First Come First Serve is a system that will lead to less disappointed players.

[Latorn]

I know this will be controversial, and I know some of you think YOU will be the one to win the housing lottery. But statistically it's not true. There will be a lot more losers than winners.

This is where the problem lies, and why first come first serve is actually a superior system when it comes to freshly released wards.

The fact of the matter is that a multi-day long lottery will attract more player entries than a first come first serve race to the plots. Those that are only casually interested, and aren't willing to race on patch day, will have ample opportunity to enter- and thus there will be more competition for each plot.

For example: rather than having 5 first come first serve "racers" compete over a small plot within the first ten minutes of the servers going live, you now have 50 entries over the period of the lottery.

The math is simple: 4 disappointed players who raced to a house and were unable to get one VS 49 disappointed players who entered a lottery and lost.

Thank you for reading my TED talk.


P.S. I do think the lottery system has a use case, but that's only in regards to relocated plots. Where the additional disappointed players is actually preferential to the current system of having players (or even bots) sit and click for hours on end.

[DeNada]

I would rather it all being based on lottery.

You mentioned that FCFS leads to less players disappointed but at least more players would have an equal chance of winning a plot.

Whereas FCFS only favour the few players who are able to login during the initial rush and able to rush to a plot ahead of everyone else.

Not to mention other players with real life obligations will be excluded all together in a FCFS system.

[Fenril7]

I would rather it all being based on lottery.

You mentioned that FCFS leads to less players disappointed but at least more players would have an equal chance of winning a plot.

Whereas FCFS only favour the few players who are able to login during the initial rush and able to rush to a plot ahead of everyone else.

Not to mention other players with real life obligations will be excluded all together in a FCFS system.

I would like some bad luck protect. After losing the raffle 10-20 times, by that time all the houses will be gone.

Honestly the best chance to own a house is server transfer when the new servers gets in the summer. So what would it be, get a house on a new server, or stay on your old server with your friends? Sad we can’t have both.

[Azuri]

The number of players who want a house doesn't change regardless of purchasing system. It's just that with one system most give up before even trying and with the other they at least get a fair chance.

I understand some are terrified of having fairer purchasing system since it destroys their advantage. But you should really stop coming up with thinly veiled attempts to justify it and simply admit that you want FCFS because it benefits you more.

[Its_Sam_My_Dude]

I agree so much. At least if it was half FCFS and half Lotto, everyone that is disappointed if they didn't log on early enough can get their chance, (even though yep like 99% are not gonna get the house if its above the size of a small. I feel like all lotto at launch will just make odds worse as well with how many people will dogpile plots especially with bots and friends they pay. It feels like its just trying to show how many houses are open, when in reality they are not, and by the time all the lotto timers end within that period all will be bought out, giving players 0 chance to try for more than one house and making everything feel 1000000x worse when you lose. Lotto will be AMAZING months after compared to the random timer, but at launch that's a mega NO for me. FCFS at least has it so people will be able to instantly get their house, and if they don't they go to try for another. I've been trying to get a medium for about 2 years now, and now I just feel completely hopeless at this point and so demotivated considering I have poured hundreds of hours strictly into just decorating houses in this game. Also praying the new island will encourage people to demo if they only use their house for storage and gardening to clear up spaces.

[VerdeLuck]

First come first serve is an inferior system. With FCFS I have to get up at 4am the day of the patch and fight a few hundred people for it before I go to work, or I have to fight bots and people with macros set up to click on a plot for 8 hours. I have exactly 0 chance of getting one if I don't do either of these.
With a lottery I have an equal chance as everyone else, which is better than no chance. I'd rather take a lottery system where I might not win as opposed to FCFS where I know I can't beat people whose entire life is this game and can afford to get up at ridiculous hours and click a plot all day.

[SeiyaSoiya]

Yeah I don't think they thought the lottery system through
On week 1 99.99% of lottery entries will be from fc members, and 99.99% of the winners will forfeit their house because they already won one on another plot

[Jojoya]

First come first serve means players with better hardware/internet connections win the log in queue race and the rest lose out on housing.

It also makes life so much easier for the RMT flippers to get the prime plots they resell for significant amounts of real money.

I don't like the ward system but if SE is going to continue to stick with it at least the lottery becomes a thorn in the side of those exploiting the system for profit. Normal players and FCs have a better chance of getting a house than they would with first come first serve.

[Fenril7]

First come first serve means players with better hardware/internet connections win the log in queue race and the rest lose out on housing.

There will be 1,440 new Ishgard plots. With 6 large and 14 medium, 40 smalls PER ward, are you telling me you couldn’t get a house with FCFS?

Even if 1/2 of the new wards were FCFS that is 72 large, 168 medium and 480 small houses.

[DeNada]

There will be 1,440 new Ishgard plots. With 6 large and 14 medium, 40 smalls PER ward, are you telling me you couldn’t get a house with FCFS?

Even if 1/2 of the new wards were FCFS that is 72 large, 168 medium and 480 small houses.

Just see the below reddit thread during 4.2 Shirogane housing for posterity, I rest my case.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...sh_megathread/

Some choice quotes from the thread itself:
At 6:14AM EST every single house on Balmung was sold in every ward of every housing area lol
Wow. All 720 plots on Lamia gone in 10 minutes
Shirogane sold out on Sargatanas by about 6:15/16 AM EST