Restrictions Being Lifted on 20th Feb

[ElasmoFan]

One of my biggest issues has been the lack of communication on their part. They didn't say much one way or another so you really had to read their intent through their actions which in this case was limiting individual purchasing but allowing relocation without restricting sizes. Now they may not have thought all of this up at that very moment, they probably spent time deciding on what to do and who to give preference to and how this should be implemented this time around but I still wish there was more communication. I mean they said they weren't going to say anything so people don't have time to plan but they blew that out the window when they announced the specifics weeks in advance but didn't actually talk about anything as far as intent goes nor say anything after the fact about people buying out wards or pseudo fcs.

[Settiesama]

You can't even refuse to buy a plot under current circumstances. What people are saying is, at best, I refuse to participate in another serving of the 4.1 housing debacle for a chance to buy a small plot none of the FCs and privileged players wanted. Because that's how Monday is going to look like, as nothing has really been improved since 4.1.

Uh, no... People have literally been saying they don't want smalls because they saved for a medium and large so they deserve them, and that they're quitting because only smalls are left. Anyone who seriously wants housing will take what they can, these guys clearly don't. It has nothing to do with the rush to get them, but purely because they feel smalls are below their worth.

Edit:

Problem is that small plots are a total waste of time, honestly they shouldn't even exist. But don't worry, I plan to sit here and watch as anything worth buying gets snatched up seeing as we have no choice at this point.

They need to open up more wards so individuals can also buy med/lrg houses. I want a at least a chance at a medium house and if I don't hear about something to make that happen very soon I need to stop playing.

Just as a couple examples, and of course there is Hyomin's friend who is a perfect example. Who outright refused to buy a small in 4.1 despite having every chance to, purely because she wanted a Large.

Let me share my story about housing, for anyone who wants to know—it gives some insight into why I feel the way I do/why I have my opinions:

I did not participate in the 3.3 Launch, because, well, I didn’t have enough money for a house at the time so why bother. But a friend of mine did. She was after Plot 11/41 in the Lavender Beds (i.e., The God-Tier Medium plot). She gets in relatively fast (Cactuar was still pretty mid-pop back then, not as large as it is nowadays), but sadly, all 8 of that specific plot were already gone. Her response? “I didn’t get THAT PLOT, and now I’m quitting the game!!!” We, her friends, managed to convince her to stay, and even tried to tell her there was a medium near the house of the FC that I was currently in (we presented this as a great time for us to all be neighbors, since she was in a different FC from us and didn’t want to leave it because she liked it). We had to spend several hours convincing her to at least take another medium plot (I want to place the emphasis on “medium” here—we weren’t even asking her to settle for a small, but another medium), even though it wasn’t the one she originally wanted.

Come Shirogane’s announcement at Fanfest. She decides to let her nice medium in the Beds auto-demolish, because she wanted to get a house (specifically a mansion) in Shirogane, and they had not yet announced the idea of relocation (as far as I recall they had not, anyways). We, her friends, tried to convince her to wait/think about it for a little bit (especially given the way she reacted after not getting Plot 11/41) because we knew there was a chance she may end up without a house at all, but she didn’t want to, so she let her plot auto-demolish for 80% of the cost.

Shirogane gets closer, and launches in a spectacular disaster. She managed to get in with no errors, but was 900+ in queue, and by then, all the mansions were gone (apparently there were still a few mediums left, but mostly smalls?—I can’t back this up by more than just my friend’s hearsay, because I had a faulty/unresponsive launcher, 2 lobby server errors, a 90k, and was 1,600+ in the queue). Her response again? “I didn’t get the house I wanted! I’m quitting the game!” We tried to convince her to buy another plot so that she could try to relocate in the future (since this would at least be something: she wouldn’t have the plot she wanted, but she would at least have a Shirogane house, which she really wanted to have a house there), but she refused. We spend more hours convincing her not to quit the game, especially after Yoshida announced they would be adding more Wards.

Finally comes this housing release. Sometime between the 3.3 and 4.1 housing releases, she had branched off from her old FC and started her own, so for 4.2 she was looking to get one for her FC (I think she had intended for the 4.1 house to be an FC one as well, but I’m not sure; she still really wanted a personal house at that time). However, she was unaware of the rules surrounding alt characters in FCs, and one of our friends had an alt in her FC back from when she was first getting it started, while his main was the master of another FC. She tried to buy a plot, and it wouldn’t let her (because of the restriction on alts). Meanwhile, myself and another friend had celebrated that we had managed to get some houses—I just posted a simple comment in our shared LS of “I got a mansion for my FC! ” and that was it. I didn’t know until a few seconds later that she had been unsuccessful in her attempts.

After I figured out what the problem was, I tried to tell her what she could do to remedy it (all she had to do was just kick the alt and she would have been golden). But, by then, all the Shirogane mansions were gone. I proceeded then to tell her “There are tons of mansions everywhere else; I know they aren’t Shiro, but try to get one and you can always relocate to Shirogane later on”. I suggested the Lavender Beds, because there was very little competition there at the time for mansions, and it’s still a very nice area that I knew she also liked. Well, she wasn’t hearing any of that. Some more back and forth between us, and she has subsequently blocked me on Discord and Facebook, and is no longer wanting to be friends with me. Because I “just didn’t understand”, was “rubbing it in her face” that I had managed to get a house, and I “knew how much she wanted a mansion in Shirogane” and that she “didn’t want to settle for anything else”. By the way, we had been friends since 2011–way before either of us were playing FFXIV.


This is where my issue lies: the way my friend acted was so terribly entitled, that I am finding a hard time having sympathy for her, especially after she turned on me for just simply saying ONCE in the LS that I managed to get a house. I feel similarly towards a lot of the comments I see here about the housing, too—

It really sucks when you don’t get the plot you want. I know that; I’ve been there. But I still think that at least owning a house gives you a leg-up/an advantage later on, especially with the new relocation feature added. It may not be ideal, but, for me personally, if the choice is between “not having a house” and “not having my dream house but still at least having one”, I would take the latter. I also think a better response is “We should advocate for increased numbers of larges/mediums” rather than “Take away the larges/mediums from the people that relocated because I want their plot”.

However, I realize not everyone is me, nor do I think they should all think how I do. That being said, I just wish people would at least consider alternatives.

This is most definitely not about the rush.

[Dustytome]

Uh, no... People have literally been saying they don't want smalls because they saved for a medium and large so they deserve them, and that they're quitting because only smalls are left. Anyone who seriously wants housing will take what they can, these guys clearly don't. It has nothing to do with the rush to get them, but purely because they feel smalls are below their worth.

I'm not sure I've seen people taking the stance that they're 'better' than having a small house, just that it's not the size they're looking for and it can be especially infuriating when it's a digital product that a company has created an artificial limitation of due to choice, lack of foresight or lack of understanding. If that's the product they're after and the company can't supply it to meet demand (after this much time at that) then why would someone want to waste more time and money waiting out the possibility to fight other users for the chance at something that other companies can provide without issue on demand?

[Settiesama]

I'm not sure I've seen people taking the stance that they're 'better' than having a small house

I updated it with two examples of that one and one example of someone doing so after only wanting a certain plot. The idea that they're 'better' stems from their refusal to settle for anything less even when it's the only choice left. SE has already screwed up housing beyond repair at this point, so if they won't settle for small at least temporarily, I will always stick by the notion that they don't deserve any. A small is still a house and people can and have done amazing things with them, refusing to even try for a small is just bad form if you declare you want housing.

[Searban]

Uh, no... People have literally been saying they don't want smalls because they saved for a medium and large so they deserve them, and that they're quitting because only smalls are left. Anyone who seriously wants housing will take what they can, these guys clearly don't. It has nothing to do with the rush to get them, but purely because they feel smalls are below their worth.

By all means, keep ignoring the context so you can have your narrative about entitled people that, in your eyes, don't truly want or deserve housing.

And that contex is pretty simple - the post-maintenance rush isn't going to be pretty. Or a pleasant experience. It'll also require people to stay up late (if NA) or make sure they're online at either 9 or 10 am during a working day (if EU). With no guarantee for anyone involved that they will get their plots anyway. It's not simply I don't want to buy a small plot, it's I don't want to put all this effort in for a slim chance at getting something that wouldn't meet my needs in the first place. Unless someone puts small plots in front of them and tells them Buy them! while they refuse, then somehow making conscious decisions based on the effort/gain ratio and expecting the company developing an MMO that you're playing to do a better job makes you a bad person.

EDIT:

Now onto the good part. I have read the examples you provided. With the exception of the last one, which is a story of a personal drama between two people with one of the involved sides displaying what seems to be signs of deeper, personal issues, the remaining cases have nothing to do with small plots being "beneath" anyone. One of the people quoted simply doesn't find small plots worth the effort (and has every right to do so), while the other clearly complains about not having a chance at buying anything larger than a small. They're not complaining about not getting things they deserve at all. I also went through this entire thread and a few others and haven't found examples of what you're claiming to see a lot of.

I don't see how these complaints are unfair. If there was any communication from SE between 4.1 and 4.2 regarding their exact plans for 4.2 housing things would look different. But they chose to keep everyone in the dark until the last possible moments instead, so naturally a lot of people will be disappointed by the whole affair.

[Settiesama]

By all means, keep ignoring the context so you can have your narrative about entitled people that, in your eyes, don't truly want or deserve housing.

What context exactly? Either you're reading far too deeply into this or putting your own thoughts into their words. They are literally meaning they don't want smalls, nothing at all do to with fighting for them.

Edit: Clearly I need to copy and paste every post they made on the matters to get it through that it has nothing about the fight for the plots, but the actual plots themselves. You're putting context to their posts that isn't there at all. They are meaning exactly what I am stating confirmed by other posts they made, and several others have posted with the quotes about the money (many of which were deleted after being shut down by others).

[Dustytome]

I updated it with two examples of that one and one example of someone doing so after only wanting a certain plot.

One person just didn't like smalls, another wanted a larger size, don't really see any issue there. The third person's ex-friend just seems to have a full deck of victim cards they enjoy playing. Settling may get you something, it may get you a leg up at some future point towards what you actually want, but it's a personal matter when it comes to how much time you're willing to spend attempting to garner what you were originally after. If you're paying membership to a club because one of the perks you're after is they have steak dinners, but despite lining up in time you always end up with the fish because they're out of steak by the time you get in. Is it a problem because you're better than having fish, or that the club can't provide enough of the perk that part of your club membership fee pays for? If the steak is one of the major reasons you joined the club, how long are you going to keep paying them when Jack's steak house across the street can get you a steak any time you walk in the door?

(You may now unravel what I said and hit me over the head with it for using a semi-real world example for a game)

[Searban]

Uh, yeah, sorry about that. Had to edit my previous post due to character limits, then again due to posts that appeared while I was writing it. The archaic structure this forum runs on is going to be the death of me one day.

[LaylaTsarra]

I'm not sure I've seen people taking the stance that they're 'better' than having a small house, just that it's not the size they're looking for and it can be especially infuriating when it's a digital product that a company has created an artificial limitation of due to choice, lack of foresight or lack of understanding.

I believe they will be addressing small, medium and large size spaces with the apparent talked about upgrade to apartments in the future. The neighborhoods aren't going to change anytime soon. The possibility of having instanced housing in addition to the wards i suppose could happen but I don't think they'll do that and instead will provide the size issue with apartments.

Many people would be happy with decent well designed apartment spaces.

[Dustytome]

I believe they will be addressing small, medium and large size spaces with the apparent talked about upgrade to apartments in the future. The neighborhoods aren't going to change anytime soon. The possibility of having instanced housing in addition to the wards i suppose could happen but I don't think they'll do that and instead will provide the size issue with apartments.

Many people would be happy with decent well designed apartment spaces.

Personally I want yard space so I'm not that into apartments. They've said they'd look into sizing next (likely copy pasting house interiors) and hopefully they revisit the balcony/garden idea that they nixed after saying they'd look into that too. I know someone mentioned they had a fake balcony or something they were working on, but that could mean so many things at this point. We'll have to wait and see.