home in mah video game."

Let's say you've been keeping up auto-demolition news. You're waiting for the next round of houses to free up, you're ready to jump in and scoop one up. Suddenly, your kid gets sick. Your job needs you to put in some extra hours. There's been a death in the family. You've been robbed. You've got a project due next week and someone isn't pulling their weight and now you have to make up for it. Your SO wants to go out on a date. Your SO is going thru some serious shit. Your PC or PS4 dies. A truck runs into a pole outside your home and you're cut off from the internet for a week. There's been any one of numarous natural disasters in your area. And so on.

Yes, I'm well aware of how silly this all sounds, but the point is this: there is a limited amount of housing in this game and limited amount of time in the day, however, there is a near infinite amount of circumstances that can distract or even stop you from logging on. So again I say, how hard is it to grasp that maybe...just f***ing maybe it's very easy to play this game for a long time without ever getting a house?

[silverlunarfox]

Get in line behind people that play more then. Everyone has a real life they are dealing with too. This is a moot point. If you're argument is that you dont play enough, then yes, people who play more deserve them more. Either way, quit complaining and get in line. And if you " just decided" you wanted a house and think you're entitled to one, again, get in line.

Clearly you need to fully read statements prior to commenting.

People who play more may not be able to get a house and vice versa. No one deserves a virtual house any more or less than the next guy. It's just a system of supply and demand where supply is far less than the demand. Absurdly less. You can comment on the system being less than perfect without complaining or feeling "entitled". Man your view on things is increasingly bitter as of late.

In the end it changes nothing with what the OP originally addressed. You can go 3 years and decide "Man I should get a house." You can go three days and decide the same. And if circumstances are right, maybe you'll find one, maybe you won't. And as Galaktica said, life situations are always changing. It does not in any way mean some people are less deserving than others. It's a game after all. This is all I can say on this topic.

[Galaktica]

Get in line behind people that play more then. Everyone has a real life they are dealing with too. This is a moot point. If you're argument is that you dont play enough, then yes, people who play more deserve them more. Either way, quit complaining and get in line. And if you " just decided" you wanted a house and think you're entitled to one, again, get in line.

W-wait...so you're admitting that housing isn't a matter of hard work and preparation. If it was hard work, there wouldn't be a line and it wouldn't come down to dumb luck.

[Elamys]

It boggles my mind that there are people who actually defend this setup of housing.

[Darrcyphfeid]

entitled

I'm not sure which is worse, the overuse of this single word as justification or the concept that people not wanting/being able to take time off work for a goddamn video game is them not wanting it "enough."

If you want to say "You didn't want it badly enough because you didn't go to the house selling subreddit and strike a deal," fine. That would be a fair argument prior to 4.2's release. That was a viable alternative for people that couldn't get on for various reasons. But beyond that, no, that's ridiculous. Especially the play more line, wherein it's not how much you play but when you play. Or should we make an internet petition to erase time zones too?

[MizArai]

But wouldn't the amount of people wanting a house stay the same? let's say everybody got up early, and rushed newly released houses, even if those that complain now were to get houses, the others would be stuck without one, and a part of those will start complaining.

It doesn't matter if you rush houses or not, the amount of plots is limited and can't satisfy everyone.

Since you apparently didn't read the rest, or maybe just don't understand that it answers what you're talking about, let me quote the rest of that for you.

If people have played for 3 years and don't have a house, I'd say they don't really prioritize housing, as there have been countless opportunities to own houses, and so many servers had tons of empty houses before the free transfers (though I realize that transferring with money was more difficult back then it was still possible if you were smart about it). I really have almost no sympathy for people who have played a long time and don't have a house. The opportunities were there, people just had to be willing to do whatever (camp wards, transfer servers, take something that was not a dream plot) to get a home.

While Hyperion isn't one of the top population servers, we're pretty high up there. I've personally bought 8 houses now on Hyperion between all my moves. And that's for my characters and my FCs. Some were with housing expansions, some were not. If people are looking and diligent, they can find a home, even if it's not a dream home, it will be a home. Everyone has to start somewhere. I only recently came into my dream home (large in the Mists), but I've been a home owner since 3.3. You can own some place, and make it yours while waiting for something better, especially with relocation now.

small edit here - I do feel more sympathy towards people on Balmung, because ffxiv really should have multiple servers that are designated as RP servers so that the community could be spread out better instead of clumped into one server. Transferring from Balmung onto a different server would be a huge loss for a lot of people because they would lose their RP community and have to try to foster a new one, which is a difficult task. So while the possibility to transfer would have made housing an option, it probably wasn't a viable one, and with like 27k players (I think Balmung topped out around there at active players) it would be super, super difficult to find something and have so many other people to compete with.

[Amantisa]

The problem is that housing doesn't really reward accomplishment. It rewards being able to log on at the right time, get lucky in the queue and click faster than the other guy.
(...)

Not sure what feeling of accomplishment one gets from getting a house in game. (...) mostly just a matter of me being in the right place at the right time and also having no life.

Hence why I said it backfires. I read about the whole thing having the objective of being difficult and "rewarding" once I started playing, and needless to say, not many people agreed with that view back in the day already.
I agree with you both, it have always being a matter of luck, nothing else
(hi5 to no lifers :V)

[Ing-Dono]

as there have been countless opportunities to own houses

Let's say I DID take an oppertunity to buy a house, then the person that couldn't take that oppertunity (because I did) would be left wanting a house, it doesn't change anything, in the end someone is left homeless.

It's easy to say "you just have to prioritize housing" but if there are more people trying their best to get a house than there are plots in existence... what can you (as a player and/or dev) do to get it, and not have someone that does want a house left homeless?



Note: Having played Runescape where every player house is it's own instance, no neighbors, but infinite houses, so this issue doesn't exist there at all. Yes I know there is value in providing the players with a "neighborhood" and all that, but just letting you know where I'm coming from.

[MiniOmegaDragon]

i went 2 years with out a house on moogle and got one when i jumped to omega

[Penthea]

W-wait...so you're admitting that housing isn't a matter of hard work and preparation. If it was hard work, there wouldn't be a line and it wouldn't come down to dumb luck.

In the case of those who don't use RMT or don't have wealthy friends giving them gil, getting a house can require a great deal of hard work and preparation. But also luck. An enormous amount of luck, maybe even ludicrous amounts depending on your personal real life circumstances and the server you're on. I have a house but I still haven't forgotten how much it stings when you can work your ass off to get a house but still have only a tiny chance to get one.

It boggles my mind that there are people who actually defend this setup of housing.

It's crap. It's getting better but it's still a long way from being acceptable.

Seriously a good bandaid fix would be to vastly improve apartments. Let fcs buy them so they can have fc rooms and a workshop. Add a balcony so players can use the full gardening features, not just the extremely limited indoor pots. Add tenancy so individuals can share them. All of these features already exist in the game in some form. This would help both private owners and fcs a lot. Also apartments are pretty cheap compared to a house so it would be easier for newer players and fcs to access housing features.