I got bored and wanted to see what everyone was doing with their housing. So I checked out many neighborhoods. It’s bad and this is on a busy realm “Thrall.” There is a small percentage of people who really have put time into this and I suspect spent a lot of gold too. I would say 80% of housing is either nothing done or like myself just putting silly things in the yard that makes zero sense. Not to mention this was supposed to make the game more social. Sadly, just like many things Blizz does it just reinforced anti-social behavior. Why I say that is so many neighborhoods the neighbors don’t even give permission to neighbors. So when doing activities in the neighborhood we end up having to deal with the trespass warnings constantly. People come on? Not to mention it was rare to find a full neighborhood. I’m for sure going to put a very limited amount of time into this distraction going forward. Anyone truly happy with housing? If so why? There is no function to it. The grind is beyond boring. To spend gold for just aesthetics? Which most will never see? The building controls are outdated. Even in the full or almost full neighborhoods it’s a ghost town. What am I missing? Feels like a massive waste of time, gold and game resources.
On this point first:
You are correct about it being a feature that was “supposed” to make the game more social. Obviously it hasn’t, but only because the devs didn’t make the neighborhood a place where “teamwork” would gain you gold/reagents/gear: Blizzard should take a page from RIFT in this case.
In RIFT you could always meet and team up with new players through the constant “rift” battles that spawned in the open world (kinda like world Qs, but they were events that had to be triggered or happened spontaneously) In those battles there were stages and lots of loot dropped to ensure participation.
Endeavors are an excellent feature, but they don’t encourage the social activity a muti-stage battle would.
If I knew I could get some coupons, reagents, and decent gear/gold from doing some “battle events” protecting my hood, then the housing area would be a frequently visited place (not just to go and decorate).
On your main point {Housing is an absolute flop}:
I have to ‘strongly disagree’.
Absolute? No. Are there flops in housing? Yes.
IMHO I am more inclined to lean towards your sentiment given I have played several mmorpgs with housing and WoW (having an abundance of material to learn from in the gaming market place) has delivered a relatively ordinary housing feature.
I am pleased with the amount of decor and storage space, but the core mechanics of building are inefficient and, in some cases, completely broken ( or flopped you might say)…Like not being able to duplicate an object and [group] set object with another you’ve manipulated and move it along the grid free form.
My hope is they fix this building mechanic mess while I gather houseXP and decor to play with during the summer..
I will say this, If the building mechanics/tools will not allow me to build the way you could in the game Wildstar, then I will join your opinion most zealously…
Wildstar housing was legendary and WoW should necro the Wildstar housing devs team’s wisdom…
I wouldn’t call it a flop, specifically, but it is certainly worrying with the absolute silence on the amount of bugs and the future aside from what we got about a month ago. This was supposed to be THE big content that people have been pining for since alpha.
I know it was already referenced above me, but I wanted to chime in on this too, because you’re right.
At the near end of MoP, I stopped playing for a while and jumped into SWToR. Even to this day, I was amazed at just how many people I would see, not just in the major cities, but in the open world. Not only that, but there were high level, “end game” players in starting zones. I specifically remember one rare mob in a starting area (which one escapes me at the moment), but a few high level players came storming in and helped a bunch of low level players kill it. And that wasn’t the only time, but it was the one I remember specifically because it was one of the first ones you encounter in your early leveling. You could actually ask for help and would most likely get a response if you were stuck on something.
I never really could understand why high level players were in low level zones all the time, but it’s just not something you see in WoW. Why? I could list many reasons, but that would make this post super long.
I thought housing was going to be this big social thing too, but it seems to just remind me that unless you’re a Youtuber or you’re just so darn good at this game, no one cares you built a house.
Thank you for a constructive and honest reply. I’ve only played Wow for about 3 years and I keep hoping to find something to engage myself in and enjoy the game. I was looking forward to housing, having no idea what they would do with it but so far the results are nothing I would call a hook for me. Maybe a timed event, daily like a raid or something that could at least get everyone into the neighborhood at the same time. Those who I have talked to about housing, could care less if it even sticks around. That is kind of the consensus I’ve been picking up.
This one is a long one, but…
If they want housing to be social, they have to MAKE it social. Thus far, the only real social part is the endeavors, but you’re not actually engaging with anyone. It’s still solo content that all adds up to a single purpose.
The missing holiday items/themes. I said in a couple other posts about how awesome it would be to have the Noblegarden egg hunt through the entire neighborhood. How many people would actually do it? I dunno, but the events need to evolve and change.
Hallows End? Have the Horseman pick a random house to attack and burn down. Now, the problem is that no one cares if Goldshire burns due to the way the mechanics work to put out the fires. There has to be SOMETHING that people want to engage in.
I’m often reminded of the failed micro-holidays blizz tried. I still think something could be done, but in a post I made on the Thousand Boat Bash six years ago really sums up a lot of things in this game when it comes to social aspects and engagement:
This is pretty much the epitome of ‘meh’ with micro holidays. My server is a med. pop. and yet, the whole area was completely empty, even with all the servers we’re merged with. No alliance, no horde, no one save for me (I’ve been there for about 15mins flying around while writing this). The problem with micro holidays is that everyone expects to get something for doing it, that’s literally what Blizz designed the game to be. Is it a form of entitlement? Yes, but when you’ve been conditioned to expect something for doing something for almost two decades and suddenly they throw something at you that has no rewards, why would anyone do it?
I see events like the AH dance party, the Sporegar event, Pirate’s Day, and Trial of Style doing well because you get some sense of accomplishment and fun. Running around on a boat in the water when you can already fly makes no sense and the event itself doesn’t add anything that isn’t already seen throughout the game.
I’m not sure what they could add to make it better or more engaging that isn’t going to deviate from what they were planning (which was small events that didn’t take a lot of time to put together). I will say it would have at least been neat to have the allied race’s boats there too, but I think blizz has abandoned updating micro holidays.
I’m personally not trying to bash the event or the implementation, I give them props for at least trying to give some kind of content, but this is one of the many that just makes no sense. I mean, at least I went there to check it out, so I suppose it’s working to an extent.
I guess one of the pluses could be that you can swim around during the event and see the raceway ruins… though if you’ve done the questing in this area, you’ve seen them already. I also find it odd that there is a friendly “high elf” race with boats right next to the blood elves who show up as neutral to alliance. There is a gnome on a night elf boat, but no night elves. There is a goblin captain on an orc boat which is hostile. There might be similar things with horde, but I didn’t go look.
Even the NPC’s are bored. Tu-Luak on the Tuskar “boat” says: … I was hoping to play some volleyball, too…
I think that pretty much sums up micro holidays.
And thanks if anyone actually read any of that, I know it’s long-winded.
It was always going to be a mileage may vary feature. I love it. Other’s not so much. That’s ok. It’s also hard to judge because there’s so much to do right now. Once things calm down I imagine housing will entice more people to participate.
Public neighborhoods still have a lot of 1 time users, like you. People who it was never going to be their thing, but they tried it out. Private and guild neighborhoods are a lot more filled out. Public neighborhoods were always going to be kind of slow, largely because of the ease of getting in. And the existence of private and guild neighborhoods moves a lot of the most interested people out of the public neighborhoods.
No, it really wasn’t. It is an outlet for the kind of people that like it. It is not for everyone, never was, and never will be. It can be used socially. And many do. Mostly they are in private and guild neighborhoods, which were the social people to start with. Housing and neighborhoods were never going to make unsocial people suddenly be social. That isn’t really a thing a game system can do.
Yes. Many of us.
It is about designing and building for their own sake. If that isn’t your thing, you are not the target audience for it. Nothing wrong with that.
Housing is for people you like to build and design in games. It is building for the sake of building. Those of us that like that kind of thing are very happy with it. The shared neighborhood adds some to those of us that like to share what we build. For the right audience it is great. But not everyone has the same mindset. You don’t have to like it.
And think about it this way: If Blizzard is doing their job correctly, there are going to be aspects of the game you are not interested in. The broader and more varied the game is, the more people will find fun in it because we are all different people with different tastes. But that means odds are there are going to be parts you just don’t have an interest in.
Thanks for your feedback and insight. The social aspect of this game is lacking to say the least. I am on multiple realms and I have to admit Thrall is the most friendly out of all of them but it too has limits. I was hoping housing was going to close that gap some but I feel it hasn’t done a thing for the community as a whole.
On a positive note during those few days of the early access, I felt like I was playing a different game. People were friendly, respectful and working together. That was fun but that lasted until the official release and we reverted quickly back to everyone out for themselves.
I read this so much in the forums when folk are being critical of housing and saying that they were promised social activities. I never saw that announcement. I doubt that it happened. People gripe that the neighborhoods are dead but everyone is inside building something fun.
I know that a headline topic like this is meant to make us defend housing. We see a lot of that and, candidly, it is fun to make my case!
My final thought would be that if you started out bored, you’ll probably stay bored. The real entertainment is inside of your head.
There is a healthy middle there,
You dont raid dungeon to “pretend” to get gear, and to clarify, i dont want gear for housing
But it couldn’t hurt to have a -reason- to cooperate with eachother, be it minivents in the neighborhood or bonuses (in the form of decor/xp/coupons) for doing group content with your neighbors or something.
I’ll take the free crests, I guess, but you dont have to bribe players to interact with housing. We just have to nurture that social aspect that we want so much
(Side note guys: my private hood is officially up and running with events on the calendar, check it out if youre interested!)
To all of you who want to put fighting mobs in the neighborhood that’s a hard NO! from me. The neighborhoods are peaceful and should stay that way. Construction building and decorating activities of all the unfinished things in the neighborhoods is the way to go to get the neighbors involved with each other, not fighting mobs. I enjoy the creativity of housing and it’s the only thing keeping me in the game and doing the other extremely repetitive things that are honestly boring after 20 years of playing.
No burning people’s houses down either. That is not my idea of fun at all.
Hard same. There are lots of places to fight things in the game. I’d rather not have to do it in the neighborhoods.
It is true that right now, housing requires us to make our own fun. To an extent, I think that’s fine. RP groups have been making their own fun for decades.
I also think some of this will resolve as people sort into private or guild neighborhoods with others who have similar interests. There are certainly things Blizzard could do to foster engagement. I know people can pvp inside the houses, maybe there could be an option to enable warmode in private 'hoods for people who enjoy that. Microholidays or minievents might also help, or they might turn into another chore.
The neighborhoods are sandboxes. Many of us are not used to unstructured play. We’re going to need to do some work on our own to find out what’s fun for us in the sandbox, and find the people with similar ideas.
(Yes, I am of the “be sure you’re home when the streetlights come on” generation. I’m comfortable with making my own fun)
I think I qualify. I’m still in “this is so much better than I was expecting” awe.
Sorry to hear you aren’t enjoying it.
This nailed my feelings exactly. Housing is meant to be a creative outlet for people who are into that. While I’d love to bring in new people who wouldn’t have considered it being “for them”, I’m also satisfied with it as is tbh.
I quit in Shadowlands because after nearly 20 years I was fully burnt out. Hearing that housing was announced made me come back. I wouldn’t have bothered if I wasn’t genuinely excited for and now happy with the system.
Also the weekly quest to hang out in a house with 4 other players resulted in a fun ‘party’ at my house as people joined the raid. Some joined, got credit, and instantly left. Some people tried the jump puzzle. A dwarf brought an ‘case of uncracked cold ones’ and chatted for a while. It was the most positive pug experience I’ve had in a while!
I have enjoyed building up my crib with WoW themed stuff, maxed out lvl 9 atm and anxious for the next lvls of housing to be released.
Housing is still a Work In Progress, in every aspect of it.
I’ve been playing this game as far back as the original closed beta (family privilege through my father’s gaming ‘connections’). I have left this game and come back to it several times, so it wouldn’t surprise me if you look to greener pastures.
Are you in a guild?
I’ve come to find my experience in most games (in general) can be significantly influenced by the company I keep (or don’t keep).
The game is called: World of W A R C R A F T
Not having fighting mobs is disingenuous to the game itself and only further isolates the housing community.
How does this further isolate? It limits the pool of players willing to engage in the neighborhood zones. I get that you want a “special” place…where there is no fighting…sure, okay…let’s agree, then, that not everyone wants to pollenate flowers and heal wounded artists…PERHAPS, there is a better way to get those “sweaty dungeon players” to join in with the “arts and crafter players”…
I PROPOSE to you, MsApplewood,
That such “activities” (as you call them) of building and decorating should REWARD we the players with valuable loot = reagents/gold/gear ALONG WITH those treasured [community coupons]…
If this were to be implemented, I believe that this would get players “involved” with each other.
Not everyone wants to spend their time collecting coupons for a lava feature (we need more lava features). The answer is to entice them with an optional reward (or give us both =P).
I love decorating my in game house, but my FIRST love is slaying the dragon and saving the princess…
Which reminds me of a certain theatre troupe world quest that could satisfy us both!!!
Dorongol…ah, can’t remember the name, but its a “re-enactment” story that has a few battles and you have to please the crowd as part of the quest…
There is a theater in Founders Point, sooo…???
Good day to you, Msapplewood!
I just thought I’d point out that neighborhoods are not directly tied to the realms. When I had my Alliance house in a public neighborhood, there were probably a dozen or more realms represented. Being on a busy or friendly or dead realm does not have any direct effect on how friendly or active the neighborhood you find yourself in is.
Personally, I really like decorating my house. I have lots of ideas that I want to try out once I have the budget (both decor and room) to do them. My houses are always open though being in a private and a guild neighborhood means that most random people won’t see it. I have read that Blizz is working out more ways to let people see your house and I will probably try them out once they are implemented.
What you describe is a desire for forced socialization. Maybe the “arts and crafts players” and the “sweaty dungeon players” don’t need to be forced to play together like toddlers in a daycare. I appreciate you have a different perspective but there is an entire world for you to kill kill kill all the live long day. I don’t want to have to watch my back while I’m trying to place decor.
I wish you a very good day as well, Ebeneezer.
I’m curious how they’re going to address neighborhoods that are still full of empty plots or people who aren’t playing anymore. I’d move but my plot is always taken and I really don’t want to have to rebuild the exterior because the new zone has a different layout.
This is all assuming they some how make neighborhoods a focal point for players to gather more often.