When will you really address the housing availability problem?

[Khalithar]

Snip

He's right though, there should be. There are MMO's out there that took the time to make sure every player can get their own instanced housing, some older than XIV and some younger. The neighborhood system was a bad idea and not one I see SE fixing any time soon unfortunately. Granted, just because other MMO's do something doesn't mean this one should, but if another is doing something smart it should be implemented. In this case, housing for every player should be the expectation.

[SendohJin]

The neighborhood system was a bad idea and not one I see SE fixing any time soon unfortunately.

the system itself is not a bad idea. the implementation of mixing it with Personal Housing is a bad idea. the neighborhoods should have been FC only and they should've taken steps against multiple FC houses on the same server on the same account. in that situation 1k plots is more than enough for any server.

player housing should be instanced but it's too late now.

[FoxyAreku]

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?

Incorrect. If a player is gone for good, the chance of losing a house isn't going to make them come back.

[loreleidiangelo]

The fact that reclamation is a scant 45 days rather than 60 or 90 is what leads me to believe that this is a stranglehold on subs, rather than any attempt to "fix" the housing system.

I'm pretty sure at this point that the devs have just thrown up their hands about it and will just keep trickling out new wards and putting tighter impositions on reclamation in the hopes of "rotating" home ownership enough so that the players are moderately happy and just assume that that's enough.

[Twilite]

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.

Perfect World would love a player like you.

[Gyson]

the system itself is not a bad idea. the implementation of mixing it with Personal Housing is a bad idea. the neighborhoods should have been FC only and they should've taken steps against multiple FC houses on the same server on the same account. in that situation 1k plots is more than enough for any server.

player housing should be instanced but it's too late now.

I actually like that personal houses have a physical space in an instanced neighborhood. I would not want to see them turned into the equivalent of instanced inn/private chambers. Besides, the space in those small homes are barely reasonable for a single owner (or couple). I don't think most guilds even want them, save for the fact that the either have no other choice, or want access to housing features (at which point it might as well just be a menu interface for all the actual use a physical location will get).

Honestly, if it were up to me personal homes (and not just guilds) would also have access to private chambers within homes to uses as additional decorating space, but that's another discussion.

Incorrect. If a player is gone for good, the chance of losing a house isn't going to make them come back.

Many players don't know when they're "gone for good", only when they're going to be gone long enough to justify no longer paying a monthly subscription.

Look, in other MMOs players will log back in for a handful of minutes just to secure their names in an inactive-name-wipe event, even on an account they have not played in years. I think you are underestimating how strongly MMO gamers feel about the virtual items they've gone through much trouble to obtain. In many cases they want to retain them even if they're not actively playing, and few things will convince them to sever ties completely than a developer eradicating the results of that effort. It is precisely for that reason that MMOs do not delete your character the moment your subscription lapses - they want you back and they know the odds of you returning are vastly improved if you can return with everything about your character just as you left it.

[Ryel]

Incorrect. If a player is gone for good, the chance of losing a house isn't going to make them come back.

Not entirely true.

Prior to the Housing reclamation system being implemented Yoshida had encouraged players to take breaks between patch cycles if they chose because of the way content is designed.

A player who say took a break during the 8 month period from FCoB release and came back for say... Heavensward launch might genuinely find themselves quickly leaving the game over the loss of a 100mil + investment into the game that vanished into thin air (as you have 30 days to reclaim the cash after the house goes poof) and that's at it's longest.

From 3.0 to 3.1 was a 5 month stretch in which a large number of players took breaks due to the current raid design and general lack of content variety, many of whom came back to check out 3.1, the diadem, and void ark. It's likely however that had the housing reclaim feature been in the game and they had lost not only their property but their gil and furnishings they wouldn't be too keen on re-subbing at all.

This makes it very apparent that the system is an obvious attempt to leverage property and in game investments against a subscription, especially when many free to play MMOs that peak at higher active player counts due to their nature are able to provide adequate server space and infinite holding durations for services like housing, banks, gil etc.

If content comes in 3.5 month cycles at their earliest, then why is there a 45 day reclaim limit on housing for any other reason than to coax a sub?

For some players that's more than enough to consider not coming back to the game when they otherwise would have before.

For others the thought of losing the time / gil invested in obtaining property might be enough for them to shell out 10 bucks every other month just to keep it active.

[Atoli]

Perfect World would love a player like you.

I actually did play PW for a bit before 1.0 came out and went back to it for the time between 1.0 and 2.0 xD
Still one of my better experiences with the "free" 2 play model. But since FFXIV isn't and we already pay monthly, I really want them to fix this problem without us having to pay extra.

I'm just saying that they finally managed to get huge parts of the playerbase to the point where they are ready to swallow up their anger and just pay up to get what they want, just the way they did with more inventory/storage space, the other huge thing pretty much everyone wants but does not get for free (but where an extra-payment option is already available in form of additional retainers).

[Voltyblast]

I actually like that personal houses have a physical space in an instanced neighborhood. I would not want to see them turned into the equivalent of instanced inn/private chambers. Besides, the space in those small homes are barely reasonable for a single owner (or couple).

I usually make this kind of question for those who want to keep this system: do you want something to work properly or not? I ask because the current system is, no offense here, utter garbage and doesn't satisfy the demand of housing. It just doesn't and there's absolutely nothing positive right now (keyword, right now).
In my case I have a house but I WOULD IMMEDIATELY give it away if I could have a private chamber or some sort of instanced place for myself: it'd be small, yes, but it would be mine and it wouldn't have a time bomb attached on it. I can get a private chambers, yes, but I lose it immediately once I leave, including my money. Might as well be homeless then!

In my opinion however, I'd fix this in a simple, yet logical way: make FC private chambers free. Lots of people will be glad to have a room for themselves, FOR FREE, and would even encourage FC to recruit more people because, let's face it, aside the Diadem (hard) you don't need a FC for anything: raiding is Static-based and only requires a linkshell at worst. Buffs? Passable, but I've played nearly 2 years without a FC and I managed to get my jobs at 50 with ease. Friends? That's usually subjective plus I'm very asocial. Easier to make groups? That's debatable: my best groups were pugs, and my worsts were premades.

So my suggestion is, in the LONG while they fix the housing, make private chambers free in the meantime. I mean 300k might not be a lot for some, but they can be easily lost too. But if the player has nothing to lose while getting a free room, why just not letting them?

[Gyson]

I usually make this kind of question for those who want to keep this system: do you want something to work properly or not? I ask because the current system is, no offense here, utter garbage and doesn't satisfy the demand of housing. It just doesn't and there's absolutely nothing positive right now (keyword, right now).

I don't think there's anything really wrong with housing that can't be fixed by providing more instances of the neighborhoods. However, I do agree FC private chambers should be free, or at least only hit you with a one-time unlock fee per character. That said, even free private chambers at the FC house isn't going to enable access to housing related features (like gardening) for everyone.