Instanced Housing

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With the coming of Ishgard housing, I really feel the need to get this out in the open yet again. I want to make my argument FOR, instanced housing on FFXIV.

1. The Neighborhood Feel is an illusion: I've been playing since 2015. In the span of those five years, I have only ever had ONE person walk into my yard out of curiosity - and only because they always saw me crafting. There is no neighborhood feel, other than being forced to see your neighbor's giant Paissa. EverQuest II has instanced housing and I met FAR more people standing outside of the instanced housing crystal than I ever have on FFXIV.
2. Medium to Large populated FC's are trying to compete with thousands upon thousands of other players for a house that is big enough to accommodate them: Yet there are hardly any medium houses or mansions to accommodate their needs. On congested servers like Balmung, individual players are Lucky if they can even snag a small plot when a new ward opens. There are so many people who are without a house who have been struggling to try and get one. This leads to insane amounts of gil trading in order to buy one from the Reddit Housing threads/Discord, and it leads to RMT. (Most people pay real money to get that kind of gil to buy for those insane prices. We're talking 150+m just for a medium house.
3. All of the homes are already instanced. (At least on the inside.) So the only thing that would change, is not being able to see someone else's yard from the street. Is being able to see someone's moogle trees from the street SO important that you would deny players the ability to just OWN a house they can call their own, to call their XIV home? Is it SO important to show off that new pond that a Roleplay FC can't purchase a house for their members?
4. If SE would have to upgrade their instance servers to accommodate for the new load, they could easily SELL housing plot licenses and exclusive furniture on the Mogstation for real cash, rather than gil. This would cut down on RMT from outside sources drastically, while bringing in even more revenue for the company to cover the additional costs of server management.
5. When players don't have the ability to buy housing because they read that it's all taken and it's nearly impossible to obtain, they are less likely to begin playing the game: When they are told that a major feature of the game is pretty much inaccessible to them without mountains of gil, or substantial luck.
6. How housing works right now is atrocious, even when new wards are added. Case in point, my own experience: I was #2 in queue the last time new wards were opened. Lobby Server Error. Immediately log back in, #376 in queue. I get to the very last medium house available and someone buys it in front of my face. If I hadn't encountered the Lobby Server Error, I may have a medium house for my FC. Yet, from circumstances not in my control, that opportunity was taken from me and I have been waiting for months for the next housing patch to offer me another opportunity. I am only one person: There are thousands of others in my exact same situation.

I cannot think of a single reason why instanced housing SHOULDN'T... be a thing. The needs of the many over the wants of the few. I wish Square Enix would start thinking that way.

submitted by /u/Angellos84
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