I think lotto is better than placard hell in terms of overall fairness (speaking as someone who vastly preferred first come/first serve and placard hell), but that doesn't fix the main problem, which is that a big gameplay mechanic is locked behind a severely limited resource that most players will possibly never get to experience. I love the housing system in regards to furnishing, so it sucks that so many players a limited to apartments at best (or not even that on balmung), which are extremely limited in what you can do with them, but it's honestly really messed up that submersibles/airships and gardening are locked behind owning an actual house.

Like, ffxiv is an incredibly popular game, and square enix is an incredibly successful company. I understand that the housing system is flawed from the premise, and fixing it would require a lot of resources, but it's still so ridiculous to me that people pay every single month so they can be completely gated from two entire aspects of the game. While I really hope they at least implement some form of instanced housing for people that aren't lucky enough to get a house, I don't understand why they can't find a way to allow people to use the fc workshop and gardening without owning one. Even something like upgradable apartments, where you can increase the interior size and unlock garden plots would be nice.

Limited content like title or pvp glams is one thing, but housing stuff has an actual affect on the game (aetherial wheel buffs, gil from gardening and company workshop), so it should be accessible to anyone who is (literally) spending money every single month to play this game. And also, the decorating system is pretty in depth and really enjoyable, so I think the. Paying Customers. of this game should actually get to use it. It's fine if it takes a lot of gil, or an in game grind, but people are literally just not allowed to access the content until they get lucky off of pure rng.

like, I have a personal and fc house, and garden plots on 4 different houses through the tenant system, and it still makes me super mad. A ton of my friends have been trying to get a house for years, and they still don't have one after 50+ (that's the minimum, btw) hours of mindless placard clicking. And while the lotto at least means that they don't have to click a placard, the increased accessibility and limited number of wards means that it's very likely that they'll just never get a house at all. if someone is paying 15 dollars a month to play your game, then they should actually be allowed to access all the content in the game. dumb fuckin system.