The Housing System In The Eyes Of A Newer Player

[Boblawblah]

Make every housing feature available for apartments. problem solved.

When people keep subs going solely to keep their house? good luck giving apartments similar functionality, the HOA would riot.

[Dhalya]

There are multiple things that if fixed/added, they would directly lower SE's profits. This is one of them, so I don't have high hopes.

- better instanced housing (people stop subbing for house)
- bettering inventory, adding separate ones for baits/mats, glam collection (people stop paying for retainers)
- faster msq quests or story skip for alt chars (they lose one of top selling items in the shop)

[Jeeqbit]

There are multiple things that if fixed/added, they would directly lower SE's profits.

Some other things that lower SE's profits:

• Making it extremely difficult to buy the game, easy to get it for the wrong platform etc.
• Making it so if you use visa debit or moved country, you can no longer play and won't be playing in Dawntrail...
• Constantly saying that taking a break to play other games is ok and encouraged.
• Not having lots of FOMO content that prevents you missing any time or you fall too far behind to possibly catch up.
• Not being free-to-play.
• Not being pay to win or selling everything obtainable in the game on the mog station.
• Not making it into a mobile MMORPG.

Because this game really isn't about making the most money possible for them, otherwise they'd obviously be looking at all these points. Making just a good game is more their interest. They have other departments that have been doing the above points instead (not that they've been any good at it).

[HappyHubris]

Imagine sitting at your computer/console for 12 hours straight (or longer if the system feels like it) doing nothing more than spamming a placard among 50 other people that want that same plot.

Wanna watch a show in the mean time or listen to a podcast? What if someone beats you to the click while you were pausing or changing the episode? Are you gonna risk it? Need to get food? Are you gonna risk going to the bathroom now? You wanna sleep? Someone else is gonna snatch your chance at the house, and don't forget you've already invested 8 hours into clicking. You're not gonna quit now, are you?

Then you lose anyway cause a bot was clicking 5 times faster than you ever could. Better go find a new plot to do it all over again.

Just the fact that you can do literally ANYTHING ELSE with your time while the lotto is running makes the new system better. They're both coin tosses, but only the old system literally chained you to your PC/Console while you were tossing that coin for 12 hours straight. So... don't get me wrong: The lotto system is far from being a solution to the housing problem, but placard spamming was way WAY worse.

But the underlying problem is a finite amount of housing for players, and the mechanisms to distribute are only different levels of pain. The solution is much more housing, until you don't need painful systems to distribute.

Interestingly, this is exactly what happens in cities with insufficient housing supplies and rent control. In some countries you queue up when you turn 18 and then wait many years.

[Aneshda]

SE could make so much Money, by selling House Designs in the Item Shop, for Private Instanced Housing. Just like EverQuest II or The Elder Scrolls Online does. Houses that a Player will never lose until the Game shuts down one day. By that Way, a Player could own Multiple Houses. SE could even design Furniture & many other Items for the Item Shop. Maybe they could even Design Trunks in that Players could store their Stuff, extra Storage and not only Retainers. So many missed opportunities.

[Vhel]

I’m still confused if it’s one per account why my alt can’t share the house, ever said why we can’t do this?

First time post, but the housing thing has been on my mind.

[Araxes]

Ahhh.. the times when you could just walk up to a empty House and buy it. I never had any trouble finding a House... but back then the Game did not nearly have as much players as it has now.

Another issue is that people stack on the same huge worlds/servers while others become wastelands. I switched from Shiva to Zodiark many years ago due to being stalked and Zodiark was a empty Server back then. Even Medium Houses were regularly free (small houses still are). I have my Medium House for like 5 years now?

I suggest switching to a more empty Home server if you really want a House. You can still server hop and play there if you wish.

[PercibelTheren]

Too many people want a large/medium only.
At least it seems that way on Chaos/Light DC, the nearby small plots that I live near haven't been bought for well over a year now, however I am in the goblet and from what I hear it's the least desired place to have a house for some.

The lotto system isn't 'better' than how it was in the past, but it's more healthy for how players can approach it and not risk their health and comfort for some pixels.
I say this as someone who did spend hours and hours without rest interacting with placards.

Yeah, there is very little demand for Smalls and honestly, no wonder. You just really can't fit all that much into them and their gardens are pretty tiny. In every housing ward I look at, Medium/Large houses are taken and there are plenty of free Smalls because nobody wants them. Which is why it would be best if they just sold plots and we could upgrade them with gil and/or supplying materials. That way everyone would be happy.

[Kaixern]

Yeah, there is very little demand for Smalls and honestly, no wonder. You just really can't fit all that much into them and their gardens are pretty tiny. In every housing ward I look at, Medium/Large houses are taken and there are plenty of free Smalls because nobody wants them. Which is why it would be best if they just sold plots and we could upgrade them with gil and/or supplying materials. That way everyone would be happy.

I also agree with the idea of upgradable plots.
(Of course i have no idea how much strain it could maybe cause on the servers / when it comes to coding and how they could "reworks" the plots so these could potentialy change in the future to Large house, but i find the idea intersting due to the simple idea of an "evolving" house)

[Khryseis_Astra]

The ward housing system is holding them back in so many ways. There are so many cool places throughout the game and its expansions where they could add some really creative instanced housing. Personally, I'd love my own sky pirate base in the Sea of Clouds like the one from the HW alliance raid quests or my own wing of the Il Mheg castle so I can spend more time near my most wonderful branch. Heck, if they wanted to charge for it, I'd rather spend $2 a month extra for that than for a retainer any day.

Other games do have a lot more options that I’d love to see brought to Eorzea! I’d personally like a little cabin in the Dravinian Hinterlands, or a plot off the coast of Old Sharlayan.

As far as payment though, as much as I’d be willing at this point, I think with an instanced system, at least the first “basic” home per account should be free. (If not all, but I get companies want to monetize things…) By that, I mean exactly equivalent to a ward plot, of any size, because the ward owners don’t have to pay any extra for theirs, and the whole point of this is so everyone can have an equivalent housing option.

Looking at ESO as a comparison, since someone mentioned it, there are a wide variety of small to medium homes in all different styles, from things that look like an actual house, to a campground, to a townhouse with a courtyard or just small inn rooms. The variety is amazing. Then you get into the large, elaborate, sprawling estates with multiple buildings… most of the stuff on the lower end of the scale can be bought with in-game currency, while the higher tier places can require the purchase of their crowns currency. (Which I think can also be earned and saved up, as well as bought outright.)

Now here’s the thing, since we’re talking about how much things would cost… ESO gets fairly criticized for the housing system being monetized. But they also don’t require a monthly subscription, so the cash shop is what supports them. Since we do pay a monthly sub, I would say it’s more than reasonable to give us a wide variety of basic instanced housing options included in our sub, and if they want to put ultra fancy versions on mogstation, fine, but that should be a one-time cost, not a recurring payment.