When will you really address the housing availability problem?

[Gyson]

First, let's be honest and admit that the true aim of housing reclamation is to encourage inactive players to resubscribe (a minimum of 5-6 months out of the year). And if their interest in FFXIV is rekindled during one of their brief visits to their homes, and they end up keeping their subscriptions renewed longer than that, well.. then all the better for Square Enix as a business. Right?

Common sense tells us the last thing SE wants is for those properties to actually go back on the market and switch hands, because that will mean:

1) they failed to entice an inactive player back.
2) there is little chance of ever enticing a now-disgruntled inactive player back once they've been booted out of their in-game home.

So, really, housing reclamation isn't about fixing issues with housing availability, it's about getting subscription fees from inactive players. Having said that, what are you're plans on actually addressing the lack of housing and when do you plan on implementing those plans?

I just don't understand why this isn't more of a priority for the developers. Would it not be better if you excited *every player* each time you released content for housing (whether it was updates or additions to housing-related mechanics, or housing items awarded during seasonal events, etc)? Instead, the only people who get excited are the few who own houses, and the rest just get more annoyed that you're spending time developing content for the minority who own property. How is that result more appealing to the development team?

Simply put, there should be more than enough housing available to cover every single player on a server, and you should stop pretending that every server needs the same number of neighborhood instances. Wanting to avoid "ghost towns" is a pointless concern because (despite the lack of housing) most neighborhoods are already "ghost towns". Thus, clearly the current plan of keeping property rare is doing nothing to prevent that result. And adding another set of wards to Ishgard (if that's ever going to happen) isn't going to be enough to satisfy demand.. not even close. All it will do is drive up the annoyance-levels on people who (once again) miss out.

Instead, there should be a property surplus, so players with enough gil can change their residence on a whim without stressing over finding another available plot of land. If you're looking for a way to get large amounts of gil flushed out of the economy, then look no further, because there are people who want to move but have nowhere to move to. Make it possible for them to do that by making more than enough property available.

Again, I just don't understand how this is still even an issue. Have you painted yourself into a corner code-wise? Is it just not technically feasible? You have so many mechanics tied to housing, and so much time invested into all that housing-related development, and yet for some insane reason you refuse to make it available to every player who has saved up enough gil to buy a home. It makes absolutely no sense at all. You could have a player-base full of happy home-owners, but instead you have a bunch of annoyed players who want to be home-owners yet can't be. How is this good for the health of your game/business?

Please do something to fix this. I *can not* believe this is still an issue after all this time.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

When? Never.

[Krazymagic]

I think the recent patch changes regarding housing were actually a step to help alleviate the problem. I don't think their intention with that change was to entice players back. They have acknowledged the problem and have said they plan to address it, and I think this was one common sense change to help move in that direction. I've seen other MMO's struggle with housing problems that stretched on for long periods. Usually its an issue of resources regarding their network infrastructure or storage. You have to be very mindful about how you expand or add additional loads to your system. Housing is often met with technical hurdles, due to the sheer volume of resources it demands. This is why I think you see many MMO's who have housing often have similar issues. They will often implement ways to ensure the housing that is in game is not sitting abandoned first, and I feel a good chunk of FFXIV's housing is presently in this abandoned state. The housing system needs to be efficient and have an automated wya of dealing with houses that are abandoned. My complaint with most developers is why such systems arent part of an initial housing system implementation. Imagine if this system had been in place since day 1. You would see a few houses opening up on a regular basis.

[Ibi]

When? Never.

This is, unfortunately, more or less accurate.

Though they've stated that they plan to add additional housing wards in Ishgard, shoehorning personal housing into the FC housing system (rather than following their initial intent of making it a separate system) pretty much guarantees that there will never be enough houses available for everyone who'd like one to have one.

[Kolaina]

more than enough housing available to cover every single player on a server

seriously though, have you considered what would have to be sacraficed to make this possible? screw dungeons, f' raids, no more story other than a link saying to read it on the web. FF housing simulator is all we'd have

[Colorful]

Instanced housing is now available on the Mog Station, purchase your own little plot of land and get your designer spirit out! Spent countless hours designing homes, invite friends for in-game celebrations, create wonderful exteriors, and have a blast with the new instanced housing!

$6.99 a month for each instanced home purchased.

I can see it happening...

[Gyson]

I think the recent patch changes regarding housing were actually a step to help alleviate the problem. I don't think their intention with that change was to entice players back. They have acknowledged the problem and have said they plan to address it, and I think this was one common sense change to help move in that direction. I've seen other MMO's struggle with housing problems that stretched on for long periods. Usually its an issue of resources regarding their network infrastructure or storage. You have to be very mindful about how you expand or add additional loads to your system. Housing is often met with technical hurdles, due to the sheer volume of resources it demands. This is why I think you see many MMO's who have housing often have similar issues. They will often implement ways to ensure the housing that is in game is not sitting abandoned first, and I feel a good chunk of FFXIV's housing is presently in this abandoned state. The housing system needs to be efficient and have an automated wya of dealing with houses that are abandoned. My complaint with most developers is why such systems arent part of an initial housing system implementation. Imagine if this system had been in place since day 1. You would see a few houses opening up on a regular basis.

I agree that it's a step, although I disagree with the optimism of how big a step it will be in alleviating the problem (as well as what the primary goal of housing reclamation is).

Let's just point out that there are 3 housing districts, each with 8 wards, and 60 plots per ward (that last number is including those in subdivisions). That's 1440 houses available on a server. Even if every single house becomes available (and it won't), my guild's population (which is not a huge guild, and the inactive members are cleared out regularly) makes up 9% of that number alone. All of them want a home, and there will not be enough homes available for every active player on the server relying on small fixes alone.

seriously though, have you considered what would have to be sacraficed to make this possible? screw dungeons, f' raids, no more story other than a link saying to read it on the web. FF housing simulator is all we'd have

Yes.. more instances of the existing wards. 8 copies of 3 housing districts is possible, but (example) 9 copies is not? I'm curious why you believe that will cost us all the items you listed above?

[Atoli]

Instanced housing is now available on the Mog Station, purchase your own little plot of land and get your designer spirit out! Spent countless hours designing homes, invite friends for in-game celebrations, create wonderful exteriors, and have a blast with the new instanced housing!
$6.99 a month for each instanced home purchased.

I'd buy it ._.
They got us so starved for housing plots already, I don't care what I have to do to get one. Murder my FC? Okay. Betray my Grand Company? Sure, why not. Sell my rl home to afford the FFXIV one? If you say so, SE.
At this point, as long as it's available in some shape or form, I'd even throw rl money at SE if it meant I can finally tend to my own garden =.=
God, I hate myself for this.

[Colorful]

I'd buy it ._.
They got us so starved for housing plots already, I don't care what I have to do to get one. Murder my FC? Okay. Betray my Grand Company? Sure, why not. Sell my rl home to afford the FFXIV one? If you say so, SE.
At this point, as long as it's available in some shape or form, I'd even throw rl money at SE if it meant I can finally tend to my own garden =.=
God, I hate myself for this.

I'd end up buying it too, and that's the problem. They wait for the frustrations of the playerbase to build up, and then bam! Here's some on the Mog Station for ya', who could resist? I hope Yoshida has a better sense of how not to fuck over his fan base though.

[Voltyblast]

Instanced housing is now available on the Mog Station, purchase your own little plot of land and get your designer spirit out! Spent countless hours designing homes, invite friends for in-game celebrations, create wonderful exteriors, and have a blast with the new instanced housing!

$6.99 a month for each instanced home purchased.

I can see it happening...

Pretty much what's going to happen in my opinion: I mean nobody can say anything against the mogstation without the usual "OH IT'S OPTIONAL, SO DON'T BUY IT!" retort. Well I suppose if the house comes out, you got that option too.

It's a bad option but hey, they can always NOT BUY IT!