Island Sanctuary is being discontinued?

[Iscah]

That was my point. It could’ve been good if they actually developed the concept, but instead we just got a boring sweatshop sim with some archaic material grinding stuff

It might be what you meant, but what you said was "if they continued developing it" which implies continuing on with what they have done so far instead of stopping it and moving to something else for Dawntrail.

I think it would be better to try and start fresh with a new spin on the idea, rather than try and pile on updates to the old Island Sanctuary location.

This. Island Sanctuary's issues are too deep-rooted in the core gameplay to get rid of them. The best course of action is going to be bringing it to a close, then starting fresh with a similar concept that avoids the less popular elements of what they did here.

[Striker44]

Because if they allowed instanced housing on the island, the money from subs due to forty five day log in or house go boom would drop to absolute zero and people could cancel their subs without fear of losing anything. Yoshi does not respect anyone's time except his own. As if IS was going to have housing.

So, you projected something onto IS that none of the dev team ever mentioned (it being instanced housing), then use your own projection out of thin air to portray the lead developer as the complete and utter opposite of what he's done. Real nice.

[Theodric]

So, you projected something onto IS that none of the dev team ever mentioned (it being instanced housing), then use your own projection out of thin air to portray the lead developer as the complete and utter opposite of what he's done. Real nice.

I don't think it's that unreasonable for the poster to do as much, especially when the lack of ready access to player housing has consistently been one of the biggest persistent complaints over the years. I'm lucky enough to own a large house myself, though many players I know are not so fortunate - and more than a few realised that there was a greater chance than not at failing to ever acquire a medium or a large house and so they simply quit the game altogether.

Then there's the simple fact that at least one other MMORPG - namely The Elder Scrolls Online - has a robust housing system that is not only account bound but doesn't lead players losing their homes if they decide to take a break for longer than a month and a half. As it happens, the game occasionally gives away unique houses for free. Some of which are fairly sizeable.

So I think that there's more that FFXIV could be doing on that particular front. If not through Island Sanctuary, then perhaps by expanding the apartment system to allow for larger abodes.

[ZephyrMenodora]

Then there's the simple fact that at least one other MMORPG - namely The Elder Scrolls Online - has a robust housing system that is not only account bound but doesn't lead players losing their homes if they decide to take a break for longer than a month and a half. As it happens, the game occasionally gives away unique houses for free. Some of which are fairly sizeable.

ESO also sells most of them only in the cash shop for $100+ USD. Add in all the cash-shop only furniture, some of them in loot boxes as well, and some people have spent THOUSANDS USD on that system...

[Atelier-Bagur]

ESO also sells most of them only in the cash shop for $100+ USD. Add in all the cash-shop only furniture, some of them in loot boxes as well, and some people have spent THOUSANDS USD on that system...

Its honestly how theyre able to make the housing so appealing in ESO. Because its incredibly monetized. Although I suppose it can be seen as a small price to pay in order to have an instanced house.

[Jojoya]

ESO also sells most of them only in the cash shop for $100+ USD. Add in all the cash-shop only furniture, some of them in loot boxes as well, and some people have spent THOUSANDS USD on that system...

So did RIFT but RIFT also had options to purchase Dimensions and upgrade most of them using the game's normal platinum currency. I never had to use real money to get anything for my Dimensions while I was playing.

If someone else wants to spend real money to shortcut their way into getting items that take some in-game effort to earn otherwise, I really don't care outside of items that come from the skill-based achievements. But then even those already have a thriving RMT underground in place to assist players in getting them.

There comes a point when you have to decide what you do in a game is for your own satisfaction and enjoyment, not to impress others. No one is going to be impressed that you have something if they also believe you paid someone else to get it instead of earning it as intended.

Its honestly how theyre able to make the housing so appealing in ESO. Because its incredibly monetized. Although I suppose it can be seen as a small price to pay in order to have an instanced house.

It's monetized because they know players will pay for it.

Considering a lot of the assets used for their housing are assets already created for other game play purposes, the monetization shouldn't be necessary for most of it. If something is unique to the housing system and does not otherwise exist in game for any other purpose, then I can see making it a microtransaction.

[Reap00]

Because if they allowed instanced housing on the island, the money from subs due to forty five day log in or house go boom would drop to absolute zero and people could cancel their subs without fear of losing anything. Yoshi does not respect anyone's time except his own. As if IS was going to have housing.

Garbage. If you want to stop playing the game why would you care or expect the game to hold a house for you till you get back. Entitled to the end, eh?

[Theodric]

ESO also sells most of them only in the cash shop for $100+ USD. Add in all the cash-shop only furniture, some of them in loot boxes as well, and some people have spent THOUSANDS USD on that system...

Right, though they're entirely optional and you can secure some pretty sizable homes simply by playing the game and never touching the cash shop in the first place.

Exclusive cosmetics are unfortunately just part of the industry as a whole at this point to the degree that even many single player/co-op games are indulging it. A few rare exceptions exist here and there but they seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

I fired up Dying Light 2 for the first time in months earlier today and discovered that there's now a new paid currency for cosmetics.

[Jojoya]

Garbage. If you want to stop playing the game why would you care or expect the game to hold a house for you till you get back. Entitled to the end, eh?

Not everyone stops playing a game with zero intention of returning. Sometimes it's real life causing conflicts and they'd still like to play again when those are resolved.

Under the limited ward system that FFXIV is currently using, it might feel like unreasonable entitlement.

In other MMORPGs with instanced housing, it's not. I stopped playing RIFT around 2017 (and stopped paying Trion real money before that) yet even now with Trion owned by Gamigo, I've been able to log into RIFT and visit my housing there. Everything was intact outside of some small changes to appearances because they adjusted how some of the items that leave visual special effects worked. I honestly didn't expect the housing to still be there - yet it was. I could also pop into a Dimension that was owned by one of my friends who also stopped playing RIFT without him being online (something we can't even do with Island Sanctuary).

Player housing doesn't have to be a punitive system for those who want to take breaks from a game, nor put newer players at a big disadvantage.

[Turtledeluxe]

Good. It is a bit of a flop. It was fun at first but as usual, the dev team can't allocate the resources to create new and unique rewards nor does it have any decent multiplayer component. The team needs to stop wasting time on things that don't have both.