Potential Housing Crisis Fix (Includes ability for permanent Housing (Sm, Med, Lrg)

[s32ialx]

Bumping the thread doesn’t make the suggestions any fairer, and it still ignores a key reality: FFXIV housing isn’t a brand-new system like WoW’s.

WoW can design housing from scratch, rules, plots, and mechanics, without upsetting existing players. FFXIV has years of legacy systems, with established wards, player homes, FC ownership, decorations, and social/community investments. You can’t just swap it all for instanced housing and magically solve every issue.

Removing demo timers, giving everyone instanced housing, or retroactively replacing plots ignores these realities and creates new problems for current owners. Housing isn’t zero-friction, it’s inherently a balancing act between access, ownership, social visibility, and choice.

Focusing on trade-offs and practical improvements is the only way to have a productive discussion. Everything else just adds noise.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying SE shouldn’t make changes. I’m just saying crying victim about it without providing real, fair, and feasible solutions is not the most productive thing to do especially considering we have multiple housing threads all with the same individuals who refuse to see the other side.

There is no one true solution to FFXIV housing, and no matter what SE decides, some people are going to be unhappy. Maybe instead of dogpiling each other from opposite sides, we can acknowledge the system is flawed and that we don’t actually know how to fix it. None of the suggestions in the other thread are truly fair, every proposal comes with trade-offs, and pretending otherwise isn’t productive.

I've already provided a feasible solution, one that works within existing systems and doesn't require tearing down legacy infrastructure. Whether Square Enix chooses to invest in meaningful improvements or continues relying on "break glass in case of emergency" patches like the glamour dresser update is entirely on them.

Players aren't the ones letting the game stagnate while the cash shop expands. We're not the ones prioritizing monetization over core system fixes. If SE keeps adding more "give us money" items while housing, UI, and retention systems degrade, that's not a player failure, that's a development and funding decision.

And it's not just housing. They keep advertising to hire dungeon designers and developers, only to funnel them into producing the same mechanically shallow, corridor-style dungeons we've seen for years. Then when players inevitably criticize the "new" dungeon for being the same old recycled format, those hires quietly disappear. It's a cycle of design stagnation followed by scapegoating, not innovation.

The community has offered viable, technically sound proposals. If they're ignored, that's not because they're unrealistic, it's because SE hasn't committed to solving the underlying problems. The burden isn't on players to fix the game. It's on the studio to stop patching symptoms and start funding solutions.

[Nyastra]

I've already provided a feasible solution, one that works within existing systems and doesn't require tearing down legacy infrastructure.

The disconnect here is between “this sounds feasible to me as a player” and “this is fair, scalable, and sustainable for the game as a whole.” Those are not the same thing.

Simply asserting that a proposal is feasible doesn’t make it fair or consequence-free. Players aren’t responsible for maintaining parity between millions of users, preserving years of legacy investment, or balancing technical debt with long-term support. Square Enix is. That distinction matters.

FFXIV housing is a decade-old, persistent, social system with wards, FC ownership, RP communities, and significant player investment. Change in FFXIV creates ripple effects: perceived value differences, size parity, pricing expectations, demolition rules, and social visibility between systems.

Yes, instanced or condo-style housing could alleviate some issues. I’ve said that consistently.

Players can have 1 FC house, 1 FC Chamber, 1 Personal House, 1 Apartment. Will players be allowed 1 instanced condo? Or would they have to give up something.

In a game where fairness is constantly debated, it’s odd to suddenly argue housing should be exempt from those expectations. FFXIV is built around perceived equity and earned progression. I can’t just buy the Pteranodon mount, I have to craft for it. Even if it’s easier now, there’s still baseline effort involved. When that principle is ignored, players get upset, we’ve seen that repeatedly.

That’s the core housing issue: how do we improve access while respecting existing investment, social systems, and effort?

For example:
Add instanced housing
Extend demolition timers
Keep gil costs consistent

Is that fair? Yes and no, because it devalues location, scarcity, or long-term ownership. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. It means it has consequences.

There is no version of housing where everyone is happy. That doesn’t mean change shouldn’t happen. It means pretending there’s a zero-conflict solution isn’t productive.

I’m not white-knighting for the developers, but “here’s a problem, fix it” isn’t how live MMO development works. Declaring a proposal “feasible” doesn’t answer whether it can be implemented without disrupting progression, fairness expectations, server load, social structures, or years of player investment. That’s the part players don’t have to solve. Developers do.

Acknowledging constraints isn’t defending stagnation. It’s recognizing that housing touches gil sinks, retention, RP communities, FC structures, and long-term ownership. If a proposal can’t clearly explain who benefits, who loses, and why that trade-off is acceptable, then it isn’t a finished solution, it’s a wishlist.

Criticizing SE for slow or incremental change is fair. Claiming there’s a zero-cost, zero-conflict fix they’re simply choosing not to implement is not.