If you really hate the housing system in this game so much...

[KayRadley]

...might I offer alternatives?

* No Man's Sky
* Black Desert Online
* Elder Scrolls Online
* Animal Crossing: New Horizons
* Phantasy Star Online 2
* Fallout 76

[Darthgummibear]

Yes, tell everyone to go play something else because of one aspect being grossly inadequate. That has worked out so well for other companies in the past.

[KayRadley]

Yes, tell everyone to go play something else because of one aspect being grossly inadequate. That has worked out so well for other companies in the past.

Then cool your jets and go touch some grass.

[Darthgummibear]

Then cool your jets and go touch some grass.

Way to deliberately miss the point.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Yes, tell everyone to go play something else because of one aspect being grossly inadequate. That has worked out so well for other companies in the past.

Given the amount of people claiming they are going to cancel their sub because they don't have a house, I'd say it's more calling their bluff.

[Batbrat]

Given the amount of people claiming they are going to cancel their sub because they don't have a house, I'd say it's more calling their bluff.

I remember when people in the Tera Online forum used to do this, 'calling peoples bluff's. It was "Go on then, quit!! As if you ever really will, aahahahghahg!!!" until the majority actually did quit and the few remaining had to pay 3 and 4 times the price for the things they used to, to make up for all the lost bodies. Exact same thing happened in the Blade and Soul forum too. It's all 'You wont realllllly leave, who are you kidding!!' until you look around and only see 2 or 3 other players max in-game and no complaints in the forum anymore. No complaints, because everyone who used to try to voice what was wrong straight up gave up and left. Careful what one baits! You'd hate for it to actually happen.

[Alaray]

I remember when people in the Tera Online forum used to do this, 'calling peoples bluff's. It was "Go on then, quit!! As if you ever really will, aahahahghahg!!!" until the majority actually did quit and the few remaining had to pay 3 and 4 times the price for the things they used to, to make up for all the lost bodies. Exact same thing happened in the Blade and Soul forum too. It's all 'You wont realllllly leave, who are you kidding!!' until you look around and only see 2 or 3 other players max in-game and no complaints in the forum anymore. No complaints, because everyone who used to try to voice what was wrong straight up gave up and left. Careful what one baits! You'd hate for it to actually happen.

Kind of, to expand on this thought a little from what the Director of Lost Ark said once in an interview (translated from Korean, and saw a clip of it from someone else's content who was going over it):

He, at least from the bit taken, explained that figuring out what was wrong with the game he designed and developed became an incredibly difficult task. At first, like a lot of people, he thought he had it all in the bag and knew exactly what to do and what players would enjoy; when proven wrong based upon the CCU of the title and comparing to other successful titles and their CCU (and playerbase in general) he felt at a loss for what to improve on "What's wrong with my vision? Where's the problems, the pain points?" and tried to look to the remainder of his community for some sort of critical feedback to start formulating a plan to fix things. However, at this stage, the only players who remained were people who liked the game as it was (despite it being incredibly unpopular and likely staring shutdown in the face) and he described frustration in that as he, himself, didn't have the answers (nor his team) and no one who played his title were able to explain what lead so many to leave in the first place as, to them, the game was fine as it was.

And he did explain that he felt jealous of the larger communities in more popular titles due to being able to have access to player feedback on what felt good, what felt bad and why.

Which is just to say -- if everyone who has a complaint, a critique, with FFXIV upped and quit and only left behind the people who were 150% satisfied, then the game itself would stagnate and struggle to improve and if the playerbase that remained is too small... then it'd lead to eventual shutdown. Imagine if 1.0 stayed just because there were people who enjoyed it, and 2.0 never happened -- the game wouldn't exist anymore, at all.

So there is, at least, truth in that player feedback and critique is valuable even from a head developer's perspective (to the point of frustration when he couldn't get that) and using the hand-wavey phrases (like the OP) would only serve to, really, hurt the game.

(Want to iterate this is just expanding on what you said, since your's is based on the players while this bit from an actual Director was a bit interesting to hear for the company's perspective as well).

[Vahlnir]

Given the amount of people claiming they are going to cancel their sub because they don't have a house, I'd say it's more calling their bluff.

I've got a house and I'm still gonna follow through on my sub lapsing. Will it be largely symbolic? Probably. But if (yeah I know, big if) enough people do it at once, it sends a bit of a message. It is voting with our wallets. What most of you don't really get is that it's not just about housing for a lot of us. It is the multiple failures happening in rapid succession, and their massive blunder with the lottery system/complete lack of supply was just the icing on the cake. These tone deaf responses of "k bye" or "just play something else" accomplish nothing other than making the people saying them look like jerks. We (the ones providing our feedbacK) aren't the ones who look like fools at the end of the day. And if they get the message and do something about it...you're welcome.

[Jojoya]

You forgot to put RIFT on the list. It's still out there and Dimensions (their housing system) are a lot of fun even if the rest of the game is mediocre (not bad, just not good).

Yes, tell everyone to go play something else because of one aspect being grossly inadequate. That has worked out so well for other companies in the past.

Yet there are a lot of players threatening to quit solely because of housing.

If housing is that important to them and they really don't care about the rest of the game, then trying one of the others would appear to be good advice for those specific players.

Exactly why so many glaring issues this game has aren't being fixed. I just find it hilarious, because just the other day I was talking about how many players in this community just brush aside criticism or issues with the game, and tell others to "go play something else".

Sometimes go play something else is the right decision.

That's why I'm here now instead of still stuck in WoW hell. Warlords of Draenor was a mess so I started playing other games, this being one of them. It took me two expansions to accept that I just did not enjoy Wow anymore while I was having a lot of fun with FFXIV so I dropped WoW and made this my main game. It ended up a good choice for me.

Not every game is going to appeal to everyone. If someone can't do anything but criticize the game they're playing, they really need to think about why they're playing it in the first place and whether they'd be better off elsewhere.

Or how about Yoshi P actually fixes the housing system instead of band aid fixes

I can agree with this general sentiment, but there's a problem.

What do you consider a fix? Would all players agree it's a fix or would their be some who felt it made housing worse?

Looking at the debate of ward versus instanced housing that recurs regularly over in the Housing subforum, players do not agree on what would fix the system.

There's also the possibility a fix they agree on would be not be financially feasible. People tend to forget there's a lot more to business expense then loading up a program on a computer and inputting a few lines of code.

[MiaShino]

Sometimes go play something else is the right decision.

Big big issue myself and extended family have is the lack of competition for mmos. Far far too many publishers looking to go whaling and not enough making quality stuffs.

Left Swtorland because of the many game breaking bugs, it was becoming too much. Wished it had small characters too..

Aion ticked alllllll of the correct boxes and I fricken adored the ascetic. That character creator was thing to behold! Had to leave though when they began yeeting all of my neat Cleric skills.

Now I find myself sitting here on what appears to be slowly sinking ship that has run aground in a ship graveyard. We called for help but the rescue boat just struck an ice burg.