(09-22-2014, 05:23 PM)LiadansWhisper Wrote: Does it matter a whit if the prices are lower if no one can actually get the houses because there's no room and wasn't any room 20 minutes after the servers came up? Â I mean...really?
This.
Most of the legitimate complaints I've heard, seen, or read over the latter half of this past week boil down to, "there weren't enough plots added for there to be housing available for purchase after an hour."
Balmung was supposedly sold out of small plots a mere 14 minutes after the patch went live and servers came back up. That's absurd. Put aside that personal housing turned out to be the same system as FC housing, put aside that individuals are now competing with FCs for housing, put aside whatever Yoshi supposedly promised before radio silence from Square Enix... those who'd worked their rear ends off to be able to afford small houses should at least have a fair chance at acquiring them, and that ought to mean a larger window than a mere hour or less.
The current system by which FC and personal houses are purchased is, to be honest, inadequate. It favors those with no commitments, high-speed connections, and high-end computers who can be available as soon as as the patches go live and who can phase in and out of zones fast enough to travel an in-game distance sooner than others.
I care little for personal housing - my FC was lucky enough to snag a house back in... 2.3, I think it was?... we're small enough that our members can take turns with gardening, and we all have access to chocobo stables, and we helped each other purchase our personal rooms. That said, the above is the one failing point in Square's implementation of housing acquisition, IMO, and I feel for those who've voiced their grievances. "We had the gil, but we weren't able to be there when patch went live." "We had the gil, but we took too long to phase in."
I sincerely doubt that the small plots from the new wards coming with 2.4 will be available longer than a day at most. It'd be optimistic to hope for more than a few hours. Anyone who's not able to be online, patch quickly, and phase quickly as soon as the patch drops will get screwed again.