Nope you didn't add enough plots SE...

[EaMett]

The invisible timer is bad and should be made visible so that people can plan properly. But other than that the housing system is fine. It's exclusive and limited and that gives it a nice sense of prestige and specialness that I appreciate. All you need to do is be vigilant and willing to put in the effort to get what you want.

This is the solution. Make it every 10 or 20mn on the hour and done. The system works surprisingly well in every other aspect. It's just the spamming that is insufferable.

What prestige? No one but your friends knows you own one. And no one but them would care. I certainly don't run around looking at the names on houses and make a list of those super special people that bought a house. It really just sounds like you are defending this cause you wouldn't feel special if everyone got one.

You can get a sense of accomplishment and/or prestige without involving others. Just knowing you did it is enough. It's often like that with limited demand items in games. Especially in pvp (which housing is)

[MsQi]

Housing is an example of this game's community wanting everything handed to them,

You get something handed to you, because you happen to be in the right place at the right time and you earned it, but all the people who have been trying for years don't put in any effort? Unless you can prove you put in more effort than anyone and everyone who doesn't have a house you don't have a leg to stand on.

[Nomenanza]

I had just waited for TWELVE hours on a plot: it had a good spot, it was near a marketboard, it was a small plot too like I wanted.
Twelve hours wasted because while I was there ready to press a buy button the plot was already bought by another player that just spammed the plaque, as apparently the status of the plot doesn't update in the plot window!

How hard is it to just show a timer on the menu? What is even the point of hiding the timer? I don't get it. The biggest frustration with housing is just not being able to even know when the plot is available for purchase.

It feels as if the entire system is more rewarding to whoever uses bots, as you can't expect a human to just sit there and spam the spot with purchase requests for hours on end. Especially if they play on consoles like I do.

[Shougun]

How hard is it to just show a timer on the menu? What is even the point of hiding the timer? I don't get it. The biggest frustration with housing is just not being able to even know when the plot is available for purchase.

To prevent reselling. Can't tell someone to meet you at noon to trade papers and coin when you can't assure them when the plot will release. Of course the relocation system goes around this and makes the timer a bit less useful (but is a bit obtuse so not everyone will be able to easily do that one, like using the FC shell concept).

There was a lot of reselling before the timer. OF course you can suggest other solutions but each will have their own issues. For example lottery would probably be even more bot friendly, but far less stressful / time wasting.

[Vickii]

I agree it’s a bad system but I’m surprised to hear so many people didn’t get a house.

5 of us in our FC wanted one and all of us got them. Only one was able to get it on launch but there’s a lot of houses where people relocated onto timers.

I wanted 10/40 Goblet and this was available on 9 wards at about 7pm today.

So in terms of giving more opportunities to get housing I think they did, just not necessarily the best location ones that a lot of people wanted and not without a bit of camping.

[Vickii]

Exodus still has a few small houses scattered throughout, but all with timers. And all seemily with at least one person hoping and praying that the Placard will unlock for them. I was shocked to hear the newest wards were on timers, but someone explained trolls went through relocating houses on purpose in the AM to put timers on plots?! (Who does that?) I don't have my name in the hat this time, but watching my friends is tough. One is going on 10 hours now. (Yes I know it's by their choice) Just wish the random timer was a shorter, 3 hours? (or turned off during a housing rush). Sorry to those that have not even the slightest chance, hopefully SE will quickly unlock more wards. I kinda hope when Ishguard housing unlocks that they double/triple the number of large and mediums available per ward, nothing says they have to be majority of small lots. - K

Yes, same on Cerberus, people put lots of houses on timers. I camped for almost 11 hours because I wanted a particular plot but have to say apart from an hour where someone camped with me I generally never felt I wouldn’t get it. There seems to be enough plots on timers for most people who want one to get one. There’d be people dashing from plot to plot to click on the sign but I don’t think that’s the best strategy so I just stayed in one place and after 9pm I didn’t see anyone.

The wondering if I would still be doing this tomorrow morning and how I could click while working on no sleep was the only worry for me.

I feel very bad for the other camper though and hope she found a plot because she’s the same as me in the end, just a player who wants a house. This kind of competition is what causes toxicity in an otherwise nice community.

[Caitsithhh]

I like the system. Any other way and housing wouldn’t be 1% as desirable as it is currently. I’m on the “very populated” servers, logged in as they went live, had 2 lobby errors, ported to Shirogane and after much running around to look at purchased lots...I found one. I don’t particularly care if I have a house but the system as is means you should definitely try if the urge is there at all. Other than the timers which were super lame I think this was a good showing on SE’s behalf. Be happy with what you get instead of thinking you must have a MED/LRG lol, only shooting yourself in the foot there.

[Vickii]

Good news, it didn't have to. I got my first house back in stormblood and since that time have had many many different houses on many servers and even different characters. It's not THAT hard to get a house. You just have to actually put effort in. I realize this game's community wants everything simply handed to them and don't want to work for anything but that doesn't mean getting a house isn't possible.

I have a house, I put effort in too.

You are defending waiting up to 24 hours in a video game doing nothing but sitting by a sign, with the potential of someone else coming in at the 23rd hour and getting a lucky click.

Sorry but there’s literally nothing special about doing that. You achieve nothing. If anything I actually felt a bit ‘is this my life’ about doing that.

Doing something completely unfun for 24 hours while putting yourself at the mercy of RNG if you go to the bathroom isn’t working for anything. It’s just putting up with tedium more than others are willing to.

It’s a bad system because most everyone doesn’t enjoy that time in a game which is supposed to be fun, not a job.

[Penthea]

Doing something completely unfun for 24 hours while putting yourself at the mercy of RNG if you go to the bathroom isn’t working for anything. It’s just putting up with tedium more than others are willing to.

There is something very wrong with the content if you can be denied access due to needing to do a completely normal bodily function like going to the toilet.

And please no one compare this to missing a duty finder queue pop due to being afk in the bathroom. You can queue again when you get back and you'll have the queue pop again usually within a half hour. Absolutely not comparable to spamming a placard for several hours, or waiting several weeks to even get the chance to spam click.

The forums are a depressing sight. I knew a huge amount of threads like this would happen but it's still not nice to see : /

Although I have seen that unlike the last time the forums were flooded with threads like this SE are being very vigilant about moving them from general to the housing forums. Hrmmm.

[KadaRemnant]

I have a house, I put effort in too.

You are defending waiting up to 24 hours in a video game doing nothing but sitting by a sign, with the potential of someone else coming in at the 23rd hour and getting a lucky click.

Sorry but there’s literally nothing special about doing that. You achieve nothing. If anything I actually felt a bit ‘is this my life’ about doing that.

Doing something completely unfun for 24 hours while putting yourself at the mercy of RNG if you go to the bathroom isn’t working for anything. It’s just putting up with tedium more than others are willing to.

It’s a bad system because most everyone doesn’t enjoy that time in a game which is supposed to be fun, not a job.

Finally someone who understand. Thank you.