An FFXIV house should be treated like a pet.

[Avoidy]

I used to go on housing tours with friends. We'd roam around the wards just looking at what other, luckier people had done with the homes they were fortunate enough to obtain.
I had to stop because 98% of these homes were decorated like baby's first apartment, and the bitterness was beginning to compound. Literally for every 1 home that had even an ounce of basic creative thought, there would be two dozen homes that were just a futon, a wall partition tossed without care in the middle of the room, and maybe a kitchen unit or an npc. It seriously sucks to see. I know I can't control how people decorate their homes, but I can have thoughts on it and my thoughts are that all these "muh neighborhood" people should get a neighborhood homeowners association that rolls around every couple of weeks to board up abandoned homes and resell them to people who actually play the game.

Realistically though, more houses is obviously the answer. Whether it's more wards or instanced, I don't personally care. I think the current neighborhoods are worthless though.

[Solarra]

OP I do get what you are saying. I love housing and will happily spend hours decorating, but when I go looking for inspiration around the wards, I too can see that a lot of houses haven't been given much love and attention. Since I have friends who have lost every round of the lottery but who would absolutely love a personal house to decorate, it makes me sad to see that.

I think Jojoya's post above probably best sums up why people are keen to acquire and hang onto houses they don't really want. In a situation where there is a shortage, it's human instinct to hoard. Until something is done to address the shortage, I think we're going to see a lot of houses that are acquired and then held 'just in case'.

To be honest, I don't think the wards are ever going to feel populated or bustling. People gravitate to the city centres if they want to socialise. There is no reason for most players to ever visit the wards unless they own a house or wish to buy.
Even if a house owner spent 2 hours a day at their house (unlikely it would be that much), that would still be 22 hours spent elsewhere.

[Jojoya]

Hey all. I might have badly expressed myself. The point of my post wasn't to police how people use their house. Maybe "treated" wasn't the right word.

I was ranting on how most people who get houses end up not doing much with it, which is just a waste.

It also ends up making wards feel deserted, which is a depressing thing to see. No one wants to hang around empty suburbs. Better to chill in populated cities where things are lively.

Wards feel deserted because in a way they are, even though the houses are used.

It's pretty hard to get 30 random players who live in different parts of the world and have different life schedules to be online and in the same place at the same time in a game that's online 24/7 and has lots of content choices - 99% of which occur outside of the housing wards.

Next time your standing outside of your house, do a generic player search and see how many players are listed as being in your housing district (the district itself, not in "Private Cottage/House/Mansion"). Then divide that number by 48. The result is how many players, including you, might be in your ward at that moment.

Example now we're entering NA prime time: I'm at my FC's house in Empyreum. If I do the player search, I get 91 results back for Empyreum. That means if I got really lucky I might be able to run into one other person in my ward. Even that's unlikely considering several of the players listed belong to larger FCs with their houses in other wards.

[Battler-Ushiromiya]

We'd roam around the wards just looking at what other, luckier people had done with the homes they were fortunate enough to obtain.
I had to stop because 98% of these homes were decorated like baby's first apartment, and the bitterness was beginning to compound.

There is more to life than an ffxiv house friend

[Jojoya]

There is more to life than an ffxiv house friend

Yet it is still frustrating for those that want to actively participate in a specific part of the game's content and have been locked out due to bad system design while others have gotten lucky and do get to participate.

[Besame]

I never see or hear from neighbors, just the VERY occasional wanderer pops in and sometimes leaves a message. This includes my FC and personal house. Take care of my house? I keep it nicely furnished and spend time in it daily so don't push it hehe.

[Mimilu]

I used to go on housing tours with friends. We'd roam around the wards just looking at what other, luckier people had done with the homes they were fortunate enough to obtain.
I had to stop because 98% of these homes were decorated like baby's first apartment, and the bitterness was beginning to compound. Literally for every 1 home that had even an ounce of basic creative thought, there would be two dozen homes that were just a futon, a wall partition tossed without care in the middle of the room, and maybe a kitchen unit or an npc.

I can at least respect the "baby's first apartment" looks because there was an attempt at decorating. ｡ﾟ(TヮT)ﾟ｡
I think a lot of first-time home buyers who get houses to try and decorate them don't realize how much finagling with the system it takes to get even some of the more "basic", zhuzhed up rooms/homes. The gil cost is also not a laughing matter either for those who don't/haven't played enough to have a steady stream of gil. These kinds of things can really deflate someone's creative drive.
I don't blame anyone for using third-party tools to try and make the house-decorating system actual work for them. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[Petite]

Literally for every 1 home that had even an ounce of basic creative thought, there would be two dozen homes that were just a futon, a wall partition tossed without care in the middle of the room, and maybe a kitchen unit or an npc. It seriously sucks to see.

That's another thing. The grand majority of players spit on the idea of owning an appartment, yet most wouldn't even be able to decorate one decently. Rooms and appartments are great ways to test if you're really up to owning a plot.

Anyways. At this point, I think the only way to make wards feel lived-in would be to make housing exclusive to FCs. Wards are so desolate, they might as well implement instanced housing because the result would be the same.

[Mimilu]

Anyways. At this point, I think the only way to make wards feel lived-in would be to make housing exclusive to FCs. Wards are so desolate, they might as well implement instanced housing because the result would be the same.

How would making housing FC only make wards feel more lived in? (●´o｀● )ゞ ~?
People would still AFK in Limsa or the occasional other cities or end-game hubs because of convenience and the social experience. You would either have to incentivize people to stay in the wards or de-incentivize them from the cities.
(@ﾟﾍﾟ@)

[Nepentha]

Why does this sound so much like 'I don't approve of how you use your house so I think it should be taken away from you.'?