Quote Originally Posted by Reinha View Post
It didn't have to be days long past. Ishgard release could have been first come first serve with lottery reserved for demolished plots. The upcoming housing release could have been first come first serve. Even assuming the player base has doubled in the past few years, it would still be a better system. Last time I raced to get a house I saw around 4-5 runners in the same subward. So now, that would be around 8-10 runners per 30 plots. Better than 10+ lottery tickets on every single plot. A nice little bonus back in the day was that you could get a house next to your spouse or your fc. Not anymore.

I said this lottery system would be bad and people argued with me multiple times.
FCFS gave an advantage to those that can login when the servers come up.
Placard spamming** gave an advantage to people that can dedicate hours of their life to spamming a placard against dozens of people probably using clicking bots (who also had a clear advantage).
Lottery doesn't give an advantage to anyone.

So, if you feel into the FCFS/Placard spamming groups, then from a completely self-centered standpoint, the lottery system is bad - for you.

However, on the whole, and for the rest of the playerbase - the lottery system is superior. It was never designed to resolve the housing shortage. It was designed to mitigate advantages for some and disadvantages for others.

** Placard spamming was really just lottery for those willing to stand there and click (or have a bot click) the placard. 100 people present at the placard? Probably a 1/100 chance of winning.