Why so many FC plots?

[Nepentha]

Housing was originally designed around Free Companies. Players asked for personal as well, and SE capitulated. This eventually was to the detriment of Free Companies, who found themselves competing with a lot of single individuals for space. SE addressed this by adding land and setting a temporary embargo on personals, so FCs had first pick. After a few months they unlocked it to allow people to purchase whatever remained as personal housing.

SE's attitude is that FCs should get a higher priority on housing, and that is how the allotment of FC wards and personal wards came to be. Whether people agree on that or not, well, YMMV.

Personally, I think it's given rise to the 'shell' FCs everyone keeps talking about. It's not as simple as that, of course, but people like to drum it down to '1-4 people automatically = shell FC automatically = bad'. There's a lot more to it than that.

The social structure of the game isn't as it used to be. Players no longer need to be in the same FC, the same World and pretty soon not even the same Data Center. Linkshells and Cross-World Linkshells and Party Finder make communication and coordination possible outside FC chat. You can move to another World to hang out with friends and do Fates or roleplay. Your static can be made up of 8 people from anywhere on the DC. There's no longer a need to contain people in a big free company. There's also outside influences like Discord, where you can join communities and make new friends or connections.

Free companies no longer provide advantages they used to. Actions are nice, but not make or break. FC rooms are ok but you can get an apartment that won't ever be demolished no matter how many times you change your Free Company. The Workshop and gardening are usually not things rank and file FC members ever touch.

It's given rise to smaller FCs, made of 1-4 people. Sometimes just a sub shack shell, but just as often it's a handful of friends who want control over the entirety of the FC, who are part of larger communities. I'll use myself as an example. Yes, I'm the FC master of a company on Brynhildr, but I'm part of several different communities. Roleplay, housing decoration, PvE content, marketboard sales, etc. My friends in my FC? Many of them are more central on other servers now. It doesn't matter to us, we're still in contact. We talk almost every day, do and plan things together. But there's no pressing need for us to all be located on the same server and cloistered into the same FC. And I see this trend spreading across the various communities I hang around in.

Does this make my FC a shell? By current definition, yeah. But honestly I don't see it that way. I have a friend decorating the FC house to make a stage for RP, for dozens of people to enjoy through planned events. I handle the workshop. Another friend is in there to use the gardens.

And this is starting to become the norm. It's not bad, just different, adaptive. We need to stop assuming small FCs are all explotative sub shacks.

[Wolfund]

Adding to this, massive and large FC are also almost entirely a western thing, Japanese players mostly play in small -15 players. And ironically enough the slowdown of the FC importance in game has ressurected the old 1.0 way of communicating and connecting with other players, nowadays it's becoming more and more irrelevant what FC you're in compared to what linkshell you're in, what discord server you go to and how active you are in NN for example.

Do shell FC exist ? of course. Because some people will never be satisfied with owning just what they can and need to own more/everything for immaterial clout/sheer greed. But they are a lot fewer of them than what people expect, and most small scale FC are just husband/wife, friends... waiting to play together. For all those peoples there is no difference between one of them owning a house and sharing it with the others and a FC of -5 owning a house. Wait I'm lying, it's actually damn easier to pool a couple of people ressources into a single FC house and to try your luck at owning a FC plot than going at it solo, especially nowadays, plus all the FC perks that might be small but remain.

Would I have prefered to have a 50/50 Fc/solo repartition ? yeah, I would have prefered it that way, either to move to ishgard or just to get the fuck out of Goblet. But I'm not about to throw stone at something I, overall, find a good and healthy thing.

Beside whenever there is a situation/scenario with winners and losers, there is always going to be salt anyway. Best thing to do is just to keep an eye out from time to time and not stress over it.

[Vencio]

Unfortunately its our current player base that longs to wanting more and more,

The housing, SAM’s kaiten, PvP.

On this matter of the housing its a sheer display of a frustated particular group that’s on an ongoing train tantrums that just refuse to move along….the game is still huge…buy an apartment & be content with it.

You’re right….it’s a part of sad western mindset that having enough just not enough & strive for more…lovely display of character

[Jojoya]

Unfortunately its our current player base that longs to wanting more and more,

The housing, SAM’s kaiten, PvP.

On this matter of the housing its a sheer display of a frustated particular group that’s on an ongoing train tantrums that just refuse to move along….the game is still huge…buy an apartment & be content with it.

You’re right….it’s a part of sad western mindset that having enough just not enough & strive for more…lovely display of character

It's also a lovely display of character when one feels that what they personally find satisfactory should be satisfactory for everyone else and any dissatisfaction is selfish entitlement.