Getting a New House Feels Impossible

[Jojoya]

I agree they have to work within a budget, but that does not give players an excuse to come after other players who have more the one plot like we are the problem. The problem is solely on SE but people are quick to defend them because budget, limitations, etc . . . Sure SE says they care fine, sure they are working on Ishgard. End of the day people are quick to defend those who have too many plots by their standards and refuse to hold SE accountable for their own choices that have led to this situation and potentially appear they are going to repeat with Ishgard. .

SE shares the blame but it doesn't solely fall on them. The players who have purchased multiple houses on the same world since the 4.2 rules went in to effect absolutely share in the blame just as much as SE. They know what they are doing is wrong and yet do it anyway because they have no respect for the game, its rules or the rest of the player base. They only care about getting what they want.

SE needs to understand how not enforcing the house ownership rules damages the integrity of the game and the concept of fair play they promote. Not only are they allowing players to violate the posted rules, they're letting those players flaunt the violation in front of other players whose own game experience is being negatively impacted by it. It encourages more and more players to cheat as they see others openly getting away with it.

That's a bad precedent for any game developer to set.

Still the core issue to be addressed is the number of houses available to the player base. As good as it would be to see SE take action against the accounts of those who have purchased multiple houses since 4.2, it would be better to see a system added that ensured every player who wants a house can get one. Multiple house ownership would stop being a problem because no player would be blocked from ownership by the greed of another player.

[Missbone]

SE shares the blame but it doesn't solely fall on them. The players who have purchased multiple houses on the same world since the 4.2 rules went in to effect absolutely share in the blame just as much as SE. They know what they are doing is wrong and yet do it anyway because they have no respect for the game, its rules or the rest of the player base. They only care about getting what they want.

Its like you said, but even this is SE fault because as the Owner & Developer of this game SE has the possibility to take actions against such players and make things right. They could punish them, bann them or whatever, but they do not act at all. On my Server there is a FC that abuse this system since years and was already reported mutliple times, but SE gives a shit about it and they are still around.

There are some bad players out there no question, but that things don't get better and stay like they are is soley and alone the fault of the devolper and no one else.

Another quick example, this week i have created a new char on another DC. During the first hour i saw alone in the first zone around 20 leveling bots. Fighting enemys while invisible, porting from questlocation to questlocation, having the usual head > keyboard names and nearly everyone looked the same. I was so disgusted that i talked to someone there about what i saw and he mentioned the best thing is to ignore it since they are allways around and SE dont seem to be able or willing to handle it.

[Drkdays]

If there is a way to abuse something, people will find a way to do it. That's been true since forever, both inside video games and out. It's tempting to just give up on asking them mot to, and trying to force someone to not act this way is something only scholars and teachers can do... It's because rules are merely guidelines for morality and can never encompass all they mean to without stealing freedom. And also, those who do the abusing often fail to see the harm they do, especially in video games. It's easy to say that since the system is flawed and has been for a long time, it's basically an invitation to continue the abuse. It's easy to say that even if they relinquish one of their homes, who's to say it won't just go to another house hoarder, accomplishing nothing both loss on their part. And the worst part is they may even be right, because of the very system that invites abuse. No one can fault house hoarders for their actions, but nor can they ever be expected to be accepted. Long story short, it's the gamer's fault, but that's to be expected. Mostly it's SE's fault for not being more clear in what their rules really mean as guidelines. Change must come from within. Within themselves and within the game. Let's not forget that SE is composed of individuals, too. We just have to be patient and keep asking. Change FC standards and find a way to ease the strain of house camping, for the good of all. Rather sooner than later, or I fear for their game's popularity. Perhaps the new housing zone will be the cure. It's still very unclear.

[Awha]

Thing is I do not think any of this is an issue with the players. Getting more then one house per character or server does not require an exploit. So what metric can we use to say their actions are wrong? If they are not breaking any rules can we say it is wrong?

That is my beef, people are placing blame on those who are operating within the rules of the game placed by SE. Sure it may go against the intent of SE's vision, but it is like people getting upset rising pitch forks against others for choosing to not follow what amounts nothing more then a suggestion or a guideline.

In the end SE needs to figure out if they wish to keep the system ward based then they need change the rules for good and do not silently revert them thinking no one will notice. And tell people housing as it currently stands is finite people will have a hard time getting a plot. It may not be our end goal, but as it stands this is the current system we are working to improve it, but outside factors make it harder. Let people know housing is not going to be for everyone from the start.

Either way I am a fairly binary person so. I know people have hope for the new housing zone, but SE track record with housing leaves much to desired. Though I have my bias since I do own multiple plots. Hard to example it does not bother me per se if people think what I am doing wrong, I just wish people would aim their ire at those with the power instead of those working within the system.

[Drkdays]

That one kid who sees a bowl of candy with a sign above it reading, "please take just one," and grabs a whole handful. Clearly it's just the sign-maker's fault for not being more specific and restrictive.

[Awha]

That one kid who sees a bowl of candy with a sign above it reading, "please take just one," and grabs a whole handful. Clearly it's just the sign-maker's fault for not being more specific and restrictive.

Way I see it clearly the peoples fault for not enforcing it. My parents did the same thing during Halloween they would leave the candy outside the door with a sign, and my old man would complain and get upset when one kid took the whole thing.

Like what did you expect? Want to be lazy and put the burden on people to police themselves do not get shocked or even blame them if they go against your not enforced suggestion..

Granted if I want to make sure something is done a certain way I make sure to oversight it personally and stop any issues I may have before they become a habit.

Guess the long and short expect the worst, hope for the best.

[Frizze]

Another quick example, this week i have created a new char on another DC. During the first hour i saw alone in the first zone around 20 leveling bots. Fighting enemys while invisible, porting from questlocation to questlocation, having the usual head > keyboard names and nearly everyone looked the same. I was so disgusted that i talked to someone there about what i saw and he mentioned the best thing is to ignore it since they are allways around and SE dont seem to be able or willing to handle it.

To be fair, they terminate thousands of accounts every week for this. A post like this appears every week(on thursday) on the website. The RMT people involved just start new accounts. They consider it a cost of doing business, and as long as its still profitable theyll keep doing it. For SEs part, they havent been willing to automate the process of banning these people.

[Sauteed]

I would say SE is to blame period in the way housing is handled. They created it, and curated it to this point and it has become what I consider a raging dumpster fire. It was this way for years from what I have come to understand, and probably going to continue to be this way for a long time to come. And I'm holding out hope that it changes with the introduction of Ishgardian Housing ( and I still have never seen anyone clearly come out and say YES THERE WILL BE HOUSES IN ISHGARD, so we may be in for a big disappointment but it does seem pretty clear there will be housing there).

My opinion is probably not popular, and yes people hoarding houses is in my opinion obtuse to the intent of the game. House hoarding is not something that player can be "guilty" of though under the current "rules". I've seen someone named COOKIEMonster or something like that saying hey just bust out the 50 wards per world and give people more chances at getting a house. To me, if they aren't going to fundamentally change the way things are handled right now, that seems like a pretty good quick fix. Instanced housing would be fine for a lot of folks, bigger apartments would satisfy a lot of people, but keeping a system from a small group of friends in an FC who are for whatever reason incapable of getting a house is again 100% Square Enix's fault, 100% no one else's at all in any way shape or form. Keeping gardening away from a large chunk of the player base again 100% Square Enix's fault, not .01% any one else's. It isn't my fault, it isn't some other player's fault for hoarding houses, or whatever argument any one will concoct. 100% Square Enix needing to identify they have a massive problem, and quit ignoring the elephant in the room / forums / game / other media outlets.

I've also said in the past, if I had 2 accounts, and got a house on both and someone said a syllable to me about it trying to make me feel any kind of grief about it, I'd blist them, and be glad I did.

[Sauteed]

I am not un-caring about people who cannot get a house, I am rather disturbed the development team has seen this blossoming for however many years endlessly and have done so little. They have done SOMETHING, a few times, releasing new wards etc, but it's like putting a drop of water on a dumpster fire steadily speeding toward a hay stack. If they've got something under cover to surprise the player base with I'd say like a year ago was the time to unveil it. If this Ishgardian housing comes out and it's again a "ward neighborhood" system where there's a few large plots a handful of mediums and a gaggle of smalls, in a limited number of wards to choose from, I'm pretty sure they'll be learning how to deal with an exodus of players, and seeing more infuriated customers pissed off about the raging dumpster fire and being kept away from what I'd say are important parts of the game.

I could say "if I were in that position I'd have done this differently" but I'm not in their position. Still, sometimes I find myself saying "why the heck is this like this".. or "If I was *insert position* I'd have done this entirely differently". I do not feel the current system is a benefit to the player base in any real tangible way, I like countless others have a house in a ward where I may see 1 or 2 other people a week that actually live there. I invite people to my place often, it is a dance hall / bar and the house itself gets lots of use. I'm glad I have it. That over an "instanced" house that everyone can have a copy of does not matter to me. I would even prefer if they just made every city that gets houses "instanced" situations where you can walk up to an NPC or Gateway, and choose from a list very similar to apartments that teleports you to an instanced zone that some one owns or you yourself own. It could be a house floating on an island somewhere with a huge yard or whatever and the house sitting there for you to customize as you see fit, and every one can get one. Have a market board accessible either from the instance or just outside the instance. Give people the option to upgrade their plot for a similar amount of gil to the current in game housing market , and adjust as needed for inflation / deflation or whatever else.

[Sauteed]

Go back to limiting housing to FC's or whatever other measures are needed. But this current madness and people (rightly) flipping out on the forum and not receiving any kind of official statement (and I'm speaking of Ishgard restoration stuff here), about their future intentions for housing is just disturbing to me. I'd like to know just what we are getting from all this ishgardian restoration stuff, is it more of the same? Is it anything at all other than some npc's giving us an atta'boy? Is it going to be an instanced version of a house that we can upgrade over time given to us through the course of the MSQ? Is it just gonna be a small house that everyone gets as a starter home that will NOT be upgrade-able? Just give us something to at least give people an idea of what to expect. If it just HAS to be a super top secret secret, I don't think it'll be a secret when your players start flipping back out about the same song and dance getting sung and danced.

Please forgive the multi-posts the automated forum controls kept me from posting a longer post, and also limited by time as well.