Hoarding Houses - Sometimes a Depressing Sight (a rant)

[Penthea]

If you had 7 houses, each of them exquisitely decorated and the storage probably full of furniture too, how would you feel if SE suddenly demolished 6 of them?

Been a while since I have been in my own thread.

I would never have seven houses because I would feel too guilty to even consider knowingly permanently depriving other players of housing. Decorating is one of my favourite things to do. I lvled up all my crafters with the sole intention of supporting my love for housing. If houses were in an unlimited quantity, I would take great joy in owning as many as ten.

I actually had the opportunity to have two personal houses, twice. The first time I snagged a plot on an alt and waited for my friends' fc to get to rank 6, and I later demolished it so they could take it. The second time I snagged a plot on another alt for a friend who I knew wanted a house badly but was at work when the plot became empty. I did not receive any form of payment for what I did. I have far more gil than I need and I was happy to use it to help my friends get their houses. I even ended up paying for one of those plots twice.

The plot I held for that fc, I had it for over a month because that fc was very small at the time and it was during exam time for the members so they couldn't play a lot until their exams were over. It took them a while to get to rank 6. Even though I bought the plot with the full intention of releasing it for free, I honestly still felt guilty about it. I did wonder if I took a plot someone else would have adored even more than my friends, from someone else who waited for years to get a house. I wondered did someone's heart sink when they saw the icon on the map change after it was purchased. Even though I knew I was going to release it to players who wanted it so much, I still had that nagging feeling that I deprived someone of a house right up until I demolished it.

So no, I cannot put myself in the place of someone who lovingly decorated their seven homes because I am incapable of taking more than what I considered at the time to be my fair share. And it seemed SE agreed with what that fair share was too given that they changed the amount of houses a player could own on a server to one fc house and one private house, save for those they grandfathered in of course.

I could have been one of these grandfathered players. Estimating the amount of free plots I saw before 4.2, I could have owned twelve houses. But apparently in these forums I'm a strange person for not taking them, and for not arguing that they should never be taken from me even though it literally deprives other players of playable content. I find it quite sad to see players defending those who are blocking others from accessing content with their greed. Perhaps they have forgotten what it is like to have the money to buy a house and see nothing but full wards for months or even years. Perhaps they never knew.

While the housing situation is far better than before, and quite a lot of servers do have unclaimed plots, this still doesn't fix the issue that not all plots are equal. Most of the time these free plots are small. As long as certain furniture has limitations based on house size, a cottage will never be truly enough for a fc. I know this from personal experience because my fc started off with a cottage and now has a medium house.

My personal house is a medium and I do feel guilty about it sometimes because I know it's quite big for one person. But I love gardening and SE only allow one gardening patch for cottages. This was why I aimed for a medium. I would seriously consider downsizing if that limitation was removed.

So for anyone who had the patience to read these walls of text, maybe now you can understand my stance with housing better even if you don't agree with it.

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And now for more walls.

Despite what people may think of me from what I said in this thread, I don't want anyone to have anything taken away from them. I want a different housing system but I don't see that situation realistically happening. We have had countless threads asking for a system that would benefit all equally and the few times we have been answered it's just been tweak after tweak. The likelihood of SE letting go of the ward system, or introducing an additional housing system, is sadly very small. So the best we realistically can hope for is more tweaks.

I would prefer instanced housing, not just because it would mean everyone could keep everything forever, but also because of experiences such as:

My fc had the unfortunate situation in which a player arrived near the fc plot who had bullied a fc member in the past, and understandably they were greatly upset at seeing them. At the time there were some unclaimed plots nearby and they were terrified that person would buy one. If we had instanced housing everyone could feel safe at their personal or fc plots inside and outside, and would never have to worry who their neighbours might be.

I once went into a friend's house and found people doing emotes in such a way that it appeared to be like sexual intercourse (I'm sure we have all seen them by now). My friend asked them to leave but they refused to. It was at least 20 minutes before they left. My friend kept their house locked for months after that, which meant inviting anyone who wasn't a tenant became tiresome. If we had instanced housing this wouldn't have happened. My friend could keep their door unlocked for all their friends, but locked to everyone else.

Another friend had to take down their target dummy from their garden because a nearby fc was constantly using it. They love their plot location and like to go there to craft or just to chill out while queuing. But this fc invaded their garden and repeatedly came back no matter how many times they were asked to get a dummy for their own garden instead of using someone else's. They finally got their own one, but only after my friend took down theirs.

I have other little stories like this, but these are the ones that stand out. The first one was particularly alarming for me because as a fc leader I have a duty to keep my members happy and I honestly felt powerless in that situation. I can't really report a player for going somewhere that is a public venue, nor can I stop them from buying a house nearby. Though that situation lead to little other than worry that eventually dissipated, this doesn't mean it won't happen again and could lead to something more. I care deeply for my fc and if we had instanced housing I could control the environment of our fc house far better.

And finally to add my small hope for the future:

At the last fan fest SE hinted at Ishgard housing, and also revealed content in which we would help repair Ishgard. My hope is that the reward for this will be a proper instanced house for the WoL as thanks for helping rebuild the city. Extremely unlikely, but I'm hoping.