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

[Swnem]

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.

I actually don't. Cause there's 2 FF MMO's. XI and XIV. But from your hints i guess you mean XIV? I cannot imagine that you lose your house if you unsub. If it's true it's really bad of them. But that is not a rule of housing. It's a rule of that game.

[Weallscream]

Wow is too crap for housing. Wow mapping is idiotical and underscaled. It cannot support housing when towns are basically 2 buildings. Wow it's an mmo where you have to pretend.

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I'm not sure about housing, but I'd be down for guildhalls. Something to show off the achievements you've earned in a more social way. Statues you can build, stuff you can decorate and move around, all within a social environment.

Housing itself... meh. Would be nice but I could just play Animal Crossing instead honestly.

No thank you
Garrisons were enough. They toyed with this idea in vanilla of creating guild keeps but it was scrapped and I can see why due to bad scale.

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Hasn't the engine supposedly gone through a lot of modernisation though? I remember Brack (not sure though) saying that if they ever wanted to do e.g. a World of Starcraft, they'd just use WoW's "modernised" engine.

Nope
The same WC3 engine on roids which is laughable in comparison with other games.

[Neuroticaine]

What would a housing system accomplish? Most games that have it are nothing but a freemium trap. There is zero relevant gameplay that it adds. It is a complete waste of resources.

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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.

Not sure what you're talking about.A - there is no 16. B - I've been playing 14 off and on since launch (even before ARR) and I've literally never lost anything for unsubbing? C - It's honestly the only MMO worth playing other than WoW except maybe GW2 for very small bursts of time. I enjoy TERA and BDO, but they're definitely not long-term investments at all. In fact, if you play either of those games in the long term, you're probably setting yourself up to hate both of them.

[hynx]

a housing system? name more than 1 game that got the housing relatively correct in an mmo setting. then lets look at how that will affect the games playability. it wont really. outside of being another gold sink to flex your epeen trophies. (with exception to actual RP servers...) its a stupid waste of "content" and resources, both in server data, development & R&D to get it right. I could see an actual guild hall/fort/bastion for guilds but not for individual players, screw that.

[Soon-TM]

What would a housing system accomplish? Most games that have it are nothing but a freemium trap. There is zero relevant gameplay that it adds. It is a complete waste of resources.

Nope, it isn't. It's one of the most praised features in ESO and GW2, and it was one of the few unquestionable strong points of Wildstar (even if it couldn't offset the otherwise dumb decisions from devs). Even in Path of Exile, chasing exclusive decorations and furniture for your "house" is a huge incentive to run challenging content - and it works like a charm.

[Reforge]

Nope, it isn't. It's one of the most praised features in ESO and GW2, and it was one of the few unquestionable strong points of Wildstar (even if it couldn't offset the otherwise dumb decisions from devs). Even in Path of Exile, chasing exclusive decorations and furniture for your "house" is a huge incentive to run challenging content - and it works like a charm.

WildStar housing was bar none the best housing feature in any game I have ever played. I loved the customization

[bufferunderrun]

a housing system? name more than 1 game that got the housing relatively correct in an mmo setting. then lets look at how that will affect the games playability. it wont really. outside of being another gold sink to flex your epeen trophies. (with exception to actual RP servers...) its a stupid waste of "content" and resources, both in server data, development & R&D to get it right. I could see an actual guild hall/fort/bastion for guilds but not for individual players, screw that.

the real value of true housing system is to not have any gameplay that could affect raid/dungeon/quest attached to it; a purely cosmetic feature that don't bring any actual advantage in game, blizzard already did try to attach stupid gameplay advantage to housing and the garrison was born that brought all sort of downside to the game even long lasting one like the gold overflow that we had to keep dealing with 2 xpack later.

Housing by design should be totally optional, like pet battle, collecting mounts or achievements, is that peoples that won't care about it? Sure it is in wow different peoples care about different things, there are those who never collect anything, those who never care of treasures or even pvp/raid/dungeons/quests, who cares?

The problem here is blizzard control freek philosophy, they basically cannot stand a system with high degree of customization, trasmong is a good example, out of all the dressing features among all the mmo/single player third person game i know wow system is by far the most restrictive and heavy controlled we have, housing by default should have a freedom that blizzard don't want to grant players.

Another aspect that blizzard hate the most are system that span across more than one xpack, blizzard really don't want to make long standing feature that carry for more than xpack in blizzard mind once an xpack end we should abandon everything behind, unless they go for an airship/starship/boat and force the player to move it on the new territories they never let you set a permanent (albeit instanced) house lets say Barren or any older zone risking players not to stay permanently in the new xpack zones.

[hynx]

t
Housing by design should be totally optional,

you yourself said it. BECAUSE IT IS OPTIONAL FOR PLAYERS TO USE IT, IS VERY GOD DAMNED LOW ON THE PRIORITY OF THINGS THAT SHOULD BE WORKED ON!!! Pet battles, while unnecessary, are more than just a cosmetic (in game) walk-in trophy closet. it has nothing to do with your theory of blizzard being a control freak, and everything too do with it being such a niche minority thing, that has extremely low margins of return for the effort it would take to create; that blizzard wont touch it. And i applaud them for making that decision, because a loud few keep whining (you included) in your echo chamber about how blizzard is oppressive, when in fact its a matter of keeping investors happy. Yes that usually means keeping the players happy in the process, but if a 2m dollar project endeavor will only aid in retaining a total of 250k annually in sub income, then its a very bad investment. The investors, the CEO and other higher ups would rather tell the loud echo chamber niche minority to go fuck themselves on this one and go else where, instead of sinking money into wasted efforts. plain and simple. the same was originally said about launching a classic/legacy/vanilla server so many years later, but it was a lot more than a niche minority that became vocal about it, and investors began pushing on Blizzard's back. Until the loud crying niche "i want my sparkle princess castle" players grow to a volume of reasonability, and start voting with their wallets by NOT SUBBING ANYMORE, blizzard will never invest the time/effort and resources for this endeavor. I do see dead accounts becoming active again over classic, even if the majority of them are abandoned again after 6 months, thats a hell of a lot of surge return for something thats low maintenance. I do not see many players coming back for housing, or even deciding to stick around instead of giving up, because of housing. its minimal on impact, and just a gold sink/grind fest for the aesthetic of an in game walk-in trophy closet.

[huth]

Nope
The same WC3 engine on roids which is laughable in comparison with other games.

What do think how engine development works? Most modern engines are just incremental upgrades of older ones, with the occasional cutting of outdated stuff.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's little to nothing of the original engine left at this point.

[Destinas]

I wouldn't consider housing to be meaningful, unless you're a roleplayer. Though it would be nice but it'll be hard to implement correctly.

I don't roleplay at all, and housing is definitely something I would spend most of my time doing in WoW - if they did it right.

[Ausr]

WildStar housing was bar none the best housing feature in any game I have ever played. I loved the customization

To be fair, that was basically the only good thing in that game. Look what happened to the rest.

[KaPe]

It's pretty weird they didn't even have an attempt at housing - and no, garrisons don't really count. Pretty much all of major competitors have some sort of housing and it's not like they had to sacrifice other content to do it. Obviously it's not enough to keep a game afloat by itself - as proven by Wildstar - but it's something extra to do in your spare time. People already collect all sort of transmogs, mounts and other stuff, the same could be done with (furniture, trophies and the like). Might add some more prestige toward certain activities, instead of single title/mount amongst hundreds. Which title was it for Cutting Edge of boss X again? Oh well, I don't remember, but his head is handing on my wall, so there's that.

Sure, we could claim that it's "wasted development time"... but the same argument can be used about Warfronts. Or Island Expeditions. Or garrisons being useless after WoD. This would be a permament addition to the game, one that doesn't get obsoleted after two years.

And if someone doesn't like it... they don't use it, simple as that. I don't care about Pet Battles, I ignore them and don't demand for them to be removed.

[Acidmetal]

I thought this game was about warcraft and not housecraft.

[KaPe]

I thought this game was about warcraft and not housecraft.

So clever. It's also not about questcraft or raidcraft or dungeoncraft. I mean, going by the name, you should be doing PvP and warfronts only.

[Acidmetal]

So clever. It's also not about questcraft or raidcraft or dungeoncraft. I mean, going by the name, you should be doing PvP and warfronts only.

Killing 10 boars in Elvynn Forest is not combat? Fighting King Rastakhan troops and then fighting the King himself and a troll god of death is not combat? Trying to stop the spread of blight underneath the swamps of Nazmir, killing demons, undead and all kinds of corrupted monsters undergorund is not combat?
Yes, fighting your sworn enemy since the first war began is also combat, you got that part right.

[Lochton]

WildStar housing was bar none the best housing feature in any game I have ever played. I loved the customization

More a fan of ArcheAge housing..

[KaPe]

Killing 10 boars in Elvynn Forest is not combat? Fighting King Rastakhan troops and then fighting the King himself and a troll god of death is not combat? Trying to stop the spread of blight underneath the swamps of Nazmir, killing demons, undead and all kinds of corrupted monsters undergorund is not combat?
Yes, fighting your sworn enemy since the first war began is also combat, you got that part right.

Crafting items is combat? Fishing is combat? Flower picking is combat? Non violent seasonal events are combat?

There are tons of things that have nothing to do with "war" and yet are integral part of the game. Swing and miss with that "joke", sorry.

[Acidmetal]

Crafting items is combat? Fishing is combat? Flower picking is combat? Non violent seasonal events are combat?

There are tons of things that have nothing to do with "war" and yet are integral part of the game. Swing and miss with that "joke", sorry.

I picked some flowers and ate some fish during military exercises. Never built a house though, does a tent count?

[unbound]

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

No.

I think Blizzard is being STUPID.

I completely disagree. You are confusing stupidity for laziness and greed.

Blizz is not confused by the value of implementing housing or a myriad of other things. They fully understand the impact; indeed, they have undoubtedly analyzed the impact and have determined that they will not make sufficient return in 2 years to bother expending the effort.

People need to stop treating Blizz as a group of people looking to produce the best possible game. Those days are long gone. Once WoW became the juggernaut in the MMORPG space, its fate was sealed.

Blizz is a corporation. A corporations primary purpose is to maximize profits for their shareholders...full stop. Blizz simply produces games to support that primary purpose, just like Ford produces cars to support that primary purpose.

Like any other corporation, they will cut any corner they can in the name of those profits. WoW is *incredibly* profitable because they spend so little on it compared to the revenues they are taking in. It is much cheaper to hire a couple of PR folks to tell you how awesome the game is than to actually expend the effort to create awesome expansions and provide awesome content for your monthly fee. Sure, they've been losing customers along the way, but they've been able to milk even more money out of those that remain with increased emphasis on the store and the $20 token (which ultimately means Blizz receives $20 / mo for subscriptions in lieu of $12-$15 / mo).

[Yriel]

I never got the appeal of housing, all housing zones i visit in MMOs are always full of houses but devoid of players but there seems to be some people who enjoy it, so why not.