Furthermore, even though I won a housing plot, I still contend that the housing system in FFXIV is one of the worst in our genre, bar none. The fact that housing space is artificially limited is awful, the lotto system is agonizing (I can’t begin to tell you how many guildmates who have been in the same years-long housing drought as I have been were wailing at their lost bids), and the stopgap solutions of apartments and guild hall rooms is hilariously miserable when compared to the size and sensation of actually having a house.
After participating in the land rush in Final Fantasy XIV a few weeks back, I wrote a couple of posts about the game's housing system. I listed the different types of housing available and the requirements to own a home. But before I make the housing system sound like the greatest invention since Hot Pockets, I really need to bring up some of the shortcomings of the system.
I have a little experience with housing systems in MMORPGs. I loved my place in Everquest 2 back in 2008-2009. The Elder Scrolls Online, not so much. ZeniMax Online Studios allows players to purchase the really good homes in the cash shop and I took the company up on the offer. I really shouldn't have. I looked at the price of the house I purchased a few years back in ESO. The current price of the furnished house is over $100.
Square Enix doesn't sell plots of land, but has a bunch of other issues. Chris Neal wrote an article back at the beginning of February listing some of the weaknesses after he won a plot of land during January's land rush. I used his article as the basis of this post and added some additional details I don't normally see.
The major design choice that lead to most of the complaints is the limited amount of housing plots in the game. Except for some of the newer servers, each world has the following number of plots:
- 900 large plots for mansions
- 2100 medium plots for houses
- 6000 small plots for cottages
In addition, each world has 300 apartment buildings with 27,000 one-room apartments. The way the developers dealt with the limited amount of housing contributed to most of the remaining complaints.
A major complaint is players cannot own the exact home in the exact place they want. A lot of players would prefer to own a mansion in The Mists, the housing district for Limsa Lominsa, next to a beach. But since only a couple of plots of land meet those requirements in each district or sub-district, only a lucky few can call those places home. And a lot of people who can't obtain the plot will loudly complain about the fact.
A closely associated complaint is the limited amount of homes a player can own. Many players love decorating homes. Others like the idea of living in each of the five housing areas on each world. The limit of three domiciles gets in the way. Worse, only one is on a plot of land. The other two are an apartment and a private room in the free company's house.
Because of the limited housing, Square Enix instituted a lottery system for the chance to buy a plot. While much better than the old system of clicking on a placard for days, the lottery system does have some aspects that can irritate players.
First, players can only bid on a plot once every nine days. The cycle comprises a five day entry period followed by a four day collection period. Not too bad, but something some players will complain about.
I've seen complaints about the requirement to post the gil for the bid upfront, with players losing the lottery receiving refunds. But the refunds are not automatic. The losing player has to go to the housing site and click on the plot's placard to receive the refund. If not collected within 90 days, the gil is lost.
Winners don't automatically receive the plot of land. The player must travel to the plot and click on the placard to claim the land. Failure to do so within the four day collection period results in a refund of 50% of the lottery deposit. I believe the requirement was put in place to discourage free companies from bidding on multiple plots of land. Winning more than one plot could get really expensive.
I see a lot of complaints in various comments sections around the internet about how in order to keep a house, players need to stay subscribed. While not exactly true, the complaint is close enough. Players lose their houses if no one enters the instance for 45 days. The restriction affects privately-owned homes a lot more than free company housing. For free companies, the FC loses the home if no FC member enters the home for 45 days, not just the owner. But yes, technically a player will definitely lose their house if unsubbed for 45 days.
One detail I don't see mentioned often, though, is that some items are destroyed once a player moves their home or otherwise demolishes their home instead of being sent to a player's storage. Housing destruction from not entering a home in 45 days does the same thing. Did I mention some of those items that are automatically destroyed are cash shop items? Square Enix flashes up warnings about such items, but a lot of players will purchase them anyway.
Those are the complaints about features directly related to the design decision to have limited housing. But I have two more to add. The first is the decorating system. The really advanced decorations require glitching the items into place. My big complaint on this front is, "Yoshi-P, why can't we put items on wooden lofts?" Incredibly, while the game provides wooden lofts, players cannot just put things like beds, chairs, or dressers on them. Those items need to be glitched into place. A very time-consuming process, especially when just learning how to glitch.
Also, players cannot sell items once the items are placed in a home. The game does provide a preview tool, but when decorating a new place, sometimes ideas don't work out and expensive items are no longer useful. Something for new home owners to think about, especially those without a lot of gil.
The final complaint isn't really a complaint I've heard often, but might go some ways to explaining why Square Enix doesn't just combine the indoor and outdoor housing into one big instance. Character limits exist for how many can go into a housing instance.
Contrary to what a lot of articles imply, the inside of a house is an instance, which is why apartment buildings can hold 90 apartments and free company houses can hold up to 512 private rooms. And each size instance can hold a limited number of characters, with minions counting as characters. I don't know the limits for apartments, private rooms and cottages, but the limits for houses is 80 and for mansions 100 characters. The limits are a problem for nightclubs and very large free companies. If the event is going to draw more than 100 people, prepare to herd everyone outside where the limit doesn't exist. For nightclubs, sometimes that option doesn't exist.
Now, I rather like the design choice to go with housing limited by physical location. But some of the consequences of that decision rub a lot of people the wrong way, including gaming journalists. I figure I needed to acknowledge some of the complaints before going on to show the good things about the housing system in FFXIV.
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