It really is something that should be in the game by now. The player housing in SWTOR was the best part of that game. If they do it right it could be one of the best things added to the game. If not then it will fucking suck like garrisons did.
Man some of the people in this thread dont seem to understand that not everyone raids and then logs. Most players enjoy doing side stuff like collection and transmog. Housing would go right along with that, somewhere for the player to customize and make to their whim. FFXIV is the next best MMO to WoW and they have housing and things arent barren so the whole Garrison excuse is out the window.
Plenty of games have it. Just because you wont use it, dont deny it from other players.
What does that have to do with housing? Housing was one of the most praised features from that game. The thing that killed Wildstar was the hardcore difficulty and dedication required in that game. Something that players asked for but apparently couldn't actually handle. Also, please, PLEASE stop referring to that sad shit they released in WoD as housing. Garrisons were SO fucking far from housing that it's an insult to even equate that sorry system to housing. Look at FFXIV for housing. It's not even the best in the market but it's the sole reason that I still subscribe to XIV, I own a mansion and decorate and redecorate all the time.
Sure if it wasn't instanced, but we know that's how it would end up being. I'll pass on cosmetic garrisons.
And the thing with Wildstar is that it STILL has a huge fan base, with people working on crafting a private server currently. Wildstar got shut down because the company just didn't care about it anymore. People were still subbing and playing the game in large quantities. There was never a time when I didn't see the major hub city empty. It was always full of people. So when people say things like "wildstar had player housing and look how that ended up" literally have no idea what the hell they're talking about.
The funnier thing is, and I shit you not, walmart still sells the game.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/WildStar-PC/37201790
want
we (well, you tbh) WANT player housing, we dont need it at all, thing is all it would add would be more collectible items, which there is a lot of anyhow, and place to hang out ALONE, which mmo doesnt need at all
i would actualy argue its the last thing wow need, we need more reasons to go out in the world, not a place to sit at...
For one, they could easily add a system in place that lets you jump around to people's housing without being invited to the instance to just look at what the person has collected and made like they did with Wildstar. Two, roleplayers would eat it up. Not a massive part of the player base but it's the opposite of "hanging out alone". Three, people like collecting and building stuff. Look at how successful player housing has been in every single MMO that has included it.
I think at the end of the day the reason WoW doesn't have player housing is because the engine is too old for it maybe? Blizz is lazy and doesn't want to redesign the engine to accommodate housing. It's a tall order. Most games that have player housing were designed from the ground up to have that feature,
Wildstar kept people playing for YEARS. It was shut down because the company didn't give a fuck about the game anymore. The fact that there's a massive discord for Wildstar where people are working to make a private server kinda shows there's plenty of people that want to keep playing. And SWTOR is still going and even just recently came out with an expansion.
You really underestimate the power of housing if you think it won't draw people to the game.
As always, there are several problems with player housing, that cause Blizzard to avoid it:
1) Houses don't have artwork, shared with all other world, like it was in Wildstar, and therefore tons of new artwork would be required.
2) Game engine is extremely weak and doesn't support lots of geometry. Remember, that even now patch x.3 always causes much slower loading, forcing players to buy SSD?
3) Too low profit/effort ratio. Blizzard can't "sell" housing, as it isn't forced content, like Garrisons were. Some players like it, some don't. Some will spend a lot of time there, some will simply avoid it. Therefore they wouldn't be able to 100% return money, spent on development.
4) Currently Blizzard hate features, they would need to support in a long term. They like xpack features, they'd abandon after xpack's end. Just because they want xpack development to be cheap (and price to be high, yeah). And housing would need to be long term feature, requiring lots of support. Something on a par with raids.
5) May be some technical issues, as too much space in DB per character (making it account-wide will help), too high network bandwidth to load lots of geometry on players' computers, too much extra space on disk, forcing players to buy 240Gb SSDs.
Last edited by WowIsDead64; 2019-10-18 at 06:01 AM.
I don't care about Wow 11.0, if it's not solo-MMO. No half-measures - just perfect xpack.
WildStar failed for other reasons. Housing is still one of its most memorable features all these years later. I never heard of anyone abandoning WildStar because of the housing. Period. I can list many other things that players didn't like about the game, but housing certainly wasn't one of them. It's one of the primary reasons the game is being reverse-engineered right now to have a fan server (read: private server) now that the game is dead. People want to get a canvas to design the home of their dreams.
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People (the devs included) always show up with the stupid "it would make the cities empty!" argument, while conviently ignoring games which have player housing and in which the cities are anything but empty.
It's the opposite. Guild Halls << Housing, Guild Halls are only content for a hand full of officers, their best use is as a side product of a full housing implementation.
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That is such a non-factor since most people are at max level and you can only stock up 1.5 levels anyway. Also I will never get how people derive "immersion" from a bunch of tawts stacked up within one another in a nightmare of clipping errors in front of the AH NPC. Why does this rubbish give you guys such a hard on?
I didn't read all, but one thing:
In Lord of the Rings Online is player housing and it's implemented just fine. And you see many people in the world and in the towns. Because the housing is implemented really clever.
1. Instanced Neighborhoods with different styles of houses (2-4 rooms) and guildhouses. Special guild-requierements for buying guildhouses. 1-3 Storagechests in the house, depending on the size.
2. 1 house pro account, every character has access. (in wow it's a little complicated because two factions, but maybe that changes?)
3. Pay a price to 'own' (move in) and pay a weekly rent depending on size of the house. (with option to pay for several weeks in advance). If the rent is not payed for a while, everything in the house is sent to an NPC where one can get the stuff back. The house is then open for a new buyer.
4. In every house are several options to change things like ambient music, walldecors and what characters from other accounts have access to in the house. (crates, moving furniture, paying the rent or just visiting or no entering at all etc.)
5. every neighborhood has a few NPCs for trade and a bank. NO auctionhouse and factories for professions. (professions are a little more complicated then in wow)
6. If all houses in a neighborhood are sold, (or close to) another neighborhood is automatically generated. There is a NPC at the entrance where you can have a list of all neighborhoods and the free houses in in. And you can mark the ones as favorites where your house is and the guildhouse and the house of your best friend. So you can invite your friends to your house you give them the name of the neighborhood and street and number. They can find you there.
For customizing: there are several 'slots' in every house and backyard for different things. Like furniture = bed, table, chair and stuff. There are slots for carpets, flowers, lamps, pictures and many, many other things.
You can buy items, get them from quests, different professions can make some, find them in the world from monsters or buy at events. There are really many possibilities for getting decorations.
(a very special items needs several months to get. A profession, do some quests, find some seeds at a event in spring, plant the seeds and harvest the item in autumn at another event.)
The neighborhoods are close to the capitals in the starting areas of every race. Every race can buy in neighborhoods of other races. Every character of the account gets a port to the neighborhood, if you own a house.