Is the end of Shadowlands the perfect time to implement player housing?

[Synical123]

Pretty sure the Garrisons were hated because you could spend most of WoD inside and still get loot, professions and crafting materials without leaving, not because "housing bad"
Sure it's an instanced area you can go with other party members but the only customization you could apply were statues and... racial guards, I guess?

Others would call housing "a waste of dev time". I mean... What are pet battles then? Or worse, pet battle dungeons. And i'm certain there's people that would call PVP a waste of time because they only do PVE

Player housing would take up an astronomical more amount of time to develop the way people are suggesting it should be developed, compared to freakin pet battles lol. But if we are just saying our opinions, yeah I would say pet battles were a waste of time, but that's just me.

But your first sentence is basically the gist of why player housing is bad in MMOs. They just aren't made to mesh well with eachother.

[ThiagoTorres]

Why do people want this waste of dev time?

Player housing is boring af and it'll never happen now that garrisons have already.

Waste of dev time is try to balance system that will be useless next expantion.. At least housing they could implement new stuffs every expantion

[Biglog]

A different and probably more accurate way to ask this question is... For the 10.x expansion *after* Shadowlands, do you want the major new expansion feature to be player housing?

The disconnect is that it seems like players are massively underestimating how much dev work player housing is (see garrisons). I cannot tell you how many people in-game have made comments wondering if Blizzard will add player housing in this extra 1-2 month launch delay for 9.0x polish time. That's not happening.

That said, I would be fine if instead of another funky grinding system like azerite power/covenants/etc. for the 10.x expansion we got real player housing. But not if Blizzard devs act like player housing is such a huge ask that the only way to do it is for the next expansion to be lighter on content, or a recycled continent with modest changes.

[therealbowser]

Literally every and any expansion or content patch would be the perfect time to implement player housing. It's a choice they are choosing not to make. And at this point, unless they get desperate, I doubt they will ever make it.

I think it would benefit the game tremendously, but at the same time, I know it will never happen because it's not related to player power or mechanical progression directly... so they are never going to put that much effort into this kind of content.

The Garrison was as close as they got, even though it was almost the polar opposite of what people asked. It was barely customizable, overloaded with chores (gotta have players be busy to keep up subs), and players hated it. If anything, Blizzard uses this as an excuse not to add housing even though it's the literal opposite of what people wanted. But hey, whatever works I guess.

In short, they are never going to add player housing, no matter how 'good' the timing feels or how good of an idea it is, or how much it will benefit players socially or whatever. They simply don't care and are ardently against it.

I'm just glad we got customization options this expansion... at this point the next time we will see content like this that isn't in the form of a new race/class (if we even ever see any of those again, lol) will probably be in about half a decade at least.

Maybe if we're lucky, they'll actually update the Allied races later in the expansion, too. But I'm not going to hold my breath or anything.

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That said, I would be fine if instead of another funky grinding system like azerite power/covenants/etc. for the 10.x expansion we got real player housing. But not if Blizzard devs act like player housing is such a huge ask that the only way to do it is for the next expansion to be lighter on content, or a recycled continent with modest changes.

NP, cut the player power content down and add player housing, works for me.

(Just kidding. We know this would never happen. rofl)

[Maljinwo]

But your first sentence is basically the gist of why player housing is bad in MMOs. They just aren't made to mesh well with eachother.

Player housing shouldn't even have anything that allows you to progress in either PVE or PVP at all. It should be just a side activity for those interested in it

[Wendyclear]

They've already stated why they're hesitant.

It pulls people away from idling in capital cities, which makes the game feel more alive especially for newer players they're trying to keep around. If they limit capabilities of the housing (like not having bank/ah/vendor access in it) then people complain that its useless and needs more benefits, and if its too good then people just never leave it.

Garrison's were a trial idea for a "form" of player housing, and it went down terribly.

As a long time UO Player, I love the idea of player housing, but right now I fail to see how it could be effectively added to WoW and serve any purpose that doesn't also have negative impacts on capital cities.

If we want to talk about adding things that makes sense because of Shadowlands, housing is not where I'd go - necromancer class is.

Pretty spot on I'd say. I'd love a new class. Necro would be cool, but that's kind of a hybrid b/w DK & Warlock. With all the cool tech/gadgets on NPCs, or given to us in quests, I've seen massive potential for some type of mech/tech class.

I played the heck out of Ultima Online back in the day, even on free shards. The housing in that game was awesome, & I have some of my fondest MMORPG moments because of them. In WoW, however, I don't think it'd work, I agree. At most, they could have plots or apartments in cities to buy or rent, then phase into them, & once they exit the front door, they're back in the city.

Then I'd ask, what would you even be able to do in your residence? It's not like UO where you can freely decorate it, freely move items, store any & every item, or even just place the house anywhere in the entire world/realm that it would reasonably fit. Thus I feel it'd be kind of boring/redundant. I am very partial to The Sims, & Ultima Online, so I kind of liked my WoD garrison/shipyard once I got a lot of it up & running, but I have to say, with no one walking in, & being very limited in what you can do, I don't think housing would work in the end. Plus in this day & age, they'd probably ruin it by making it an absolutely insane gold sink, or gated by long tiresome grinds/quests, or in-game shop, or something stupid.

tl;dr - No time is good b/c it's not really viable/healthy given how WoW works. IMO, they'd have to make a whole new WoW game along the likes of UO to be able to place it throughout a world/realm & have them even be remotely interesting & interactive/viewable to all.

[glowpipe]

Why do people want this waste of dev time?

Player housing is boring af and it'll never happen now that garrisons have already.

i can say the exact same thing about pvp. Remove it from the game, its boring, a waste of dev time.
See how stupid that argument is ?

Different people want different things. I would love to have a player house in wow, if it was done correct. Not like the garrison bs

[Beatman]

Anyone else think that after we defeat the jailer and save the Shadowlands that it would be the perfect time to implement a player housing system? What better way to reward the saviors of all reality then to let them create their own covenant/afterlife?

WoW players don't want housing.

[keldarepewpew]

No, now is not a good time for it.

[valky94]

can someone explain me the obsession with housing, as i cant get behind the idea of having a house ingame nor the idea of staying afk in one place for more than 10 min?

[|Dexter|]

Player housing is highly unlikely to happen anytime soon unless Blizzard finds a way to make this interested for players, If you want Player housing in your MMO you got many options like FFXIV(a HUGE PAIN to actually get the house, you will have to fight other players for it) and Elder Scrolls Online(they locked it behind dlc and all the best houses are in the Cash shop $$$$), EverQuest 2 (Free to start playing, and get your house, ton of options) and other less known games.

The WoW game dev looked at all this game and not really think it looks interesting enough to spend a ton of dev time on...

[Swnem]

It's a bit hard to take seriously a 1 year old account to be honest but whatever.. Making changes to leveling isn't what's going to fix the game, at best it's a band-aid that really solves nothing. They get more players by making a fun game which sadly they seem to have forgotten how to do with all the changes they've made to the game and ActiBlizz's reluctance to get rid of the people who are suggesting said changes which do nothing for the game. That being said, leveling was never daunting, it's always been easy, now it's just stupid easy.

Yeah... this is my second account as i didnt transfer the old one. It bears no meaning to the discussion though. I played the game for 15 years.

The revamped and faster leveling DOES make the game more fun. Stop being so effin self centered.
It does not affect you negatively in any way. This tantrum is unbecoming. Go argue against things that are actually bad for the game. Level squish aint one.

[baskev]

Anyone else think that after we defeat the jailer and save the Shadowlands that it would be the perfect time to implement a player housing system? What better way to reward the saviors of all reality then to let them create their own covenant/afterlife?

Its the worst expansion to do it.
Lets be clear i am not pro or anti housing.

Why its the worst. By all accounts , what we know is that time in shadowlands works different. And most guesses are that we are getting a time skip when we get back into the normal realm.
So its the worst time to do it. People might not know who the heroes are. We need to find a new place in that world etc.

So nope worst time ever.

[therealbowser]

They've already stated why they're hesitant.

It pulls people away from idling in capital cities, which makes the game feel more alive especially for newer players they're trying to keep around. If they limit capabilities of the housing (like not having bank/ah/vendor access in it) then people complain that its useless and needs more benefits, and if its too good then people just never leave it.

Garrison's were a trial idea for a "form" of player housing, and it went down terribly.

As a long time UO Player, I love the idea of player housing, but right now I fail to see how it could be effectively added to WoW and serve any purpose that doesn't also have negative impacts on capital cities.

If we want to talk about adding things that makes sense because of Shadowlands, housing is not where I'd go - necromancer class is.

Blizzard's obsession with people idling in major cities is ridiculous. Let's look at games where housing exists, like FFXIV. Is 90% of the population sitting in their houses and avoiding the cities? No, of course not, the cities are as packed and overloaded as they ever were, including from players who own houses. Same for SWTOR. Same for every other game I've played that has housing.

this is literally an excuse. They are probably well aware it won't have this dramatic impact they are claiming it will and people buy it because we take them for their word at everything else. I mean, like Ion said it, "you think you do, but you don't". Right? But I am digressing here.

You are talking about Garrisons which are literally the polar opposite of housing.

1. They are not customizable. No, I am not talking about which shitty little buildings you can place or how much you can upgrade them from 1 -> 2 -> 3. Can you make them racial themed? No. Can you customize the furniture inside the buildings? No. Can you even pick the characters that work in them? No, aside from your optional follower in the profession buildings. There was virtually nothing to customize in garrisons whatsoever. At best you can set up a few statues no one cares about, guild flags no one notices, or add to your archaeology collection. You can't set up your inn's furniture. You can't have anything other than 100% human or 100% orc garrison. There is more customization in glyphs on just about any given class than there was in customizing anything there.

(By the way, if you think that the Garrisons had customization that was comparable to real housing in any remote way, then you've obviously never played any other MMORPG that had housing. Even the weakest and laziest forms had dramatically enhanced options of placing things to make your base, your house, your whatever feel like YOU and not a generic cutout fortress. Don't even try to pretend Garrisons had customization, lol.)

2. They do not exist for socializing or 'owning home', they exist for doing chores. Need I really go further on this? I would hope it's obvious, but players want to decorate their homes, show them off, and maybe open up shops or roleplay in them, etc. They don't want to do arbitrary player power/resource gathering chores and literally nothing else. They didn't exist for players to customize and enjoy, they existed to push player power and resource gathering systems only.

3. Even visiting other people's garrisons is only available if they invite you to their party and were in their own garrison, and not to mention there was nothing but their special visitors to interact with. Nothing to customize, nothing to interact with, hell you can't even use their mage tower portals and the like. Garrisons were an almost entirely solo endeavor.

Frankly I am calling you out on having played UO. I'm skeptical you played the game for anything remotely similar to a 'long time' if you think Garrisons was a 'idea for playing housing' (lol). UO had tremendous housing customization options. Garrisons had literally nothing.

But let's get real here. You're not here to talk about player housing so much as you are here to talk about how this feature isn't interesting to you and you feel it's incompatable with what you really wanted, necromancers.

Frankly, I could make an entire new thread and then some just talking about that class, long before we even knew the expansion was going to be Shadowlands or that it would have literal necromancers that were not scourge aligned inside. None of that matters. They didn't add necromancers, and if they had added housing (or not) it would have had literally no impact on a new playable class.

At this point, Blizzard probably thinks they can't add any more new classes to the game because they are worried they'll have to put in more work on them. I mean look at how bland and simplified Demon Hunters turned out--they obviously didn't want the class to require too much work so that they wouldn't have to put in much balancing it. I was hoping it was an isolated case, but as it is, there's a very good chance that demon hunters are going to be the very last new class in World of Warcraft. We definitely are never going to see Necromancers after Blizzard passed up on this perfect opportunity to add them.

So I mean I get it. You didn't get the feature you wanted. Sorry to hear it. That doesn't mean you get to trash about ideas for adding other features just because they aren't the one you wanted. Likewise, you don't hear people going into class suggestion threads and them whining that adding a new class is going to take away from housing content, do you? If you genuinely hate housing, that's fine, but from all accounts that doesn't seem the case with you, and you are correlating things that have no relationship. A common thing for WoW, to be fair. Frankly, I don't think housing would negatively impact anyone, but if you want to argue that then at least do so directly.

Well it doesn't matter anyways, because both housing and new classes are extremely likely to ever happen.

[Masternewt]

there is absolutely no need for this, garrison were awful and i personally don't want another iteration of that

Yes. Garrisons are the only way housing can be done. You are correct and smart.

[NorthernDragon]

This thread is pointless. Everybody is just repeating the same argument and intentionally ignoring the counter argument. May aswell just close the thread.

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Player housing is highly unlikely to happen anytime soon unless Blizzard finds a way to make this interested for players, If you want Player housing in your MMO you got many options like FFXIV(a HUGE PAIN to actually get the house, you will have to fight other players for it) and Elder Scrolls Online(they locked it behind dlc and all the best houses are in the Cash shop $$$$), EverQuest 2 (Free to start playing, and get your house, ton of options) and other less known games.

The WoW game dev looked at all this game and not really think it looks interesting enough to spend a ton of dev time on...

Actually FFXIV has three types of housing

Apartments (anybody can get one, very easy)
Private Housing (requires land, but SE are adding more every expansion)
Private Rooms (if your FC has a house you can get a private room)

[Powerogue]

How do you intend to make this idea not suck eggs? Garrisons were a colossal failure not just for the lack of customization, but for encouraging players in an MMORPG to spend all their time in a tiny square of land phased away from each other with almost no reason to go into each other's phases.

Old School RuneScape has successful player housing because investing time and gold into a house rewards the best transport hub in the game, as well as powerful perks so useful, yet expensive to unlock, that other players are encouraged to visit yours to obtain them.

Tell me how something like that could fit WoW. Because as far as I've seen, Legion was wildly successful specifically because they threw out that entire idea and focused on an open world expansion instead.

[LanToaster]

I don't post much because i don't have much to say. Seems you could learn from that.
Please don't quote me if you have nothing of value to say as you're wasting both your and my time. Thanks.

I Quote you, whenever I want to Qoute you. And I said something of Value. Sorry if you cant comprehend what you are told. If you feel Insulted, feel free to Report me.

[StillMcfuu]

You really are unreasonable. Should the whole world await your aproval to spin?
You are acting up without even knowing i agree with "fixing" specs. But, it's unrealistic to think that we can just sacrifice a class, a feature, a raid, etc and it's gonna magically happen.
It's not how it works.

So, why don't you go do what you sugest? Cause you still sound sheltered.

I'm not being unreasonable. The development happens in a bubble, there are only so many resources and diverting them for a feature that isn't that much of a requested feature and would take away from the mmo aspect of the game by removing players from public areas.

A bigger issue is if this is a major feature, what aren't we going to get? Its also a feature that exists outside of the major gameplay loop of the game, that includes if housing items are loot drops.

We've encountered this already, Garrisons ate up so many resources that wod was sparse. BFA warfronts and islands were a waste as well, so BFA just carried on as Legion 2.0 with the same systems in place. It's all a balancing act and unless they gachi the hell out of it to justify hiring more people (acti wouldn't let that happen they'd just divert more devs from other areas) and really this rabbit hole would probably be the death of wow.

WoW has major issues right now, terrible class design, borrowed power systems that don't work and aren't wanted, unused core gameplay aspects, and I havent even gotten to the issues Shadowlands has. WoW just isn't the world for housing.

[LanToaster]

Yeah... this is my second account as i didnt transfer the old one. It bears no meaning to the discussion though. I played the game for 15 years.

Sadly, the validity of your posting is directly proportional to the age of your accound, and your own real age.

Edit:
Late Edit, so no one else feels Insulted. This is a Joke because someone previously disregarded him because of his Account age.