The housing system in this game NEEDS A COMPLETE GD OVERHALL. Complete stupidity....

[Alleo]

I would swap my FC and private house over to an instanced plot in a heartbeat if we would ever get it because I honestly dont care for the ward system and seeing your neighbors. Also at the same time this take away the fear of losing the plots thanks to not having a timer there.

How great would it be if each city would have its own instanced plot that you can buy and upgrade? How nice would it feel to get such a small plot from the city states as "Thank you" at the end of the original ARR story line when you risked your life to save Eorzea. And then over time you can upgrade it if you want to a middle or large house and if you have the gil you can just do the same in each district so people that really care about housing can buy a lot and you finally have a nice Gil sink in this game.

Everyone would be able to use all these housing items that SE likes to give as a reward which right now feel bad since they have the stance that housing should be limited...so why are you giving us so many rewards that most wont be able to use at all? Or only in a small amount thanks to apartments..

The wards could still exist for those that want it and maybe even could be FC only but would be nice to have an instanced option for FCs too.

In the end this system right now is nothing but a bandaid. With more and more people playing this game you will have to create more and more wards or have a lot of people angry at never getting the chance to have a house at all while you give them housing items all the time..

[Alenonimo]

I want instanced housing.

[Nedkel]

I dont want instanced housing.

In ESO housing is dead, no one give a flying duck about it because it is instanced, it makes it almost impossible to socialise around the houses thanks to the annoying invitation system which no one cares to play with. In FFXIV housing is a lot better thanks to the shared areas with other plot owners, you could visit someone else house and look at it outside any time you want and meet the owners too. The accomplishment of owning a nice house is also a ton lot bigger, you have spent time to buy and build that house that everyone on the server could see, with instanced housing any feeling of accomplishment is completely gone and playing with housing turns out to be a waste of time.
FFXIV housing is a lot more alive than in other mmorpgs thanks to the housing design and this is a straight up fact everyone here keeps forgetting about.

I could bet 10 mln gil that most of you would forget about housing altogether once you will get your own personal large house that only you could see and enjoy.

[Theodric]

I could bet 10 mln gil that most of you would forget about housing altogether once you will get your own personal large house that only you could see and enjoy.

The game has a significant number of role-players who make use of their houses on a daily basis. Even when not accounting for people who role-play, there's a pretty large number of players who simply enjoy decorating their houses and seeing what sort of designs they can come up with.

You strike me as the sort of player who only acquired a house in order to show it off - especially since there's no real 'accomplishment' involved in gaining one in the first place, only a matter of luck - and now that you have one, you wish to pull up the bridge behind you and prevent others from benefiting from a more efficient system.

I own a house myself - a medium in Mist, located right on the beach. I'd be absolutely fine with switching to an instanced house, so long as my friends could visit.

[Solarra]

I dont want instanced housing.
FFXIV housing is a lot more alive than in other mmorpgs thanks to the housing design and this is a straight up fact everyone here keeps forgetting about.

I could bet 10 mln gil that most of you would forget about housing altogether once you will get your own personal large house that only you could see and enjoy.

'Alive'? Really? I used to wave to my neighbour in Mist every time I saw them which was about three times last year, I remember them because they'd wave back and not many people do. Due to language difficulties we never got beyond waving though and now they've moved and the new house is locked. The day after the patch dropped I ran around the ward to see if there were any houses left (only 1) and I only saw one other person. Two of us in an entire ward, that's not unusual and to me that does not feel alive.
I don't want to take the wards away from people who love them and have a wonderful social scene going on in their wards, I just haven't seen anything like that personally, and I'm on Zodiark too. Our FC house is in another ward that is also largely dead.

I'd take an instanced personal house over one in the ward if it got rid of the timer and yes, I would use it, though it wouldn't matter so much if I didn't because the game wouldn't load it unless someone was using it. The whole point of suggesting instanced houses is that they wouldn't hog resources the way the wards do, because wards are up all the time, regardless of whether anyone is actually in them.

[SamSmoot]

I dont want instanced housing.

In ESO housing is dead, no one give a flying duck about it because it is instanced, it makes it almost impossible to socialise around the houses thanks to the annoying invitation system which no one cares to play with.

Keep instancing, but not with the private houses / invite system.
1. Whole plots would be instanced, entry at the gate (without a load screen). If the plot is displayed, players in the yard and on the street can see each other.
2. If a house is not private, anyone can walk in for a visit, without grouping. (After selecting it on the placard.)
3. The yard and house you see from the street can be selected from the placard, but your own house always shows when you arrive.
4. Ideally, houses other than your own would be displayed if they were occupied at the moment, making it more likely you'll see others out.

Unfortunately, it will never happen. If every player can has a house, full of items and their positions, it would require a LOT of storage, and SE would probably have to buy more servers and drives to support it.

[SerLuke]

I dont want instanced housing.

In ESO housing is dead, no one give a flying duck about it because it is instanced, it makes it almost impossible to socialise around the houses thanks to the annoying invitation system which no one cares to play with. In FFXIV housing is a lot better thanks to the shared areas with other plot owners, you could visit someone else house and look at it outside any time you want and meet the owners too. The accomplishment of owning a nice house is also a ton lot bigger, you have spent time to buy and build that house that everyone on the server could see, with instanced housing any feeling of accomplishment is completely gone and playing with housing turns out to be a waste of time.
FFXIV housing is a lot more alive than in other mmorpgs thanks to the housing design and this is a straight up fact everyone here keeps forgetting about.

I could bet 10 mln gil that most of you would forget about housing altogether once you will get your own personal large house that only you could see and enjoy.

I think this brings the point straight home, lots of people want instance housing but they don’t realize the consequences if it was done, I like housing the way it is even if I don’t have a personal medium house

[Nedkel]

The game has a significant number of role-players who make use of their houses on a daily basis. Even when not accounting for people who role-play, there's a pretty large number of players who simply enjoy decorating their houses and seeing what sort of designs they can come up with.

You strike me as the sort of player who only acquired a house in order to show it off - especially since there's no real 'accomplishment' involved in gaining one in the first place, only a matter of luck - and now that you have one, you wish to pull up the bridge behind you and prevent others from benefiting from a more efficient system.

I own a house myself - a medium in Mist, located right on the beach. I'd be absolutely fine with switching to an instanced house, so long as my friends could visit.

They do enjoy decorating because they could show it easily to everyone, what sense it makes to decorate a house that only you could see? None.
Preventing others is a part of the system, with limited resources having a house is precious and you feel lucky to have one.
Thanks to this having a nice decorated house is a value on its own, where with instanced houses it does not.
And someone who really wants a house will get it sooner or later if he put enough effort and time into it, its not like houses are gated for everyone, its a neccessary inconvenience that makes it more spicy.

[Solarra]

...what sense it makes to decorate a house that only you could see? None.

Well, some folk decorate and keep their houses locked, so not everyone feels that way. Also, there is no reason why people cannot visit an instanced house, just the same way you can visit apartments now. If you're saying you personally wouldn't bother visiting an instanced house that's not really a problem with the instancing.

Preventing others is a part of the system... its a neccessary inconvenience that makes it more spicy.

If it were part of the system it would be advertised as such, surely? As to adding spice, maybe it does something for you to know you've got something that other people want but can't have, but that doesn't do anything for me. I have my medium and I'm happy with it but I don't feel I achieved anything special. It didn't take effort, I just got lucky.
I do know that for the friends who left WoW with me to come and play FFXIV, the shortage of housing was a major disappointment and definitely contributed to them leaving the game before the end of HW. We really wanted a FC house but we had no idea housing was so limited until we subbed, out of the original group, I'm the only one left.

[LittleArrow]

Not to jump in on a dogpile, but I agree with most the response posts on this page.

I play ESO and I don't think the housing part of the game is dead at all. It's personal. The devs continue to pump out cashshop furniture almost monthly. If people weren't buying, they wouldn't waste resources on it, considering the game is f2p.

In ffxiv, I would also really enjoy showing off my house, except there's no one in the ward, and people that do have houses mostly have them locked / don't decorate / are never there.

I MUCH prefer housing in ESO. Housing should be instanced. I think to tear down what they have now is a bad idea. However, they could stop adding houses (which isn't a stretch considering how long ago they added houses since this last addition) or stretch out additions much further apart, and add instanced housing. Add two or three houses for a handfull of zones. Offer them in the cashshop or worth an incredible amount in the game, and treat them like the houses now. Gate off a section in the wild to put up a yard and the house.

Both sides win.

Another suggestion would be to increase the apartment housing floor and add a terrace / porch for an 'outdoor' area. Honestly, this would fix a lot of the problems. You could still have outdoor furnishings / gardening, and everyone would have the opportunity to enjoy the housing / decorating portion of the game.

There are pretty obvious fixes, but I'm sure all of this takes a lot of time and resources.