Why is this not the solution?

[MilkieTea]

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).

This 100%, but I'd like to emphasize your 2nd sentence: Not everyone likes paying flippers. People do it because the current system is extremely aggravating and it's easier to pay a flipper an inordinate sum of money. When you lock people out of house ownership (as you've stated) due to needing to engage in certain content, it stops being something people will willingly engage in. Only those who already engage in said content will have the ability to purchase a house under a bidding system.

[Ardox]

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.

It won't work; you'll quickly see the rise of bidding bots who would stand in front of the plot you want and outbid you 1 gil at a time

[IckeDerTyp]

We'll get more, dedicated housing servers eventually.

I really hope so atleast! Until then we'll have to wait and sip more tea! ^^

[True-to-Caesar]

With your system, resellers will be more fat than the lazy nobles from Eulmore.

Instances is the more sensible thing to do to get rid of the supply problem, which led to RMT, resellers etc.

There’s a single individual owning a whole ward on Chaos.
Do you really believe money is an issue for them ? They’d win every auction of yours.

[LaylaTsarra]

RMT loves this idea.

[KaitoAsaha]

Curious to what the percentage is of people thinking they have a solution to the housing system, only for it to be as terribly flawed as what we currently have and are getting.

[Nepentha]

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

Interesting, but I dunno. Say a small house goes up for 3 mill placard base price. People bid on it until finally no one wants to bid higher. Say it sold finally for 300 million. How would you then resell that for more when people aren't interested in paying that much to begin with since that was the highest bid?

[Naoki34]

Housing...

I think it must be in their interest to be short of housing, as people have been maintaining their subscriptions for years, you have to sub every 44 days minimum.

Sometimes I think Yoshi-P is kidding us when he says he hopes to make the housing zones "alive", everyone knows they are ghost towns, with pnj and retainers that don't move. Like an episode of Twilight Zone.

But on the other hand, it's also because of the house sellers that it's become like this, it's a ridiculous solution it must be said, for people without houses.

[Nepentha]

I think it must be in their interest to be short of housing, as people have been maintaining their subscriptions for years, you have to sub every 44 days minimum.

Sometimes I think Yoshi-P is kidding us when he says he hopes to make the housing zones "alive", everyone knows they are ghost towns, with pnj and retainers that don't move. Like an episode of Twilight Zone.

But on the other hand, it's also because of the house sellers that it's become like this, it's a ridiculous solution it must be said, for people without houses.

Yeah, I'm less for all these oddball ideas to stop the house reselling markets. Because let's face it, no matter what they implement, housing resellers are going to find a workaround. They did so with placard timers. They'll figure it out with a lotto system. So long as housing remains a finite resource, there will be a black market and resellers will profit from it.

The best way to end it is provide ample housing, enough that anyone can just walk up and buy a house. There'll still be a black market for what players consider 'premium' plots (LB 11/41 for example, or any large plot) probably, but for the average player just wanting to have a place bigger than an apartment box to decorate, this won't be a thing anymore. Even just providing apartment upgrades that allow for either larger room space or multi-levels would help alleviate current conditions immensely. (Also SE needs to increase the number of apartments in general.)

[Jojoya]

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

Might to want to clarify that they wouldn't be reselling the house for gil after purchase in an auction system. They would be selling it for real money. If you've outbid the gil other interested buyers have, there's no one left to sell to that would result in a gil profit.

Curious to what the percentage is of people thinking they have a solution to the housing system, only for it to be as terribly flawed as what we currently have and are getting.

The solution exists and others game use it - a fully instanced system that allows every character (not just every player) to have at least one and frequently multiple houses. No player who wants housing gets left out.

Why SE won't use something proven to work in other games and make their players happy is something only SE can answer. We know they like the idea of neighborhoods but in practice they don't work out. They didn't stop to think what makes real world neighborhoods feel active and populated then incorporate those things into the wards to keep them busy.

Wards don't feel like neighborhoods. They feel like abandoned towns. I'd be happier living in an isolated part of the countryside than living in a suburb where no one else goes.