Breakfast Topic: What makes a home to you?

What makes a faction capital a faction capital? And what makes a home a home? These are two questions that have been flitting through my head since the announced changes for faction hubs in Warlords of Draenor. Karabor and Bladespire will no longer stand as faction capitals -- and honestly, when I think about it from a lore standpoint it does make sense. Why would the draenei open up their holiest of holy cities and let the strangers they just met settle in and take it over? But even if it makes sense to the lore-loving side of me, it's still a tremendous disappointment. The announcement of Karabor as a faction capital was one of the highlights of the Warlords announcement at BlizzCon, for me.

The more I think about it, though, the more I wonder what exactly it is that makes a capital city so "special" in the first place. Bank access, sure, I can see that. Auction House access isn't necessary -- we didn't have that originally in Shattrath. Portals to places? That's probably a bonus. But there is little other reason to stay in a faction capital beyond that, as far as I'm concerned. Once I've completed my AH business for the day, I don't feel the need to stay put. Once I've done my traveling and I just want to hang out, I pretty much have my pick of anywhere in the world -- if it has an inn, I can bind my hearthstone to it and call it home.

So what is it, exactly, that makes a faction capital a faction capital? Why, in a video game that encourages exploration and offers an unending variety of gorgeous scenery and towns, do we need a fixed, designated area to stand around and chitchat? Is it the vendors? The portals? The bank, the transmog vendor, the auction house, the chat channels?

Last night on Twitter, Cory Stockton confirmed that yes, Karabor has an inn that you can bind your hearthstone to. And that settled that for me. If I want to do any trading or transmog, I'll hit up the town in Ashran. But as far as I'm concerned, home is where my hearthstone is set -- and that is going to be Karabor for me, whether it's officially designated a capital or not.