Where scarcity settles in, the market follows, and Eorzea’s virtual property is no exception. With no legitimate way to get a plot, parallel circuits sprang up.

Officially, FFXIV doesn’t let you resell a property. In practice, speculators found the loophole. An owner can strike a deal with a buyer, agree a price and give up the plot at an agreed moment. All the buyer has to do is be first to click at the right instant.

Prices hit the roof. Small houses change hands for between 50 and 100M Gil. The most sought-after mansions easily top a billion, an insane fortune, the equivalent of months or even years of intensive play. On the Mateus server, a plot in The Goblet put up for auction at 700M finally went for 1bn, to the highest bidder.

These under-the-table deals are arranged on Discord. Originally set up to help players spot free plots, these servers have become full-blown property marketplaces. Speculation moves in, and with it, its excesses.

As one player put it: fake Free Companies that never get past rank 6 snap up houses to resell them for hundreds of millions.

More worrying still, this inflation has given birth to a very real black market. Real Money Trading (RMT) creeps into the system: desperate players buy Gil for euros to afford a plot. On some sites, the houses themselves are traded for real money. A vicious circle sets in, with virtual speculation contaminating the whole game economy.