Right now Dragonflight is the most boring expansion ever.

[Venziir]

Even then - every MMO with housing - performs historically worse than WoW.

What is the pitch here - sell the idea. That housing transforms WoW to dimensional levels of the unseen?

To be fair, every MMO, with or without housing has performed historically worse than WoW.

[Thirtyrock]

It will actually affect core elements of the game as a lot of resources have to be allocated for this project. Ion even said in a recent interview that they aren't necessarily opposed to housing but it will take several expansions to develop such a feature as it is technically very difficult and thus costs a lot of resources. Garrisons is basically a very very basic form of housing and it literally cost blizzard a raid tier.

Exactly, that's exactly my point! Thanks for the context there.

[FuxieDK]

YOU don't want housing. 99.99% of MMORPG players do, and have since the days of MUDs. WoW is literally the only MMORPG that doesn't offer housing.

You are factually wrong.
100% of the MMO players I have met IRL do not want player housing and the vast majority (guessing 80%) of those I talk/write with, don't want it.

Player housing is a niche request, from a very loud, very small minority.

[Biomega]

I mean, using the same logic, why would they ever do a world revamp?

I mean, you're not wrong and it's probably why they HAVEN'T done one. They tried with Cataclysm, then probably realized how much work it is, and decided not to make it a regular thing because it's not worth it.

If wow can't devote enough resources to things that matter and can only make small incremental changes to existing systems, then maybe that should be cause for concern?

It's not that they CAN'T, it's that it's not worth it. Of course they could if they wanted to. But the amount of effort vs. the actual gains is not in a proportion that would make this a smart allocation of resources. You have finite time, people, and money to work with; your job as a producer is to decide where to put that time, those people, and that money. And they'd rather put it towards expansion-centered stuff than massive outside overhauls that don't actually bring in that many new players.

Of course their decisions don't necessarily all turn out to have been the right ones; but we can assume there's reasoned motivation behind them. They're not just not doing something out of spite or ignorance; they think they have good reasons why they do or don't do something.

[rrayy]

I'll never understand why people are against housing. Surely there is more to this game than making your numbers go up every week?

I want to be out in the world, not sitting in my instance playing house. You should be adventuring out in the world, not playing Sims. Sims already exists if you want to play house

[infinitemeridian]

I want to be out in the world, not sitting in my instance playing house. You should be adventuring out in the world, not playing Sims. Sims already exists if you want to play house

I'd accept that if "adventuring" in the world was more than just monotonous "kill x, collect y" world quests or some variation of that.

[HansOlo]

I'd accept that if "adventuring" in the world was more than just monotonous "kill x, collect y" world quests or some variation of that.

But that is the world - that is what people supposed to like - kill and collect.

The question you need to ask is value - does it make the game better or not. If you need to pass the time, by hanging out in your house - then the answer is most likely no. It goes against the atmosphere of the game and you would have people complain about how empty the world is.

And the game been doing just fine for almost 2 decades without housing.

Does it hurt to implement? Yes - spend resources somewhere else, i.e finetuning, class balancing, story, e-sports etc. That is exactly why i'm excited for DF - they are working on the core - not inventing the wheel anylonger.

[Kilpi]

It would take a massive amount of models . Most of wows object are tied to a certain theme and for old items even lighting. It would take a lot of time to clean them up to an acceptable standard.

What I've gathered browsing through WoWs assets from time to time, the lighting of models isn't a problem, it's baked in (which is pretty standard stuff). The bigger problem of using all existing models is 20 years of quality difference. Then again, if they would do a revamp of the old world, they could basically go and update all old models and use them for the environment, as well as the housing. Still a huge task though, obviously.

[Tylanthia]

Right, exactly. I'm fine if guild housing/player housing is added, but it won't add much or anything to MY gameplay experience and it won't affect the traditional core elements of the game - Raids, Dungeons, Questing, PVP...It's just a place to hang out and look at stuff. Fine, fine, but I can't imagine this feature would save a failing game (not that I believe wow is failing) and it own't save most people who are otherwise bored with the game.

It would do wonders for crafters and gatherers if they implemented it properly. All expansions would be relevant for them. Every material item that drops in the game would have an evergreen use. That's a lot of content for a kind of player that WoW has long since driven out due to lack of care.

I think WoW has forgotten that not every MMO player is obsessed with combat.

[jeezusisacasual]

The biggest reason to have housing is to create a sense of creation to attach the player to overall world, i find it kind of stupid but it puts down a foundation ( xD ) for people to grow that is not power related. I am sure they will talk of their own house more then any boss kill and that is what housing does it helps create memories for the less skilled players who subsidize the game for the better players.

[kolopi]

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I'll never understand why people are against housing. Surely there is more to this game than making your numbers go up every week?

[Biomega]

I'll never understand why people are against housing. Surely there is more to this game than making your numbers go up every week?

Because they want housing done right, and given current limitations (both in terms of engine and in terms of development resources) a lot of people would rather not see it than see it done badly.

[sponge5307]

This expansion feels very light, but I j, hope they undo most of the fuck-ups that started with Legion. No more unnecesaunnecessary locking catch-up mechanics, mandatory content, etc., and, etc., another content pacing that SL than. At this point I gave up on the story getting any better.

Unless they change the company philosophy, it won't happen. Since the Activision merger, it has been about profits and making shareholders happy. So their metric has changed from creating a good and fun and enjoyable game to let's make the gameplay as grindly as possible to the point that is at the breaking point of the players; lets' screw up the game economy and introduce wow token and various store mounts and paid service. Ever wonder why they didn't ban the sale of m+ or mythic carry advertised in the game until most players complained? Because is good profit. People buy wow tokens to sell on AH for gold; said players use gold to buy runs. The people who sell run use the gold for in-game time. Win-win for everyone. Nothing will change until Blizzard returns to its roots, makes a fun and enjoyable game, and changes management. Just look at Diablo immortals. Everything in that game is calculated and baits a player to spend as much money as possible.

Don't expect Dragonflgiht to change. I quit at the beginning of 9.1really want to come back but just reading some of the stuff with the current state of the game and how little info or how little time they have till release of Drgaonflgiht makes me think it will be a rush expansion; and they will fix the game as it goes live for months and months. I mean, they are in the profit not to release something quality. Currently, in July and they want to remove the new expansion. The best time is around Xmas, giving them 4.5 months at best. They will go through alpha and beta. That doesn't give them much time to balance the different spec, class, talent trees, and PvP and PvE.

[Strawberry]

I'm going to do like so many others and get the expansion, play it for a few months then quit.
It's literally what I've been doing since Legion when I played somewhat semi-hardcore, but not even for the whole expansion as my guild migrated due to low population.
Prior to that the last time I played seriously was Cataclysm.
Gone are the good days for me.
The game didn't become better or worse, just different and I've gotten older. I get irritated by having to kill trash in raids, lol. Why is there even trash? Just give me bosses.

[Nitrax]

I'm going to do like so many others and get the expansion, play it for a few months then quit.
It's literally what I've been doing since Legion when I played somewhat semi-hardcore, but not even for the whole expansion as my guild migrated due to low population.
Prior to that the last time I played seriously was Cataclysm.
Gone are the good days for me.
The game didn't become better or worse, just different and I've gotten older. I get irritated by having to kill trash in raids, lol. Why is there even trash? Just give me bosses.

Propably the same here, log in, fix mods, possibly find a new guild because the one I was in have disbanded or moved server or something, level the Pally to max level, get bored. Although I'm a bit worried about the leaked stuff, everything seems very dated graphics wise. Pandaria was the best looking expansion so far, even though I hated the pandas.

[Strawberry]

Propably the same here, log in, fix mods, possibly find a new guild because the one I was in have disbanded or moved server or something, level the Pally to max level, get bored. Although I'm a bit worried about the leaked stuff, everything seems very dated graphics wise. Pandaria was the best looking expansion so far, even though I hated the pandas.

Now I have to go check the graphics of the new expansion lol. That's the main complaint I have about WoW, outdated graphics, especially on textures. Everything looks so stretched and well... outdated.

[Nyel]

Besides Evoker, which I am massively looking forward to, I'm a bit concerned about the gameplay. Everything we've seen yet of Dragonflight is just basic WoW reduced to a minimum in a new region.

There's nothing really exciting or new content-wise, it's basically just 4 pretty new zones and a new class. I really miss a new type of gameplay or content like in the other expansions. I fear the lack of something like this will backfire, because the general gameplay loop (dungeons and raids) is not very exciting anyway, although it's the most popular (aka basic) stuff every expansion.

[Osmeric]

Unless they change the company philosophy, it won't happen. Since the Activision merger, it has been about profits and making shareholders happy.

It's not even that. It's about chasing metrics that some smoothbrains have convinced themselves mean profits. You know, because if people liking a game means they play it a lot, then if you make people play the game a lot, they'll like it.

[sponge5307]

It's not even that. It's about chasing metrics that some smoothbrains have convinced themselves mean profits. You know, because if people liking a game means they play it a lot, then if you make people play the game a lot, they'll like it.

Yea. In SL I quit mid-expansion. Never touch BFA and came back for SL and shortly after 9.1 quit again. There are too many things you HAVE TO DO. Is not fun. I am playing a game I am doing chores. There are dailies you need to do with your conveants, grind at least 10 m+ 15 dungeons for upgrades, complete at least 10 raid boss at the highest difficulty you can do and then Torghast every week, and do the weekly at the vault. If you don't do all of these task or miss a few weeks coz you know people have lives outside of WOW say goodbye till next patch coz you will never catch up.

Then there is the META FOTM or class not balance. Is nothing people need to worry about till you are doing m +20 or mythic but yet a lot of casual and group founder somehow things you have to play the META for a +15 or even a +5 so you get rejected for not playing a META class. Then there is too many class/spec/gameplay that needs to balance but it will never be. You have PvP, Arena, BG, raids, m+ they all require different things from a class. I want to try Dragonflgiht but so far reading the blue post form blizzard I think it will just be another let down.

[Biomega]

I'm going to do like so many others and get the expansion, play it for a few months then quit.

That seems to be exactly what they want.

They probably make a lot of money from people buying the box, subbing for a month or two, then quitting. Those are great customers because they don't demand a lot - they don't really care about a lot of content updates, or about polish. A lot of them would probably behave exactly like this almost regardless of the quality of the content, so trying to win them over is a losing proposition anyway - and it rewards them pumping hype into the launch window.

Would it be better if they just made killer content all the time and kept everyone subbed for longer? Sure. But that doesn't just magically happen, and takes a lot of work. Easier to just create hype around a new expansion, cash in, and worry about the rest later.