Player housing, will Blizzard ever get the message?

[Deleted]

I've played a game which had you travel across planets etc.

You could use one of your fraction's ships or your guild's ship.
Fraction Ship was instant and free. Like WoW zeppelin.
Guild ship needed your entire guild to work together to build it. It could travel in space and PvP when in Space. So you would use turrents , cannons and jump onto their ship. You could dock at planets / space docks to repair etc. The docks would be instanced and show 2 other random ships that are in the same phase as you.

If we have an argus expansion we could use a similar system.

[SodiumChloride]

Well exactly. What purpose does it serve other than that? You mention collecting doodads? I'd prefer the art team to be working on armour and weapons and instances etc. They seem pretty stretched to be working on weird "mundane" things like lamps and tables.

That's what you prefer. I have my own preferences, thank you.

[seam]

They never said "No guild housing!"

If anything they said it's a very real possibility...

so housing in WoW would have to go beyond just visual customization with some gameplay elements or something else actually interesting.

Gotta read a whole quote.

[Deleted]

People requested this since vanilla but I don't get it. I mean whats the point?

[Anjerith]

Player housing in every game excepting UO was largely just a dungeon instance that only the player and people in their group could go into. They would decorate it with their various items and then leave it along, or they would sit in it and do ... stuff.. then log off.
This is best summarized as two major issues that Blizzard has been working to get rid of;
- Players sitting in cities and never leaving them.
- Players logging in, queuing, then logging off without having moved from their login position.

Just because Blizzard doesn't do something you want does not automatically make them ignorant of the situation, as the title suggests. It means they have yet to find a compelling way to implement it that wouldn't negatively impact the gameworld.

[Eazy]

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?

I agree you you, Wildberry.

I'd like to see more end-game content than something called "player-housing", it's waste of their time and it'd be useless.

[IAmBizMarkie]

Tibia did an awesome job at player housing. Of the games I've played that had it, Tibia was probably the best. All the major cities had houses/flats for rent and players can openly sell them to each other. If the person quits and stops paying their rent, their stuff is cleaned out of storage and put into their depot. Then it goes back on the market and is open for bidding.

LotRO had pretty good player housing also.

What neither of those games had were dungeon and battleground queues, so you couldn't live in your little hut 24/7 and play the.game. You kind of, you know, had to travel wherever you needed to go. I know that sounds very neanderthal, but it exists. There's still life outside of the city.

[Jessicka]

That's what you prefer. I have my own preferences, thank you.

What, like sitting looking at doodads? What's wrong with the doodads in instances then?

[SodiumChloride]

What, like sitting looking at doodads? What's wrong with the doodads in instances then?

Nothing wrong with staring at the wall in instances.

Nothing wrong with player housing.

Don't want it, don't take part in it.

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I agree you you, Wildberry.

I'd like to see more end-game content than something called "player-housing", it's waste of their time and it'd be useless.

All that raid content sure is helping with the sub heh.

[Bizerk]

Pretty sure more people play to raid than will play to have some useless house you spend 10mins decorating then never visit again because its pointless.

[SodiumChloride]

Pretty sure more people play to raid than will play to have some useless house you spend 10mins decorating then never visit again because its pointless.

That's because there is nothing else to do in WoW but raid and PVP.

[brirrspliff]

i think they already got "the message": we do not want player housing, it's boring an unneded. we can buy barbie homes or play sims if we want "housing". it's a RPG - have you ever heard of pen&paper sessions where the heroes are at home cooking up some veggie soup?!

[SL1200]

I do not want player housing. I want new 5 man dungeons, I want new raids, I want professions to work correctly. They've already got things to work on, the last thing we need added to this game is housing,.

I'd say Guild Halls are the answer here. There literally only has to be one hall in every main city, it's shared by guildees (which would take care of the "no one can ever see it" thing), and the decoration changes based on your achievements. The goal could be to create an environment for you to meet new guildees and build relationships (bringing more community back to the game).

Don't see the down side here, and I think they are missing out on a great community building opportunity.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...hts-Reportable

That's why we don't want guild housing.

[Naxere]

You have a farm with a little house with it... theres your player housing gg!

I think this would've been fine, if we could customize our little farm plot/house other than adding a few things that you can't interact with.

[helusay]

It was a success in RIFT.

Pretty much this. I am sure that there was minimal development time spent for TRION to do this as it was all done with pre-existing models/maps. You can even open up your housing to friends and guildies and you can have guild housing also. Maybe Blizzard just doesn't want to do this, and that's fine. It sure is enjoyable in RIFT, I have spent hours messing around with my house.

Hopefully Blizz would pull it off in a good way, it would be amazing.

I think if they did, they would have to follow TRION's example, Then people would cry about Blizzard copying RIFT.

[Deleted]

the only time ive seen a instanced personal space made to good use was in runes of magic...

you could have personal houses, but that was nothing, you could have a guild castle, where to upgrade it, needed guild members help to supply mats, as it was a FTP game, it ofc had the insane amount of mats needed to get something. but heres the thing, there was a guild siege, where you were pitted against another guild, castle vs castle, the 2 instances will merge and you will try to basically own each other.

[SodiumChloride]

the only time ive seen a instanced personal space made to good use was in runes of magic...

you could have personal houses, but that was nothing, you could have a guild castle, where to upgrade it, needed guild members help to supply mats, as it was a FTP game, it ofc had the insane amount of mats needed to get something. but heres the thing, there was a guild siege, where you were pitted against another guild, castle vs castle, the 2 instances will merge and you will try to basically own each other.

Dude, stop it. You are making me depressed.

Depressed that Blizzard is so "backward" in their understanding of Player Housing and how narrow minded and selfish the section of their player base that oppose Player Housing is.

[Chirri]

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.

[SodiumChloride]

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.

If Blizzard is getting the message, they have got the wrong one.

Nothing to worry about though, as subs keep dropping because "raid, raid, raid" is not for everyone (actually it's only for a pathetically small minority that yells a lot), they will eventually get the right message.

Someday, they will remember it's World of Warcraft, not Raids of Warcraft.

[Santti]

I don't know, I'm not really a big fan of it. Need more reasons to get people in the world, not in instanced Goldshire Inns.