Ok so looks like people are still taking advantage and getting multiple houses.

[HuaTuo]

yeah it's for the workshop and the lengths this individual went to is beyond insane. Although that's exactly how you make gil. 4 submersives etc. Then take the gil and sell it for real money. SE should take at least SOME notice here, coz this is ridiculous.

[Nepentha]

There might be a minority of FC owners who sell workshop gil to RMT websites.

However, generating gil via the workshop is highly inefficient when you can use crafting/gathering/undercutting bots 24/7 to generate RMT gil

It takes 3- 4 months and millions of gil to get a workshop to the point where it can generate ~400k a day.

There are quite a number of RMTers in popular XIV discords and subreddits who openly discuss their methods because they think SE's TOS enforcement is a joke.

If they are RMT, it's a rare case of one operating FCs for the workshop. Most prefer fast in/fast out. Setting up a new operation takes months, but if this is the same person operating on another DC (which they appear to be) they likely shipped over an alt with all necessary materials the day OCE servers went live. From there it was the simple act of creating alts to form FCs, and then sit and wait.

It's something SE should definitely investigate. Do you hear that devs? You need to look into this if you want to keep the faith of your players.

[Wilford111]

Yeah I just accepted my refund and I'm pretty much done with housing at this point. It might be sour grapes but housing never really appealed to me in the first place, no point in getting so invested over it.

[SilverSp]

Worst housing system in the world

[Unkara]

Yeah nah, as Jojoya says, this on Materia. (OCE)

who wants to bet, that all plots in those 5 wards that are left open, will go to that multiboxer (RMT Organization) after SE fixed the lottery bug

[Lachesia]

Please keep in mind that Yoshi-P did express that multiple members of the FC could (with the right permissions) click on a plaquard for a house and bid on that plot and they may have done that to try and guarantee they won a spot somewhere, and unfortunately because of the housing system issue, all the plots were won by various members of the FC, if those FC members completed the transaction they would have won that plot (and if they had the money for it, it's the same thing), but I agree they need to investigate this because the stipulation aforementioned is that you can only have ONE FC plot per character account and I don't know if they expected multiple people in an FC to buy an FC plot and it actually went through? I don't think that's how it was SUPPOSED to work.

[Unkara]

Please keep in mind that Yoshi-P did express that multiple members of the FC could (with the right permissions) click on a plaquard for a house and bid on that plot and they may have done that to try and guarantee they won a spot somewhere, and unfortunately because of the housing system issue, all the plots were won by various members of the FC, if those FC members completed the transaction they would have won that plot (and if they had the money for it, it's the same thing), but I agree they need to investigate this because the stipulation aforementioned is that you can only have ONE FC plot per character account and I don't know if they expected multiple people in an FC to buy an FC plot and it actually went through? I don't think that's how it was SUPPOSED to work.

That should not be possilbe and would be a bug thats as extrem as the "0" winner bug

Q: What happens if multiple free company members enter the lottery for multiple free company plots and we win more than one?

A: You will need to choose one of the winning plots and then complete the purchase procedure. The other plots will be treated as "failing to claim your plot of land during the results period despite having won the lottery" and a 50% cancellation fee will be deducted from the deposit paid at entry.

from Regarding the Sale of Land in Empyreum and the New Housing Lottery System

[Wolfenrir]

What? A terrible housing system being exploited? What a shocker.

[ssunny2008]

Please keep in mind that Yoshi-P did express that multiple members of the FC could (with the right permissions) click on a plaquard for a house and bid on that plot and they may have done that to try and guarantee they won a spot somewhere, and unfortunately because of the housing system issue, all the plots were won by various members of the FC, if those FC members completed the transaction they would have won that plot (and if they had the money for it, it's the same thing), but I agree they need to investigate this because the stipulation aforementioned is that you can only have ONE FC plot per character account and I don't know if they expected multiple people in an FC to buy an FC plot and it actually went through? I don't think that's how it was SUPPOSED to work.

Just multi-fc´s with alts and bots. SE don´t give af for ages about such stuff. Just check out the market-board and you know where all the millions for the houses coming from.

The 30 days guild-membership won´t solve anything, they´ll always find poeple who gonna buy that small plot incl. guild for 20 million+.

[Jojoya]

Yeah I just accepted my refund and I'm pretty much done with housing at this point. It might be sour grapes but housing never really appealed to me in the first place, no point in getting so invested over it.

Just to clarify before my comments, I'm not intending to say that you (or others like you) are the problem. It's normal for players to want to try out and experience the content a game offers. I'm talking about how your situation demonstrates some of the underlying problems with the system.

A game system does not work when players with no real interest in the content are able to lock out other players who are interested from experiencing it. You might have won your house without issue and so would now have it. That would have been one less house available to players with a genuine interest in housing.

Despite not being interested in housing, you'd have no reason to give up your house once you had it. Relinquishing a plot means losing all the gil you invested in buying the plot and getting the construction permit to build the Estate Hall. Furnishings are close to useless once placed if you no longer want housing. They can't be resold through normal means, only by adding tenants to your house and letting them remove the furnishings. That's more gil down the drain.

There's also no cost to keeping the house despite not using it. Might as well just keep it. It's not up to you to make certain that there are enough houses available for every player who wants one. That's SE's responsibility.

It makes no sense for a game to design a system that allows a disinterested group of players to block access to content from an interested group of players that would like to experience it. If limiting access is unavoidable, then the system needs to be designed to either encourage disinterested players to relinquish control (like fully refund their gil investment) or to discourage them from keeping control (such as applying a recurring fee on possession of the content so its expensive to keep what's not being used).

Better yet, don't limit access in the first place. Limiting access promotes toxic behavior ("I'm better than you because I have this and you can't get it" *cough* all of Goblet ward 2 on multiple worlds *cough*). That applies just as much to plot sizes as the ability to get a plot at all.

Worst housing system in the world

Not the worst by a long shot, but certainly there are others much better.