Housing Prices, less to do with combating RMT and more with Cost of Servers

[Zell]

I think the housing prices have caught the majority of the playerbase off guard. I know it came as a shock to our FC. We had raised 2.2 Million for a small/medium FC house. On Hyperion, a legacy server the prices are 20 million, 80 million, and 250 million respectively.


As much as I want to think this has to do with combating RMT, or more optimistically, making FCs earn a house that is going to be such a big part of the game, I've come to realization that it is likely something far more practical.

YoshiP, in one of his earlier live letters, indicated that there are parrallel instances set up for the number of plots currently available. As soon as those plots fill up, they will decide if and when to add more instances. Instances are located on a separate server. It all probably comes down to the fact that if housing would be available to ALL FCs, including ones that only have 10 members, then it would require the purchase and maintenance of hundreds of additional servers.

It's a dollars and sense issue I believe, which is sad because other games don't run into this issue. I never believed, until now, that housing would become an "elitist thing" that completely segregates the community.

Prices like this force everyone in the free company to give their last gil and to farm daily just to make the purchase price. If housing could not be something that was available to the majority, then maybe it should never have been introduced in the first place.

I'm a little disheartened by all this and I will not be spending 10 hours a day farming just to be able to contribute my portion. I'll do the best I can, but I know even if everyone else in my FC contributes, it will probable take us 6-9 months to get a small house and that's being optimistic. We were only able to raise 2.2 million in 4 months....

I really hope they see the outcry from the community and make some adjustments accordingly.

[Recon]

I agree, was extremely excited about 2.1, and oh god did my heart sink when I seen the prices. I kind of laughed at the same time, just because it seems so ridiculous.

I'm in a small FC which is mostly made up of members from a small gaming community, just a handful of people, and we won't even be able to get the very cheapest house for quite a while at current prices, which is 20 mil on Balmung. Sad part is, I played in 1.0, apparently I didn't play hard enough according to devs.

I totally get that it's supposed to be something earned, especially the big houses and prime land lots. But making money is very hard and time consuming, and not exactly fun or very interesting, at least not when you're going full tilt. Was having trouble keeping FC members active and interested at times, and my main selling point of housing coming soon just hit the fan. Theres a ton of content coming with 2.1, but god damn were the housing prices disappointing.