I'm just gonna say it; Blizzard is being stupid by NOT implementing a Housing system

[Briselody]

The thing is that most games are played to overcome a challenge. At least that's why I play games. So in that sense it wasn't meaningless unless we start being philosophical and call alla games meaningless, which they are in a sense.

Rewards are part of the goal, the challenge is what gives something meaning. Housing woul in of itself not give any meaning and would just be a goal of content we already have but now they give housing rewards too.

I don't mind if they add that, but housing would require a system to be created and that effort I personally find to be more well spent elsewhere.

Housing won't make the game worse, but if the gameplay content isn't good housing won't really save it I think. Except for people who play games just to build stuff. Like Fallout 4 etc etc.

The return of time investment would be immense on Blizzard's part. They'd have to get the housing and placement system set up correctly, yes, but most cosmetic things have been in the game since day one. Boralus, Dazar'alor, and Suramar City have enough new furniture and decorative doodads between them alone to make houses for days. And making new models would be relatively easy: while player/NPC models have to deal with animation and movement, a static item just needs a texture spread over an existing skeleton. I'd bet a halfway decent graphic designer could whip up a new dresser or something in like an hour.

As far as challenge/reward, there wouldn't necessarily be gameplay challenges like you're thinking of with the Mage Tower, but it would instead be an organizational challenge. If this were tied intrinsically to the crafting systems already in place, like many others in this thread have already detailed, then the effort involved in assembling materials would be the "challenge" there and the reward and time invested would be meaningful. This would add a lot to the game for me, personally, as it would be a reward gained through exploration and effort instead of just yet another RNG roulette wheel that so much of WoW is now.

[Vrinara]

Insert Peter Griffins "OMG Who the hell cares!" here.

[rda]

In other games that do this, is this something where I would choose my own location that is instanced, or is there 1 designated spot in each zone?

Also, can you move it around from zone to zone? I assume you can't have multiple.

Different games do different things.

Many use reserved spots on the server, visible to everyone - that's part of the appeal, land suddenly has value, with different pieces of land being valued vastly differently, it can be bought / sold / transferred, etc. So, there are several hundreds spots in one zone, several hundreds in another, etc, and you compete for them with other players. The problem of overpopulation is solved by having multiple servers. Yes, this has pros and cons, of course, not saying WoW should do it like this.

Some games use phasing, you and me can have houses in the same physical location, etc.

In most (all?) games there is a choice of areas available for housing, you cannot place your house just anywhere. This is actually good.

Some games allow you to have multiple houses, why not. They are useful. Ie, you can teleport between them sometimes, store stuff, etc.

[Razzako]

imo Ultima Online is the only MMO to get housing right.

Yep. But since it's not casual friendly it won't happen.

Which is dumb.

[Swnem]

Wow, that A LOT of stuff to lose if you forget to pay for your subscription Yeah I meant the MMO that everyone on these forums seems to be obsessed with.

I've played Rift and Black Desert, both of which have detailed and yet different kind of housing. I've played Skyrim with 120GB worth of mods, many of them which revolved around housing, and I played Sims 2 and 3. Do games like Minecraft, Space Engineers, Medieval Engineers, Ark, Dark & Light and Conan Exiles count too?

None of them could keep me interested in this idea of "building a house where you sit and chill". Building is fun, yes, but then you move on. And it's only fun if you have very wide variety of options, like building from nothing, terrain alterations, fun interactive tools (not just static useless objects), most of which these games don't even have. I mean, not even building a sex dungeon in Skyrim could keep me interested that long.

Needless to say, what you claim is this super duper feature is pretty much a polar opposite of what I read so far.

I'd very much like to see more character customization instead of some useless dollhouse... or mandatory, depending on how convenient or not would it be.


Wtf does Alita has to do with the shit that's in this game?
Mind you, I'm not a FF hater, in fact I spend good years of my childhood playing FFVII and I still love it, I just dislike certain design choices in the MMO game. You know, the "cat girls", "bunny girls", "loli girls", all of which screams "weeb shit".

You lose nothing if you drop your subscription in SWTOR. I don't even know wich game you are talking about cause as i mentioned FFIX is not an mmo.

I don't know how housing in Black desert and Rift is as i didn't play them. But the housing in SWTOR is awesome. And that is enough for me to want the same thing in WoW.
Since i guess you are one of the people that flip at Warfronts and island expeditions, those resources could go to it instead and you'd be unaffected. Besides Housing is evergreen content. There's no better use of resources than content that is always relevant. It actually can breathe new life into old content if decorations are added to old content. It adds vitality to the whole game. If you are that adamant about not wanting to like it, so be it. But many people are clearly interested in it and it will populate all kinds of content. So, even if you don't care about it, even you benefit from it.
Not to mention that if you are not interested you can sell decorations for gold and make profit. Everybody wins.

I mean think about it, housing or another warfront and a couple of island expeditions? I think one is gonna be more useful to players and become relevant for a lot longer than the other.

[anon5123]

I'd rather blizzard focus on making the game fun and interesting before adding in pointless side-crap like "housing"

[White Goodman1]

Go play Sims.

[PenguinChan]

I'd rather blizzard focus on making the game fun and interesting before adding in pointless side-crap like "housing"

This just in, the game designers are the same people as the artists.

Also - knowing Blizzard and their inability to keep content around housing would be a major feature of say, 10.0 - but be forgotten and removed in 11.0.

[anon5123]

This just in, the game designers are the same people as the artists.

ah yes, because to implement housing, you just have to make the 3d models and then it's done, no programming required, no scripting required, no server design required, nope

Thanks for confirming you have no idea what you're talking about.

[Themerlin]

Not just "I want Housing", or "I think it would be a good idea..."

No.

I think Blizzard is being STUPID.

Everyone wants to point to Warlords of Draenor, like it was some sort of "real attempt" at a housing system. It wasn't; it was half-assed, and anyone who has even TOUCHED another MMO could look at Garrisons and see, there was zero passion behind it. Nothing about it was fun or interesting, it didn't offer any ACTUAL personal customization. Everyone's Garrisons were identical.

I think a real, legit Housing system -- especially something that allows you to see other players' houses easily (like FFXIV's system, albeit fairly restrictive) -- would not only satisfying a real, long-standing demand players have had, but would actually attract players *back* to WoW.

Hell, you could even springboard an entire profession off of it, like Carpentry (hell, even introduce Lumberjack/Woodcutting as a new gathering skill), focused exclusively towards building tons of house-items. And of course, you could have various bosses throughout the entire game drop new items, trophies, even leverage something like Archaeology for additional stuff.

Personally? I would give each player a single "island" to build their house and decorate to their hearts content, and have a limited number of "premium" houses throughout the game, which would be unique to that server. So maybe, while everyone has access to a house of SOME kind, the coolest houses would be ones based in specific locations, like Hrothgar's Landing (just north of the Argent Tournament in Icecrown), or maybe one of those previously-inaccessible houses places somewhere in the mountains of the world.

But even if it's just totally instanced-off "islands", I still think there would be a huge draw. Just let players visit the "islands" of other players, either in their guild, friends list, or even a "visit random house".

I dunno. I just really think Blizzard is fucking up by NOT adding a proper, fully-fledged housing system. It might not be EVERYONE'S cup of tea, but I think the MMO industry has proven that Housing, as a feature, is here to stay and not a fluke. It would just give players an additional layer of "things they can do" when they log in.

Just... don't add any GAMEPLAY-affecting reasons to have a House. No "buffs", no "free/extra resources", just an ENTIRELY OPTIONAL thing. Because nothing makes things less fun that feeling *obligated* to do them.

Damn! You said it!

Now what?

[PenguinChan]

ah yes, because to implement housing, you just have to make the 3d models and then it's done, no programming required, no scripting required, no server design required, nope

Thanks for confirming you have no idea what you're talking about.

Hit me up when programmers in a big game studio like Blizzard are in charge of the 'fun and interesting' part in a video game -- then maybe you'll have a point. 'Till then, enjoy thinking Housing would take much away from the game designers.

[Soon-TM]

The thing is that most games are played to overcome a challenge. At least that's why I play games. So in that sense it wasn't meaningless unless we start being philosophical and call alla games meaningless, which they are in a sense.

Rewards are part of the goal, the challenge is what gives something meaning. Housing woul in of itself not give any meaning and would just be a goal of content we already have but now they give housing rewards too.

I don't mind if they add that, but housing would require a system to be created and that effort I personally find to be more well spent elsewhere.

Housing won't make the game worse, but if the gameplay content isn't good housing won't really save it I think. Except for people who play games just to build stuff. Like Fallout 4 etc etc.

And yet one of the most challenging games out there, Path of Exile, manages to get the housing part just fine. E.g. killing tough bosses, and completing challenging content in general, gives you exclusive decorations and furniture, which feels far more rewarding than title #2845726 and mount #3846593 in WoW. And since you will probably be trading a lot with other players, they get to see your cool "hideout" with all those badass trophies you've earned in your PoE career.

[Kumorii]

And yet one of the most challenging games out there, Path of Exile, manages to get the housing part just fine. E.g. killing tough bosses, and completing challenging content in general, gives you exclusive decorations and furniture, which feels far more rewarding than title #2845726 and mount #3846593 in WoW. And since you will probably be trading a lot with other players, they get to see your cool "hideout" with all those badass trophies you've earned in your PoE career.

Not sure what you even arguing against, can't be anything I've said, since I haven't said housing can't work, especially for those that likes it.

[spalernTJ]

Wow used to have class quests every few levels that rewarded special gear or abilities. I fondly remember going all over the world for my whirlwind quest and berserker stance quest

I know. My old warrior still has Whirlwind axe laying around on it somewhere. And I still do not understand why it was removed. Final Fantasy's classes are amazing, and their story questing as well, Blizzard needs to start taking a good look at themselves and others and understand what they can do

[Claymore]

The core issue is probably that housing is too personal and isolated from the world. I get that they could have special housing parts be obtained from multiplayer gameplay, but ultimately you're still encouraging the player to spend a lot of time alone in their own little instance doing their own thing. IMO that's a hard sell in an MMO.

That said I'd like something akin to a Guild palace or airship, where guild achievements that be displayed as trophies and officers can customize the place according to race, class, and other aesthetics.

The Clan Dojo of Warframe is a good starting point IMO, minus the gameplay-enhancing modules it has.

It's only a problem when you're actively ENCOURAGING players to remain isolated, such a Garrisons. As long as they are COMPLETELY optional and COMPLETELY cosmetic, that should never be an issue. No more than just "doing solo transmog runs" in any case.

I would provide *ZERO* "conveniences" for them, as well. No "portals" or quick-travel options (other than to and from your own personal island), just make it an additional feature that you can interact with as much as you feel like.

[Pheraz]

I don't know if they are stupid.
But I know that there is definitely an audience for this.
I know some people who are still bound to their freaking garrison.. Even if I hated, some people like it. So if it's optional why not? But if it's really needed to progress my character no thanks

[wanax]

I know. My old warrior still has Whirlwind axe laying around on it somewhere. And I still do not understand why it was removed. Final Fantasy's classes are amazing, and their story questing as well, Blizzard needs to start taking a good look at themselves and others and understand what they can do

I feel bad I sold mine ages ago but since the quest was ticked off I can xmog all three if I want. I hope they come back around to strong class identity like that. I thought Legion was a step in the right direction with class halls but BfA was 3 steps back.

[Louz]

You lose nothing if you drop your subscription in SWTOR. I don't even know wich game you are talking about cause as i mentioned FFIX is not an mmo.

I don't know how housing in Black desert and Rift is as i didn't play them. But the housing in SWTOR is awesome. And that is enough for me to want the same thing in WoW.
Since i guess you are one of the people that flip at Warfronts and island expeditions, tose resources could go to it instead and you'd be unaffected. Besides Housing is evergreen content. There's no better use of resources than content that is always relevant. It actually can breathe new life into old content if decorations are added to old content. It adds vitality to the whole game. If you are that adamant about not wanting to like it, so be it. But many people are clearly interested in it and it will populate all kinds of content. So, even if you don't care about it, even you benefit from it.
Not to mention that if you are not interested you can sell decorations for guild and make profit. Everybody wins.

I mean think about it, housing or another warfront and a couple of island expeditions? I think one is gonna be more useful to players and become relevant for a lot longer than the other.

I was talking about the FF MMO, dunno whether it's 14 or 16, it's the one that makes everyone's panties wet here, especially some individuals. I mean, you can tell what game am I talking about from the description.

And like I said, people here praise it like it's the best thing ever, but they never mention you gotta keep the sub rolling, else you lose all your precious crap. Plus, if you look anywhere else, you can see that it's not that great, in fact most people don't give two shits about it.

[Jastall]

It's only a problem when you're actively ENCOURAGING players to remain isolated, such a Garrisons. As long as they are COMPLETELY optional and COMPLETELY cosmetic, that should never be an issue. No more than just "doing solo transmog runs" in any case.

I would provide *ZERO* "conveniences" for them, as well. No "portals" or quick-travel options (other than to and from your own personal island), just make it an additional feature that you can interact with as much as you feel like.

Solo mog runs aren't much comparable given that they were multiplayer content at some point previously. Housing would be content 100% made for solo players, and if it is done I'd rather it not be half-assed, which means it would use up a not insignificant amount of resources that I'd also prefer spent elsewhere.

[unlockedz]

rift had/has a great housing system from what i remember...they had rankings for people to vote, people could go in if the house was open for everyone and explore/do the games they had in them. it was a nice touch...i remember one having jump skills/walking carefully on ledges, it's one of those things i'd never do but i'd happily explore one or two once in a blue moon.