Regarding that Finaland Interview...

[Fhaerron]

Yeah about that. Ever since they reopened personal housing back in what, 4.2? Or whenever the personal ban for new buyers was lifted I found my newest neighbor across from my medium was actually a housing squatter. Aside from a few weeks the house has had a completely empty yard. Even my FC's house is next to a house that doesn't see any use.

There's certainly no shortage of people holding onto houses they've no intention on using other than keeping it purely to relocate to a larger house, or sell if they find some means to do so. Every plot may be owned on Leviathan but the housing wards feel very much dead, at least in my neck of the woods save for maybe one neighbor upstairs.

The housing wards are dead on most server. I've been playing on 4 servers in EU and housing wards are dead on all of them. There's hardly anybody there. If there are they're most likely inside their house.
The majority of people online will be in Limsa standing about and waiting for the DF queue or PF group to fill up.

[Alleo]

The housing wards are dead on most server. I've been playing on 4 servers in EU and housing wards are dead on all of them. There's hardly anybody there. If there are they're most likely inside their house.
The majority of people online will be in Limsa standing about and waiting for the DF queue or PF group to fill up.

Its funny because a FC must have bought a house near mine and suddenly for the first time since quite a while I have people jumping around the wards, saying hello or watching me work. I honestly was a bit annoyed at that after some time so I mostly just craft inside my house now (god I am a grumpy old lady arent I?) But it also showed me how much the reasons for wards often told hold up.

Also about apartments: We could have a deal Yoshida if we could buy unlimited apartments in all city states and buy more rooms for each apartment too. Otherwise...no apartments are not a good other way to have a house. As a FC you get no workshop, and for everyone you get no big garden plot. You have not outside space to decorate and the inside is so small that you can barely do anything with it. You could barely even use any of the house items they create per patch or throw into the events.

[Jojoya]

Also about apartments: We could have a deal Yoshida if we could buy unlimited apartments in all city states and buy more rooms for each apartment too. Otherwise...no apartments are not a good other way to have a house. As a FC you get no workshop, and for everyone you get no big garden plot. You have not outside space to decorate and the inside is so small that you can barely do anything with it. You could barely even use any of the house items they create per patch or throw into the events.

Considering house interiors are already instanced, there's no reason why FCs couldn't have a workshop attached if FCs could buy apartments in addition to houses.

Most players I know with houses don't garden at all. If they have a garden plot placed, it's usually empty or at most being used for shards. It might be interesting one day when bored to survey all the houses and see which are using their garden plot and how many are intercross gardening (which is the only gardening that requires the outdoor plot, yield/HQ can still be achieved through the indoor flower pots).

Many also don't care about having a yard, it's the interior space they're looking for. Give apartments interior options comparable to house interiors and they'd become far more popular especially since there is no risk of auto-demo. That would open up more houses on the crowded worlds to FCs and players who do want to garden seriously.

As for the complaints about the wards being dead, why would anyone expect them to be busy? Think about the things that make a neighborhood feel busy in real life.

People traveling to/from work and school or on errands. We teleport everywhere, we don't have to follow the "roads" to exit a ward.

Homemakers doing chores. The only outdoor activity in housing to simulate this is gardening and even if you're a compulsive fertilizer with a large house it only takes a few minutes a day.

Children out playing. We have no children.

Someone throwing a party so people who don't live in the neighborhood come to visit for an afternoon/evening. How many players throw a party at their house on a regular basis?

The wards should feel dead. If players are online, they're more likely to be doing content elsewhere. It would be weird to be seeing the other 29 house owners in your ward all the time.

[Vahlnir]

The wards should feel dead. If players are online, they're more likely to be doing content elsewhere. It would be weird to be seeing the other 29 house owners in your ward all the time.

I see my neighbor up the hill fairly regularly but I don't really interact with them. Other than that my ward is largely dead. Filled to the brim with plots, but devoid of any real player interaction. That's basically what to expect though and has been my experience in every ward I've lived in. (Lavender Beds, Goblet and now Shirogane)