The Real Problem with Housing

[Big_Bap]

It's simply this:

/thread

[Masenko]

/thread

This thread is about the current housing problem and how it's messed up, not how things were on September 16, 2014. Jesus lol

[Big_Bap]

This thread is about the current housing problem and how it's messed up, not how things were on September 16, 2014. Jesus lol

The reason it is still messed up is because of that update though.

[Brygd]

The reason it is still messed up is because of that update though.

One of the main reasons I tried FFXIV was due to a friend showing me his personal house and highlighting the differences between FFXIV and WoW. Personal housing sure as heck has been used by the developers as an incentive to attract and retain players. The problem isn't the existence of personal housing, the problem is that the developers introduced a highly desirable feature and then failed to sufficiently support it. FFXIV has many design decisions that I applaud and enjoy. To me, their biggest ongoing failure is their inability to provide a sustainable personal housing solution for a player base that desires it.

[EliaStormblade]

One of the main reasons I tried FFXIV was due to a friend showing me his personal house and highlighting the differences between FFXIV and WoW. Personal housing sure as heck has been used by the developers as an incentive to attract and retain players. The problem isn't the existence of personal housing, the problem is that the developers introduced a highly desirable feature and then failed to sufficiently support it. FFXIV has many design decisions that I applaud and enjoy. To me, their biggest ongoing failure is their inability to provide a sustainable personal housing solution for a player base that desires it.

This. Hell, it's even used in advertisements alongside other parts of the game that are freely accessible. So at some point they are going to have to make up their mind. Do they want personal housing to be "prestigious" and "rare" or do they want it to be a facet of the game that anyone who so wishes to do so can hop into and advertise it as a big selling point? The problem is they can't seem to make up their mind on what they want it to be. Why is almost every event still rewarding housing items (including outdoor furnishings) when acquiring a house is such a fickle process?

[Sythex]

Why is almost every event still rewarding housing items (including outdoor furnishings) when acquiring a house is such a fickle process?

Don't forget the way they promote housing items as major features in patch notes and even live letters, they're basically showing off things to the community at large that only a small portion of the player-base can actually look forward to. The rest of us either have to shove furniture and housing items in a retainer to collect dust or sell it.

[Corvus_V]

The reason it is still messed up is because of that update though.

"features are bad"


?

[TwistedTea]

"features are bad"
?

If we look at the history of housing in XIV, ward housing when first released was only for FCs and the original placard prices were exorbitantly expensive (~50m smalls) on some servers.

Ward housing was something for FCs to collectively grind out.

But players complained about the pricing and about wanting personal houses.

SE had initially stated that personal houses would be separate from FC houses.

However, SE did not deliver on this and instead let both FCs and players, purchase the same ward houses.

What happens when you lower the price of a highly in demand item but not increase supply to match?

Prior to 6.1, ~70% of the houses across servers were owned as personals based on Lodestone data.

Limited ward housing was not designed with increasing server populations in mind or every individual player owning a ward house.

SE was short-sighted in pursuing a housing solution like limited ward housing, which is not scalable.

But what makes it worse is that SE persists on doubling down on limited ward housing, instead of providing a fully instanced solution going forward.

Yes, by all means keep the existing ward housing for players who want to fight it out for 'exclusive/flex' houses.

But for everyone else who just wants a house their friends can visit etc, please SE, fully instanced housing is long past due.