Housing for All

[Xylira]

What F2P MMORPG is giving all of its players an entire island to decorate for no additional cost?

Rift, which has been F2P for ages. Granted it was previously a subscription based game when its housing system was originally added.

The 'personal dimension' system is the analogue for housing in Rift, the majority of dimensions can be earned from just playing the game normally, and includes a number of really large ones. The only things paywalled are some of the premium dimensions, premium decoration items, along with expanding decoration item count, albeit the base item count limit upgrades available through in-game currency are already much more generous than what FFXIV offers. And it's all instanced so literally every player can get their own housing/dimensions, and they can be made public or private/invite only.

So yes, FFXIV's housing system is woefully behind in comparison to what some F2P games offer.

[Jojoya]

Rift, which has been F2P for ages. Granted it was previously a subscription based game when its housing system was originally added.

The 'personal dimension' system is the analogue for housing in Rift, the majority of dimensions can be earned from just playing the game normally, and includes a number of really large ones. The only things paywalled are some of the premium dimensions, premium decoration items, along with expanding decoration item count, albeit the base item count limit upgrades available through in-game currency are already much more generous than what FFXIV offers. And it's all instanced so literally every player can get their own housing/dimensions, and they can be made public or private/invite only.

So yes, FFXIV's housing system is woefully behind in comparison to what some F2P games offer.

I played RIFT for several years. Dimensions remains my favorite housing system and a lot of what I've recommended in this forum for housing improvements comes from my experience in RIFT. But one thing that needs to be acknowledged is the heavy cash shop monetization that drove most of the system. That I did not like.

Implying RIFT gave players an entire island to decorate for free is disingenuous. What we got for free was a tiny piece of the starter zone for the character's faction and something like 10 items to decorate that had little relevance to each other.

The large Dimension Keys earned through game play were either a serious grind or obtained through extremely lucky RNG, especially if they couldn't be purchased from the auction house. How did players ease grinds in RIFT? Buy items and potions off the cash shop that provided QOL. A lot of the better Keys were locked behind the cash shop, and all too often the shop loot boxes. Could you technically earn them through game play? Sure, after hundreds of hours of platinum grinding whether to buy the Key for the crazy platinum price or use the platinum to buy REX from other players (who used real money to buy the REX) to get the store credits.

Let's not forget the cost of getting items to decorate a Dimension once you got the Key. Sure, there were some very basic items at vendors that you could buy for platinum, or even silver in the case of the more basic Building Blocks. But it was the Dimension loot boxes off the cash shop that contained most of what players wanted. Some of it would end up cheap on the auction house thanks to whales buying hundreds of loot boxes trying to get the rare items but the whale had still paid real money at some point for the item to get there.

In the end, there was almost always some money involved even if it was another player who paid it. I don't consider that free.

[Xylira]

... Implying RIFT gave players an entire island to decorate for free is disingenuous. What we got for free was a tiny piece of the starter zone for the character's faction and something like 10 items to decorate that had little relevance to each other...

Hold on now. You asked what F2P games let players 'get a whole island to decorate at no additional cost'. Rift does allow F2P players to do just that, without having to engage in any RMT, which is what I was pointing out. Do players still have to earn it in game? Yes. Can it be grindy? Also yes. It's also true that there are a whole slew of decoration items only available through RMT purchases, but there are also plenty of crafted or vendor purchased decoration items as well. Yes there are limits, but that's not what you were asking.

I wholly agree with you that Rift's monetization went crazy and has a lot of undesirable elements to it. Particularly since Trion went under and Gamigo bought the game from them. Independent of that however, it's still true that the basic dimensions that were added to the game prior to all the RMT nonsense are still attainable purely through in-game earned currency, which includes several larger dimensions such as the Moonshade Highlands one.

Even so, the dimension system was initially added to the game when it was still subscription only and had no cash shop. The game is 2 years older than FFXIV and completely blows FF's housing out of the water, aside from the shady monetization tactics that were later slipped into it.

[Solowing]

Even so, the dimension system was initially added to the game when it was still subscription only and had no cash shop. The game is 2 years older than FFXIV and completely blows FF's housing out of the water, aside from the shady monetization tactics that were later slipped into it.

And yet it had to Go F2P...Almost like housing isn't enough to float a game...

SWG Fans still talk about their housing, and their game was shut down.

All of XIVs eggs are not in the housing basket, nor should it be. To put more eggs into its basket you'd have to take out another basket. But those baskets are floating the game.

I get why y'all want change, but they are too deep in the hole, and requires consideration for both sides. Not "Gimmie what I want, and damn everything else"

Instanced Housing is fine, but how will they respect the commitment to keeping a ward plot active while giving other equivalent plots without the commitment is the question.