Hear me out: Paid housing

[Ramesses]

So I know it's a sore subject BUT hear me out. I don't like paying for things unnecessarily in game either and I rarely buy stuff off Mog Station.

HOWEVER, the housing situation being what it is in game, I think it's time we seriously considered paid housing options. And here's why:

Housing bots are faster than we'll ever be at clicking and scooping up houses the minute new wards are available. At the moment, they're not being punished despite all our complaints. That means the problem, much like market manipulation even when there's concrete proof of it, is going to keep happening for the foreseeable future. Either it's not as much of a priority for the three people in charge of monitoring that or whatever. I can't begin to guess. But it is what it is.

And part of me says we shouldn't have to pay for the privilege of having something in game that's advertised on the main site (or at least it used to be) and that on top of a monthly fee. I get that.

But with that being said, I think the paid housing option would alleviate a lot of issues.

- You can still keep the neighborhood look-and-feel (although frankly I've never so much as seen another soul in my ward)

- You could buy a specific plot on the mog station, so you could be assured of the spot you want. Just like in game, different plots would have different prices.

- Once you buy a house with actual money, it's yours until you cancel your entire account, not just pause your subscription. This would eliminate the need for a demolition timer since new wards could be made as old ones are filled up.

- The biggest complaint is lack of server space, well, here you go. We're paying for server space. (I don't claim to know the ins and outs of this). It would be a one-time fee. SE would truly make bank and you'd have a lot more happy customers.

- This would also open up the potential for more wards elsewhere in the game. Imagine housing wards in the Viera forest or Azim Steppe. Imagine having a Sky Pirate home in the clouds. Perhaps the community could even vote on where they'd like the next wards to be.

And before anyone says I'm bitter about not getting housing, I actually used to have a medium house in game, and I have enough gil to buy another if I wanted to, but I frequently take breaks so it would get demolished anyway, so there's no point. I'm happy enough with my little apartment but thought that this would be a good way to fix the constant issues that keep coming up.

Those who still want to try for a home the old-fashioned way can still do that, but those of us that don't mind spending a little more for a guaranteed space can choose to do that.

What are your thoughts?

I should pay real funds for my housing when there are other players that obtained several housings in their possession through all methods of shenanigans?

Excuse me...?

[not_ya_wify]

I hate this and having worked as a user researcher for a free to play game I can tell you that taking anything that was previously free and then making it paid for will piss off the vast majority of the player base. This move would just cause long time players to drop out of the game like flies.

[Themarvin]

I hate this and having worked as a user researcher for a free to play game I can tell you that taking anything that was previously free and then making it paid for will piss off the vast majority of the player base. This move would just cause long time players to drop out of the game like flies.

Only if it is real life coin, advocating for players having to pay an upkeep for their property, and FC's has to pay more due to there is more people, it is a +side along side with the Auto Demolition that they have added... as in you can lose stuff if not using it.

[Rofel]

This "FC should be able to pay rent" hot take goes against the purpose of a Free Company on a base level. There are small Free Companies for IRL friends, relatives and stuff like that, not focused on Gil at all. There is a Casual tag in game for Free Companies for God's sake.

"But it would stil be an affordable cost-"

So it is cheap, great. How can this solve at all the problem at hand?

Some hot takes in here /)_-

[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.

[MicahZerrshia]

Only if it is real life coin,

Naw, if we suddenly had to pay hundreds of thousands if not millions of gil monthly to keep our houses, you bet there is going to be a backlash. Not to mention a severe increase in what is already a pretty annoying rmt problem.

What they need to do is find a new way of maintaining their housing so they can provide it to more if not all the players. What would be the smartest idea would be to introduce instanced housing, which is much more server friendly than wards. But for some reason they are just fighting tooth and nail against it even with the player base on both sides of the ocean, advocating for it.

This new farming system we are getting is the perfect opportunity to give us instanced housing. I would drop my ward based mansion for even a medium house in an instanced zone in a heartbeat.

[Jojoya]

This new farming system we are getting is the perfect opportunity to give us instanced housing. I would drop my ward based mansion for even a medium house in an instanced zone in a heartbeat.

Might have been a good opportunity but that's clearly not the direction they're going with island Sanctuary. It's a shame, really.

[Solowing]

So because i dont grind out gil all the time, i should lose my houses? The system isnt perfect but its far better then this idea.

[Awha]

I would add to my sub for a large plot I never had to worry about getting demoed and had higher item count. Though paying gil would have to be a massive amount for me to notice or even consider giving up my plots.

[Themarvin]

Naw, if we suddenly had to pay hundreds of thousands if not millions of gil monthly to keep our houses, you bet there is going to be a backlash. Not to mention a severe increase in what is already a pretty annoying rmt problem.

What they need to do is find a new way of maintaining their housing so they can provide it to more if not all the players. What would be the smartest idea would be to introduce instanced housing, which is much more server friendly than wards. But for some reason they are just fighting tooth and nail against it even with the player base on both sides of the ocean, advocating for it.

This new farming system we are getting is the perfect opportunity to give us instanced housing. I would drop my ward based mansion for even a medium house in an instanced zone in a heartbeat.

But also a good system to hit players using RMT solutions and makes people much more visible when they are engaged in such transactions.