We also don’t want something that is a gimmick for one expansion. We want something that will carry on throughout expansions.
1 Like
Which leads back to that Blizzard does not want you to grind past content to have a feature for the current content.
Which is why player housing has to be a stand alone feature and work in the game regardless of expansion. Just like Orgrimmar and Stormwind remain our faction capitals no matter where the game sends us.
There is ofc lots of potential to add things to the game throughout all the expansions for us to gather, collect, learn for our housing.
1 Like
I’m all for encouraging socializing which housing has nothing to do with. You sit in your own instance alone. Nobody cares about your vase that matches the color of your carpet. Hey guys come check my house it has furniture! What a great idea to do stuff in a video game that is boring in real life. What’s next, laundry?
A core part of rpg is a group of advanturers doing a dungeon. And blizzard ruined any chance of socializing by putting a timer on it.
1 Like
People do transmog competitions, what makes you think people wouldn’t do house mog competitions?
Color coordination and interior design is a big rabbit hole of a time sink 
1 Like
I feel like they have a hard time making what’s already in the game engaging plus I don’t think player housing will be something a majority of the playerbase wants, ofc I could be wrong
Asides from wants, I feel like Blizzard really needs to put their focus on the main bread and butter of WoW which is dungeons, raids, PvP and open world, esp open world is suffering because it’s just a glorified world quest platform, Dungeons and Raids are fine of themselves, fun even, but the systems surrounding them are demotivating
I do agree with the idea that these superficial half solutions (torghast as roguelike, world quest as world content, azerite armor as interactive gear) were ailed mostly by how the content was designed rather then the philosophy’s they were based on (and that said I feel like Blizzard trying to make the game interesting by making gear interesting is the wrong way to do it, I don’t play my gear, I play the game, the gear is just a means to an end) but going by that exact same track record I fear them wasting development time on ‘a new thing’ that will just flop again (the mage tower is imo the only exception to them trying to break the mold and succeeding)
I absolutely disagree however that player housing would transform the design philosophy of WoW in form of self correction (3.b in the original post). Everything that is not player housing will continue to be designed as was and the only difference is the reward at the end might include some player housing related things.
I.E. if they added player housing, they’d just add player housing related rewards to torghast, dungeons, raids and world quests without changing anything about those types of content, I am fully convinced of this (but maybe (hopefully) wrong)
TL;DR
- I don’t think it will revitalize the game, it will give people who wanted player housing something to do but I also feel like the community that will really invest into it will be small, there’d be overlap between people who run stuff for mogs and will just take what drops for them tho
- I don’t think it will course correct the game, at the end of the day it’s just an instanced area that just exists and sits there, sure you can change how it looks, but that’s about it
- I would support it if Blizzard didn’t have to sacrifice in other areas for it, because no other areas can suffer being sacrificed atm, but even then I would not engage with it because I do not find it engaging
1 Like
For a start garriosn are not what players asked for . Also people stayed in there garrsions as there was nothing outside of raids or pvp to do .
There was very very few dailies to do until Tanan Jungle came .
1 Like
As well as this, most of the world content there was, at least until Tanaan, you got from NPCs in your Garrison. Not only was there no incentive to leave, they actually incentivized you to just hang out in your garrison.
1 Like
I still have tailoring Alts based in Garrisons…I enjoy the nostalgia rush, when I need more bags.
1 Like
1 Like
Anyone that regards Garrisons as Player Housing doesn’t have a clue what they’re talking about and therefore any views and opinions they express are null and void.
The current player base, of course, would see it as an anti social and unwanted thing mainly because the players that enjoy all the aspects of Player Housing are playing other games that do have that facility.
Adding Housing would attract a lot more players back to the game as well as adding a lot more depth and interest for them.
5 Likes
I never really understood player housing and I am not one to speak in favor of it.
There are so many aspects of it that I just don’t get.
You collect and acquire things to decorate your house!
But why? If it’s instanced content, why would I even care what my house looks like?
Part of the appeal of collecting mounts and cool armor in WoW is that you can show it off for all to see.
I have a room in my Garrison filled with all the Pristine Artifacts I’ve collected, but I have never had any interest in just looking at that collection display. It’s meaningless.
But you can invite others into your house!
But why? What for? Why would I give a hoot about anyone else’s house? Unless I’ve paid some female Night Elf in Goldshire to visit her house for a little special something, then I don’t really see the point. And if you’re not into roleplaying, then what’s the point at all??
But there can be all sorts of quality-of-life features in your house that makes it useful!
But why not just have those in the main cities where everyone already is? Wasn’t that one of the complaints about The Garrison? That you lost the sense of buzz and activity by seeing lots of players in the major hubs, because they were all hidden away in their private Garrisons. Why bring that back?!
Oh but it’s a new feature with lots of possibilities to expand and build upon!
Isn’t it super dangerous to turn production-demanding features into permanent features, because they demand a lot of developer resources for sheer upkeep? I mean, isn’t that the story of Archaeology? Cool feature that fits perfectly with the theme of Cataclysm, but mistakenly turned into a permanent feature so Blizzard becomes forced to update it in every subsequent expansion despite the fact that it makes little sense to look for artifacts in an alternative timeline and it’s not at all popular amongst the players, but Blizzard are forced to carry on out of obligation to the few players who live and breathe for Archaeology.
Why go down that road again?!
But housing is a cool feature that works really well in these other MMORPGs!
Yeah but is that the kind of game WoW should be? I feel like WoW is an adventure where you’re constantly exploring new places and traveling to unknown worlds as you uncover secrets and untold mysteries.
It feels a bit weird to then have a personal house where your character lives – all the while you’re fighting on another planet against terrifying monsters to save the entire universe!
I mean, it strikes me as if the design of housing fits more with an MMORPG design that’s a bit more down-to-earth, so to speak.
I don’t know… I don’t get it. 
1 Like
A fair argument, and you raise some good points regarding Archaeology and its longevity.
I think though that Archaeology was a very niche profession that could have rather been an expansion feature, shows up for just that expansion then gets left behind.
True, these are things that do not appeal to all players. But those that are interested in player housing, both current players and former players who have moved on to other MMO’s, will see these exact points as positives to engage with. Spending more time in-game running content for drops, talking to one another to buy or sell crafted items, showing off their personal style to friends and community members etc.
I imagine a scenario where Player A creates an ornate mirror using Jewelcrafting and sells it to Player B. B then invites A back to their house to show off how it fits in, which then prompts Player A to improve their own place. Maybe ask where certain items came from and then grouping up to go get those items. Yes I know, this sounds like an optimists fever dream but the potential exists.
Absolutely not. If you read through both the EU and US threads on this topic, those who are serious about getting player housing are 100% against having QoL features included. The idea is to give people their own space that they can feel an attachment to but not lock them in there. Players should still be out in the cities and the world playing the game.
I don’t quite agree with this point by Texasdktoast (the OP), I think the basic structures should be created by Blizzard (at least 2 of each racial style), and the player then works with that. Total creative freedom on the building of the housing could be problematic.
1 Like
Yeah and that’s probably the crux of the issue in the end.
The WoW development team does have finite resources, so anything that is made for WoW is inevitably made at the expense of something else.
The infamous quote that comes to mind is: It costs a raid tier.
And it appears to me that housing would be a huge feature that would require a lot of upfront art resources and programming. And then it would demand constant resources going forward as the whole premise of the feature is getting new things to decorate your house with – meaning new things Blizzard needs to create.
And that to me is Archaeology on a larger scale.
Something that requires a lot of resources on Blizzard’s end to satisfy a very small audience, at the cost of something else that could satisfy a lot more people.
I recall that’s also what Tom Chilton said of The Garrison back in the day, that the reason why Blizzard ended up with that design was that it would create meaningful gameplay for everyone during Warlords of Draenor, whereas traditional housing lacked broad gameplay purpose.
Race specific housing please
WoD biggest sin was, as a Draenei you had to live among human architecture
I want to see Troll houses, elven houses, draenei, gilnean, vulpera burrows, goblin and gnome and so on
The communiy is behind me on this 
1 Like
And server space. Where would non-instanced houses go…?
Would everyone be guaranteed one or would it just be for the quick and the rich?
And if they are instanced, which they would undoubtedly have to be, would people be happy? Seems highly unlikely.
The problem now that we have the shop embedded into the ecosystem would just be leveraged to squeeze more money out of the players in WoW’s twilight years.
I have a very “warm” feeling all of the sudden 
Anybody else feels the “heat” of summer? 
Blood and high elven
Or suramarian
Night elven are… 
Of course they would be instanced and everyone would be able to buy one. Each city would have specific doors around the city you can use to enter it.
That’s how every other mmo does it and people enjoy the feature when it’s there.