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.