Unpopular Opinion - Housing Demolishment should be much stricter

[RitsukoSonoda]

The current housing wards isn't the problem IMO.

The issues I see currently are as follows.

Housing costs have not been adjusted at all since housing was added. As such getting the gil for even a large plot can be trivial to a very large amount if not majority of players in the game. Leveled retainers on quick explorations can sometimes return with items that sell on the marketboard for more than the cost of a small plot. Because of this too many people can now afford a house and many wont take a small plot unless it's the only thing available. The bloated economy of the game is a result of having the rate of gil creation by players via quests/duties/vendoring items grow while offering nearly nothing in terms of gil sinks that take that gil out of circulation. The game actually does have instanced housing to a certain degree in the way of apartments and FC rooms, however because people can easily afford bigger and better they don't want what is already offered.

They have been tweaking various things over time to fight against individuals hoarding multiple plots and RMT. If they do plan to open an area in Ishgard as housing I feel like they should have it work off a new system that involves player crafting as it would be a change from who can log in and click faster and also tie in with the restoration theme. They could do that instanced or do wards.

IMO should they choose to add instanced housing however. I feel it should specifically be in the sea of clouds. From a setting prospective a house isolated all on its own fits perfectly in that area since it could be placed on its own little floating rock in the sky. Leave the neighborhood style existing wards as they are. Just keep in mind your instanced house isn't going to have its own personal marketboard.

[MomomiMomi]

While I agree with most of what you said here, I disagree that raising the prices of housing would be beneficial. All that would do is make wealthy players in an even better position to hoard multiple houses due to the market being accessible by less players, and it would encourage RMT.

Disagree. With a higher starting price on housing, and with a proper reverse auction system, players will want to wait to get a lower price on housing. As players wait, the pricing will eventually reach affordability for more people, increasing its availability. It's how the system was originally intended to work, but it doesn't right now because prices are absurdly low to the point that you'll never see a house available for purchase for more than a day, if it even goes beyond a few hours beyond the point where it can be purchased.

Pricing is a very big part of demand. At its current price, demand is very high because everyone can afford a house. And the price is so low that it's hard to care about the price. They could reduce the price of housing to 0 gil and it would make very little difference from its current state.

A reverse auction system also makes the resale of personal housing pretty much impossible, both because you can't guarantee a price to the buyer, but also because houses will be far more available.

For wealthy players to guarantee house hoarding with such a system, they would have to throw billions of gil at it. And by doing so, that gil would be removed from the game, which solves another major issue the game has.

I have enough gil to own an entire ward right now. I haven't made gil since January, 2015. 5 years of not trying to make gil and I can buy an entire ward. That pricing is downright stupid.

At its current price point, there is little reason for me not to buy a house. 4 million for small? Even if I lose the house, I won't care about the gil lost. This is the situation for a lot of players. This is part of why pricing should be increased. The price point should not be so low to the point of "eh, why not?" Putting forth the gil for a house should be something you need to put serious consideration into, because housing is not unlimited.

In terms of supply and demand, they clearly are unable to increase supply to meet demand. The alternative, therefore, is to control demand. Raising pricing is one method of doing so.

[Penthea]

Pricing is a very big part of demand. At its current price, demand is very high because everyone can afford a house. And the price is so low that it's hard to care about the price. They could reduce the price of housing to 0 gil and it would make very little difference from its current state.

Decreasing accessibility doesn't decrease the amount of people who want a house.

Surely it would be better to introduce things to reduce demand by making the housing system have better features instead of locking even more people out of it because of higher prices.

I believe everyone should be able to get a house or alternatively have a great apartment (with features like those I mentioned in my previous post). I really don't like the idea of putting up an incredibly high gil wall for those only entering the content. This is especially bad for fcs because they get the most potential use from houses.

Players are already frustrated as it is with being unable to purchase a house. The solution to this is not to make it even more difficult to purchase one.

The game does need gil sinks but there are better ways of introducing them that don't involve putting up a wall in front of players.

[MomomiMomi]

I believe everyone should be able to get a house

As do I, but that isn't the game we're playing.

Decreasing accessibility doesn't decrease the amount of people who want a house.

Never said it did. I'm talking about reducing demand, which has two factors: the desire to have something and the ability (and willingness) to purchase it.


To give you an example of how this can work out in practice, by reducing the amount of people who can buy the house, there will be more houses available for purchase. Because there are more houses available for purchase, their prices will drop over time. There is no need to rush and buy a house at its maximum price when there are 100 other "backup" houses to choose from, after all. These houses, then, will eventually become more affordable to more players.

[SweetestLily]

These houses i was looking at have been around for years as far as i can tell. Plus, you dont have to spend a single gil to decorate your house.

Who cares? The furniture or lack of it that people have in their house is none of your business. Why do you feel that other people's property has to appeal to you in order for them to have a right to own it?

[NessaWyvern]

I have enough gil to own an entire ward right now. I haven't made gil since January, 2015. 5 years of not trying to make gil and I can buy an entire ward. That pricing is downright stupid.

*Sits here, struggling to make cash for a large, as I keep spending it on glamour and mounts *-* *

[Avidria]

*Sits here, struggling to make cash for a large, as I keep spending it on glamour and mounts *-* *

I'm spending on close to nothing but just getting the gear to level crafters and gatherers, and I've been under the amount I need for a medium for close to a year now... how are people just rolling in gil?? Is it crafting? Playing the market? Some greater arcane secret that I'm just missing???

[HakaseNyan]

The current housing wards isn't the problem IMO.

Housing costs have not been adjusted at all since housing was added.

This is wrong. Housing originally had a much higher cost, and it was lowered significantly to make it easier to purchase for everyone. They even lowered it in stages while the economy on each server balanced out.

Edit: Some sauce -
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/03843d6bf7ba69adc37d7955ff7af43f3c43828a
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/611a2417fbdd247a18a619409302b2896cea7f52

[Alleo]

These houses i was looking at have been around for years as far as i can tell. Plus, you dont have to spend a single gil to decorate your house.

So if SE suddenly descides that we need to have decorations inside the house what makes you believe that those who are seemingly willing to sub and come into the game every 45 days to keep their house would not just buy a few decorations and put it down? The same with your 14 days timers..there is a high chance that they would just log in every 14 days and keep their houses while others that used them greatly and have decorated them in an awesome way might lose them because of not being able to always log back into each 14 days..I mean you might have the time right now but life constantly changes..who is to tell if that is always the case?

Its imo already horrible that they even went with such a timer at all..especially when they once said that they would never do it because timers are outdated...no lets all keep talking about wanting a better housing system instead of punishing even more players for SEs horrible system..

I'm spending on close to nothing but just getting the gear to level crafters and gatherers, and I've been under the amount I need for a medium for close to a year now... how are people just rolling in gil?? Is it crafting? Playing the market? Some greater arcane secret that I'm just missing???

I own around 100 million gils right now (which is after spending x amount on buying and relocating my FC and personal house and lots of glamour and pets) so I am nowhere near the amount some of the people here have but I mostly earn my money through crafting and gathering. Also roll on every loot in a dungeon and turn it in to buy wanted items from your city states. It might not sound much and you will take a bit of time but over time this also adds to quite a bit of gil. I sell everything my retainers bring back too which sometimes can be quite the good items. But yeah mostly its from crafting and gathering. And I am not someone that sells high level gear. I just like to craft at least each item once. Anything that I dont want as glamour will go to the MB. Some of the normal gathering mat are also quite expensive on the MB and people want them. Right now you might also earn quite a bit by doing the Diadem gathering or simply selling some of the stuff you can buy in the restauration.

A friend of mine has much more gil and got most of it by simply selling materia. Even with the low prices for quite some of them, the amount being sold are giving him millions of gil. He is spirit bonding quite a bit and the low level materia are often not that cheap too.

[GarretStrongstaf]

SE should hire me to go around and judge housing decorations. If I don’t like your decorating job then I get to demolish your house on the spot and ban you for life from buying another house.

I know this reply is sarcastic but I agree. How does anyone of us have a right to dictate how a person enjoys their house? Including those who may have purchased more than one home.

If have a friend who owns a rare item in-game, but chooses to keep that item in storage and not on display, by that argument, if my friend doesn't enjoy that item enough, my friend should lose that item AND lose the right to purchase ANY more items because they are wasting resources that an item-loving person could truly enjoy. That appears a little rough to me.

Unless we take the time to get to know each other personally, none of us can have any idea of what another player may or may not have experienced in getting their home. It feels misplaced of me to point fingers at a stranger who's housing standards are not my own.

Also, it makes me sad to know there are people who don't yet have access to homes, but sometimes, on the forums, it often feels like there is a divide between those who own homes and those who do not. May I suggest a work towards closing that gap with solutions that doesn't attempt to resolve the issue with someone losing something (ie: retroactive housing reclamation)? Instead, I would love to see threads on strategies successful home owners have used to get their home. I know that for myself it has been a 5 year process of crafting, networking and preparation. I worked for it and I loved every minute of my housing journey. I posted about this a while back: I am always happy to talk about my own FIVE YEAR process.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...76#post5220176

Given the amount of threads we have dedicated to ideas like instanced housing or apartment upgrades, I feel that it may only be a matter of time before they are implemented. My gut tells me that Ishgard housing is going to be a game changer in ways we can't yet imagine. So hang in there those who have made the above suggestions!

While we wait for these changes, I feel it may be productive and even FUN for us to work together to make the system we do have easier to navigate for everyone. So, while I don't think a shorter demolition penalty will solve the frustrations my non home owner friends have, I do feel that a more open communication between us about the realities behind achieving ownership and the HARD WORK and patience it can take to get there would make our housing game much more enjoyable for all of us.

Garret