Guild Housing Discussion [30 million? Fuck off]

ratchan wrote:

Hopefully Yoshi-P releases the starting price for plots of land in the upcoming letter, but I know he wouldn't do that. One week left until the live letter and a little bit more until 2.1 and I will be ready as a 50 carpenter as well as 50 in all gathering. Soon we shall see what furniture recipes we will have

I think it is reasonable for him to announce land and house prices in the next live letter. It was understandable that he wanted to put it off in the earlier live letters, because he was worried about the RMT implications and also because his team needed more information about the economy. Keep in mind that since 2.1 is being released on the 17th, and the Live Letter is being aired on the 14th - that's only a 3-day gap between the information and release. At that point, it's pretty safe to announce the pricing, if only to give FCs a chance to organize their funds and get member contributions going.

Hey guys, I've had quite a lot of time to think about this. The actual content patch itself is great, but the housing component is extremely disappointing.

Basically, housing will no longer be a major focus for us in Patch 2.1. Instead, we will be focusing on new content - PvP, Crystal Tower, Daily Beastmen quests and the new extreme modes.

I don't want to settle for a small house, because that's not what we wanted. I absolutely want a medium house for us, because it was just right for our company size. Everyone who saw it, was genuinely excited to have one. We discussed pooling our money, discussed furnishings - some people even maxed out their crafting skills just for this. That sort of incentive to log on and work together is priceless. Unfortunately, due to poor economic surveying by Square Enix, none of this will be happening.

30,000,000 gil for the shittiest fifth-class plot is absolutely ludicrous, no matter how you put it. I know I used to joke 10 million, or 20 million in mumble/chat - but Yoshi took my figures and then proceeded to shit on them. If I am giving the impression that I was somewhat stunned at the announcement of prices, that is because I am very much stunned - considering that Yoshi and his team had ample time to analyze the economy. They are going for a gil economy soft-reset, they don't give a shit about FCs owning property at all - they saw this as a chance to zero out illicit gil, and the pre-2.1 gil explosion in the early days, and they are taking it.

The prices listed only benefits one group of players - the super gil-rich of FFXIV. Only they alone could afford medium and above housing. Either that, or the 500-member zerg guilds, where each member only need contribute a nominal amount of gil. Most FCs don't have 500 members, and most of them certainly do not have members holding more than 10 million on their person. In the Live Letter, Yoshi said, "I was really surprised at how much money people had!" - when in reality, he should have been surprised at how much money most people didn't have. By focusing on the rich population on servers, he manages to skew the average gil retention amongst players to come up with a figure that only serves to punish the majority of players.

In doing so, Yoshi perpetuates class warfare, and encourages RMT at the same time. You will have the super rich players telling average casual players that they don't deserve housing content because they can't afford it. These super-rich players will continuously spout bullshit like, "I have 25 million - it was easy, there is no excuse for poor casual players". You will then have the people in small FCs that are not super-rich forever disenfranchised and disillusioned with an exclusive housing system they might never get to enjoy. God forbid, they don't play the market or spend hours crafting to make pretend money to pay for a virtual home. The point of the housing patch was to bring FCs together and give people a reasonable goal to look forward to. All we have now, is essentially a diamond gate with a guard that tells you, "Sorry, super rich only".

The only winners will be the China farmers that are already laughing all the way to the bank. A period of time where they can inject huge sums of virtual currency to an individual without raising suspicion? Oh yes please!

Disappointed.

I think there's a huge misunderstanding from Yoshi's point of view.

He benchmarked housing prices using the super rich of FFXIV. He is doing that to perform a soft-reset on the gil economy. Unlike real economies, you can effectively regulate virtual ones using money sinks. This is economic energy that essentially disappears from existence.

There are essentially three groups of people that this directly affects: The super rich, the upper class, and the homeless majority.

The super rich can afford the big houses, and premier land spots already. These are the guys Yoshi-P is trying to dent. What he doesn't understand is that, these players are so rich that they can afford to buy multiple housing plots by themselves. This is because they already made the wealth from either 1.0, or from the early price-gouging days of FFXIV. Wealth was essentially transferred from thousands of players to just them - and thusly, they hold the majority of wealth within the server. You can call them the elites, because that is what they are - economically speaking. They can pay the ridiculous prices, simply because they won't even be fazed by it.

The upper class are those players that are already considered rich by most standards. The difference is that, unlike the super-rich - these guys will most likely be adversely affected, financially speaking. They are presently wealthy, but in order to buy a house that isn't a refugee tent - they will have to give up a large majority of their wealth holdings. These people would be the first amongst the three classes to feel the heavy sting of the exorbitant housing prices. Still, despite maxing out their gil credit cards - at least they would still be property owners. They may not have mansions, or the best land slot - but they will be land-owners with a base nonetheless.

Finally, you have the homeless majority. We essentially fall into this category. Although not "wealthy" by any measure, most people have enough to sustain themselves - and provide modest contributions to their free companies. It's called the homeless majority, because as it turns out - the majority of players aren't in the super rich, or upper class bracket of players. Yoshi completely failed to acknowledge this, because he was too caught up trying to deflate the wealth holdings of the first two groups. Ironically, the only people he manages to anger are the very people that couldn't participate in housing.

The super rich don't give a shit, in fact - most of them are already on reddit posting pictures of their new homes - without mentioning the high prices, because they are already fucking rich. The upper class may say a thing or two, but even they ignore the pricing - because at the end of the day, they also own homes and land. It's people like us that are making the most noise, because we are tuned enough to realize that there's a shitzillion of us that might never, ever, get to step into a home that we could call our own.

Housing has been a black mark on Patch 2.1, and it should be. It's the most poorly-conceived, rubbishly executed, and divisive addition to the game - that may as well not exist outside of the two most wealthiest user brackets in this game. I'm happy that housing has received across the board bad press, both within and outside the FFXIV information sphere - keeping in mind that a lot of Japanese players also find the prices retarded. When you get to price brackets like these, it's not about entitlement, it's not even about dangling a big carrot in front of communities - it's ultimately about Yoshi and his team taking a shit in the collective mouths of the majority of players that have been wrongfully denied promised (and hyped) content.