How many times have you stood at a plaque lately?

[Arrhin]

The only solution is instanced housing.

[DeNada]

I realize that after 4 pages of threads, no one has answered OP thread title questions.

I have camped probably more than 50 houses before finally getting a small house.

That's probably over 200 hours of my life gone and never coming back so no, I would never want to inflict that soul crushing experience of placard clicking even on my worst enemy and FCFS should die in a fire for being such a trash system.

[ACE135]

I wonder with how many people one has to compete when a plot gets free with FCFS. Is it 10 to 20? Or even less? I don't know. I think with the lottery system it would be way more, so the chances to win are smaller. But I could be wrong. Just curious.

[DiaDeem]

As someone who has gone through Housing Savage three times, each time taking a physical and mental toll on me: F*ck FCFS and plaque click spamming.

[Jojoya]

Do you then disagree that the systems can co-exist?

It's not a question of "can they co-exist". Obviously it's possible.

The question is should they co-exist. For most of us, that answer appears to be "No".

FCFS would allow a select portion of the player base to double-dip into the system to gain an advantage in acquiring a house. It also heavily favors those who use bots then go AFK to do other things so aren't actually investing their time in trying to obtain the plot compared to those who are present and are investing their time.

If SE wants the system to be fair for all, then it needs to be a uniform system that every one uses.

However I do think extra effort towards something should give you an upper hand.

While I believe extra effort deserves greater reward, that's not what is happening with the FCFS system. There's far too much RNG involved and someone who has devoted hundreds of hours to get a house can still lose out to a player who just decided 5 minutes earlier to try to get their first house.

Also, most of those who end up winning under FCFS aren't putting in extra effort at all. They're botting.

I feel there is an ulterior motive for all these people asking for first come first served.

I wonder if they've got something setup to bot getting them for resale or something (I mean more complex than a placard bot). I have no proof of that of course...but something smells likes the Limsa Docks.

Of course there's an ulterior motive. They feel that system gives them a significant advantage because competition is greatly reduced (and they'd be right).\\

If they just somehow added some type of gardening system to apartments (like a plant stand) I would not even think about buying a house at all, that's the only thing making me think of it.

There is a gardening system in apartments using flowerpots. You can't intercross to get new seeds but you can grow every seed in the game (which can't be said for the outdoor garden patches that won't grow the decorative flowers), and you can use the Shroud topsoil to increase yield.

I know players dislike the cost of Thavairian Onions on the MB but there's a reason for those prices - it's a headache to get the seed in the first place then a headache to grow it.

I wonder with how many people one has to compete when a plot gets free with FCFS. Is it 10 to 20? Or even less? I don't know. I think with the lottery system it would be way more, so the chances to win are smaller. But I could be wrong. Just curious.

It's not about improving their chances of winning. It's about having the time available to camp in the first place during the limited window the house is on the timer.

Having 2 hours 3 nights a week available to play the game is going to be less than entertaining if you're spending all 6 of those hours placard camping trying to get a house. For most players, that translates into zero chance to get a house because being online and at the placard at the moment the timer releases is far less likely. With the lottery, they can take 2 minutes to buy their entry for the lottery period and spend the remaining 5 hours and 58 minutes playing the rest of the game. Even being one entry out of 500 is better odds than having no entry at all.

As much as I believe effort should be rewarded, the housing system still does not reward effort under FCFS. It rewards luck. If it's going to come down to luck, might as well just use the lottery system which is also luck based so players can spend their time doing other things.

[kaynide]

Do you then disagree that the systems can co-exist?

It’s more that the old system is not worth keeping. If it’s going to be given to someone at random anyway (be it lucky timing on a macro, or pulling a random number), it’s better it doesn’t waste the players’ time. There is no reason anyone should have to stand in front of a plaque for hours on end like some archaic monster pop from older mmos.

If you want extra effort to be rewarded, go level up all 8 possible alts and have all 8 try to win the house.

[Seera1024]

None because the system is not healthy. It's not worth it.

You have to spend an unknown time camping a plaque repeatedly clicking on it hoping that you get the magic click to buy the house.

When you have to gamble that you might not get the house because you had to use the restroom means the system is not a healthy one. When you have to weigh your options for getting food because the time it takes you to even go get a bowl of chips might be enough time for someone to get the house you've been spending hours at means the system is not a healthy one. When you have to weigh the chances of the timer going off during the window you can stay up later for or get up earlier for and not be too tired to function vs getting a full night's rest means the system is not a healthy one.

With a lottery, yes, my chances overall may be lower as more people may decide they want to try their hand at getting a house, but at least I'm not jeopardizing my health or giving up my life just for a chance at getting a house.

[Yeol]

[LianaThorne]

Just throwing this out there, RMT is actually incredibly frowned upon in the black market spaces and those who try to sell houses for real money are banned pretty quickly by moderators. It's not tolerated. The more probable outcome is someone bought the house with gil as that's how most, if not all of trades used to go down before all of the housing changes were made. If people used money to buy gil, that I can't say...but just flat out paying someone cash for a house is not allowed in those spaces and all of the major servers dealing with it have rules against it.