This is getting silly, just create instanced housing already...

[Ignacius]

I agree with everything you said OP except for the option of paying extra money. This is a subscription game and housing is advertised as a feature, therefore the sub should cover it. When you consider what some Free to Play games offer in terms of housing, this seems reasonable to me.

Personally, I'm hoping there will be enough new wards to make a difference and that personal rooms will offer enough features to actually make it an attractive option to players.

Understandable. I'm not HOPING that's the case. I completely agree that, given how other games seem to be able to manage it, it shouldn't be that big of a problem for SE.

But it would depend on what we're getting. If it's a lot more than those games offer (and that's what would satisfy SE's quality control) I'd be willing to drop a dollar or two a month for the best housing in MMORPGs. If that's what they make.

[Lexia]

This is a subscription game and housing is advertised as a feature, therefore the sub should cover it.

They don't really promote housing to new players as there only one promotional site that list it and never heard of anyone saying they bought the game cause of visiting that site. Most will pick up from friend suggestion or the retail description from SE store, Amazon, steam etc, which is

All the hallmarks of the FINAL FANTASY franchise, including an engaging storyline, genre-leading graphics, and HD real time cut scenes

Robust gameplay features such as player-run Free Companies, story-driven player-vs.-player content, and a unique summoning system, all designed to accommodate a dynamic player community

Incredible new graphics engine that delivers a high level of detail and quality on the Windows PC, PlayStation®3, and PlayStation®4 platforms

A flexible class system that allows players to change to any of the eighteen different classes on the fly, simply by swapping their equipped weapon or tool

Breathtaking musical score by renowned FINAL FANTASY series composers

Cross-platform play on Windows PC and PlayStation®3

Which makes no mention of housing.

[Solarra]

Well, now you do know someone who bought the game after visiting that site. In fact a group of us did, sadly I'm the only one playing regularly now.

Company/guild housing was definitely a deciding factor and we were extremely disappointed to discover how limited it was.

[Marcellus_Cassius]

Instanced housing would work well, they could implement it in the wards as they are, you would go to said plot and going in the house would take you to your FC house. The only thing is outdoor furnishing would become static and uncustomizable. But on the positive, the wards communities would bloom.

[Solarra]

Or, you could have the instance encompass the house and a garden which would allow you to place outdoor furniture. With the market board and summoning bells etc in a communal area you would still get to see other people.

[Syrehn]

Instanced housing isn't the be-all, end-all solution that many seem to think it is. Even in an instanced housing model data still needs to be stored (i.e furniture placement etc.). Instanced rooms like the Inn don't require this as you can't move anything around.

SE's original issue with the current housing model is the server capacity needed to "add more land". More land = more server space/storage, thus instanced housing is equivalent to needing "more land" anyway because it still needs server space/data storage to be purchased; this is the part that I think people forget or don't realize.

Now, this does open up a broader spectrum for debate of SE's financials and whether or not they feel, at this point in the game, they can afford to just mass dump money into additional servers/storage for bulk housing; regardless of current ward structure or instanced structure.

[Marcellus_Cassius]

XxI think it would be wise to dump some money to widen housing availability. I've been playing this game for years, and honestly I only stick around for the crafting and housing. I like redocorating , the fact that I tele to a house with a market board right in front as my "idle" space instead of limsa or wherever ppl go these days. It really changes the dynamic of your experience by having access to your armory, summoning bell, hair thing and company chest in one place. It will drive the economy, allowing new adventurers to make money through gathering and crafting furniture. Housing does a lot of good for FCs and player communities. But, most importantly, with the 45 day reclamation it keeps players subbed (don't like this 45 day thing)

[Viddion]

None of which is going to fix the problems. I'm sorry, but this isn't going to work.

If they increase the prices to the point where they reflect today's gil inflation, add a bunch of wards, and add an equal amount of isghard wards in a few patches then even on Balmung which is most likely the hardest server to get a house on will have houses for a long while, probably well into 4.x even by the most pessimistic of ideas. They just need to hike prices to the extreme. I know this isn't the popular option but it's the best one. Instanced housing is coming in the form of apartments but neighborhoods are a big part of housing. I love having neighbors and meeting random people. Instanced housing is a huge step backwards.

[MistakeNot]

Instanced housing isn't the be-all, end-all solution that many seem to think it is. Even in an instanced housing model data still needs to be stored (i.e furniture placement etc.). Instanced rooms like the Inn don't require this as you can't move anything around.

SE's original issue with the current housing model is the server capacity needed to "add more land". More land = more server space/storage, thus instanced housing is equivalent to needing "more land" anyway because it still needs server space/data storage to be purchased; this is the part that I think people forget or don't realize.

Now, this does open up a broader spectrum for debate of SE's financials and whether or not they feel, at this point in the game, they can afford to just mass dump money into additional servers/storage for bulk housing; regardless of current ward structure or instanced structure.

The "need extra storage" is basically a bullshit excuse, unless they have some really bad servers. Adding more land and more housing doesn't require all that much extra storage space. Not even when multiplied by the number of players.

Considering how cheap extra storage is these days, if they truely cannot afford to upgrade the servers to handle some extra housing then then there is really only two reasons for why:

1) Someone at SE is way too stingy and tries to save money on the wrong things
2) They have some very inflexible server setup that can't be upgraded without changing absolutely everything - in which case someone really screwed up when designing it.

[Caitlinzulu]

The "need extra storage" is basically a bullshit excuse, unless they have some really bad servers. Adding more land and more housing doesn't require all that much extra storage space. Not even when multiplied by the number of players.

Considering how cheap extra storage is these days, if they truely cannot afford to upgrade the servers to handle some extra housing then then there is really only two reasons for why:

I think you underestimate the extra data needed for each house. Especially when multiplied by the current player base.
You claim extra storage is cheap, but we are not talking about home solutions here which are somewhat cheap. For professional serer based hardware you can typicly add a zero to the price, and on top of that hardware can fail, so you need more redundancy then a home user adding to the cost. Add replacement costs if something fails and the price isnt that cheap anymore.

Also adding instanced housing still needs server runtime, there will be a limit on how many houses can be active at once. You think people will like to get the message : "Servers at capacity, please try to access your house later".