Please SE, do something about housing

[Skivvy]

It's actually kind of frustrating, and slowly having the opposite effect on me. I'd probably have unsubbed these last few months if I didn't have a house, and if I haven't been working towards a large for a couple of years now. But I'm definitely feeling burnt out, and feeling like I can't properly take a break because if I do I'll lose my house just makes it feel even worse.

Dunno how many others feel this way, but the longer I go paying a sub just to hold onto something I won't really be enjoying until the next patch, the less good I feel about having the house in the first place. I've thought more than once about just giving up the house and taking a longer break, but the thought of spending another 14+ hours spam clicking placards is just off-putting enough to drag me back. It's such a miserable, discouraging system that it's becoming a growing dark smudge on a game that I otherwise genuinely enjoy playing. Enough so that I think if I did give up or lose my house, I'd just give up on housing in this game entirely.

Just a quick note - housing demolition is currently suspended due to COVID, so you technically COULD be unsubbed right now...at least for a wee bit. Just be sure to keep a close eye on their announcements for when they turn the demo timers back on.

But I'm with ya - I hate the feeling like I need to stay subbed just to keep a house as it's near impossible to get a new one. I'm always reminded of the live letter from waaay back in the day: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-%2810-30-2013. The relevant bit is:

1:14:22
Q: Will there be any maintenance fees or other costs for housing, besides the cost of the land and house?
A: In older MMOs, such as Ultima Online, there was a house maintenance fee you had to pay weekly, but in FFXIV: ARR we decided against this system. Similarly, these older MMOs also had a system where your house would break down if you didn’t log in after a while in order to have you continue your subscription, but this is a thing of the past and we won't have any system like that.

I'm assuming they just had lofty dreams back then and hadn't yet accounted for their poo-infrastructure (or whatever the limiting factor is). But this is a modern game (albeit aging now), and I feel like they should have been able to make a far more functional housing system than what we have. There are older games that managed to give housing to all, and don't require you to remain subbed . I can't imagine that the devs are entirely thrilled with the situation either, but there isn't much they can do either due to system limitations and/or funding. Probably enough complaining from me for a day. X: