Housing Frustrations

[Jojoya]

snip

While I agree with the general idea that SE needs to pay more attention to housing. you've got some numbers wrong and you're making some assumptions that you shouldn't.

The game does not have 20 million active players. There have been 20 million accounts created since the game was released. Most of those accounts are no longer active (just as WoW had over 100 million accounts created as of Cataclysm even though the game only had about 10 million active subscribers at the time).

The best guess is that there's a little under 1 million active players right now. Number was higher earlier in the expansion but has dropped a bit now the expansion is more than half over (normal for MMOs).

Even if only 50% of active players would like to own a house, it means we've still got a fairly large shortfall. With Ishgard not being opened until 6.1 and the active player count no doubt increasing again with the new expansion content, there's no way Ishgard housing is going to be sufficient to fill demand if the number of wards in all housing districts remains the same. SE needs to do something else if they're serious about making sure there are enough plots for every player that wants a house.

As for 375,000 players being willing to pay $12.99/mo just to keep a house... are you nuts? This isn't a housing-centric game. There might be that small percentage of players who pay a subscription solely to keep a house but for most of the rest of us, housing is a small part of a much bigger package. If the rest of the package fails to keep us entertained, we're not going to stay subscribed just for our house. Most people are smart enough not to waste money that way.

Also, that $4.8 million a month you mention isn't solely to pay for housing. It pays for a lot of things, some that aren't even directly game related like accounting staff and maintenance staff, insurance and other benefits for employees, etc. Companies do have expenses generated by necessary operations that aren't directly related to creating the products they sell. It's naive to think those numbers are inconsequential in a company with thousands of employees.

Certainly, SE needs to do something to address the lack of supply so every player that wants a house can get one but let's not distort the situation.

[geminipestdeath]

snip

"Granted, not all 20m+ players are active, of course."

Was my exact words, but hey, reading can be as difficult as getting a house, apparently.

[CheshaSolttiri]

I am also EXTREMELY disappointed in Yoshida-san for sweeping this under the rug during the expansion announcement. I was so excited all month really all year to get news of 6.0 but hearing that housing will remain unchanged was almost enough to undo all the hype I have for Endwalker. What's worse, is that this game has seen bad circumstances before that they've had to apologize for and fix with 1.0 being a huge example. But now their silence seems to go in the face of their initial philosophy of being open with the community and actually listening to feedback. Housing need to change. I've click stalked house plaques 6 times now for hours, and nothing. I'm a veteran player since 2.0 (not that I deserve over others) but I've paid thousands for this game. I just want a damn house.

[Bladehawk]

It's becoming pretty clear that the current servers cant handle the demands that are being placed on them. (Almost daily emergency maintenance of one server or another).

Back in October Square told us they had planned to have new servers installed for increased housing but that travel restrictions because of Covid had prevented them from moving forward with those plans. Since it seems pretty unlikely that travel restrictions are going to change much anywhere in 2021 i hope Square does whatever they need to do to get those servers up and running sooner rather then later and get us that additional housing they had hoped to give us back in October and at the same time hopefully reduce the server issues they seem to be having lately.

[Arohk]

Come to twintania, we still have like 100 free plots here lul.

[Big_Bap]

Come to twintania, we still have like 100 free plots here lul.

https://i.imgur.com/ww6NOZM.png



///

Back in October Square told us they had planned to have new servers installed for increased housing

They never said anything about housing, get your facts right.

[Bladehawk]

They never said anything about housing, get your facts right.

They did, and I did.

[Greyhawk]

They never said anything about housing, get your facts right.

Wrong, they in fact did. They spoke about new servers to add for housing and couldn't be implemented because of travel and COVID. But, it wasn't October, it was August.

Would you like the proof? Here we go. You ready? Got your facts straight? Because I know I do.

BAM! https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...f3579a73d109cf

Uh oh.

I think another one is brewing... yep, here it comes - more facts!!! Look out!

BAM! https://massivelyop.com/2020/08/17/f...using-servers/

Oh my God, I think I'm gonna post yet another article about it... I can't control myself! OH GOD!

BAM! https://www.iggm.com/news/Final-Fant...ts-In-Patch-54

Is this enough of those facts for you to straighten out?

The problem is, they wanted the servers in by 5.4 Patch - that didn't happen unfortunately. Personally, I believe we won't see them until 6.0 when Ishgard housing is implemented.

[Big_Bap]

Wrong, they in fact did. They spoke about new servers to add for housing and couldn't be implemented because of travel and COVID. But, it wasn't October, it was August.

Would you like the proof? Here we go. You ready? Got your facts straight? Because I know I do.

BAM! https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...f3579a73d109cf

Uh oh.

I think another one is brewing... yep, here it comes - more facts!!! Look out!

BAM! https://massivelyop.com/2020/08/17/f...using-servers/

Oh my God, I think I'm gonna post yet another article about it... I can't control myself! OH GOD!

BAM! https://www.iggm.com/news/Final-Fant...ts-In-Patch-54

Is this enough of those facts for you to straighten out?

The problem is, they wanted the servers in by 5.4 Patch - that didn't happen unfortunately. Personally, I believe we won't see them until 6.0 when Ishgard housing is implemented.

WOW, I had no idea someone could have such terrible reading skills, but let me guide you through this.

Read this subtitle very slowly: Improving Data Centers to Allow for Additional Plots

Now read the following: all data centers will require additional servers

Do you understand now? Contrary to your initial presumption and as clearly written, they are adding servers to every DC. They aren't specifically installing more hardware for housing purposes, it's to increase the amount of worlds available to players. If it was specifically meant for housing and housing alone, they wouldn't be talking about adding more servers to the Data Centers, they would talk about adding more wards.

In case you haven't noticed by now, they have added new servers at the release of the past 2 expansions. Do you see the pattern?

[Payadopa]

Come to twintania, we still have like 100 free plots here lul.

I checked on Spriggan and the Goblet has like 5+ houses in ever. single. ward.