Why are people so surprised they couldn't get the plots they wanted? Just 5 minutes research would have told them how likely their chances were beforehand. Nothing happened any differently this time around then last, which is no surprise given that the patch notes did not state anything would be different.

Would you rather have a system that allows you to get a large then not have a large? Yes? Well we already know about that. My friends and I have been playing since january and not a week has gone by without people asking for that. Nothing has changed other then that a few more people have large plots today than yesterday.

If you really want a large plot suck it up and work with the system we have. My small FC and I stayed up and watched anime till 3:00am. Logged in immediately, and obtained all the plots we wanted.(4 smalls, 2 mediums in a contiguous section of myst). There was zero competition in the ward. Only one large plot was taken a little after we got the ones we wanted. When we logged out to go to bed there were still two large plots available in the ward.

Was this witchcraft? No, it was simple. We don't play on an overcrowded world. If you wanted a large you could have had one. Just transfer to a less crowded world next time. We play on Marlboro. There is always a small available somewhere and occasionally I have seen mediums available.

Don't want to transfer? Don't expect a large. You can't change SE's implementation of housing, but you can change your expectations. You might be happier if you did.

BTW the wards are a lot better then instanced housing in other games. Being able to form a neighborhood with your friends, tend each others plants, and put up obnoxious garden ornaments to annoy the neighbours is fun. We were all in the same ward previous to this, but we weren't able to get plots next to each other, and wanted to upgrade a couple to mediums (to increase our gardening yields). So we saved up gill, made a plan, and implemented it when the new wards dropped. No problems arose.