Social interactions suffer for lack of demolition of apartments

[Illmaeran]

The issue: Apartment buildings are a ghost town where majority of players doesn't play - not even speaking about someone actively visiting the place.

The simple fix would be to introduce demolitions

No. Apartments should never be subject to demolition.

If you want social interaction in your apartment or house, create it. It's really very easy using the party finder.

Description: World, Ward, Plot/Apartment, subdivision or not, room # [activities]

Example 1 (house): Balmung Mist W24 P2 Hang out, relax, chat, etc

Example 2 (apartment): Balmung LB W24 LH sub R15 Hang out, relax, chat, etc

Example 3 (FC room): Balmung LB W24 P17 R10 Hang out, relax, chat, etc


All you have to do is wait for people to show up after that.

[Nepentha]

The issue: Apartment buildings are a ghost town where majority of players doesn't play - not even speaking about someone actively visiting the place.

The cause: Apartments are not subjected to demolition.

The simple fix would be to introduce demolitions, but considering it's drastic I propose to relocate inactive apartments to back-up server freeing up the space for active players while making it possible for returned players to restore the apartment somewhere else.

Absolutely not. Apartments are the one thing players can expect to return to, which they were specifically designed for. That is: Not to demolish with inactivity.

[Avoidy]

Are we still pretending there is a prominent social aspect to housing to justify its arbitrary scarcity?

Yes it's just another day in the housing forum.

[Jojoya]

Are we still pretending there is a prominent social aspect to housing to justify its arbitrary scarcity?

There is a social aspect to housing though I wouldn't call it prominent.

The last thing it does is justify scarcity. Scarcity doesn't drive socialization. It drives elitism, dissatisfaction and bitterness.

Apartments are sort of on the right track when it comes to what would improve the housing experience. You have a larger number of players (up to 90) filtering through the same entry spot, which increases random encounters between players. Compare that to a house where the number of players filtering through the entry spot depend on how many players are tenants of the house. For the majority of houses right now, that number is one.

So combine that aspect of apartments with a ward layout but for houses instead of apartments. Let each plot placard represent the entrance to 20 or more different houses. There would be a lot more activity in the common area outside of each house plot to fuel social encounters.

When it comes to creating a social neighborhood environment within the wards, possibly the biggest mistake SE made was allowing each house to have it's own Miniature Aetheryte and placing an Aethernet system. Because we have almost no need to travel within a ward, we lose out on what helps to make real life neighborhoods feel populated - foot and vehicle traffic.

[Faida]

Social interaction can't be forced. The world climate is far too volatile, culturally and socially which certainly has an effect on player base. It's only natural that it would. People seem much more introverted now. Prefer their own spaces. I've been in a few FC's with 300+ unique players and only maybe 10 or less of the same people type in chat daily and even fewer ever speak in discord.

Perhaps those that are RP'rs have different experiences with housing only because they are actively seeking a particular interaction? I've never seen a housing ward very active, bar the few times PvP events were happening cross server and someone would host at their mansion.

I really like what Jojoya has had to say. Always seems to be on the true pulse of the matter and I do hope SE reads what they post.

This part especially; "Scarcity doesn't drive socialization. It drives elitism, dissatisfaction and bitterness" --- That is what I always thought Yoshi was trying to eliminate in the game.

[GeminiReed]

When it comes to creating a social neighborhood environment within the wards, possibly the biggest mistake SE made was allowing each house to have it's own Miniature Aetheryte and placing an Aethernet system. Because we have almost no need to travel within a ward, we lose out on what helps to make real life neighborhoods feel populated - foot and vehicle traffic.

Hard disagree. Wards never had a chance to be the social hotspot that Limsa is. There are too many settlements, wards, and subdivisions for that to be true and wards are missing several of the convenience features that make Limsa the go to place. Not having that basic QoL would have done very little to help and would have made the wards feel even worse than they are now.

[Jojoya]

Hard disagree. Wards never had a chance to be the social hotspot that Limsa is. There are too many settlements, wards, and subdivisions for that to be true and wards are missing several of the convenience features that make Limsa the go to place. Not having that basic QoL would have done very little to help and would have made the wards feel even worse than they are now.

I agree that wards would never be a social area on the scale of Limsa but then Limsa isn't akin to a neighborhood - it's akin to an old town style market center with street performers entertaining people as they come and go.

It doesn't change that players having to walk through wards to get places would have better replicated a neighborhood environment regardless of the QoL issue. It's just another example of why wards fail when it comes to what SE was presumably trying to achieve with them.