Why the housing system makes people quit and possibly not come back

[Eyrilona]

housing system is ok, however grandfathering should be dealt with.

I dare say, the sheer volume of complaints about it, both the emotionally charged and the very reasonably argued, strongly suggests the housing system is not okay, actually.

[EchoingPulse]

housing system is ok, however grandfathering should be dealt with.

What is house grandfathering exactly? I have an idea, but I should ask for clarity.

[Jeeqbit]

after realizing what a huge loss it was, it made me hesitant to come back to playing FFXIV

Have heard that sort of story before.

If this was done to prevent RMT housing resale, it has not done the job, because it's easily circumvented with guild transferring FC homes.

The RNG was to prevent player resale, not necessarily RMT resale. The player was supposed to relinquish their house when finished with it, not "sell the plot" for gil.

The lottery was because the random timer was camped with auto-click software so those with the most time available or clicking faster got the plots. The lottery prevents this and makes the chance equal for all players, regardless of how casual they are.

The only thing this lottery system does is slow down the progress of players being able to attain a pretty major goal of this game

It's not really the lottery system but rather the total amount of houses available in general. I think part of how they solve it is to create new worlds and data centers, but people are reluctant to leave their homeworlds.

The fact that housing gets destroyed if you're not on to keep it claimed, and the already limited system that it's based on, seems like an almost predatory way to keep you playing

That is not the reason. The reason is because active players feel it's "unfair" that people who are not playing take up plots. Imagine if someone has not played for 5 years and is taking a plot that an active player could be using? SE is merely trying to make those players feel that their activity is prioritized by the system.

[DemiBajamut]

I agree, the housing system is awful. I rarely, if ever, see neighbors in my ward, and I tend to hang out in my yard most of the time because I like looking at the yard I created. But I would be much happier with an instanced house where I had more space and slots to decorate because I currently own a small plot. Them using the excuse of not adding instanced housing because it would ruin the neighborhood feel is complete BS, because you can't ruin something that doesn't even exist in the first place. It makes me impressed at other games and sad at this game whenever I see how other MMOs handle their housing much better. What is the point of wards if the only people visiting your house will be your own friends once in awhile? I admit I have little to no desire to visit my neighbors either, because there's just so many houses in a ward and I just don't care to visit houses where their owners might not even be present.

Also another point I want to make, why are some plots designed to be really garbage? There are a lot of plots with bad views or just straight up feel like you live in some butler's quarters shed next to a mansion. Why should we have to settle for ugly house locations if we even want a house in the first place? You would think the savior of the damn world would get their own personal house/mansion that's isolated from other people so they can relax and enjoy themselves after adventuring, as a generous gift from the leaders of city states we saved/liberated. Perhaps we could finally get an update to Grand Companies where we can achieve the final rank, and in doing so unlock an instanced house for our service?

[Eyrilona]

That is not the reason. The reason is because active players feel it's "unfair" that people who are not playing take up plots. Imagine if someone has not played for 5 years and is taking a plot that an active player could be using? SE is merely trying to make those players feel that their activity is prioritized by the system.

At risk of sounding like a broken record, but that is another problem/solution situation that would be better served by a proper instanced housing system. They wouldn't even need to come up with it, by the Twelve, please let them just look at any of a whole laundry list of other games that have this solved and copy what they do.

[NegativeS]

What is house grandfathering exactly? I have an idea, but I should ask for clarity.

A while ago they made it so players/FCs were only allowed to own one property. However, players who already owned multiple were still allowed to own them. These multi-landowning players and their plots of land are what was grandfathered in.

Dumbest garbage of all time, by the way. Any humane game dev would just take their stuff, throw them a few million gil for the inconvenience, and send them on their way so everyone is on an even playing field. But Square wouldn't do that, because the people still owning their multiple plots of land have been playing and paying their sub nonstop since the change was made...

[Serilyn]

Between the artificial scarcity of housing, the difficulty getting them (whether it be plain having to wait til someone demolishes, to placard clicking and random timers, to the lottery), needing to be subbed and enter every 45 days to keep them (and the game giving nothing like a popup when the timer is running out, just a little notification hidden on the second tab of the timers menu), stingy item limits (especially outside), and the downright frustrating system of actual decorating that half the time requires ridiculous glitching to do... I just feel like the whole housing system is in dire need of a bit of an overhaul.

I lost my personal house that I'd had for a couple of years several months ago because I had a lot going on in my life and plain forgot to actually enter it. It was disappointing, but also meant when I played Dawntrail and was unhappy with it I found it easier to make the decision to just unsub. I am largely the one keeping my FCs house going as I logged in the most regularly, so that is likely to end up getting demolished and I don't mind now. I transferred all my mains decorations to an apartment and have done the same with the FCs decorations for an alt.

Instanced housing would be great, especially as they keep giving us outdoor decos as rewards in events which those without housing can't do anything with. It would be especially nice for FCs so they could access things like airships and submarines with an instanced house. Ideally the non-instanced wards should just be for people who actually want them, that way there would be less of them, but you'd likely end up with more of a community because those that are there would want to be around others. But they had a chance to do instanced stuff with IS and didn't, even the outdoor decorations can't actually be stored there. And they make money off people being afraid to unsub and lose their house. So I don't think its going to happen.

[NegativeS]

You've got this a bit wrong. You can own a total of 40 FC houses on a single account, so it's very likely they're paying 1 sub for 40 smalls over on Dynamis or something. You can get all 40 FCs onto a single account, today, and right now, so removing the grandfathering won't do anything. This is something Square knows about and allows.

On a related note, Smalls are pretty easy to get. There were 6 smalls with 0 or 1 entrants on Seraph this week. Someone said they've been trying for a house for years. Well, that person could have had 1 this week.

I am a Sertified Seraph Small owner, and yeah there are still tons of them here.

(doesnt mean the housing system isnt dog though)

[luckylefty]

That is not the reason. The reason is because active players feel it's "unfair" that people who are not playing take up plots. Imagine if someone has not played for 5 years and is taking a plot that an active player could be using? SE is merely trying to make those players feel that their activity is prioritized by the system.

The fact that they even need to prioritize players who all pay the same subscription fee, is something that's unsound about the housing system. Once again, their prioritization comes from their self created problem of synthetic housing scarcity which was my original point.

[Saraide]

Island sanctuary should have been developed into instanced housing.