Feedback on what housing has become

[Jojoya]

I wish people would visit my fc's house and sign the message book if they like the decor. It's furnished inside and everything. I guess the passia housing skin is a turn off or scares people away (but my fc adores the damn thing, including me). xP

There aren't a lot of players who will randomly visit houses and with over 4,000 houses per server they're pretty unlikely to get around to visiting them all.

Get everyone in your FC to invite their friends to visit it if you want the traffic. Make certain Estate Teleportation is enabled so it's convenient for those friends to get to it. Most of all, display the Message Book Stand in a prominent place that's easily seen rather than trying to blend it into the decor. I use it in my FC's house as a "reservation book" for the upstairs cafe and visitors rarely notice it, saying it's a shame we didn't place a message book until I lead them back upstairs to it.

[Azgarde]

I'd say housing is more of a personal thing. Sure you can be a massive show off and put millions and millions of gil towards your Furnishings, but there won't be that many people who will even see what you accomplished (Except if you truly are a madman and you are renowned on your entire server like "The Housing Crazy Dude"). As long as you are personally satisfied with your house, that's what it's all about !

As for houses with no furnishings or plots without a house on them, it's pretty simple. People are buying the first plot they come across, so then when a plot they want opens up, they can just relocate and avoid spamming the placard like crazy to buy the plot.

So yes, by trying to take control over the "Housing Market" that developped whereas people bought plots to resell em, they literally overdid it and destroyed the entire system.

Right now, we're back at the same spot we were at ARR release: No plots available for anyone. Not a great day to join FFXIV if you're a WoW Refugee looking for a decent housing system I'd say :S

[Tyla_Esmeraude]

The housing system in this game is disastrous. You should always have a house to come to after taking a break, like any other normal casual game. You shouldn't have to stay subscribed just to not lose your house. But Yoshida's too ambitious vision of a neighborhood made all this a disaster and players are the ones being punished. I don't see how losing your house is acceptable for many, this isn't a sand box MMO. Housing should've been instanced from the beginning, everyone gets a house, no need to lose your progress only because you have to take a break and stress over losing your house. I really don't understand how people accept and defend this practice as something reasonable. Punish the flippers, the ones looking to just make a profit off a plot, with no desire to actually get a house... not the players who have a house or have a desire to actually get one. Had they gone instanced, none of this would even be an issue. I hope the dev team learned from this mistake and never ever do it again.

And to the person who said: "Housing is a goal like anything else. Not everything needs to be for everyone. That’s what the inn room and apartments are for. You don’t *need* a house.
Also, not everything needs to be easy. Leaving the game and coming back expecting to buy a house immediately is a bit of an ask.

The only different between an apartment and a house, is gardening, and the "trophy" aspect. I cant imagine all the people complaining about housing whom dont have apartments are such avid gardening players. If its because of the trophy, refer back to "housing is a goal" statement. There are inn rooms and apartments for a reason. Not everyone needs a house."

This is a game feature, in a casual game and it should be available to everyone. What dev in their right minds would limit a game feature in the game if they want to attract or keep players? This sounds like a bad business move. Not everything needs to be easy, but this is not Archeage, and you leave the difficulty to actual battle content (savage/ultimate), even crafting if you want to. You come to this game to relax and have fun, not stress over getting a house or losing it. The challenge should be in decorating it, even upgrading it to a bigger one if there was an option, not in being lucky to get a plot. This was marketed as a more casual game and it should be so, for other more hardcore gameplay where you even have to pay taxes to keep your virtual house (lol) there's other games.

[Mavrias]

people always complain about the house flipping but at least back then you werent stuck spam clicking a placard and nothing else for 12+ hours to have a chance at the plot (if youre lucky).

just get some extra gil and boom the plot was yours.

[Jojoya]

You should always have a house to come to after taking a break, like any other normal casual game.

What other normal casual games with housing would those be and why would you expect a MMORPG to be like them?

You have a place to come back to after taking a break if you want. It's called an apartment. They've been part of the game for 2 years now (since patch 3.4). It is the casual form of housing. Owning a house in a ward is the end game form of housing. It's not going to be right for every player anymore than Savage raiding is.

[Losara]

What other normal casual games with housing would those be and why would you expect a MMORPG to be like them?

You have a place to come back to after taking a break if you want. It's called an apartment. They've been part of the game for 2 years now (since patch 3.4). It is the casual form of housing. Owning a house in a ward is the end game form of housing. It's not going to be right for every player anymore than Savage raiding is.

I don't recall housing being in the party finder.

SE needs to add more to the housing supply especially since we've had a huge influx of new players from WoW. Up to them to decide how to do it, were just the messengers. The demand for houses is clearly there.

[Jojoya]

I don't recall housing being in the party finder.

SE needs to add more to the housing supply especially since we've had a huge influx of new players from WoW. Up to them to decide how to do it, were just the messengers. The demand for houses is clearly there.

What does party finder have to do with anything? It doesn't have to be in party finder to be end game content.

People need to remember that housing does not mean a house in a ward. It means a personal space for a player to decorate as they see fit.

The housing supply is more than adequate thanks to apartments. Every world has apartments available, even Balmung.

But certainly the supply of houses does not meet current demand. The question is why players want a house over an apartment. If the majority want a house because of the interior sizes and not other reasons, then SE is better off expanding the apartment system over increasing the number of wards.

[Azgarde]

Even though Auto-Demolition will be resumed in a month, I do think it'll change things a bit and help new players get their house.

Now, as I mentioned a couple times already, all aboard the waiting train !