You Guys need to UP your housing "fix" attempts.

[Alyanna_Elingval]

Same as any other content investment - it gives players something to do if they enjoy it and if they have access. The more things a player wants to do, the longer they will remain subbed before taking a break to play other games while waiting for the next patch to release. The longer they are subbed, the more revenue SE gets.

Housing is still important in SE's eyes even if it's not an absolute top priority. Look at the amount of work they've put into housing the last 5 years compared to how much work they've put into content like Grand Companies, which some players would argue should have a greater importance. They've talked in interviews about more changes they would like to make with housing if they can get past technological hurdles (adding alts as tenants, increasing items limits yet again, etc.). We'll eventually be getting new housing in Ishgard.

The problem we're seeing is rather than bringing this expansion's changes to housing at the start of the expansion to give more players access to it, it's coming at the end of the expansion. That doesn't give those players something they want to be doing to do now and that's causing dissatisfaction.

Bandaids. What people want would require an entirely new or re-worked system, which is not going to.

A) Bring new players to the game

or

B) Retain current players

From a business standpoint that's what you're looking at when you're prioritizing the resources.

You add new wards here and there, and then add a new location with each expansion. But you can spend the resources to add an entirely new location because of the money you got from people buying the expansion, the people who re-subbed after the expansion came out, and any new players that jumped into the game when the expansion came out.

But between the expansions, all you're doing is band-aids to kick the can down the road until the next expansion. That's what you've been seeing. It is not in their interest to completely up and overhaul the system to make it what people are asking for, especially when those resources could be better spent on something that will affect a much larger percentage of the player base.

When I say what's the return on investment, I mean what is the return for creating an instanced housing system, or completely overhauling the apartment system? Huge dedications of resources in multiple areas.