Why FFXIV’s Housing System Is Failing Its Players, and Why It Must Change

[s32ialx]

Small corrections:
Snip

You're absolutely right that apartment buildings come with shared amenities like chocobo stables, summoning bells, and marketboards. But these are communal utilities, not customizable features. The stable outside an apartment building is not the same as owning one on your personal plot:

• You can’t decorate or place the stable yourself
• You can’t control access or personalize its use
• You can’t integrate it into your outdoor design

So while technically available, it’s a limited and impersonal version of what plot owners enjoy.

On FC Workshops and Instanced Housing

I agree that FC workshops are tied to FC plots, and private estates don’t have them. But that’s exactly the problem, access to workshops is locked behind housing scarcity. If instanced housing were implemented, it could easily include workshop access for FCs, with safeguards to prevent abuse.

As for the concern about RMT bots exploiting workshops: they already do. Bots farm gil through gathering, crafting, and even housing resale schemes. Denying legitimate players access to features out of fear of bot abuse is punishing the wrong group. The solution is better bot detection and moderation, not withholding content from the community.
Multiboxing bots bidding on houses, and then selling them.
Bots buying housing.

On Auto-Demolition and Player Requests

Yes, auto-demolition was introduced to free up inactive plots, but that doesn’t mean it’s fair or humane in its current form. Players asked for housing access, not punitive timers that erase thousands of hours of effort. And while you agree the possibility of requesting extensions, there is no formal system for this. GMs rarely intervene, and players facing medical emergencies or mental health crises are left with no recourse.

The system needs:

• A grace period for emergencies
• An opt-in preservation option
• A way to pause demolition for verified cases

This isn’t about entitlement, it’s about compassion.

Apartments and shared stables are better than nothing, but they’re not a substitute for true housing. And defending the current system by citing bot abuse or technical limitations only reinforces the need for a complete overhaul, one that prioritizes player well-being, creativity, and fairness.


I think we both want a better FFXIV, we just see different paths to get there, and to make it perfectly clear with your statement that you don't think FCs (or anyone, specially private estates) should be given a workshop for free. I don't recall saying any of this had to be free?