Hear me out: Paid housing

[Divinemights]

I like how people making "self-proclaimed smart" ideas when they don't even understand how SE's server infrastructure work at all.
Their server infrastructure is not as simple as one you "pictured" in your head.
Overall Japanese's server technology is behind Western by one generation where Chinese and Korean are already much more advanced than Japanese in this category

How do I know this?
It is from a podcast from one of the Asia game publisher explaining why they are unable to publish FF14 in their country but they can publish WoW instead.
It is due to lack of physical spaces to keep the servers and the high maintenance of the FF14 servers.
Especially SE's approach is go for stability where they are always use server from same manufacturer (this is why you rarely seeing server congestion or failed patch day from FF14)

Just imagine this game publisher is able to host WoW servers but not FF14 due to physical space for server.
The cost of SE is open a dedicated house ward is much costly than you expected.

[Stormfur]

I like how people making "self-proclaimed smart" ideas when they don't even understand how SE's server infrastructure work at all.
Their server infrastructure is not as simple as one you "pictured" in your head.
Overall Japanese's server technology is behind Western by one generation where Chinese and Korean are already much more advanced than Japanese in this category

How do I know this?
It is from a podcast from one of the Asia game publisher explaining why they are unable to publish FF14 in their country but they can publish WoW instead.
It is due to lack of physical spaces to keep the servers and the high maintenance of the FF14 servers.
Especially SE's approach is go for stability where they are always use server from same manufacturer (this is why you rarely seeing server congestion or failed patch day from FF14)

Just imagine this game publisher is able to host WoW servers but not FF14 due to physical space for server.
The cost of SE is open a dedicated house ward is much costly than you expected.

Oh I don't claim to know how it works, and I'm sure it goes WAY deeper than just "not enough space/resources". And I also know that this game makes a ton of money but it gets siphoned off into other things.

But wasn't that kind of what the Mog Station was supposed to prevent originally though? Keep more of FFXIV's money IN FFXIV? I remember there was a major backlash when it came out too... but if they did away with it suddenly tomorrow people would FREAK OUT because they couldn't get those cherry trees or that school uniform or whatever. If people are willing to throw $25 at an outfit or a mount or whatever, why not something else permanent in-game in the form of a house they can call their own? If it's too cost prohibitive then yes, that answers that, but I still don't get why you can pack 48 people into Castrum without so much as a hiccup, but neighborhoods are asking too much.

To be fair though, I'm one of those people who thinks that everything, absolutely everything, should be obtainable in game without spending actual money. That includes enough housing for everyone.

[Penthea]

If people are willing to throw $25 at an outfit or a mount or whatever, why not something else permanent in-game in the form of a house they can call their own?

Because we're paying for it already. What you're asking for wouldn't be any different to removing Gold Saucer outfits from vendors and putting them in the cash shop.

but I still don't get why you can pack 48 people into Castrum without so much as a hiccup, but neighborhoods are asking too much.

This isn't even apples and oranges. This is apples and fish. You're comparing a zone that has a predetermined appearance that players cannot customise to an area that is customisable to the point that there are literally millions of possible variables in its appearance due to player chosen decor. The amount of information a housing area holds is significantly higher than a non-housing zone of the same size because each housing area is different and almost everything at a plot can be customised in real time. Never mind how a housing area isn't capped at only 48 people per instance. If you think these are similar you may as well start comparing the glamour dresser to combat classes.

[Divinemights]

But wasn't that kind of what the Mog Station was supposed to prevent originally though? Keep more of FFXIV's money IN FFXIV? I remember there was a major backlash when it came out too... but if they did away with it suddenly tomorrow people would FREAK OUT because they couldn't get those cherry trees or that school uniform or whatever. If people are willing to throw $25 at an outfit or a mount or whatever, why not something else permanent in-game in the form of a house they can call their own? If it's too cost prohibitive then yes, that answers that, but I still don't get why you can pack 48 people into Castrum without so much as a hiccup, but neighborhoods are asking too much.

It is the chat function, especially FF14 allows active cross server chat.
Chat will cause most heavy stress on the server than combat animations; therefore the difficulty of creating a player neighborhoods are much difficult than create 48 people in Castrum.
This is same for every MMO and this is why you always getting a auto report function for spamming.
It is just not as simple as putting up a server and magically everything will be alright.
To make one house ward active under FF14 would cost SE an arm and leg because they need several servers to handle the chat function
Consider the high living standard of the cost of living in NA, the physical space (rent), the maintenance staffs, etc.
It is not as simple as people claim to be.

[Neoyoshi]

I like how people making "self-proclaimed smart" ideas when they don't even understand how SE's server infrastructure work at all.
Their server infrastructure is not as simple as one you "pictured" in your head.
Overall Japanese's server technology is behind Western by one generation where Chinese and Korean are already much more advanced than Japanese in this category

How do I know this?
It is from a podcast from one of the Asia game publisher explaining why they are unable to publish FF14 in their country but they can publish WoW instead.
It is due to lack of physical spaces to keep the servers and the high maintenance of the FF14 servers.
Especially SE's approach is go for stability where they are always use server from same manufacturer (this is why you rarely seeing server congestion or failed patch day from FF14)

Just imagine this game publisher is able to host WoW servers but not FF14 due to physical space for server.
The cost of SE is open a dedicated house ward is much costly than you expected.

This point will likely get overlooked more then most points, so i'll quote it, because it's something so few people seem to be aware of.