housing conundrum: there needs to be a better way.

[Jojoya]

I am with OP on that part tho, switching servers isn't the solution. If you do that you just trade one part of the game (FC with irl friends) for another part of the game. (Housing)

When it comes to the housing system, it is a matter of prestige tho. Especially for the asian players. JP is happy with the system and as long as this is the case SE will not make major changes because we are not their native playerbase. It is the same reason why we will never see region travel, because JP absolutely hates the idea of having to deal with the NA culture. If you think for a moment that they go against their own peoples wishes then you are at best delusional.

So housing will always be a matter of prestige when it comes to the wards, maybe tho they will please the western audience with some limited instanced housing on the island or the new world. Island Sanctuary looked like a dip into the idea of instanced housing, we will see where it leads.

Then SE should double down up the prestige side of the game and be very specific in telling Western audiences what they're getting into. They need to stop adding wards and new housing districts so players are stuck fighting over what few houses are there. Adding more just lowers the presumed prestige of it. No reason to worry about supply as the player base grows since it's a prestige thing and they do not want to allow everyone who wants a house to have one.

To me, it's idiocy to base prestige on RNG luck over effort and merit.

It seems bizarre that SE decided housing should be the prestige system for the game but if JP is different then JP is different.

That's what I've been saying for quite a while, and I got attacked for it multiple times, for a lot of people (me included), housing is prestige, especially select "popular" plots, on JP it's a normal thing, but on EU/NA it's like being the big bad evil that doesnt want people to have houses

Probably because NA and EU see enough of the homeless problem in the real world and don't want to bring that into the games they play.

Part of the attraction of role-playing games is wish fulfillment and getting things that you can't have in real life. Remove the wish fulfillment and there's suddenly a lot less reason to play for many people.

How ironic that the game revolves around the player being a celebrated Warrior of Light who has saved the world yet that world singing the Warrior's praises doesn't give enough of a damn about them to help them get a decent house to live in. I wonder if that's how JP treats its real life heroes as well.