Stop complaining. You wanted this.

[Amenara]

Honestly waiting for the next lottery to see the salt mine that's going to be. Lots of these people thought the "lottery" would be "OH SO GREAT." When all i read was "prepare to have your chances to get a plot reduced to basically 0, LOL."

I didn't have any expectations of winning a house (surprise I didn't), but the lottery system actually let me engage in the housing system again which I hadn't done in years after getting relocated on multiple times while clicking signs. I had no expectations of it being anything than a band-aid for the jacked up system that SE has for housing, but it is still infinitely better for me than clicking a sign ever was. I think another aspect of the disappointment in the lottery system is that only 6 wards were dedicated to personal housing and we didn't find out about it till close to the patch going live, so people had even lower odds than they probably initially were hoping.

[EthanXdeath]

I didn't have any expectations of winning a house (surprise I didn't), but the lottery system actually let me engage in the housing system again which I hadn't done in years after getting relocated on multiple times while clicking signs. I had no expectations of it being anything than a band-aid for the jacked up system that SE has for housing, but it is still infinitely better for me than clicking a sign ever was. I think another aspect of the disappointment in the lottery system is that only 6 wards were dedicated to personal housing and we didn't find out about it till close to the patch going live, so people had even lower odds than they probably initially were hoping.

You're also on Gilgamesh one of the highest pop NA servers, and having been on Gilgamesh in the past and gotten a house there during ShB. Also having to deal with a particular person (shell fc owner) who at the time and probably still does, own an entire ward, on paper yes the lottery is more "fair". That said, I think a lot of people fail to realize making it more accessible in this way actually lowers your odds of winning a house more than ever (even without the FC/Personal split), but a vocal minority wanted this lottery system. The only thing they did correctly "sorta" is divide the wards into FC/Personals, the split obviously sucks and should have been flipped, but I that's beating a dead horse, I think everyone universally agrees 75% FC ward and 25% personal was a mistake/slap in the face/etc.

[Amenara]

You're also on Gilgamesh one of the highest pop NA servers, and having been on Gilgamesh in the past and gotten a house there during ShB. Also having to deal with a particular person (shell fc owner) who at the time and probably still does, own an entire ward, on paper yes the lottery is more "fair". That said, I think a lot of people fail to realize making it more accessible in this way actually lowers your odds of winning a house more than ever (even without the FC/Personal split), but a vocal minority wanted this lottery system. The only thing they did correctly "sorta" is divide the wards into FC/Personals, the split obviously sucks and should have been flipped, but I that's beating a dead horse, I think everyone universally agrees 75% FC ward and 25% personal was a mistake/slap in the face/etc.

The biggest reason I think it is more fair, especially on a big server like mine, is that if it were still FCFS my odds of winning a house were literally 0%. I worked the night of the patch release so I wouldn't have even been able to log on until 5 or 6 hours after the release, thus no chance at all at a house. Lottery let me have a shot which I wouldn't not have had if it wasn't there. I wasn't an advocate for changing the system initially because I had already disengaged from the system. At that point I was done spam clicking placards, but with the change to lottery it made me want to reengage with housing. As a side note, I think this is mostly an NA/EU issue as when I played on JP servers a couple years ago I had no problems just running up and grabbing a small plot. Maybe that has changed since then, but I really think the Devs are looking at this from a JP only perspective not realizing how bad housing is outside of that region. I think the rollout of housing in the Oceanic servers kind of backs up that thought as well.

About the FC ward issue, I agree, it was absolutely stupid especially to retroactively apply it to every other housing ward in the game. I'll leave it at that.

[Illmaeran]

As a side note, I think this is mostly an NA/EU issue as when I played on JP servers a couple years ago I had no problems just running up and grabbing a small plot. Maybe that has changed since then, but I really think the Devs are looking at this from a JP only perspective not realizing how bad housing is outside of that region. I think the rollout of housing in the Oceanic servers kind of backs up that thought as well.

We have housing shortage issues on JP servers too. Up through Stormblood it was relatively common to have a few plots here and there available at all times, at least on Atomos. Once the game started gaining more traction that changed, with the only plots available being the ones recently abandoned. Atomos is one of the lower population servers, globally, but even then there were always people clicking the placards....and the inevitable relocaters doing what they do. I spent the better portion of three days clicking placards and lost every one. From what I gather speaking with friends on Tonberry, the overwhelmingly highest-pop server on Elemental, getting a house "the old way" was essentially impossible barring 3rd party programs, macros, or just insane luck.

I highly doubt SE is ignorant of the issue on NA and EU servers, but they're sticking to their guns and doing it the way they want to. I expect that any FC plots not bought at the end of this round or the next will be opened to private owners. I also expect SE believes opening new servers to be enough to take the edge off.

Here's hoping against hope that Island Sanctuaries will eventually be upgraded to allow an actual, functional, personal house on them since they did mention plans for upgrading them over time. That would be the only way to ensure the entire player base has access to a house while also letting SE off the hook without having to come out, publicly apologize, and wipe the egg off their collective face.