Legit curious...why are housing wards ghost towns?

[Allegor]

Self explanatory title. In approximately a year of playing the only time I ever see other people is when a plot is on sale, and even when it's sold it's like the new owner is Thanos'd out of existence.

I don't get it, there are market boards, mailboxes, aetherytes, big houses are essentially designed for like 50 people inside so.....why? what makes going AFK on a main city any more appealing?

[LaylaTsarra]

I live in housing wards. I'm always there when not in a duty. They aren't very highly populated granted.

[Noitems]

Currently the three main hubs that most people would use are about the same across the worlds:
Limsa
Iddylshire
and Rhalgr's Reach

To break it down by area:
Limsa: Has the closest marketboard right by the aetheryte. Legit the main reason people use it as the hub as the other two require you to move to a seperate zone for it.
Iddylshire: 3.0 endgame hub but still offers many things people do as their weekly content. Wondrous Tails, custom deliveries, and poetics spending are big reasons people hang out there.
Rhalgr's: Current endgame hub. Spending mendacity/genesis, trading in drops from current raids, and just a very big area to chill in. This area will most likely be abandoned for the Crystarium in 5.0 but will be on the same level as current Iddyl.

The reason no one uses the housing wards are that they don't really have a reason to be there. Everything else you can do and more can be done in Limsa or just by warping to your own house.

[Doozer]

My partner and I always hang out at our apartment because the summoning bell and market board are right there, and there isn't a lot of people around so it's not noisy or slow to load in. Though I definitely don't see a lot of people around at the houses, but maybe they're just inside.

[NosamKin]

Currently the three main hubs that most people would use are about the same across the worlds:
Limsa
Iddylshire
and Rhalgr's Reach

In general I agree with the above. That said, my FC hangs out at our house when not doing something. Crafting takes place. MB and summing bell up the stairs. I think it just depends on the group.

[Nerfworthy]

I afk at my house a lot.

[Vidu]

I usually hang around my house or the FC-house aswell, so does most of the people in our FC (either hanging out at their houses or the FC-one).

I think two things to consider here are that:
(1) there are many housing-wards on each server - I kinda forgot how many right now, was it like 15 divisions + 15 subdivisions for each area? If yes... that means that there are 120 housing-areas in the game. Compare that to ONE Limsa/Rhalgrs/Idleshire... so people scatter much more in the housing areas compared to everyone being in ONE place. Honestly, if you'd take everyone whos currently hanging out in one of the main-cities/hubs and devided them evenly over the housing districts, you'd still end up with "ghosttowns" because of the sheer amount of space you'd try to fill.
(2) and not only are there more housing areas than Limsas - they're also bigger and people scatter more, because they'll mostly hang out at their house. And which that being true for everyone, people dont clutter in one space, like they do in Limsa (or any other place). Limsa (or any other place) isnt that lively either - its just the space around the marketboards. Go anywhere else, go down to the ferry, go over to any of the guilds and you wont see as many people.

The hubs are a convient place to afk - you have the marketboard or special vendors nearby, if you need them. Rhalgrs and Idleshire also have the script-traders for crafters and gatherers, so thats a draw too. At the same time the space there is... "overseeable", so people afking or standing around are much easier to spot, compared to having them scattered over a houndred housing-districts.

[Besame]

I stay inside my house mostly and go there to craft, pop retainers, afk and be away from spammers and twits saying stupid stuff in cities. My ward is a ghost town outside, I never see anyone when riding around or running to the MB.

[kidalutz]

I think it's because people buy housing just so they can say yeah I got a house rather than do something in it. kinda like those people that run around driving high end sports cars on the weekends.

[Gula]

Ironically people tend to frequent housing wards to be antisocial. There are very few and far in between cases of people making neighborly because there is 0 point in being in someone elses house (RP aside) outside of looking at decorations and guaranteed private chatting in /say, which can be resolved with a LS or party. You cant interact with anything unless tenant/FC member. And outside of decorating, what will you do? Turn an item on/off?