Anyone else think that housing should stay limited?

[MPK]

Having limited housing means that people will actually login and interact with their house making the neighborhood a lot more active.

It's also kinda like a status symbol you know? I feel a lot better and special than people without house even though it's just a small.

Plus think about all the effort it takes to buy out an entire ward especially in populated servers like in Gilgamesh? Wouldn't you feel bad for that person if everyone can buy their own ward without any effort making those people feel less special?

[SeanCody]

Asmongold would disapprove. What if he tried FF14 on stream and he couldn't get a house and talked sh*t about FF14?

[MPK]

Asmongold would disapprove. What if he tried FF14 on stream and he couldn't get a house and talked sh*t about FF14?

He wouldn't even go into housing. He would understand it's a status symbol. I should know I've been subbed to him for about 8 months now.

[MsQi]

He wouldn't even go into housing. He would understand it's a status symbol. I should know I've been subbed to him for about 8 months now.

Isn't he a WoW streamer? He'd either be like "what's housing?" or "you mean garrisons?".

You use the term status symbol as if it's a good thing. So you are basically evil. But you're a troll so what else is new?

[Marivaldi]

No.

"The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters."

[Raikai]

Status symbol? Lmao.

you're the 1st person I ever saw thinking of housing as that. A house full of very rare or extremely expensive items can be, but the housing itself?

It should be available for all, mainly because of the unhealthy playstyle that it promotes when new houses become available.

[SannaR]

I can't believe I'm agreeing with a troll, but really why would sempai come to XIV if he couldn't get his own house so he can never see those icky cat girls and too sugary for him au ra wifus? Along with those playboy bunny bunn bunns who have a skin tone that matches the tan dye of their hempen sets who erp all day in limsa.

[SeanCody]

also kinda funny how no one got the reference. wonder if we can bait yshtola out

[Shougun]

I assume you're just having fun with the forums but just in case you weren't:

Having limited housing means that people will actually login and interact with their house making the neighborhood a lot more active.

Visiting housing every single day this statement seems untrue . .

I get that some people's neighborhoods are busy but many are absolutely dead. Many. In alternative words Wildstar, a completely instanced system, had a FAR more active housing environment. While a ward system may lightly encourage interactivity it is certainly not the only option in order to have activity.

If you want activity you do not under any scenario need wards.

As for status symbol I find that is best used for things that don't apply a potentially core experience, like an achievement is meaningful to some people but if you missed out on one you'd not be missing any actual game play features. Miss out on housing actually removes gameplay opportunity from you. In such a vision I see housing should have been like FFXI and started small / free and progressed into larger concepts (keeping the investments, but making the content more gradual and bite sized in approach). At least for a theme park game I think scarcity should be like that, in a sandbox scarcity can be more literal as you'd attract that type of audience more and better design such scarce concepts to the environment presented.

I think people who buy out entire wards, if the system was able to support every single player, is fine.. but of course it can't so that's sort of unfortunate sometimes.

Ultimately beyond the not everyone can have a house of X size / location issues most people have I also just think wards is a bad system / idea because it prevents a lot of creative potential. We could have had amazing Amarout designed houses if it was more Wildstar like, amazing Azim Steppe houses, underwater palaces, sky bases, chocobo ranches, whatever, but instead we're locked into 4 (likely soon 5) themes and heavily restricted on decoration options and tools (can't scale / float whatever you want).

Overall I think the system is a mistake. Doesn't meet demand, exceptionally inconsistency in providing actual player interaction with many reporting dead ghost wards (and systems in an instanced style could be used to encourage social interaction just as much as in a ward scenario), requires compromise on the player's part (unlikely to get the house size, house location, and house theme that you want- so you need to be prepared to compromise, compromising like that in a theme park mmo sounds like a silly proposition), heavily restricts features that can be introduced (since not all players can use housing, can't have cool features built around it without serious repercussions), heavily restricts player and dev artistic creativity... just.. I would never ever recommend this housing system in any situation given any core desires. "I want heavy player interaction" - I would still not recommend the ward system. Rather would suggest for a game where scarcity and heavy interaction is important that you design a sandbox mmo.

Theme park mmos shouldn't use FFXIV's ward system, ever, imo. Sandbox mmos have better systems than the wards. Originally before the system was out I had thought they might do a sort of Kingdom Hearts concept + instances where you had your own area but in the stars you could spot other 'worlds' and your friends and FC would be prioritized stars, with naturally the ability to hide the constellation until pulled up if you didn't want to see it (like a Skyrim skill tree almost). Such that players could easily travel to their friends house or they might see a star color change / glow brightly to let them know of a party or that they're home.

If one must use the ward system for a theme park at least do it like Lord of the Rings Online did where the wards automatically grow. But I'm not sold that the benefit is actually that great by putting everyone together. Since there is evidence that its about the community and supporting systems (like having a search-able houses, etc, icons to represent your house concept, these things don't need wards) that makes a housing system active rather than just if it's a ward vs instance (Wildstar for example having had a far more active community but being far more instanced than FFXIV).

[DBriggs304]

No to limited housing.
Definitely no to Assmond even in the hypothetical.