The Housing problem and my proposed solution

[JeniLinsky]

As far as I can tell, the only advantage that the current housing system has over FFXI's mog houses is the outdoor / gardening stuff. If I don't actually care about outdoor furniture, and don't really care about gardening, can I have my mog house back, pretty please?

[FoxyAreku]

So instead of people getting a house, they just get a customizable inn room? Am I understanding this correctly?

Because if so that's terrible. Having a room isn't near as fun as a whole house, and I'd certainly never trade my personal house for a room.

As far as I can tell, the only advantage that the current housing system has over FFXI's mog houses is the outdoor / gardening stuff. If I don't actually care about outdoor furniture, and don't really care about gardening, can I have my mog house back, pretty please?

The advantage is it not being instanced. The neighborhood feel is very nice.

[Naunet]

The advantage is it not being instanced. The neighborhood feel is very nice.

Instanced housing + voluntary linking of homes to create neighborhoods... it's been done before.

That is what Wildstar does. You csn set access to private, friends, neighbors, or public.
Neighbors is determined in some method I'm not knowledgeable on.

Everyone gets a plot at level 14 (of 50), for free, and you have to buy the building, furniture, trees/landscaping. But the basic buildings are cheap.

Neighbor status is basically an invite status. You can also set people as "roommate", which lets them edit the housing plot.

Honestly, WS's housing system is the best out there. More MMOs could stand to emulate it.

Obviously tou never played Wilsstar.
Hint: the housing deaign community is larger than the raiding community.

Indeed. If the housing system is good enough, a community will form around it. It's one of the biggest communities in the entire game in WildStar.

[Kosmos992k]

Indeed. If the housing system is good enough, a community will form around it. It's one of the biggest communities in the entire game in WildStar.

Not to pick on you specifically, as there are many, many posters who do this, but.... Do you think one day it will be possible for people to discuss aspects of this game (FFXIV), without referring to other games as a reference point? I mean, other than people who have played whichever game you reference, no one knows what you're talking about. Perhaps it would be more helpful to describe what you want them to do instead of simply saying "But, <insert other game name here> does it better...".

[Naunet]

Not to pick on you specifically, as there are many, many posters who do this, but.... Do you think one day it will be possible for people to discuss aspects of this game (FFXIV), without referring to other games as a reference point? I mean, other than people who have played whichever game you reference, no one knows what you're talking about. Perhaps it would be more helpful to describe what you want them to do instead of simply saying "But, <insert other game name here> does it better...".

Don't worry about "picking on". xD I've described it quite a few times, but to clarify: In WildStar, the housing system works as individual plots in their own instances. Each plot has an exterior (currently with an item limit of 1,000, though in the next patch that limit will be going up to 2,500), and you can choose to place a house if you want that has a separate interior (with its own item limit of 1,000, soon to be 2,500).

Housing plots can be set as private, neighbor-only, or public. (Neighbors are basically people you grant special invite access to.) You can customize the ground, the skybox, the exterior and interior of the house, and the lighting inside, as well as the music that plays (can be different exterior and interior). With the large item limits and robust decor placement (you can manipulate an item on XYZ axes, as well as resize it), you can pretty much create anything you can dream of. There are also pre-arranged "fabkits" that you can plug into slots on the plot, many of which come with interactive challenges or even scalable instances. A future incoming feature is "neighborhoods", where players will be able to link up multiple plots to create one massive... well, neighborhood.

It's hard to fully describe the level of customization and how absurdly awesome the housing community is. xD Google up some housing plots if you wanna see what people can do with a housing system that actually works for them, instead of something that... does the exact opposite, as we have here in FFXIV.