However, some fans are not so ready to celebrate just yet. Final Fantasy 14 has always had a housing crisis, and with its new influx of players that joined the MMO this year, it is worse than ever. While the lottery system may be a welcome way to purchase housing, it will likely not solve the biggest issue: That there are way more players than there are in-game houses.
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Final Fantasy 14’s Housing Crisis: Explained
Getting a plot of land in Final Fantasy 14 is incredibly desirable because it is a place players can decorate both inside and outside with musical instruments, plants, retrainers, beds, food, appliances, portraits, and so much more. However, as of October of this year, the game has surpassed 24 million active players and each server only hosts about 5,760 plots. With there being 68 servers, that means on average, a world hosts 353,000 players. Divide players by plots, and there is one housing plot per about 61 players. This math does not even factor in Free Companies, which also can buy houses and typically already outnumber plots per server.
Due to this extreme shortage, players often mob a plot for sale and go to great lengths to out endure their competition during the cooldown timer for the house to be buyable. Players will camp outside available plots for up to 24 hours constantly clicking to see if the random timer has ended. Some even have made bots and macros so that they can try to buy the house without having to constantly monitor the game themselves.
What FF14’s Lottery Will Not Solve
The lottery system will be released at the same time Ishgardian neighborhoods will become available for purchase. It is still unknown how many houses will be included in Ishgard’s wards, but if it mirrors the number of other neighborhoods, then it will be far from enough to make any major dent in the housing crisis. As for the lottery system, it targets an entirely different issue than the miniscule amount of houses.
What the lottery system does seek to solve is the painstaking process of plot-purchasing. With the lottery, players will no longer have to camp outside of plots and endlessly check a random cooldown timer. In that sense, the lottery system may be a long-needed change in Final Fantasy 14. However, with a new system, new problems can arise.
The ease of placing a lottery ticket instead of camping in front of an available plot will likely make way more players join the housing competition. As mentioned before, there are currently about 61 players per plot of land, so the odds of a single person verses 60 others is a rough deal. So while the system is easier, actually succeeding in getting the house may be harder.
The housing lottery will be divided between solo and Free Company houses, which was a smart move by Square Enix since Free Companies ordinarily would have a much greater chance of winning over solo players, since many of their members could get a lottery ticket. In this light, the lottery system leaves little room for players to get an unfair advantage, especially since it is one lottery ticket per account, rather than per character.
The good news is that the Ishgard housing and lottery system additions to Final Fantasy 14 are likely a sign of more housing additions to come. While it is easy for a game to gain a huge following and player base, it is a ton of work to create homes and neighborhoods for everyone while also making the rest of the game expansion. Hopefully, the Ishgard housing is just the beginning to solving the housing crisis one neighborhood at a time.
Final Fantasy 14 is available now on PC, PS3, PS4, and PS5.
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