Remember FFXI’s Housing System?

[SerenityLuministia]

Let’s take a moment to remember FFXI’s housing system. Final Fantasy XI is Square Enix’s 1st MMO, the game is also about to hit being 20 years old now.

Housing in FFXI was very simple but also very fair for everyone. In FFXI everyone, and yes, I mean everyone just starts out with a house don’t even have to buy it. In fact, it’s part of the gameplay. The housing is instanced, and everyone gets the same size house. You can do a quest later on, at your own leisure to add a 2nd floor as well. Only thing that varied was the style of walls and such depending on the city you belonged to.

Housing in FFXI was used for decorating with furniture, planting your own crops in flowerpots, changing jobs at the moogle in your house, and storing items.

The furniture you added to your house would also have increase your storage space and different furniture would give your character different buffs and effects.

Why is this important? Well, it shows us that Square Enix is fully capable of making a fair housing system for their MMO players.

Now let’s go back to FFXIV’s housing system. In my own personal opinion what happened with the Ishgard housing was doomed from the beginning, and I mean before we even knew about number 0 winning and wards 1-18 being FC housing only, leaving personal housing to be even more vicious than before. The way I picture the new lottery system is basically the equivalent of throwing an ice cube at a burning dumpster.

I’ve mentioned in the past and I will mention again as so many have already done. FFXIV needs instanced housing. Square Enix has shown in the past with FFXI that they can do it and do it well.

This isn’t like a rare shiny mount that’s locked behind a luck system and even then, you can keep trying. FFXIV Housing is an entire gameplay system that’s locked behind luck.


-We don’t need wards.

-We don’t need apartments.

-We don’t need small/medium/large houses.


What we do need is a system with equality. Everyone gets an instanced house at their own leisure and upgrades it with more rooms and floors when they can/want.

[Colt47]

No, the problem is that housing isn't a gameplay system at all! It has no mainstream function in the game. What happened is that retainers became the one stop shop for all functionality that would normally be attributed to housing, leaving the housing simply a trophy system that people fight over that the dev team has constantly tried to find minor ways to make it relevant. Sure, free companies have functionality that is tied to the housing, but there's really no reason that this requires a physical location in a limited availability plot system that has been constantly abused by every kind of group imaginable.

If anything, it looks like the rentable rooms at the city states were supposed to be the housing, but then got retconned into this temporary abode thing and then we got this weird system.

[SerenityLuministia]

No, the problem is that housing isn't a gameplay system at all! It has no mainstream function in the game. What happened is that retainers became the one stop shop for all functionality that would normally be attributed to housing, leaving the housing simply a trophy system that people fight over that the dev team has constantly tried to find minor ways to make it relevant. Sure, free companies have functionality that is tied to the housing, but there's really no reason that this requires a physical location in a limited availability plot system that has been constantly abused by every kind of group imaginable.

If anything, it looks like the rentable rooms at the city states were supposed to be the housing, but then got retconned into this temporary abode thing and then we got this weird system.

I would have to respectfully disagree; housing IS a mainstream function in the game. Let’s remember this is a game, its main purpose is entertainment. Everyone experiences entertainment differently. Some people like to fight bosses, others raid, some like fishing, others like crafting, while others still enjoy housing. There are some people that play this game just for the decorating and housing aspects of the game and have no interest in dungeons or bosses. Everyone should have a equal opportunity to enjoy all aspects of the game.

[Heh]

I'm against fully standalone instanced housing it would be lonely and devoid of neighborhoods just like in ESO, bad. They just need to make the wards grows as the server population needs. It's 2022, there is no way their servers unable to handle more than 24. These people are paid customers for cactuar sake, not a free loader in your house SQEX. This artificial housing scarcity is doing more harm to your community with zero benefit. Except to those who managed to grandfathered their plots.

[MicahZerrshia]

I'm against fully standalone instanced housing it would be lonely and devoid of neighborhoods just like in ESO.

As someone who has had a house since they introduced housing I have to say, this is a null point, there is absolutely zero interaction in the housing wards. You barely even see other people. The one or two ppl who come on here and talk about how friendly their neighbors are, do not even in the slightest sense, represent the wards of ffxiv. While the forced community was backed up with some good intentions, reality does not always reflect that. The wards are just as lonely and devoid of other players as ESO's, and at least in ESO I don't have to stare at that stupid Piassa skin or that vomit inducing candy cane house skin.

Being against instanced housing in ffxiv at this point is the most absurd thing ever. There will always be the wards, tearing them down to put everyone in their own instance would be one of the greatest blunders in mmo history. So, letting players have the option to do instanced housing instead of ward housing would be nothing but a boon to the housing system.

[Oizen]

I'm against fully standalone instanced housing it would be lonely and devoid of neighborhoods just like in ESO, bad. They just need to make the wards grows as the server population needs. It's 2022, there is no way their servers unable to handle more than 24. These people are paid customers for cactuar sake, not a free loader in your house SQEX. This artificial housing scarcity is doing more harm to your community with zero benefit. Except to those who managed to grandfathered their plots.

I mean currently housing wards are largely empty except for being able to see other people buildings. Unless some FC is specifically holding an event they're practically ghost towns.

I don't understand why this is superior to an instanced based system where people don't get screwed out of this content in the game soley due to a horrendous imbalance in supply vs demand.

[BellBixbite]

As someone who has had a house since they introduced housing I have to say, this is a null point, there is absolutely zero interaction in the housing wards. You barely even see other people. The one or two ppl who come on here and talk about how friendly their neighbors are, do not even in the slightest sense, represent the wards of ffxiv. While the forced community was backed up with some good intentions, reality does not always reflect that. The wards are just as lonely and devoid of other players as ESO's, and at least in ESO I don't have to stare at that stupid Piassa skin or that vomit inducing candy cane house skin.

Being against instanced housing in ffxiv at this point is the most absurd thing ever. There will always be the wards, tearing them down to put everyone in their own instance would be one of the greatest blunders in mmo history. So, letting players have the option to do instanced housing instead of ward housing would be nothing but a boon to the housing system.

Maybe your wards are empty of life buy I interact with my neighbors all the time and my ward is alive. I worked very hard to welcome neighboring houses and interact with them to make a small community. The RP venues also make those wards very lively as well. If you want your ward lively you need to work to make it so. Nothing is given without effort

Housing is not essential to the game. It's mostly for RP purposes so people saying it is essessential are just plain wrong. It is a trophy of a sorts. Instanced Housing completely takes away from the community and would honestly make ff14 feel more like a solo player game. The fact that you can mostly get through the game solo is a benefit and a fault in it. Why make it feel like even more of a solo experience. I'm only talking about your first play through for the solo experience.

[Oizen]

Maybe your wards are empty of life buy I interact with my neighbors all the time and my ward is alive. I worked very hard to welcome neighboring houses and interact with them to make a small community. The RP venues also make those wards very lively as well. If you want your ward lively you need to work to make it so. Nothing is given without effort

Housing is not essential to the game. It's mostly for RP purposes so people saying it is essessential are just plain wrong. It is a trophy of a sorts. Instanced Housing completely takes away from the community and would honestly make ff14 feel more like a solo player game. The fact that you can mostly get through the game solo is a benefit and a fault in it. Why make it feel like even more of a solo experience. I'm only talking about your first play through for the solo experience.

You're already not interacting with a vast majority of players who haven't been able to get houses due to the system anyway. So instead of letting them expierence that aspect of the game at their own leisure, you want to keep it like this for your own little clique?

[Jojoya]

I'm against fully standalone instanced housing it would be lonely and devoid of neighborhoods just like in ESO, bad. They just need to make the wards grows as the server population needs. It's 2022, there is no way their servers unable to handle more than 24. These people are paid customers for cactuar sake, not a free loader in your house SQEX. This artificial housing scarcity is doing more harm to your community with zero benefit. Except to those who managed to grandfathered their plots.

Wards are already devoid of players because most of housing takes place in the instanced interiors that can't be seen from within the ward. My ward has been a ghost town since early 2019 when the one big FC in the ward fell apart due to drama so there was almost no one left at their FC house. Occasionally I see another player at the marketboard and that's it.

If that's where most of housing takes place, then might as well make all of housing instanced. Wards could still exist as the common area players pass through to reach whatever house they're trying to visit but instead of a single player per plot, there could be a couple of dozen instanced plots in each location. That would keep the wards far more lively with more players coming and going.

[MicahZerrshia]

Maybe your wards are empty of life buy I interact with my neighbors all the time and my ward is alive. I worked very hard to welcome neighboring houses and interact with them to make a small community. The RP venues also make those wards very lively as well. If you want your ward lively you need to work to make it so. Nothing is given without effort

Housing is not essential to the game. It's mostly for RP purposes so people saying it is essessential are just plain wrong. It is a trophy of a sorts. Instanced Housing completely takes away from the community and would honestly make ff14 feel more like a solo player game. The fact that you can mostly get through the game solo is a benefit and a fault in it. Why make it feel like even more of a solo experience. I'm only talking about your first play through for the solo experience.

As someone who has had a house since they introduced housing I have to say, this is a null point, there is absolutely zero interaction in the housing wards. You barely even see other people. The one or two ppl who come on here and talk about how friendly their neighbors are, do not even in the slightest sense, represent the wards of ffxiv. .

Found them! I knew at least one would come out of the woodwork to tell me I am wrong. But then they doubled down and said housing was exclusively for RP purposes and I just sat back and laughed and laughed at not only proving my point but also being 'that guy' you know the "We need them for me and mine not you and yours" type.