When will you really address the housing availability problem?

[Bourne_Endeavor]

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.

-raises hand while looking down-

I want my own house dammit, and I hate I'm prepared to pay for it. Sometimes, FFXIV really is the Sims 4. ._.

[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.

[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.

[Aushi]

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

Honestly, I took a break from FFXIV for my college semester. I didn't have planned to come until perhaps April, March. And the -only- reason I came back was to not lose my house ._. It's an FC house, but our FC is two people strong (my boyfriend and me), so we pretty much sub at the same time. We didn't want to lose the house cuz we REALLY had a hard time saving for it (very casual players, not crafters, busy parents, etc) and I (not so much him) was gonna be VERY VERY bummed out if I missed it. I legit paid October (or November) to log in, step into my house, do an event that was going on, and didn't log back in until the end of semester in December (late December to boot). It's strategic, and obviously won't work on ALL players, but it will definitely work on a lot.

[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.

[BreathlessTao]

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?

This though. And they keep adding new features, they keep adding dozens of new furniture in each patch, they keep tweaking functions - and for what? A very small fragment of the playerbase.

Oh but at the same time, they advertise it highlighted among features such as FCs and crafting on the "For New Players" PR page.........

Idk. So many thoughts about this, but frankly I we just keep repeating ourselves time and time again. And personally I've gotten to the point where I'm too exhausted even thinking about it at all. Disillusioned. Don't see the point of wasting energy on even putting anything into words. Game's more than 2 years old. In that time, I've been saving every gil I could to get a house, not being able to enjoy minions, new glamour outfits, whatnots - I have a pile of gil having forfeited a lot of enjoyment, and I still can't have a house. Do the math, SE.

[Nabiri]

Disillusioned. Don't see the point of wasting energy on even putting anything into words. Game's more than 2 years old. In that time, I've been saving every gil I could to get a house, not being able to enjoy minions, new glamour outfits, whatnots - I have a pile of gil having forfeited a lot of enjoyment, and I still can't have a house. Do the math, SE.

Feeling disillusioned as well. The one thing I was really looking forward to is currently (and for the foreseeable future), unavailable to me no matter how much gil I have.

Even when new houses are added I have no guarantee I'll get one before they're all snatched up. I could be waiting a year and a half even. Especially if players who already have houses are still allowed more.

Waiting to be able to really enjoy this game the way I wanted to. How long will it be I wonder..

[Atoli]

Game's more than 2 years old. In that time, I've been saving every gil I could to get a house, not being able to enjoy minions, new glamour outfits, whatnots - I have a pile of gil having forfeited a lot of enjoyment

...but why? ó.ò
The prices for housing are well-known. There is a lot of stuff you could have done without losing the chance to buy a house once there is a free one.
I always only kept the bare minimum to afford my dream house, and had a lot of fun those 2 years. The housing problem is bad and it needs to be solved, but don't blame SE for your decision to not spend ANY Gil..xD

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

Truthfully they should have coupled this with not allowing personal houses no more. So FCs can get a dam house and an airship and stables for their FC members. Then when people only sub for 2 weeks a year they still have access to the FC house.

[Atoli]

Truthfully they should have coupled this with not allowing personal houses no more. So FCs can get a dam house and an airship and stables for their FC members.

Well, ORIGINALLY, FC housing and player housing were supposed to be seperate anyway. I don't understand why they don't go that way at least now, when like 5 new threads about the lack of available housing springs up everyday =_=
Make player housing instanced, as a new, seperate system. People who already own a personal house right now get transfered over into the instanced system for free, others still need to pay Gil to get their house but if they have the money, there is no limit to the houses they can have, basically like the FC rooms are now, just with a garden and house exterior too in each instance.
Leave the current system of neighborhood housing in (but with a few more wards) ONLY for FC houses. Problem fixed.