Why is this not the solution?

[PredatoryCatgirl]

Lets assume for a moment that instanced housing will never happen. All we'll ever have is the ward system, and a limited number of houses for a much larger playerbase.

Houses' primary function aside from being a feature of the game is to serve as a gil sink, to combat inflation. So why aren't we using a bidding system when a house goes up on the market?

New house goes up for 3M gil. Great, put in your bid. Someone else has 12 hours to put in a bid of 3.3M in order to get the house. If they do, the next bid is 3.63M. Bids are always 110% of the current offer to prevent any auction from being dragged out forever. If no one beats your bid for 12 hours, then you get the house.

Yeah, its not a perfect system, but its better than standing there clicking for 24 hours, or for it being totally random who gets the house. Plus, it removes more gil, and that keeps market prices lower for everyone.

[ItMe]

So why aren't we using a bidding system when a house goes up on the market?

Because that would make housing less accessible.
Instead of an open plot being FFA it would go to the wealthiest player.
Housing would be 100% unattainable for new players, or heck probably even people that started in the last expac or two. There are players with capped gil counters and if it comes to a bidding war only the richest players will enjoy housing.

If the idea is to act as a gil drain, this might accomplish that (though I doubt players will be happy spending millions or billions of gil on something that was thousands before).

If the idea is to "fix housing," it's kinda just replacing the competition problem with another problem, especially considering how few plots are ever open this is most definitely not the way to go.

[Lihtleita]

So why aren't we using a bidding system when a house goes up on the market?

People will outbid everyone else just to resell the houses and make a profit, like the way houses were before the timer was added in but with extra steps

[ICountFrom0]

Things started like that, sort of.

They started at a completely unreasonable price, and started to tick down towards sane prices.

[PredatoryCatgirl]

People will outbid everyone else just to resell the houses and make a profit, like the way houses were before the timer was added in but with extra steps

Flipping only works now because you can get the house for 3M. This eliminates that entirely. Flipping, even if it still happens, will have a severely reduced profit, and therefore less incentive to do it.

[MilkieTea]

Flipping only works now because you can get the house for 3M. This eliminates that entirely. Flipping, even if it still happens, will have a severely reduced profit, and therefore less incentive to do it.

People flipped back when smalls cost upwards of 50mil. Having a house possibly cost 6-7mil now isn't going to stop flipping.

[PredatoryCatgirl]

People flipped back when smalls cost upwards of 50mil. Having a house possibly cost 6-7mil now isn't going to stop flipping.

So if someone is willing to pay a flipper over 50M for it, lets say 100M, why wouldn't they just bid on a house for up to 100M instead? They might get it for less. And you have zero chance of the placard taking your gil and running off.

Flipping only exists in the first place because SE tried to pretend that supply and demand don't affect prices on a limited resource. This would introduce that factor back in. Flipping isn't going to die, but its going to severely drop off.

[MilkieTea]

So if someone is willing to pay a flipper over 50M for it, lets say 100M, why wouldn't they just bid on a house for up to 100M instead? They might get it for less. And you have zero chance of the placard taking your gil and running off.

Flipping only exists in the first place because SE tried to pretend that supply and demand don't affect prices on a limited resource. This would introduce that factor back in. Flipping isn't going to die, but its going to severely drop off.

Because 100mil off a flipper is static - that's the price and it won't change, AND flipping is a nearly solid enterprise within the game, with ways to ensure you get your house as there are dedicated discords for this, with active communities (I'm sure someone who is active in such communities will come in here to pipe up). Whereas having the "potential" to get the house for "less than... or greater than" 100mil is not a solid opportunity, with plenty of chances for failure.

This idea is, honestly, worse than the lottery system we're about to get.

[PredatoryCatgirl]

Because 100mil off a flipper is static - that's the price and it won't change.

You apparently don't know a ton of flippers. Most of them put the house out there and take bids for a few days or a week and then sell to the highest one. The only time you get it for a static price is if you offer them more than what they imagined they could possibly get for it or if they're strongly motivated to get rid of it, such as leaving the game or the server. And yes, I know this because I'm in one of the Discords where it happens. Frankly, the fact that flipping is a static price is a myth, and I'm not quite sure where it came from, but it has absolutely zero basis in fact.

There is a lot to criticize about this system, and its far from perfect, but to claim it encourages or even won't discourage flipping is just flat out wrong. Flipping only exists because prices are far less than what someone is willing to pay for the house. This explicitly changes it so that the house will go for what someone is willing to pay for it.

[ItMe]

So if someone is willing to pay a flipper over 50M for it, lets say 100M, why wouldn't they just bid on a house for up to 100M instead?

They could, and they'd be outbid.
Not everyone likes paying flippers, and not just because it's against the ToS.




Another downside to the bidding idea is that you can't just play the game for whatever you think is fun (something the devs try to enable).

If you're in this game for MSQ and running stuff with friends you're no longer getting the gil to buy a house anymore. That's pocket change to what you're gonna be going up against.

If you're a raider, sorry.

Spend your time RPing? Glamour fiend? Those activities don't make Gil hand over fist so you're SoL.

Locking houses behind a bidding wall only serves certain playstyles (mainly people that are always playing the market board, and crafters/gatherers).
So by locking housing behind a bidding war you're also low key locking it behind having to engage in certain content, which is a mega bummer to put it lightly.
(or players could engage with RMT and hoooooo boy let's not do anything to encourage that).