Such devastation... this was NOT my intention...

[forumaccount]

TL;DR: if you feel like this post devalues your time, then I promise you won't appreciate the upcoming housing system purchasing mechanic.

I recently posted here requesting that SE improve the housing purchasing mechanic. Boy, did they drop the ball.

To clarify, I'm not delusional enough to believe that they viewed my post. I'm just framing the existential dread.

I requested that they implement a weighted lottery for house purchasing. I detailed the suggested solution explicitly and debated its merits for much longer than I should have.

To everyone's surprise, they've announced a lottery system (one drastically different from what I suggested; but that's irrelevant). As per the norm, they've detailed some alarmingly miserable design choices.

The point of improving the house purchasing mechanic is to respect the user's time.
What they've announced will only create a more convoluted system, that is still wasteful to player time investment, and even more so removes any sense of agency in the house purchasing process.

Character length maxed out. Post continued in comments below:

[forumaccount]

Let's dig in:

1. The lottery system they've announced isn't weighted. If you thought it was difficult to get a plot now, have fun being lost in the new system. Your time investment, the time spent to earn the gil and the time spent in the lottery system (counting consecutive lottery's here; as you will lose) will not be compensated in any way, and will only be further trivialized by their other design decisions here. Assuming the roll will be purely random, your chances of winning will only be limited by the amount of users signing up for a plot ( and there will be plenty ). This will leave many players stuck in the lottery loop for a long time. Under the current system, the time you spend at the plot actually increases your chances (albeit, you are unable to play the game [which as I've stated before was the main issue with the current system; but STILL your chances were weighted by time; thereby involving SOME player agency]).

2. The lottery process for individual plots will take DAYS. (WHY???) The window for plot availability was already a lengthy one in the current system. According to the latest devlog, it will take days for a plot to pop in the new lottery system. Why? There's no feasible technical reason. It's just another arbitrary trivialization of player time.

3. You're locked in to a plot once you submit your gil. (WHY???) To prevent foul play? What logical foul play does this prevent... I understand the decision to limit a player to one plot lottery per time. But why would they be unable to withdraw their participation at any point before the winner announcement? They're forcing players to commit their real world time investment, that has already consisted of days, into a decision that will take DAYS. Why would players be arbitrarily denied flexibility in such a decision? How sadistically do they want this process to mimic reality?

[forumaccount]

4. They've stated that they're still debating the decision to implement a lottery system, and that they will have the option to assign it individually per ward. If you didn't need any more confirmation that this is a flaccid, un-thought out decision, here it is. They've literally put design decisions, that influence the gating of arguably one of the best systems in the game behind a monumental time investment, on the backburner and have simply made last minute concessions. Completely unacceptable.

5. The final and most egregious decision imho, is that home owners will be unable to bypass the housing timer with relocation as per the launch of 6.0. What. WHY???. Why arbitrarily penalize already existing home owners! The decision to relocate doesn't lower the housing supply... It is used much less for house flipping vs. FC ownership.... Why throw this nonsensical decision in? Not all organized house purchasing is detrimental to the community. What of friends and guildmates who want to be neighbors? No more. Just an absurd limitation, inconsequential to the root problem.

[forumaccount]

I will concede, this is one step in the right direction AND two steps backwards. RMT is negligibly being curbed, and the problem of placard spamming is solved... and being replaced by more arbitration, less agency, and an even greater overall time investment in the system. Heckin' why.

At this point, I'm not surprised. Many assumed a lotto system would be a bandaid fix, and given the way they're haphazardly implementing the system it's even worse than that. All this, for a system that is arbitrarily gated by designed exclusivity, one that could easily be remedied by a dynamically allocated neighborhood system. There is no feasible technical reason or limitation for everyone in the game not to be able to purchase a house in a shared neighborhood, other than incompetence (or sadism).

This is the quality product that you're receiving after having been charged a retail box price, a sub fee, and absorbent micro-transaction fees for cost-less services.

What do we have to look forward to though? Why, the latest, greatest expansion featuring more content gated behind gofer quests, talking head slice of life cut-scenes using in game emotes, and (a crowd favorite!) aether currents.

Abysmal.

[Xirean]

Your time investment, the time spent to earn the gil and the
time spent in the lottery system (counting consecutive lottery's here; as you will lose) will not be
compensated in any way, and will only be further trivialized by their other design decisions here.

They said if you don't win then you would get your gil returned to you.

[Reap00]

They said if you don't win then you would get your gil returned to you.

Bravo! You read that?

[forumaccount]

They said if you don't win then you would get your gil returned to you.

That is correct, and also a moot point. It doesn't contradict my statement that your overall time investment isn't compensated or factored in the purchasing process.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

That is correct, and also a moot point. It doesn't contradict my statement that your overall time investment isn't compensated or factored in the purchasing process.

What time investment?

Do you think I should be guaranteed my plot of choice because I've been playing since 1.0s beta test?

Or is clicking twice on a placard a time investment, instead of sitting there for hours?


Like, I'm not happy about relocations needing to join the lottery too, but this is much better than what we have now

[forumaccount]

What time investment?

Do you think I should be guaranteed my plot of choice because I've been playing since 1.0s beta test?

Or is clicking twice on a placard a time investment, instead of sitting there for hours?


Like, I'm not happy about relocations needing to join the lottery too, but this is much better than what we have now

Just going to assume you didn't read my post in Its entirety, and you haven't seen the details of the new system.

What time investment? You mean the days you spent acquiring gill, waiting and searching for a plot, and now the days you'll spend waiting for the plot winner announcement?

Yes, the longer you spend in the system, actively pursuing a plot, should be weighted, or compensated, for priority. Else, your time investment is criminally devalued.

[Avatre]

That is correct, and also a moot point. It doesn't contradict my statement that your overall time investment isn't compensated or factored in the purchasing process.

Process will be as follows(most likely):

Bid on housing plot>If housing plot won, build house in allotted time frame; if you don't win, interact with placard to recover money

There was nothing saying you had to stay at the house and do nothing but stare at the vacant lot until the plot is awarded to someone. Go do something while it's doing it's thing....no wasted time there, except the MAYBE 3 minutes to get to and interact with the placard