Player housing, will Blizzard ever get the message?

[Beasty Beauty]

I've always been for the player housing or guild housing/hall. It's a nice touch and you could show off everything your guild has done. maybe have onyxias head from the ciling and some guild banners and other cool stuff. though, I dont see this in the near future.

though, reading here as you guyes say they want it to be somthing bigger if they even put it in.
Why not make it the new hang out city?

Ideas:
- have it a small zone, abt the size of dala and a circle.
- in the middle is a circle wich you can interact with shops, valor and justice vendors, pvp vendors and cosmetic vendor.
- on the top side is a farming/fishing side. There is also flightpath and pet battles here. Here you can learn all secondary professions. there is also dailies to professins.
- on the bottom you have kind of a hall with ah, bank and kind of market with different primary proffesion vendors and teathers. There is also different statues wich you can see different events (cutscenes) troughout wow history. There is also portals to different cities and to lorewalker Shoo and to the Timewalkers.
- on the left side is an alliance player housing or guild housing and on the right side is the hordes. You can show off your own place if you're in a group like with the farming place. Like Dalaran, the other faction gets thrown out.
- in your housing you have a mini farm since you learned to farm in mop, you can show off different swag from achivments, scenarios, events, dunegons and raids you've done. there is also your own stable where you can put your fav owned mounts. The same with a little pet zoo, here they ern rested wich makes them lvl faster. you can also have a bedroom, restroom, party/livingroom and you can upgrade the furniture to your liking.
- guild hall oviously shows off everything your guild has achived and has a party-room. There is also guild vendors here and if you're not in a guild you can make a guild!

Wouldn't that be the most perfect solution?

[Pandragon]

Blizzard has some misguided belief that it would make towns empty. Which they dont seem to care about at the moment as most cities are empty except for Org and Sw cause everything gets put there. But anyways, ti wouldn't unless they put an AH and bank, transmogs and w/e in the houses that you only find in major cities. People would still have to go to the cities.

Yeah, no player housing is a stupid idea, it's not interesting and adds no interesting gameplay whatsoever. I absolutely can not see why anyone would want player housing at the expense of something meaningful like, let's say, interesting end game content?

The point of player housing is, at least for me, a place to chill out that's mine and no one can come around and bother me. If they have trade chat active in the houses then I can chill in my house and do trade stuff without being subjected to w/e morons are wanting to yell around the city, or the lag when 5000 people are on in the city.

[Orly]

I think it'd be kind of nifty if they would create a Gnome and Goblin duo who were in the Real Estate business, and who'd create residential developments in every outdoor zone in the game. I don't know where they'd stuff such a thing, that's frankly not my problem ^_~ but it would allow players to choose where they want their hero's humble abode, give players a reason to visit zones they don't often bother with (in the case of both their own home, as well as the homes of their friends when they want to visit).

This.

I believe this is how player housing should be done. Just add a couple of daily quest hubs in each and every zone in the world (where there's empty land or just wild beasts or random mobs, or even at the edge of towns/cities) and you'll make a lot of people travel the world in search of the perfect place to build their house thru dailies similar to the Tillers one. Make it so the quest hubs aren't there if you don't pick up a quest from a capital city and you have the change just for the people who are interested in such a thing.

But yeah, WoW is too filled up with lolraiders and OMGpvpers that stand in the way. It's not like they'll take something from developing your precious content, since the tech is already there (see: Tillers) and even if they did, it just seems so that overfocusing on raiding and pvping is the reason why subs are being lost. I think these kind of players need a patch with just new char models and player housing. No new raid. No new pvp stuff. A well-deserved slap in the face.

[Deleted]

Not overly bothered by single player housing as you can find this in other games, latest example is Wildstar but for Warcraft I reckon maybe a guild hall we can call our own would be good.

Could have rooms like an inn and even a nice bar all of which could be made purchasable in different varieties of styles etc along with loads of other ways to vamp it up. The rooms themselves could be personalized by players but they instance to each persons preference unless you invited someone to group which would allow them to enter your phase/instanced preference just like they have with the farm we get at Halfhill.

But to be honest I think this should be something that takes a back seat for now and they just concentrate on content i.e raids, dungeons, pvp etc. There's always later

For now, lets just have wow with content and hopefully sooner then later, Titan hehe.

[Baracuda]

The only thing we should ever get is Guild Housing, like Runescape Clans have(though Runescape has housing too). And that house should be out in the world and capturable.

[Deleted]

player housing ? play Sims instead of WoW. even if they create player housing, it'll prob be the same house on the same location only each character has it's own house > like entering an instance. sounds like fun? no... not really.. what would be interesting is if they would us create a whole town, one big continent/instance were everyone can enter and buy a house, this idea however is likely to Never happen because it would take to much time/resources to invest/create something like that.

[Totle]

It's a vocal minority that wants player housing.

The idea is that you go out into the world... not stay at home. You do enough of that in real life.

[vep]

What message? That you want to make your own little house and never touch it again?

[SunspotAnims]

I'd like housing, but I would prefer some variation of it that has an effect on the world. I feel like stuff like guild airships are a crazy idea in terms of implementation, but I would prefer to have that over houses if they can fly out in the world and can fight and whatnot.

The point Blizzard is trying to make is that they'd only want to put in player housing (or something of a similar sort) if they can give it meaningful connections to the world or other gameplay elements.

[Deleted]

So yeah. That's the front page. Of all the other things that seemed mildly interesting to start a topic on, this is the only thing that really stuck a thorn in my side. I honestly don't think Blizzard gets the point of player housing. Or they do, but they are being completely oblivious as to why it's been something sought after for ages in this game. An instanced, phased or otherwise personalized chunk of the world is exactly what I personally would want. Having all the creative and decorative tools at my disposal I would work a masterpiece and when I was ready and done, I'd show it off to all my friends by inviting them to my group and allowing them to join my "phase" or "instance.

Sounds more like they get what player housing should be, not you.

[Elegiac]

Blizzard got the message, and that's already been stated before in this thread. Multiple times. It's people who are wibbling around about not yet having player housing that haven't gotten the message.

The message: Blizzard has decided that they want the world to "feel alive," and not be empty. The only way they'll add in player housing is if they can come up with a way to both give players the decorative space some players have been jonesing for for 9 years (or more, in the case of beta players) AND bring traffic to the rest of the game world while they're at it.

I think it'd be kind of nifty if they would create a Gnome and Goblin duo who were in the Real Estate business, and who'd create residential developments in every outdoor zone in the game. I don't know where they'd stuff such a thing, that's frankly not my problem ^_~ but it would allow players to choose where they want their hero's humble abode, give players a reason to visit zones they don't often bother with (in the case of both their own home, as well as the homes of their friends when they want to visit).

I'd prefer that player housing NOT be instanced. I had a lot of fun exploring and visiting places in SW:G, and it provided lots of opportunities for player events and gatherings, socializing and fun. Unfortunately, the rest of the game was a wreck and devoid of much population after the Jedi unlock grind became clear, and (at least early on) there was no system in place to keep the land clear of clutter from inactive players/accounts... but it did get players out of the cities. They also had a freaking awesome crafting system (not the best, but much more interesting than the majority of MMO crafting systems).

Anyway. Blizzard gets it. They just haven't made it a big priority, and thus haven't come up with a way to impliment it without going against their current goals for the game. (and I have extreme doubts that adding player housing would bring back enough players to make a half assed, instanced version of housing more worth Blizzard's while; WoW became absolutely gargantuan without player housing, it's clearly not that one special thing that makes games popular)

Someone mentioned Battle Pets being pointless but making it into the game - that person conveniently left out the part where people who participate in the system (even if they're just collecting rather than competing against one another) actually have to go out into the world to hunt down and tame the majority of those battle pets. I've seen more players out in the world while very slowly growing my collection than even while questing on lowbie alts. Some are competing for battle pet spawns, others are doing arch, but the only reason they can see ME out there is because I'm huntin' battle pets. Player housing would need to do something at least vaguely similar, and not just in terms of gathering ore and pelts for professions already in game.

And turning housing into a zero-sum game would be equally as bad since it defeats the point of player choice in the first place.

[Rhaktor]

I see little reason to want a house. If blizzard gave me one I guess i'd use it? A little, maybe.

Might I suggest you put your designer desires into action on your own house/flat/abode? Might even find it more rewarding.

[AVPaul]

I just wanna ask you one question. Why most people on forums, as long as developers, has an assumption, that live open world is good for game and instances, phasing, etc. - are bad? Is it only me or anybody else also doesn't feel like he definitely needs to see crowds of other players around him? I heard this whines during Cata, but don't understand why devs has fixated on them, cuz there were plenty of controversial compilants at those time. And I just don't see how "open world" helps to maintain game's health. At least 4.3 stabilized the game and in MOP game just keeps losing subs with not decreasing pace. For me "more players" -> "overcrowding" -> "messed up gaming experience". And things like instancing and phasing just helps to keep number of players at comfortable level. I just don't understand. Is it all just about ganking?

[Deleted]

Could care less about playerhousing. Its something that will be fun for a few hours and then grow old very quickly. A dynamic world where real struggle for control over zones would matter and where players actually would make their mark on the gameworld development is what I'm interested in, and could make the world alive. EQ: Next (if its not all hype) could perhaps deliver that. Untill that I'll be happy with raiding the finest encounters still.

[Deleted]

There have been plenty of good suggestions from the fanbase, even great ideas in other games you can take ideas from. In my opinion, the "do you want x or a raid" standpoint is good for raiding, but hurts on some levels the game.
Its good they start to hire more people to start the things that where not touched to long

[BFGrid]

I've said this before, and I'll say it again.

Player-owned ships that you can customize and use to sail from island to island in a South Seas / Broken Isles themed expansion. The developers can get around to revamping fishing finally, players could partake in ship-vs-ship combat or invite their friends to their ships, archaeology could expand into retrieving hidden treasures from the depths of the sea.

Sadly, only in my dreams...

[Deleted]

Housing can not simply be done by just puting houses in the world. It has to be interesting, maybe even some challenges, the whole guild needs to be able to enjoy it.

[Deleted]

for housing? I'd like an instanced place where I could decorate, play games, get some food from the fridge, invite my friends and guildies in, and throw some parties with provided disco balls

Pretty much this. Would be a wonderful idea, although I can imagine it's something that'll never happen since Blizzard are always talking about getting more players out into the world & it's kind of doing the complete opposite with people in phased/instanced areas. Blizzard have gone back on their word before though.

[tiporispit]

Housing worked for a little while in Ultima Online when not many folks could afford the deeds but soon became a big problem. Because there was always going to be a limited amount of land available to place a house, pretty soon all the available land was grabbed and houses placed, which resulted in two problems. One, if you wanted a house, you couldn't have one because you couldn't physically place it anywhere. Very frustrating. And two, the world became filled with houses. So any clear open spaces that existed when the game was launched suddenly became full of houses. So you were having to navigate between them all the time and generally it was pretty annoying. Imagine the barrens full of houses. You get the idea.

The problem was compounded because if a player quit the game, their house would remain standing.. so you had lots of ghost houses in the world that were never used. Origin tried to fix this problem by forcing them to decay which would lead to people camping abandoned houses for literally days waiting for the house to finally collapse, which would immediately free up the plot (and place all the items held within the house on the ground.. phat loot). That was fun times. But eventually all those plots would be taken up too and they were back to square one.

I quit the game shortly after that point. So I don't believe physical world housing works.

The only way I can perhaps see a half way point is if they were able to instance "neighbourhoods" where you could perhaps have a house that sits along side houses of other guildies or friends. But I think it would be too messy for them to implement. I'm sure Blizz will be sat watching how well the housing works out in W* and will copy it in some form if it's a success.

Housing had nothing to do with UO's decline. Their numbers increased month over month until the release of Age of Shadows revamped the core mechanics of the game. Like most things in that game, housing was comprehensive and mirrored a real economy, adding depth that is not found in Warcraft. An actual real estate economy developed. You could buy and sell houses. For many, the acquisition of a house after months or years of grinding was the penultimate experience, much as it is in the real world. The hoarding of wealth, and diversity of housing types allowed for a never-ending grind to decorate or upgrade your housing. It was a great way to pass time between expansions. Simple services like character transfers in Warcraft would allow long-time players to transfer to a new server to place a house, and the Trammel facet also doubled the player housing on the same servers. The effect of housing on the landscape is a matter of opinion. Wide open, barren areas can be boring to some. I spent MANY a night in UO just walking around the world enjoying the tricks and techniques players used to decorate. Isn't that what WoW developers are always complaining about? Getting people out into the world? Player housing, guild houses, etc. do just that. I'm not saying it would work in WoW, or that they should even try. WoW isn't UO. WoW is inferior in most ways, other than the graphics engine and character diversity. It probably doesn't have the depth of play to ever successfully implement such a mechanic.

[AVPaul]

I think you should watch this, before making any conclusions. As you can see, you have a freedom of choice there: your house may be your personal location, but you may also open it for your friends and even make it public. It also tied to varius kinds of content: questing, raiding, crafting. It's all so great.