Player Housing could revitalise WoW

[Gigglz-silvermoon]

Stealing this from the US forums, it looks like a lot but it’s well worth the read.

@Texasdktoast-gilneas

This will not be one of those pro-housing posts that claims, “because everyone wants it, ‘blizz’ should do it.” Ion Hazzikostas once lamented in an interview that players who use general terms to describe their personal wants like, “we all want” and “everybody wants,” were not helpful forms of feedback, so this is my personal experiential take on how I think player housing can begin to save World of Warcraft(WoW). This post will be organized into several lengthy sections outlined below.

1. Alternative Content
2. Professions and Economy
3. Philosophy
4. Summary

First, what do I mean by “save,” here? I mean that player housing could remedy bad design philosophy and revitalize core features of the game to the benefit of all.

1. Alternative Content
1.a. What is there to do in WoW? The chief modes of engagement are (for PVE) dungeons and raiding and (for PVP) arenas and battlegrounds. You do mythic pluses, raid, or you queue for PVP. This is where bad design philosophy affects the longevity of WoW. There is a profound lack of meaningful and even meaningless alternative content. There are too few options, and transmog and battle pets simply aren’t enough. By not enough, they aren’t expressive or fulfilling enough. You can only wear and see one transmog set at a time. You can only ride one mount at a time while staring at your collection alone. You can only collect so many battlepets to then realize there is no function or feature beyond. But imagine if there was a way you could express the totality of yourself and your WoW experience how you see fit, your own changeable, sharable pocket of WoW that holistically embodies all of these features and more.
1.b. If you don’t want to raid for an entire patch, or do dungeons every week, and if collecting a transmog sets doesn’t fill that gameplay void, then what is there? WoW is missing many features of modern MMO’s from puzzles(Gw2), treasure hunting(Rift), interactive open-world content(ESO, FF), and, most strikingly, player housing(all of the above + SWTOR & Runescape). You might say, why cite “less popular” games’ features as the missing link for WoW’s success? Simply, I say, the extent to which these games do thrive is directly related to some or all of these modes. Gw2 is known colloquially as “fashion wars.” Rift has an incredibly comprehensive grassroots player housing community. ESO and FF have noteworthy open world content. SWTOR and the rest all have player housing while Runescape additionally has a thriving community-based giveaways experience. Some of these games might be missing the consistent and impactful dungeon and raid content that WoW produces, hindering their longevity, while WoW misses every mode of alternative content that other MMO’s offer, hindering its longevity. Imagine a coupling of the two. Imagine a WoW that maintains quality PVE content, and offers alternative modern modes of engagement in between and in addition.
1.c. So how does player housing fill the void of alternative content in WoW? Similarly to transmog, but perhaps more effectively, it restores meaning and purpose to every piece and place of WoW. Housing items obtainable behind old raids, dungeons, new and old quests, PVP, professions (it’s own category later), exploration, pet battles, achievements, open-world interactions, and anything else you can think of- the endless hunt for items for one’s next great build is, quite literally, endless. Therefore, it gives content in WoW additional permanence. Old (and current) raids will always have something to offer, besides that one set or mount you really wanted and then never see that raid again. Dungeons will always have something to offer. There will always be productive engagement with open-world content that involves one’s housing enterprise. Furthermore, it allows players and developers alike to revisit and reuse all of the beautiful assets of the game’s past that are just sitting in empty zones or instances. Recollect the majesty of Suramar City, and now think of how it is empty, useless, and offers us nothing but a way to get into Nighthold for transmog or mounts. Now, imagine a player-house in Suramar City, or a player-house elsewhere that uses assets from Suramar City to create something entirely new. I once read a poem that suggested the best way to honor something isn’t to let it collect dust on a shelf to periodically oogle or disregard, but to use it, and I agree. One of the best ways to honor the hard work of developers past and the beautiful architecture of WoW is to use it. Maintain it, allow players the creative freedom to show what they and this game are capable of expressing, and honor all the hard work that went into building this world.
1.d. When one thinks player housing, I encourage you to think and examine Rift’s dimension system, which in my view is the single most comprehensive and endless housing system in any MMO. And that is the key here, the endless nature of this type of content- that it keeps going, that it self-produces, that it provides purpose, meaning, satisfies creative impulses, and allows you to both play and revitalize the game you love and honor your own sense of self that hitherto can only be expressed through transmog or mounts. Player housing is alternative content that never ends, inspires communities and competitions, and offers a modern engagement experience. It is the beginning of the alternative content solution.
2. Professions and Economy
2.a. Player housing will solve the age-old conundrum of “how do we make professions relevant?” One of the key problems with any adjustment to professions in WoW to make them relevant in a given patch or expansion, is that the use of these adjustments are always temporary. A profession and its expansion-specific features are always limited-time-use, and even then their value is not guaranteed to last the expansion (see shadowlands Relics) or to even exist. So every single patch and expansion we revisit the same self-made problem over and over: “what do we do with professions this time.” And every patch and expansion, it’s a self-defeating let down. In every game with player-housing I have experienced, player housing has single-handedly revitalized entire professions and stimulated the base economy.
2.b. Player-housing items have the opportunity to offer every single profession something to farm materials for, to craft, and to use or sell. This conversely offers interested buyers something to always buy from professions. Player housing makes professions permanent. We would no longer have to sit around twiddling our thumbs trying to conjure up ruinous ways to manipulate professions every expansion, because player-housing would always be there. These items would always be in demand, and always be expanding as the game’s assets and architecture expands. Every profession can finally have a home- your home- your guild’s home- your friend’s home.
2.c. The advent of player-housing would then pump gold directly into the WoW economy and siphon much of the excess and inflated gold floating around inventories all around. And, when I said player-housing would benefit all, I meant all, including ActiBlizzard. Players spend real money on housing in every MMO. In WoW, they would buy wow-tokens for gold for desirable items that would go straight to crafters, to professionss, and potential desirable housing items from the in-game shop for would-be builders to salivate over. ActiBlizzard wins. You make the company money, you provide endless alternative content for players- real endless content, not Torghast endless content. Everybody wins. In the current state of affairs you expect people to pay large sums without offering them much in return. I say, player-housing is the first step to reconciling the economically abusive, content-lacking, relationship between ActiBlizzard and its players.
3. The Philosophy
3.a. This is where player-housing helps course-correct bad design philosophy. The detached and elitist bad design philosophy of WoW that says “Player housing? Garrisons. Open world content? World Quests. High-seas exploration? Instanced Island Expeditions. Interctive armor? Azerite. Rogue-like experience? Torghast.” Enough is enough, is enough, is enough. I say no to all of these, and everything in between.
3.b. The implementation of player housing could transform design philosophy in WoW because it would be a major self-correction after years of neglect and elitist developing. It would say, “We want to offer something more, something meaningful. We want to modernize our game and bring the RPG back into MMORPG. We want to see what our players are capable of, see our assets used in endlessly creative ways, and maybe learn something along the way. We want to not only be a better game, but the best game.”
Imagine seeing that letter on a blue post.
4. Summary
Player-housing has the potential to revitalize and course-correct World of Warcraft, its player experience, and its player-developer relationship in ways perhaps never achieved before. We sit before an opportunity to rejuvenate entire economies, professions, and social engagement, and truly bring WoW to the roster of modern MMOs. The alternative- leaving WoW in the dustbin of self-assured hasbeens sitting on laurels from ages past. We have a chance to repair relationships, produce something meaningful, and make the overlords money while doing it. There is a World of Warcraft where everybody wins, where everybody can find some meaning, and where everybody can find their home.

-Texasdktoast

The original post was made here:

Player Housing Can Save World of Warcraft

[Tah-earthen-ring]

[Punyelf-draenor (Punyelf)]

I honestly don’t understand Blizzard’s reluctance to give us player house. I would love totally instanced, non land grab, customisable player housing that would be totally optional and offer no power gain.

They could add items through old content and new content, crafted, etc etc for our housing. We could display stuff etc.

Garrisons were a terrible version of player housing. It was just a base.

[Epideme-chamber-of-aspects (Epideme)]

They should look to the SWTOR model, instanced personal and guild housing, 100s if not 1000s of decoration hooks in each, decorations drop from virtually all content both old and current.

[Kallan-haomarush]

The problem is it would have to be instanced like the garrisons and the system mentioned in Rift(which is fairly dead despite this “game saving” feature), if things are not permenant in the world for all passers by to see like in Ultima Online, it rather loses the show off appeal of the feature.

One of the things levelled against Garrisons would also apply here, as many players were often in private instances, it gave the impression of a dead game in the cities and regular gathering areas and was a hindrance to social interaction.

Its a nice feature, I liked the garrisons, but I dont think its going to revitalise the game really.

[Kyle-nordrassil]

@Punyelf-draenor

I honestly don’t understand Blizzard’s reluctance to give us player house.

Because we already are isolating us from the world by playing a game… we don’t need to isolate from the game as well.
What could happen is: people will close inside their houses, exiting only for dungeons or quick content. Oribos… deserted. Covenant hub… hay balls rolling…
Isolation in isolation… why don’t we make our char playing a videogame inside their houses as well?

[Sunbursts-draenor (Sunbursts)]

@Punyelf-draenor

non land grab

Obviously non-land grab! Have you seen the competition for houses in Aion? The fact that I actually managed to get a house for fairly cheap I think was lucky. Then again, I did do the last bid before bidding closed. That’s how me and my sis both got houses at the same time.

[Telestrian-argent-dawn]

I fundamentally agree with pretty much all of the post. It’s a good post to bring to attention, so thanks OP, and it makes many good points.

A housing system would serve as a long-running gold/attention/time/effort/expression sink that wow sorely needs. What wow has of those atm are very transient. They’re not pervasive. Gold sinks are “this mount” or “those consumables” but they always dry up, and then what? Same can be said for mog and expressing yourself.

But with a housing system, there’s potential for far too much variation to run dry. You can reorganise the contents, get new contents, try out a new structure, give it a makeover, go with a theme, try and recreate a particular NPCs room etc etc. it just lends so much more to expression than stuff like mogs or mounts do (mounts are a horrendous way to express yourself as the Post itself says, you show off one at a time and the expressiveness of your collection is thus watered down).

I mean jeez housing could even HELP with this. SImple. You give houses some land-property (some only, not all, depending on locale) and this is where some of your mounts can roam, and be available to be seen like a menargerie of sorts. You could even make it the theme of your house - more akin to a zoo or whatever you like, because what you put in it is up to you! You go for traditional stuff like furniture? Or maybe you want it to be a bare space more like a barn for your mounts? You get to decide that.

And this wouldn’t age, because player expression where you give them a sandbox doesn’t age. This is why even in a content drought, you can log onto AD and see people RPing every-single-day in the primary RP hubs. These are people whom have been given a sandbox and with it they make the content because it’s their passion.
In terms of general players though, mogs and mounts/pets aren’t enough. Customisation was a good start, but much maligned when it became clear there was no “round two” and that was it, which was dumb of blizzard because the reaction to what stuff they did add was good.
This should have told them, they need to stop dismissing how many players of wow are into stuff like customisations or “ways to express themselves” which outside of that are meaningless.
Mogs since BFA have been more limited, ie generally 1-3 or so appearences of an armour type per patch. When you look at expos like MoP and the sheer amount of appearances available across the expo it’s crazy how small it’s become. In MoP each armour class had 3-4 different appearances before you’d even set foot in a raid or considered pvp. When you add those in, you’d be looking at closer (if not over) 10 for each armour class with several separations for specific classes too.
In SL we have: one generic set, one “dungeon/max craft/max pvp” set and then covenant set and raid set. That’s it. 4. Not class specific variation either. It’s not enough.

[Punyelf-draenor (Punyelf)]

I can’t really say I find any meaning from someone afking in Oribos waiting for a dungeon queue. How is that better than someone updating their player housing or being out doing quests while they queue. I’ve never understood this excuse.

Games that have player housing are not deserted. People still use their capital hubs because there is reason to go to them.

[Crfs-aggra-português]

As long as they don’t sacrifice a raid tier to do that I don’t mind.
And make that 100% optional and the house price like 4 millions of gold.

[Telestrian-argent-dawn]

@Punyelf-draenor

I can’t really say I find any meaning from someone afking in Oribos waiting for a dungeon queue. How is that better than someone updating their player housing or being out doing quests while they queue. I’ve never understood this excuse.

Games that have player housing are not deserted. People still use their capital hubs because there is reason to go to them.

Agree. If by “it will kill social interaction” you mean it will stop people essentially ignoring eachother in Oribos as they ride through eachother, stopping only to catch a longboi (but not initiating a conversation with the owner) then what exactly is lost?

The idea that the casual bands of players in wow are nattering in org chinking mugs or doing so in Oribos is fantasy. It’s only done by people whom know eachother in the sense of a guild or whatnot, and for those players that’s their hook, so instanced housing would do precisely nothing to stop them interacting.

Fact is players who don’t have a hook (guild/comm/group) to communicate in WoW rarely if ever do at current. It’s just how it is. When I visit Org to pick up my riding ranks, I see loads of players doing exactly what they do in Oribos, they’re running about not paying any attention to each other outside of the RP hubs.

On the contrary, housing gives a reason to invite other players to socialise by showing them your space and your “territory” as it were. It will be cool to let them explore it and see what they think, and there’s no contrived purpose to the interaction (such as for a group or a raid etc) but rather it’s entirely social (about engagement with each other for no other reason) so in that way, it’s purer.

[Tavil-sylvanas (Tavil)]

I hope they implement a very basic version of housing just to shut you guys up.

[Tifa-lightbringer (Tifa)]

This is nonsense. ff14 and eso has housing and the cities have plenty people in them.

[Buè-dalaran]

Player housing would be so good , i want to live in boralus
But it should cost lot of golds , not free pls blizzard

[Nylu-the-shatar]

Player Housing in WoW & How It Would Work

WoW Player Housing Post Shadowlands, Is It Possible?

[Gigglz-silvermoon]

Where the garrison failed was adding functionality that would normally be found in a major hub area. Lead players to lock themselves in and not interact.

Housing should not include any features that are not customization. No QoL, no player power, just a space you can work on, improve, customize and share.

[Punyelf-draenor (Punyelf)]

In RIFT you could set your home to be open to anyone to visit, or friends or just keep it to yourself. Some people loved showing off what they’d made, and considering how basic the tools were at the time, some of it was quite impressive. It can be social and it can be a nice way to share ideas of what to do in your space.

I rarely go to Orgrimmar as I have a long boi. I rarely spend any time in Oribos either, I pass through more than anything. If I do have to afk while I’m in Oribos I tend to sit on my long boi so others can access the AH. I do use my covenant sanctum as my hearthstone hub but I rarely notice people around me. I go pick up my calling, sort the mission table etc and I’m off and gone into the open world.

Most of my social interactions are via discord, talking to friends/guildies etc and ofc while I’m flying or queuing I’m on here

However cities are still relevant, you need them to pick up quest, visit the vault, access a barber, access void storage, visit a trainer, use the AH even if it’s someone else’s long boi etc.

[Nylu-the-shatar]

Oribos has a AH whats point haveing AH mount ?

[Punyelf-draenor (Punyelf)]

@Nylu-the-shatar

Oribos has a AH whats point haveing AH mount ?

Oribos only has an AH if you are an engineer, as does every expansion capital (as an engineer).

[Gigglz-silvermoon]

@Punyelf-draenor

I rarely go to Orgrimmar as I have a long boi. I rarely spend any time in Oribos either, I pass through more than anything. If I do have to afk while I’m in Oribos I tend to sit on my long boi so others can access the AH. I do use my covenant sanctum as my hearthstone hub but I rarely notice people around me. I go pick up my calling, sort the mission table etc and I’m off and gone into the open world.

I think a lot of players (I know it applies to me at least) experience Oribos and the sanctums in this way. Just a pit stop while heading elsewhere.