Worst housing system in the world

[SilverSp]

Well, in this case we have a lead developer who really, personally likes the ward system because he believes it makes the community more tight knit. That might work on Japanese servers (or not, idk, never been in a Japanese server), but it doesn't work on Western servers very well, and our only option is to keep screaming about it until he decides to stop blocking us out.

As Jojoya pointed out, very few Japanese servers are as full as NA servers. According to ffxivcensus, there are 12,701,623 NA players to 5,532,619 Japanese. That is putting Japan at 44% the population of NA. Not basing that off of endgame population, since you only need to be level 50 to get a house.

On top of that, there are (currently) 24 NA servers for those 12.7 million people, and 32 servers for Japan's 5.5 million. That means if we were to spread out evenly, there would be 529k to one NA server, and 172k to Japan's servers. And there's still technically not enough housing for either, but the Japanese players that want a house have an easier chance for sure.

Does that clear up one of the differences, and why NA players are so much more upset about housing than Japanese players?

Whats this "community and neighbourhood" you're talking about ? i own a small and my data centre is fully sold out with almost no plots available yet i have never seen my neighbour in 2 years at my fc house that i own or the personal house i own and im on almost everyday for 6-8 hours. Lets stop pretending this happens .

[Fleap]

Please try reading my post again.

[Corvus_V]

Whats this "community and neighbourhood" you're talking about ? i own a small and my data centre is fully sold out with almost no plots available yet i have never seen my neighbour in 2 years at my fc house that i own or the personal house i own and im on almost everyday for 6-8 hours. Lets stop pretending this happens .

He was saying that this is more or less the case. For alot of us, there is no "neighborhood." We just get to look at other people's exteriors, and they are almost never there. Anytime I decide to afk for a minute or do something on the side I typically hang out in housing wards because i prefer them to hub cities and I generally speaking do not encounter anyone. The wards dont make people tight-knit, so the "this is our vision" reason is moot.

charlimit

Also, no, I dont know what exactly it costs, but yes, if I didnt care for my playerbase's misery (because its like, just a game or something) and I was in the business of maximizing profit, I might be inclined to reinvest as little as possible to keep something running and keep people engaged on a level i think is acceptable (logging in and doing your dailies/weeklies and logging out) so people stay subbed. Since Im not technically required to tell you anything why am I required to tell you the actual reason I dont want to do something that would cost me more money? Many of the troubles we've dealt with were avoidable, and so is this one. Do I know precisely how much it would cost? No. Have I seen other, smaller, less profitable projects do the same thing? Yes. Why should I be inclined to believe that one "cant" when everyone else can, with less? How could development of the game be so unprofitable when they've continually added less per expansion, and they even felt comfortable enough in sales to stop selling digital copies? How could that amount, subs, speaking nothing or microtransactions, etc; be insufficient to warrant a fix? Its not, and the only answer is for us is to basically say we should have faith that they're not doing it for a really good reason?

Im sorry, I cant be convinced like that. I genuinely dont think that kind of optimism is wise whether I have the particulars or not

I suppose I did say "not hard" but what I actually meant was it shouldn't be/ or more specifically this idea that it is "not possible" is absolutely untrue. I said this before, that same bureaucratic shit Im sure they have to deal with probably got in the way of a server upgrade as well, and itll probably be the same thing here. Yes, I am pissed, because this has been a problem forever, and they are not transparent enough to make it very clear who is responsible for those decisions; but Im inclined to think even people who are very close to this game in particular's development; who cringe and groan and make faces whenever confronted with questions about housing are not particularly empathetic, either.

I apologize for being presumptuous in assuming that normal people who stand to gain nothing from the shitty housing system dont want it to stagnate the way it is. The only people I can imagine caring are venue owners/frequenters, and RMT/house flippers ( the latter whom I dont feel any sympathy for, obviously). There doesnt seem to be any benefit to not having instanced housing, and if it hsd to replace ward housing specifically (it probably shouldnt have to either) it would still be an improvement.

[Bladehawk]

Whats this "community and neighbourhood" you're talking about ? i own a small and my data centre is fully sold out with almost no plots available yet i have never seen my neighbour in 2 years at my fc house that i own or the personal house i own and im on almost everyday for 6-8 hours. Lets stop pretending this happens .

Perhaps your just unlikable and they avoid you?

[Masenko]

Perhaps your just unlikable and they avoid you?

Projection

[SilverSp]

is that why in the entire data centre the residential district has 1-2 people at any ward at anytime even though login ques are over 2-300 people and 99% are busy in limsa and NOT in a housing district anywhere in any city for the last 4 years in a row
?

[SilverSp]

Keep pretending "Neighbourhood and community" exists in FFXIV housing wards and allow 1 out of every 100,000 people own a house even though everyone pays to get access the game and housing is advertised as an in game "feature"

This "socializing " happens once in a blue moon or maybe never. Ive never heard anyone say "Man i really became good friends with my neighbours around my plot" instead i hear "its a ghost town i never see anyone near my plot ever online at the same time so i just go do something else cuz that socializing never happens"

[Fleap]

snip"

Friend, you might need a break. Several of us are saying that the concept of socialization in wards is bad, that the socialization nearly never happens, and its not worth keeping the old system. Several of us are agreeing with you, you're just not following through with what we are saying and getting heated.

[Oizen]

I don't think anyone sane thinks the neighborhood feeling is worth it if it means excluding 95% of the playerbase.

[YuzuyuVolanti]

It's off. [snip]

Thank you! Well said.

Even as someone who has a house, I'm still invested in making it accessible to everyone. It should be.

The ward I live in, I really only see one of my neighbours- sometimes two coming and going (if you don't count my boyfriend who lives on the next plot as a neighbour, then it's 3, I guess). And this is only sometimes- I can go days or weeks without seeing anyone but myself and my boyfriend running around, maybe a friend that warps over to say hi or be a lawn gargoyle. The ward is, and has just about always been, fully populated since I got here. The fact that I've only ever seen two of my neighbours is staggering. I see houses that have sat literally unfilled and unchanged for this whole year- in particular, one of them is a large with no deco, and just a pool in the yard. I've never seen the owner. There's an FC plot right next to mine (and below where my former FC plot was), barren yard, never seen the FC members. I've only seen one house demo, too.

This whole "neighbourhood" point they wanna hammer on seems senseless. I like it, in theory, but in practice it's just creating a nightmare we don't really need. If giving my "neighbourhood" plot up meant giving everyone access to housing, I'd do it 100 times over. I'm sure some people don't feel that way, of course, but it is what it is.

Heck, I'd even be open to them just continuing to increase the wards dynamically like LoTR (I think) does. I think a system where you always start with a small and have to upgrade to or construct a bigger home (with more resources/gil) would be preferable and would make those, eventually, accessible to everyone. Progression feels good and keeps it a nice gil sink.