Player Housing would create a HUGE new player base, like Transmog/Achievements did.

[thottstation]

There are some players that are Achievement Hunters. They don't care about the rest of the game; only increasing the Achievement Points number. Websites like WoWhead build systems that tell you which achievement should be next, based on your progress.

Players become emotionally invested in their achievements, and come back for more. They don't want to unsub because they're proud of their progress.

There are some players that are Transmog Collectors. They don't care about raiding or dungeons or Battle pets; only completing the Wardrobe Collection numbers. Addons are created to help them hunt for what they're missing, and economies are built on selling them rare transmogs.

Players become emotionally invested in their collection, and come back for more. They don't want to unsub because they're proud of their progress.

Now imagine how Player Housing would impact the game.

You would create an entirely new player base that would play WoW solely for building up their player housing, instanced like the Darkmoon Island. The technology is there! Just combine it with the Garrison building technology and it's good to go!

Seriously, I love my Garrison. I still go back to see if any new, interesting NPCs are available.

Take the idea, combine it with Darkmoon Island instance tech, let players build the foundation and let them use any racial/faction thematic appearance they want (contingent on unlocking the theme via levelling alts/Allied races), add roaming pets and mounts and npcs you've collected, plus a constantly increasing list of furnishings, trophies, achievement hallmarks, and outdoor features... and holy shit I would spend years building it up and collecting it all. At my own pace.

Even if I was happy and thought it "finished", I'd still drop by just to spend time with the NPC's/mounts there.

Just as Battle Pets adds all new pets to farm from old raid instances again and again, every expansion could see all new furnishings added to your Player Housing, with the latest expansion introducing new collectible furnishing, trophies, outside features, and more every new tier. The garrison had limited racial themes, and seasonal furnishings. Players wanted that... only ramped up 1,000%!

Every single expansion, Blizzard's PH team could add new thematic features to the player housing for people to farm, hunt, and collect, all found in every feature WoW has to offer: raids, dungeons, PvP, pet battling, World Quests, Levelling quests, achievements... just like people do now for transmog and achievements they just HAVE TO HAVE for no other reason than they don't have it yet, and leaving gaps in their Player Housing Features tab triggers them massively. And if they don't want to have to run difficult current content to get them, they can just wait an expansion or two until they can solo the content. That means YEARS of subscription payments.



People say that cities would be deserted if you added housing, but that would be easily prevented by two simple things already in-game:

• Active NPCs. Blizzard added NPCs running in and out of the portal room to give the appearance of high traffic. Say what you will, but it works. Whenever I port in it's always busy, and I honestly don't notice who is and isn't real. Just add more NPCs to the main cities, and you have bustling hubs helped along by sharding tech.
• No Essentials. DO NOT put in game-affecting features; NO Auction House. NO resource farming (mines, herb gardens, etc). NO bank. Not one thing that you can find in cities. Player Housing should be like IRL housing; comfort and appearance only. You go there to relax and admire what you've built. Players would NOT just linger in their Player Housing because like the real world, they need to leave to actually do essential stuff.

I've been a high-end raider, and it was fun... but I outgrew it.

I've been a high-end PvP'er, and it was fun... but I outgrew it.

But the one thing I have consistantly done year after year after year, without fail, is get those old Achievement Points and get those old transmogs. Because the beauty of those two systems is that you can do them hardcore AND casual; spending all day/every day doing cutting edge content or just logging in a few minutes every now and then to buy cheap uncollected transmogs/pets off the AH or maybe farm that elusive mount or run an old dungeon/raid. Just slap a XXX/YYY tally number on it, and you got 'em hooked. The cost is sunk!

Players would look at their Player Housing and be utterly emotionally invested in it. They would see the AGES they spent collecting housing features, furnishings, trophy collections, and wandering NPCs (yes, like garrisons) by farming old content, levelling old zones, raiding, running dungeons, doing PvP, Pet battling, doing old zone quests, levelling alts, and so much more WoW content to unlock and furnish their player housing and feel so damn happy, with a sense of Pride and Accomplishment™, just like I did whenever I went into my Legion Class Order Hall and saw the rows of Tier Sets I collected. Once I realized this "Hall of Fame" feature existed, I had to collect them all!

And every expansion, you would see more furnishings and features added! Both obtained doing new current content AND more added into old content, meaning the players would have to go back and run them all over again (just like collecting the music for the garrison Jukebox, or farming old raid instances because they added more pets to the bosses. Was I happy they did that? NO. Did I get those pets anyway? YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT, I DID.)


I honestly believe Blizzard had no idea how successful transmog was going to be. To be honest, I think every single success Blizzard had was an accident. They tried something, and were completely blindsided by how fast it was adopted (like WoW itself). That's why they keep adding new systems again and again every single expansion; they throw new things at the wall and see if they stick, because the ones that did (transmog, achievements, world quests, mythic +, etc) were UNBELIEVABLY HUGE successes, so they don't mind if 9 other systems crash and burn and are hated from the moment they hit PTR; it's that one that succeeds that makes it all worth it.

Player Housing could be huge. It could be revolutionary. It could create an entirely new player base that logs every day, every month, year after year, endlessly subscribing and filling Blizzard's coffers for no other reason than to keep building and renovating their villa/fortress. And with Darkmoon Island technology, it's growth could be limitless. And by sticking to the hard line of NO ESSENTIAL SERVICES (ie. bank, AH, barber, professions, etc), players would not just stay in there forever, never leaving and turning major hubs into ghost towns. Housing would be personal, cosmetic only, filled with your pets, mounts, and NPCs you could collect and chose from that would interact with you... and you have a feature winner.



EDIT: Try to ignore the usual negativity of the 10yr MMO accounts. Remember: they're flagged Red for a reason!

[Itori]

If they created player housing it would turn into another garrison cluster, WoW is a game of alts, its not uncommon for someone to have 10 alts they play. Imagine a house for every one of them. Now if we’re talking guild housing then I’m game.

[Shyzhi]

I use to love filling in my druids (what was main since 2005) transmogs. I had the addons to show sets that are "unofficial" but sets in there own right. And id spend hours a day collecting them in my down time between raids. Sadly iv left the game as i no longer raid and doing mog runs couldn't keep me in the game.

But there should be other avenues to take in a MMO world you can just throw a few hours into for fun or relaxation. I can see alot of people loving a sims esk style housing system with professions to make items or to do X activity to unlock X item for your home. My friend every night checks an app she has where she designs rooms in the middle of our overwatch games. There could be a ranking system / mini game where you get X items to make a room with and people rate it and has its own little server game against other players.

Even some old professions need massive overhauls. Can you imagine if they made fishing into more of a mini game? useing the right lures for the fish and having to reel it in not to fast or slow but keeping a balance on the line. Could have talents that make you go from a rod to a net and so on to catch more fish or better quality fish. Lumber jack profession to get wood for the Crafting of house furniture.

There is lots of ideas blizz could take from more single player and other MMOs to give single player feel, While yes its an mmo and you should do things with friends. The odd hour away designing a house could be fun.

[Kiwijello]

They wouldn't do housing correct. They would view it as a one expansion SYSTEM and then abandon it.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

I've always said housing would be the biggest waste of resources Blizzard could do and still stand by that now.

[Kauko]

I am all for it. BUT... history tells us, that this will be interesting for a month or two... after that most of people won't even touch it.

Also, only way I want it is if I can have all of my alts using the same stuff unlocked with my main. Or even use the same house... alts from the same realm of course. Not like WOD where I had to do the same bs for every alt I had.

[Ringthane]

Well, we've had today's WoW 2 thread, and here's today's player housing thread. All we need now is the flying thread and the tinker thread for today and we can all go home early.

[Nemah]

Well, we've had today's WoW 2 thread, and here's today's player housing thread. All we need now is the flying thread and the tinker thread for today and we can all go home early.

Flying tinkers would ruin the game and cost us a raid tier.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Have you seen how they handled the "MAJOR FEATURE!!" of new customization options this expansion...?

If they do take another crack at player housing, I hope they'll put a separate team on it, meant specifically to make it a lovely feature... AND NO POWER CRAP TIED TO IT!! Cosmetics and fluff only.

[Spike`]

A player housing like that will make me play again

Still loved some of Garrison but was to limited

And yes, make a guild housing while at it

[Raizz]

Wildstar had best housing system ever... still died.

It would be cute, like pet battle cute, but it's not what WoW needs right now.

[Sondrelk]

While I do agree that I want player housing as a growbed for cosmetic farming I do think there are quite a few hurdles that is hard to distance from.

1. You cannot realistically make quest hubs AND player housing equally relevant, one has to take the hit. Housing is obviously the one that should be less relevant, and its true that if you remove all convenience except maybe a specific hearthstone then you would make it more distinct from Garrisons that tried to be integrated into content.

2. How would you sell this feature to the larger playerbase? While it is similar to other cosmetics like Transmogs and Mounts it differs in one significant way. Those are constantly shown off. Those that collect transmog like me consider it a point of pride not just to have said transmogs, but to be able to show them off. Same with mounts, you don't collect them to have them look cool in the mount tab you want to use them.
And while Mounts are almost wholly cosmetic, there is a tiny amount of utility even to Transmog in that it clearly differentiates gear.

3. Where should the player housing be? This might be the easier of the questions to resolve, but its nonetheless an important one. Can you place it anywhere? Can other players visit it easily? Is the entrance in a specific place, or is it placeable anywhere?
This ties in to the question of what style of housing you want. Would there be a set plot in each zone? In that case you make it a likely feature to be abused when a new expansion comes out, but if you don't then you miss out on all hte players that desperately wanted a zone in Stranglethorn or the Plaguelands or whatever.


The idea of player housing is absolutely fertile bed for cosmetic farming. Maybe old raids can give stuff, or all new raids are designed with the intent that it will give at least one or two unique player housing items to nurure growth, but I fear in practice it would end up a dinghy little hut behind a portal in Stormwind or Orgrimmar that you place trophies in, instead of a grand improvement on Garrisons.

In a way the true failing of the player housing idea is that it needs to be a home-run right out of the gate, otherwise it could make more damage than its worth.
Garrisons are already a form of player housing, and it has loads of good ideas that promote collecting, but making a better version isnt simply as easy as removing the convenience and lessening its status as the WoD feature. It needs to be far, far more to really be something worth risking an expansion on.
And that really is root of the problem. Player housing isnt just something that can be knocked out easily, it is a feature that would require a massive amount of work, enough so that you wouldnt really have much of anything else significant in the expansion. And if it fails then it could drag down the expansion, and by extension itself with it. And then we would be back where we started.

[McNeil]

The problem Blizzard has with major features is that they want to push them as a progression path rather than making it optional content that you want to do if you feel like doing something else. Torghast should have been completely optional, still needed to get your legendaries. Garrisons should have been completely optional, still needed if you want to advange through the story. Skipping Island Expedition would make you lose out on a lot of Azerite, Warfronts could also reward huge gear upgrades with the quest which is why I and most others were even doing them. At least pet battles is optional and continues to get updated.

If they did player housing I expect them to royally fuck it up and not even bother updating it. Still it would have been an amazng feature if its completely done right, especially if you can place your house anywhere you want.

[Drusin]

Nice post OP, you recognized something you personally want, realize that saying "I want it" isn't going to work, employed the strategy of saying how great it would be for the game That's how all requests should be, veiled in altruism lol

[Mic_128]

There are some players that are Achievement Hunters. They don't care about the rest of the game; only increasing the Achievement Points number. Websites like WoWhead build systems that tell you which achievement should be next, based on your progress.

Players become emotionally invested in their achievements, and come back for more. They don't want to unsub because they're proud of their progress.


There are some players that are Transmog Collectors. They don't care about raiding or dungeons or Battle pets; only completing the Wardrobe Collection numbers. Addons are created to help them hunt for what they're missing, and economies are built on selling them rare transmogs.

Players become emotionally invested in their collection, and come back for more. They don't want to unsub because they're proud of their progress.


Now imagine how Player Housing would impact the game.

You would create an entirely new player base that would play WoW solely for building up their player housing

No. You said it yourself here.

Players become emotionally invested in their achievements
Players become emotionally invested in their collection

They were already playing and gravitated towards a part of the game they enjoyed more, and that is what kept them playing.
Player housing will keep the players who already play the game and find they enjoy it.

You will not have a mass of people coming to WoW just because of player housing, the same way masses of people didn't flock to WoW because of achievements, or transmog.

[blackbird1205]

I think that feature is gone by now. They should have implemented it years ago, so they can evolve and optimizing housing over the years. Add new furniture through crafting. Build upon in to add expansion themed items. That would have added so much more to the game. More variety for crafters, make recipes and materials drop all over the world (old content included to keep it somewhat relevant). Maybe rare drops etc.

But now I feel it's too late to implement such a big feature (if it should be done correctly). And like others said, I guess even if they would implement it nowadays, they probably would do it wrong.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I mean this has been discussed to death. Everyone that ever had a look beyond WoW has probably seen how it could be done and what it would add, everyone else thinks it's a waste of time. WoW has cultivated the later playerbase over almost 2 decades. Also frankly I would never trust Blizzard to do it properly, just look at the pathetic state of professions and every new expansion feature. The best example are covenants, which were pretty much turned into a google exercise because they had to force their shitty progression onto it. Blizzard frankly does not understand the social component of multiplayer RPGs.

[kucerakov]

Housing would likely help retain players and probably bring people back. If good, people MIGHT play just for this, which would mean new players. Games with good housing like Everquest 2 and FFXIV and SWTOR have a HUGE community of people who literally play and do things in game for not other reason to pimp their houses. In SWTOR and FFXIV it's almost like a minecraft mini-game, with players creatively using decor to construct whole new rooms and structures. This would, in my opinion, be a HUGE boost to the robustness of the game and playerbase. And to be clear, I don't really have a dog in this fight. I've spent probably a few hours altogether decorating housing in SWTOR and FFXIV, I'm not that into it. But a LOT of people are REALLY into it.

[Nightstalker]

How often do we read the same thread on these forums? Every week at least once?

[Ryzeth]

Player housing isn't ever going to happen. We don't need a new thread about it every other week.