Player housing revisited, Blizzard still not interested
by Mike Schramm 
Jan 9th 2008 at 8:00PM
Of all the recurring topics Blizzard faces on the forums, player housing might be the most recurring-- since many other MMOs are more than happy to offer customizable spaces to their players in the game world, a lot of players continually ask Blizzard why they haven't. And the answer is only partially unclear: as you might expect, Blizzard isn't interested in doing something if they can't do it better than everyone else, and at this point they just haven't figured out exactly how to do it their own polished way.But in its current iteration on the forums, there's a bit of a surprise: many players don't care about player housing in the first place. As Drysc says, "support is not widespread," and considering everything that Blizzard is working on, there's no way they're going to jump into something as big as player housing without having a large portion of the player base behind them.
Then again, players are always in favor of customizing their characters-- look at the hairstyles coming up in the next expansion. If Blizzard can figure out a way to give players a customizable space that was both great looking and easy to customize-- something players could show off to each other and store achievements in-- then there's no doubt that most players would probably jump at the chance.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Guilds, Blizzard, Instances, Expansions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Adaph Mar 19th 2008 4:22PM
I would love to have a house full of tauren skin.
-heads on the wall
-nice tauren leather sofa
-skin on the floor in front of my self engineered fireplace.
What more could a gnome ask for?
J Jan 9th 2008 10:06PM
Dammit...my mage wants his own tower!
mirilene Jan 9th 2008 8:21PM
I played SWG for years. I had a house that i filled with stuff from all over the GFFA. I thought it was great. It was not. No one else cared much and compared to the people who won the contests SOE held, i was VERY much an amateur.
It would be similarly pointless in WoW. It would require a huge addition to the game to support things like furniture and moving items around. Sure they could make some kind of "generic" house where stuff goes in pre-selected spots, but if its going to look the same as everyone, whats the point.
Mostly, houses were in SWG to clutter up the landscape and make the game look like an abandoned town. Man, wouldnt it be cool if there was a whole village of locked, empty houses right outside the black temple??
They should explore achievements, much like xbox live or swg where you could examine someone and see "...has visited Jabba's palace" along with 100 other accomplishments. That would serve much of the same purpose and be a lot easier to impliment (though hard to go backward with).
Chris Anthony Jan 9th 2008 8:54PM
"They should explore achievements..."
I'm totally behind this idea, but agree that it would be amazingly difficult to figure out who'd done what, and add that there would be an incredible amount of kvetching on the forums and elsewhere about what, exactly, constituted an achievement.
Also, to some extent, there are achievement markers in the game already; for example, the Crown of the Fire Festival (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=23323) marks "infiltrated all of the opposing faction's cities", and the Champion of the Naaru title marks "completed the Tempest Keep and Serpentshrine Cavern attunement sequences".
For that matter, it would be fun and useful to have some of them them be account-wide instead of character-specific, though; an icon on the Armory indicating "70 on a PVP server", for instance...
Zhalseran Jan 9th 2008 8:28PM
Whats the point of collecting achievements if your the only one thats going to see them? I'd much rather have a larger variety of titles and/or tabards. All I know is that WoW has been around for years and has managed to be the #1 MMO without player housing, so why start now? I wouldn't be opposed to having a house since its something to personalize etc etc etc, but I wouldn't feel like I'm missing out if it were never implemented.
Ronie Jan 9th 2008 8:28PM
Psh who needs player housing?! That's what in-game caves are for! I live in that crystal cave behind Marshal's Refuge in Un'Goro Crater. I even have my own gnome to punt w/o any 5000g gold sink!
peaglemancer Jan 10th 2008 10:47AM
Awesome. Personally I live in Old Ironforge, yep I have my own city. It's a slight bitch to get to, but it's good to be king.
Saphia Jan 10th 2008 11:44AM
Every alt I bring up through ungoru reminds me that that is the prettiest spot in the entire game. Good choice on your house.
blitzkrieg999 Jan 9th 2008 8:39PM
I'm with Blizzard on this, there doesn't seem to be much point. Besides, haven't they said they will be doing Guild Halls at some point? If the Guild Halls are anything like Allegiance halls in Asheron's Call 2, thats all I need!
Makros Jan 10th 2008 1:58PM
I think guild halls would be the way to go. I mean if a player really wanted his own house he could just start his own guild. But really who wants a special place that they just hang out alone? Thats what your parent's basement is for O.o
George M. Jan 9th 2008 8:40PM
Because of the Lag this would cause, that's the reason we can't have this.
mike Jan 9th 2008 8:45PM
sadly, blizzard has too many other things it needs to fix before it can move on to new stuff.
Working pvp system would be a nice start :)
Tyy Jan 9th 2008 8:47PM
You could also add a feature to the armory or in-game an inspect tab that would allow players to see titles, some selected epic or all completed quest-chains and reputation.
And I like the tabard idea for in-game, add an extra unlimited bank slot for tabards.
As for myself, I would probably like to customize my house for a day or two and after that simply log, where I am.
RogueJedi86 Jan 9th 2008 8:49PM
Am I the only one who thinks they should add it? It wouldn't cause lag if it were instanced. LotRO did it well, with each town's housing being divided into 20-25 or so instances with 30 houses inside, with players living inside each instance, and being able to enter any of them when they try to go inside the Housing Area.
Also, Blizz needs to think of how it affects players. High-end raids only appeal to the raiders, which is a relatively small amount of the player base(after all, WoW is a casual player's game). Player Housing appeals to the entire player base. You don't have to be max-level and in purples to have a player house. Even if you give a minimum level of 15 like LotRO, that's still the vast majority of the player base getting to have access to this content that won't be obsoleted by a new expansion full of dungeons and loot.
Plus the draw of being able to show off loots. Even if only your close friends visit, it'd still be fun to see what people do with their houses. And no one can deny the allure of extra space to put your stuff. :)
Todd Jan 10th 2008 12:36AM
#9 I agree with, I have seen the LOTRO housing and they did implement that very well .. and ya there is no lag so #6 needs to go back to raiding and let the casuals and RP'ers talk about this subject
Now if they put in guild halls instead of player housing or before that would be cool, and I think in the thick of things guild halls would serve more of a purpose them player housing, but I would still like to see it implemented in wow someday.
PeeWee Jan 12th 2008 3:37AM
But then again, LOTRO has like what, 100.000 players? Just because you can do it for 100K players doesn't mean it'l work equally good with 9M.
Tridus Jan 9th 2008 9:10PM
Housing is popular, but its "shallow" popularity. Nobody picks one MMO over another because of player housing. They do pick one over another for things like world PvP, good raiding, a fun game, etc.
Thats why player housing isn't important to the devs. People may want it, but ultimatley its just a novelty and not the core of the game.
In the case of LOTRO (which was mentioned in an earlier comment), I think they did it well. But you know what? I got a house, decorated it... then haven't been back except to use the storage chest (think more bank slots only accessable from your house). I don't login to look at my house, I login to play the game.
Sean Riley Jan 9th 2008 9:10PM
Instanced guild Halls, definitely. Having a space for guildies to hang out, chat, and hang trophies on walls has a definite appeal. For the rules-crowd, how about being able to buy in-hall kitchens that add bonus to cooking skill or (probably of greater concern to most guilds) workshops that allow for cheaper armor repair?
Don't make guild halls static. Make them something that guilds will want to invest money in, and they'll be a well-loved addition.
Justus Jan 9th 2008 9:19PM
What this game needs is a reason to disperse the population that stands in the bank area causing massive lag.
kunukia Jan 9th 2008 10:54PM
Guild Halls!! Very cool. I don't need my own house, but my toons that are in a guild would love a Guild Hall.