guildhousing
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The downfalls of player-created housing
We unfortunately don't know much about what's coming next, but we do know one thing that's scheduled to show up, at least before the next expansion: some sort of housing. All the Blue hints point to guild housing, but player housing is an idea that's been tossed around as well. There's just one problem to MMO housing, however. As Hardcore Casual points out, it often becomes a ghost town.Back when I played Dark Age of Camelot, I remember visiting the guild housing area only once (the guild I joined was mostly lowbies, and we never had enough cash to buy property of our own), and it was a strange experience-- acres upon acres of customized buildings, all completely and totally empty as far as I could see. There were a few NPCs around (DAoC had a feature where you could have NPCs stand outside your house to sell your crafts while you were gone), but otherwise it was more like an abandoned trailer park than anything else. As HC says, the "IDEA" of housing is great-- you can have your own place to hang out, show off, and build to your heart's content. But in practice, most players would rather be exploring the world Blizzard designed then stuck in a small room that they made themselves.Now, the obvious solution for this is instancing, and in fact, Blizzard has already foreseen this-- there are currently instance portals in a few cities that have been rumored to serve as either player or guild housing. If instances were used as housing, we'd just all own the same apartment in Stormwind. But you have to balance that against the other feature of housing-- actually showing it off. Wandering around the houses in DAoC was a kind of (lonely) fun, if only to see what other people had created, and with just an instance, all you'd get to see is the inside. It'll be interesting to see how Blizzard balances player-created content (which can sometimes be boring or ugly), with their own interesting design.
Everything we know about 2.2, 2.3, and the next expansion
EU Forum MVP Schwick has posted a very nice and very thorough listing of everything we know about patch 2.2, 2.3, and the next expansion. As far as I know, there's nothing really new here, but it's a terrifically indepth listing of every rumor, hint, and suspicion that we've heard so far.Some of the exciting ideas still coming are new emotes, a tanking Pally revamp, a new stealth animation for Rogues, and totem timers for Shamans (currently, I use Totemus, and that suits me just fine). Also on the to-do list includes VOIP, guild banks and housing, and speculations for the next expansion include Northrend (I've got my money on this one, because the Scourge have it coming), "Beyond Outland," and the Emerald Dream.I'm sure we'll learn more eventually (expect big things at Blizzcon, I foresee), but until then, this roundup is as comprehensive as it gets. Thanks to Schwick for compiling this all together for us.
What's so interesting about player-controlled housing to you?
Much like many of you, I've been playing WoW since the start. In the two-plus years that have passed, my bank has become a bit cluttered with mementos; tabards, pets, and in the case of my rogue, the entire set of Dungeon Set 2 (or Tier .5) armor. At the time the set was completed it was a real achievement to me and to my small guild. Despite the fact that my rogue also happens to be an enchanter, and I could seriously use the Large Brilliant Shards and Nexus Crystals, I just can't bring myself to shard the set. Never mind that I know I'll only ever wear it again for looks, if that. (Did I mention the collection of festival dresses I have?) Why? Call me sentimental, but a lot of those items represent gaming milestones to me. Keeping them has meant that I've had to spend free time farming the mats for the 18-slot-bags. It also has made me stay on top of my inventory at all times, which is a good thing in a lot of respects. But there's a reason for the madness. It's something I dream of, and I hope that the Blizzard Devs will consider if (or when) they implement housing...
Is guild housing in our future? Blizz says yes!
No -- we don't have an ETA. And you can be sure this isn't going to be in patch 2.1. But CM Nethaera recently confirmed that guild housing is still on Blizzard's agenda. Of course, she can't give us any details -- she's just letting us know they're still planning on it, and that the Blizzard team has a mountain worth of ideas and there's still only 24 hours in a day. This is a bit different than the last official response we received on the subject, which was when Drysc told us in February that Blizzard doesn't "have any current development or plans on guild halls." But he does encourage some discussion on what a guild hall could be. And on the suggestion forums, there's extensive discussion of what players want in a guild housing solution. But what do you think Blizzard will do with the idea of guild housing when they get around to it?
Forum Post of the Day: Guild halls
Though many MMOs do have some type of guild housing available, World of Warcraft doesn't have any such option, nor are there (to my knowledge) any officially acknowledged plans to create them. However, there are players out there who would very much like to see some sort of guild housing in the game -- and some of them have hit up the suggestion forums with incredibly detailed proposals. Poster Kinn presents us with an in-depth (too in-depth to be succinctly summarized) look at what guild halls could be like, and the thread has garnered over 20 pages of mostly positive responses. So what do you think? Would such a system benefit the game? Would another type of system be better? Or is guild housing a silly idea in the first place?
