Regarding that Finaland Interview...

[OurMom]

It's not so much what he said, it's how he said it. He came across as what some would consider passive aggressive, which is unbecoming of a game director, and certainly not how he used to be. He could be frustrated, which can happen to anyone, but if you can't respond to the "hard" questions responsibly, perhaps someone else should do it for you.

Nothing stated came off as passive aggressive, we all know there's been a shortage of housing since it was implemented. They developed FC rooms and apartments...use them? I dont know how else he should've answered that when the solution has been there the entire time.

[Hestzhyen]

Nothing stated came off as passive aggressive, we all know there's been a shortage of housing since it was implemented. They developed FC rooms and apartments...use them? I dont know how else he should've answered that when the solution has been there the entire time.

No offense but apartments and housing aren't in the same league. Not even close. So YoshiP suggesting that an apartment could be a viable alternative when you can't even use them for some of the most basic housing features like putting out lawn ornaments or growing a few plants is borderline insulting. It read as a flippant, uncaring reply.

[Amariel34]

The idea of a greenhouse might work. You pay a one-time fee and you get your own section. Almost like apartments are. Might not be such a strain on the servers if they were instanced like that.

Also, and this is more of a general glamour question, but has Yoshi-P or any other dev ever said why they don't allow dungeon gear to be dyable? There are some nice pieces but the colors are wrong for my characters. I don't get why you can dye it.

[OurMom]

No offense but apartments and housing aren't in the same league. Not even close. So YoshiP suggesting that an apartment could be a viable alternative when you can't even use them for some of the most basic housing features like putting out lawn ornaments or growing a few plants is borderline insulting. It read as a flippant, uncaring reply.

Do you *need* lawn ornaments or growing plants? Does it affect game play in anyway? It's all just glamour stuff or people complaining because someone has something they don't. Housing doesn't provide anything that's needed and it doesn't take away from gameplay. They stated before it's hard for them to add more housing so use the alternative route, you'll be ok lol.

[SenorPatty]

Do you *need* lawn ornaments or growing plants? Does it affect game play in anyway? It's all just glamour stuff or people complaining because someone has something they don't. Housing doesn't provide anything that's needed and it doesn't take away from gameplay. They stated before it's hard for them to add more housing so use the alternative route, you'll be ok lol.

You don't need anything in this game but value is in the eye of the beholder. YoshiP redirects players to use apartments as if you could transfer everything from your house into one easily, disregarding player attachment to their current house. This is the same man that actually used to apologize for inconveniences genuinely to the playerbase. Now he comes across as flippant.

He needs a PR person because at this rate, he'll incense the playerbase rather than appease it, which is really not what a game dev should be doing.

[Yshnal]

Why change how housing works if that's making many people to not stop their subs so that they don't lose their plots (and houses, and furniture, etc.)? It's saving them a lot of money from things like veteran rewards, server infrastructure, and code cleaning, for example. And why give people more options for glamours, and increase the combinations almost exponentially, when that lack of options is certainly enticing some people into buying stuff from the Mog Station to get more variety (like being able to glamour heavy armor on a non-tank, which apparently is not a problem as long as you pay an extra for it... like it happens with almost every other "limitation")?

$$$

Obviously, he's not going to say that. As of why that happens, and if he has any saying over it or not, I don't know.

[OurMom]

You don't need anything in this game but value is in the eye of the beholder. YoshiP redirects players to use apartments as if you could transfer everything from your house into one easily,

He doesn't "redirects" he states, again, that there's apartments, use that instead. I don't know how many times they can say "we can only add so many houses" before people actually get it.

People's personal attachment to their homes is on them, to me it's absolutely crazy to keep a sub because of a demo on a house that provides nothing. Especially when you can transfer to another server where there's several available. People can't put themselves in stupid situations and expect the devs to fix it.

[Vahlnir]

He doesn't "redirects" he states, again, that there's apartments, use that instead. I don't know how many times they can say "we can only add so many houses" before people actually get it.

People's personal attachment to their homes is on them, to me it's absolutely crazy to keep a sub because of a demo on a house that provides nothing. Especially when you can transfer to another server where there's several available. People can't put themselves in stupid situations and expect the devs to fix it.

That's called...redirecting, so he doesn't have to address the real problem. Similar to what you're doing, actually.

[MomomiMomi]

He doesn't "redirects" he states, again, that there's apartments, use that instead. I don't know how many times they can say "we can only add so many houses" before people actually get it.

To say "use apartments" and "they can't add more houses" in the same sentence is a very odd position to take.

Apartments and FC rooms prove that they can add more housing. They just don't do it.

There would be virtually no diffference between an apartment and a full-sized instanced house with yard.

[SenorPatty]

He doesn't "redirects" he states, again, that there's apartments, use that instead. I don't know how many times they can say "we can only add so many houses" before people actually get it.

People's personal attachment to their homes is on them, to me it's absolutely crazy to keep a sub because of a demo on a house that provides nothing. Especially when you can transfer to another server where there's several available. People can't put themselves in stupid situations and expect the devs to fix it.

You're not making sense here.

The question started originally started off with the interviewer stating that even if he wanted to take a break as the producer advised, he can't take one for more than 30 days (granted it's 45 days). Yoshi responds that you don't need to play, you just need to log in and click on the door.

Fine, so far so good (somewhat). It's not ideal if you want to actually want to pause your sub but if you want to keep the house (within the 45 day limit), that's the alternative. But at the same time, that's the actual issue on hand, which the person points out. Note here the person is not talking about perma/quitting the game. The person,as an example, just wants to take a break for 2 months. The person wasn't asking for more houses, as you put in your quotes so I don't know why that's here. He's basically telling Yoshida that taking a break from the game comes with consequences equal to how much you invested in the house, whether that'd be financially or time spent acquiring things that you cannot get with in-game currency. This isn't like playing catch-up msq or being late to endgame raiding. It's something they possess in the game that isn't going to end up being useless 3 months later like
tome/raid gear.

Now at this point, some developers might take the in-depth approach and explain why they decided on a 45 day number instead of 25 or 65 and how those days "keep housing in balance" (I don't know if it does, I'm just guessing) and that's why the playerbase has to deal with it. Some might take a more customer service based approach by empathizing with the issue and--if they're allowed to say it--state that either there's nothing they can do or they have thought about it and are working on something, either way ending with an apology.

Instead, his advice basically boils down to "you got house but you don't want to pay sub so you can make sure you keep your home? Use apartments."

Factually, he's right. On paper, he's right. In the interview itself, he's right.

But to the people the game caters? He's wrong.

People's personal attachment to their home exist in the first place because for the most part, housing is fluff. It's enjoyable fluff. It's not tedious fluff, nor is it grinding fluff. It's not fluff you can easily discard because three months from now, it'll be useless because there's a better house with better upgrades. It's something that enables players to directly edit a piece of something they have in the game in many shapes and forms. It's not just the inside of it; the outside of their house matters to them too. You think when Yoshida was developing housing, his goal was not to create attachment to it? That'd be one hell of a thinking process. How much attachment to their house is irrelevant because the very same man who keeps going on about how passionate he is about creating stuff in the game for players to enjoy is now telling them, redirecting them to bounce to an apartment the player has no attachment to begin with.

Lastly, remember that FF14 is a theme park game. People will enjoy many things, some things and at times very, very specific things. If housing is what someone enjoys and they usually don't mind paying a sub for that, why is that somehow crazy compared to a player who only subs to raid? Or only subs for the story? Or only subs to RP? That's my issue with Yoshida right now and the origin of my rant: he's getting out of touch with the playerbase and making light of what they enjoy out of the game, even if that one thing is what keeps them subbed to the game.