Square Enix prosperously ignores the housing issue to promote filling out Servers

[Wolfsbane706]

My intention is a lot more like what Dustytome described. Most smalls I've seen friends purchase (or that I've seen open plots for) are around 3M. My 10% less figure was a bit arbitrary. For the sake of description, let's say small houses are always 3M gil. Since an apartment doesn't have a garden or an outdoor location, I think anything between 1.8-2.5M gil is fine to pay for one (if people think it should be lower or higher is up to them, I just personally wouldn't be upset with anywhere in this range). Apartments do have the advantage of not being demolished, as Dustytome said.

Also, this is for an apartment with the same layout as a small home. I don't mean the standard apartments we have now. If you still disagree with the figures I've expanded here, I'm sorry to hear that. That's just how I feel about it and I wanted to add, since the discussion was on the topic.

I don't think I've ever seen the inside of a Small. But yeah, basement, second floor, and a view would be worth a mil or two. Also, a place to stash all the junk I keep accumulating . . . .

EDIT: Proofreading is my friend!

[Arthrun]

If i could turn my apartment into a high end condo where I can nearly do everything a home owner can I would be very happy. I mean those studio apartments are just to small to want to do anything with it.

[ERMITANYO]

Hear hear, apartments should have more vertical and horizontal customization space, outdoor balcony aesthetics, and large scale indoor gardening capability.

If i could turn my apartment into a high end condo where I can nearly do everything a home owner can I would be very happy. I mean those studio apartments are just to small to want to do anything with it.

[Drkdays]

If only outdoor furnishings could be used indoors. That'd absolve SE of a lot of grief. Sure, I'll sleep next to my chocobo stall! It ain't weird unless you make it weird! And ya, I'll plop a garden plot in my living room, np!

[Vahlnir]

If it's upgrading the room to a small house size and doubling the item limit (+storage increase), I don't think that's much at all, especially when you tie in the safety of it not getting eaten by auto-demolition.

Oh yeah, at that price it's still practically a steal. And it's also as you said, it can't be lost once purchased no matter how long a person is gone. It's essentially a one-time investment.

[Barraind]

They're trying to promote evening out the NA player numbers because we're all clustered on a handful of servers. NA is the only region (that I know of) that has two datacenters. Meaning 16 servers.

3 datacenters. 24 servers.

Some of the NA housing issues stem from the JP housing crisis being significantly less, due to JP having 32 smaller servers on the same 3 datacenters (their servers lock/congest at roughly 65-70% of what the NA servers do) and a smaller overall population.

25% more houses for a smaller playerbase makes the numbers look a LOT better over there.

[TR_RA]

Its literally is the only thing that makes sense to me, if you dont want to add more plots? thats fine. then allow private plots like the apartment system with tons of room for small houses so players who have lives can enjoy the housing mechanics other than a small room. Its a complete have and have not system which is disgusting. I mean wtf!

Yes! I absolutely agree. They can make instanced housing like apartments for the Small-sized plots, and have the bigger neighborhood type for M and L sizes only. That would give players the chance to at least have a small they can't lose, as well as more chances for bigger-sized plots.

[rance-sama]

I find it funny that the only people who are all "SE is doing nothing wrong, everything is fine!" are the ones who already have a house.
I have one already but I still believe the system is a tad broken and I feel awful for my friends who doesn't have houses.

[Jojoya]

I find it funny that the only people who are all "SE is doing nothing wrong, everything is fine!" are the ones who already have a house.
I have one already but I still believe the system is a tad broken and I feel awful for my friends who doesn't have houses.

Most of the player base doesn't care about housing so they aren't even part of these discussions. Pretty sure many of their comments would be along the lines of "everything is fine with housing" even though they don't own a house.

I don't know of anyone who does care about housing that thinks everything is fine. Everyone has their ideas on what needs to be improved but those ideas differ. A lot of the disagreement comes from those ideas that only exchange one problem for another while not fixing the core problem (like asking for a lottery), or are unrealistic for the game's design (allow infinite expansion of the existing wards so people can always have a house even if they stop playing the game for several months).

Like you, I've got friends who don't have a house but would like one. I'd love for that to happen for them and everyone else who wants one. I know that's not going to happen if SE sticks with the ward system, and the current instanced system (apartments) isn't satisfying for many because of the small size and interior limitation. It's why the game needs an enhanced instanced system like so many other MMOs have (or did have when they were still operating). Even just making it possible for apartments to have size options equal to house interiors would be a big step in the right direction.

We know that SE is not ignoring housing despite the claims of some players. They've mentioned several things over the past couple of years - adding those size options to apartments, setting things up so all characters on an account are automatically tenants of a house owned by one of those characters, developing technology so instanced areas can view "adjacent" non-instanced areas, possibly increasing item limits again now that PS3 support is gone. Hopefully they're close to implementing some of these things but like most game developers, they've learned not to say too much before they're ready to implement because players can take statements the wrong way and turn them into promises that devs never made.

[Beatific]

Most of the player base doesn't care about housing so they aren't even part of these discussions. Pretty sure many of their comments would be along the lines of "everything is fine with housing" even though they don't own a house.

I don't know of anyone who does care about housing that thinks everything is fine. Everyone has their ideas on what needs to be improved but those ideas differ. A lot of the disagreement comes from those ideas that only exchange one problem for another while not fixing the core problem (like asking for a lottery), or are unrealistic for the game's design (allow infinite expansion of the existing wards so people can always have a house even if they stop playing the game for several months).

Like you, I've got friends who don't have a house but would like one. I'd love for that to happen for them and everyone else who wants one. I know that's not going to happen if SE sticks with the ward system, and the current instanced system (apartments) isn't satisfying for many because of the small size and interior limitation. It's why the game needs an enhanced instanced system like so many other MMOs have (or did have when they were still operating). Even just making it possible for apartments to have size options equal to house interiors would be a big step in the right direction.

We know that SE is not ignoring housing despite the claims of some players. They've mentioned several things over the past couple of years - adding those size options to apartments, setting things up so all characters on an account are automatically tenants of a house owned by one of those characters, developing technology so instanced areas can view "adjacent" non-instanced areas, possibly increasing item limits again now that PS3 support is gone. Hopefully they're close to implementing some of these things but like most game developers, they've learned not to say too much before they're ready to implement because players can take statements the wrong way and turn them into promises that devs never made.

I have read several posts from you in recent days. I hope SE is listening because your calm responses and solid ideas are exactly what they should be listening to.

As an aside, and while this is anecdotal, pretty much every person on my friends list either has a home or is interested in having one. This is why this matters to me - and it seems like many people feel the same way. So saying people with homes don't care is not necessarily true. Instead I would wager that because it isn't an issue for them, many just aren't here on the forums posting about it.