The Real Problem with Housing

[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.