Blizzard still not sure what's wrong with Garrison

[Deleted]

One part of today's Cory Stockton interview strikes me

"Overall, the team is happy with garrisons."
"Moving forward they will look at the parts of the garrison system that worked well to see how they can offer new gameplay that is exciting."


Geez!
You know what would make EVERYONE happy?
Something that almost EVERY other mmorpg have?
Yeah: HOUSING!

Blizzard need to stop reinventing the wheel everytime.
Housing works. Plain and simple.
It provide hours of fun customization and potentially infinite gameplay when it's complex enough (Minecraft anyone?)
It's also 100% vanity so people can ignore this feature without problem.
From UO 15 years ago to Wildstar... even a "small" mmorpg like Rift, with 1% of Blizzard budget, has housing.

Did you ever see someone complain about housing? "Oh now, this game has housing! That sucks :s"

Now come garrisons...
It's like Blizzard took away everything that made housing fun (customization, optional...) and add boring (followers mission) or antisocial (no need to go outside) features.


I thought Blizzard would at least admit they failed and learn from that but I guess I was wrong.

[DeltrusDisc]

Feel free to vote with your money.

I did. Enjoying FF14! ^_^

[La]

Well, garrisons are kind of like housing, and they have phasing.

I mean you can even change the statue in your garrison to, like, five different statues, and change around where you want the buildings. Is that not enough customization for you? /sarcasm

Unless there's some tech reason for why they can't allow you to place objects on walls and rotate things and stuff, there's not really any reason to not have housing. Garrisons and the phasing practically are similar, minus the customization all things considered.

[Deleted]

Feel free to vote with your money.

I did. Enjoying FF14! ^_^

Oh I will join you soon.

@OP yeah when I read that I thought WTF
how can they be happy with that

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Well, garrisons are kind of like housing, and they have phasing.

I mean you can even change the statue in your garrison to, like, five different statues, and change around where you want the buildings. Is that not enough customization for you? /sarcasm

Unless there's some tech reason for why they can't allow you to place objects on walls and rotate things and stuff, there's not really any reason to not have housing. Garrisons and the phasing practically are similar, minus the customization all things considered.

They aren't really housing, that's the problem.

Ok I missed the sarcasm

[Thelxi]

I'll tell you what makes my eyes bleed every day, the orc.. I mean horde garrisons. They are so fucking terrible. It's not just the architecture and general feel of it, the whole thing is completely uninspired and just plopped there at random. Compared to the alliance garrison where you can easily tell that someone put a lot of effort into. It is fucking terrible, I really can't stand it. Can't believe someone took a look at that and said "yeah good enough for people to spent a couple of years staring at".

And that is just the tip of the shitpile obviously.

[Reyzzz]

Feel free to vote with your money.

I did. Enjoying FF14! ^_^

I don't pay blizzard for playing, yet I play.

[tacoking]

Well aside from extensive customizable housing, I think they should delve deeper into the follower missions. There's a mini-game to be had here in the vein of X-Com: Enemy Unknown. I would have liked to see these follower missions in real-time from a Diablo point of view. You're a commander or general and you don't really get to lead your army or small squad anywhere. This would add tons of hours of gameplay and actual fun which is a direction I believe the game should be heading. I don't want to feel like I have to do things. I just want to login, play and have fun. Personally, Battlegrounds are where the sort of gameplay I speak of mostly lies. For the most part if you're geared and don't really need honor for anything you're playing just to have fun, possibly chill with your buddies. Whereas other outlets in the game are usually dangling a carrot. Long story short, I either want to do things or I don't and I don't want to FEEL like I'm negatively impacted if I don't. Agree or disagree, I think we all mostly want fun things to do, yea? Thanks!

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

I thought Blizzard would at least admit they failed and learn from that but I guess I was wrong.

In general, most companies will never make a statement that "we fucked up". It's just bad from a PR standpoint. Most of the time Statements regarding them making a mistake are more along the lines of "we could have handled the situation better" or "we see that there is room for improvement". That's exactly what blizzard is doing here. By saying they will "look at the parts of the garrison system that worked well" they are already acknowledging that there are parts of it that did not work out well....they're just spinning their statement in a more positive direction.

To me, that sounds very much like they could be taking the features that did work in the garrisons and using them to create something more like housing.

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I don't pay blizzard for playing, yet I play.

Doesn't really matter in the long run...Blizzard still makes money from you playing.

[Deleted]

Doesn't really matter in the long run...Blizzard still makes money from you playing.

Even more.

[huth]

Geez!
You know what would make EVERYONE happy?
Something that almost EVERY other mmorpg have?
Yeah: HOUSING!

Housing wouldn't make me happy. I'd probably just ignore it.

[mvaliz]

I don't pay blizzard for playing, yet I play.

Yes you do, even if you buy a token and it's not your actual money. Net result is you're giving blizzard 20 EXTRA dollars via somebody else's wallet. Thanks to you - Blizzard is not up your $15 dollars, but somebody else's $20. They have made more money off of your actions that they could've made off of your subscription.

[Deleted]

I wish I could close the games from the outside, then set the Garrison on fire with all the NPCs still inside it. THAT would make me happy and be a perfect fit for garrisons.

[xanzul]

One part of today's Cory Stockton interview strikes me

"Overall, the team is happy with garrisons."
"Moving forward they will look at the parts of the garrison system that worked well to see how they can offer new gameplay that is exciting."


Geez!
You know what would make EVERYONE happy?
Something that almost EVERY other mmorpg have?
Yeah: HOUSING!

Blizzard need to stop reinventing the wheel everytime.
Housing works. Plain and simple.
It provide hours of fun customization and potentially infinite gameplay when it's complex enough (Minecraft anyone?)
It's also 100% vanity so people can ignore this feature without problem.
From UO 15 years ago to Wildstar... even a "small" mmorpg like Rift, with 1% of Blizzard budget, has housing.

Did you ever see someone complain about housing? "Oh now, this game has housing! That sucks :s"

Now come garrisons...
It's like Blizzard took away everything that made housing fun (customization, optional...) and add boring (followers mission) or antisocial (no need to go outside) features.


I thought Blizzard would at least admit they failed and learn from that but I guess I was wrong.

Can we get this thread locked please? Blizzard said no such thing. In fact when they said they will look at the parts of garrisons that worked well that directly implied there were aspects of it that didn't work and wouldn't be used going forward.

Oh and before people start claiming that Blizzard is "out of touch" with player complaints, Blizzard's disagreement on player complaints doesn't mean they don't understand them or don't acknowledge them.

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Oh I will join you soon.

@OP yeah when I read that I thought WTF
how can they be happy with that

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They aren't really housing, that's the problem.

Ok I missed the sarcasm

I know this may come as a shock but contrary to popular belief different people having different opinions is ok and yes that actually does in fact mean Blizzard can be happy with garrisons while some players are not happy with them. If players want Blizzard to respect their opinions then they would do well to respect Blizzard's opinions when arguing against them.

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In general, most companies will never make a statement that "we fucked up". It's just bad from a PR standpoint. Most of the time Statements regarding them making a mistake are more along the lines of "we could have handled the situation better" or "we see that there is room for improvement". That's exactly what blizzard is doing here. By saying they will "look at the parts of the garrison system that worked well" they are already acknowledging that there are parts of it that did not work out well....they're just spinning their statement in a more positive direction.

To me, that sounds very much like they could be taking the features that did work in the garrisons and using them to create something more like housing.

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Doesn't really matter in the long run...Blizzard still makes money from you playing.

You do understand that when they say there is room for improvement that actually is an admission of something not being perfect right? That isn't PR speak, its simple english.

[Xar226]

Yes you do, even if you buy a token and it's not your actual money. Net result is you're giving blizzard 20 EXTRA dollars via somebody else's wallet. Thanks to you - Blizzard is not up your $15 dollars, but somebody else's $20. They have made more money off of your actions that they could've made off of your subscription.

Which only matters to people with unhealthy obsessions with Blizzard, whose primary desire is to see them suffer for some perceived slight. Rational adults make a decision about how much a given form of entertainment is worth to them and pay it or don't pay it. He's found a way to enjoy something for $0, and your only takeaway is a need to chastise him over the fact that Blizzard made five extra dollars.

[Barnabas]

Oh boy they aren't gonna sell me on any continuation of garrisons. I can't even say I can pick out what I liked about them. If they want to engage players then make things you use to character to complete. Don't make a facebook game and call it content.

[Varabently]

I don't pay blizzard for playing, yet I play.

I hope you're kidding; if you're talking about tokens, you're obviously still paying for the game. You are trading your time for another player's cash. Blizzard gets the cash either way. In fact, if you buy tokens, you're paying MORE for your subscription, since the token costs more. Instead of paying "nothing" you're actually giving blizz extra money. Don't get me wrong, I have used tokens since they went live, but you have to realize you are still giving blizzard money. It might not come out of YOUR pocket, but it doesn't matter to them. Your sub counts in their numbers and they get extra money. It's all the same to them.

Edit: On topic, I enjoyed garrisons for a while, but it starts to become much too job-like, especially with the token. Honestly, I think the tokens + garrison was a big reason I stopped subbing. It felt too much like I HAD to farm gold now, to continue playing. I know that's not the case, but it felt like that, and the game took another form than it did before. Before I was paying a small amount of money, and now I feel forced to play so I don't have to pay the money. It's a weird psychological thing, but it really does lessen my enjoyment of the game. It's a good example of when a convenience or obvious quality of life improvement (adding tokens) to the game has unintended consequences that are hard to understand or anticipate.

[melkesjokolade]

everything is wrong with garrisons!

[Lady Dragonheart]

I would blow so much gold and money on Player Housing... >.<

[Barnabas]

Which only matters to people with unhealthy obsessions with Blizzard, whose primary desire is to see them suffer for some perceived slight. Rational adults make a decision about how much a given form of entertainment is worth to them and pay it or don't pay it. He's found a way to enjoy something for $0, and your only takeaway is a need to chastise him over the fact that Blizzard made five extra dollars.

Nothing is free in this world and with warcraft you pay more for less in the end if you buy token or not. So keep up the good work and maybe you'll get half a patch besides one you got this expansion in the next expansion as a reward for keeping the quarter reports looking good lol.

[Deleted]

Housing wouldn't make me happy. I'd probably just ignore it.

Indeed and that's the point

I'm not a PvPer, but as long as it's not mandatory so I'm totally find with other players enjoying battleground or wathever.
Garrisons though are mandatory: if you don't built them you can't have legendary ring, you can't go to Tanaan jungle, you don't have access to tens of quests (Harrison, campaign etc.) and of course you'll be way behind with all the professions.
In MoP the farm was very limited but at least it was optional.