So Shadowlands ended in a .2 patch. This happened in WoD when they admitted that they had to cut the expansion drastically short to release it. They chopped a lot off.
Now with Shadowlands, they had production problems related to Covid, and the expansion itself was disliked by the majority. So it ended in a .2 patch. And it was claimed to be a story told in 3 chapters. Even though there is a mountain of circumstantial evidence saying otherwise.
Now if Dragonflight ends in a .2 patch, does that mean we have given up a raid tier? I think it could be construed that way. As two expansions so far, ended in .2 patches, had very large and glaring reasons why they did so. Dragonflight does not have that luxury I feel. Saying it is a story told in 3 chapters, or that it had much more content in the .0.X patches which justifies wrapping it up in a .2 patch, doesnt carry weight.
I think that the opinion that if we have two expansions in a row that end in .2 patches, mean that two raid tiers were scrapped holds a little gravitas. And if player housing would cost us a raid tier, as said by the devs, then losing two raid tiers should put us on track to get player housing very very soon… as in…at some point in 11.0.
But I dont think player housing is incoming. And I think the signs unfortunately point to Dragonflight ending in a .2 patch. Maybe that means that we have a season 4 around April/May, and new expansion in June/July as a best case scenario? We can hope cant we?
The problem with DF is BfA and SL exist. Even though BfA and SL weren’t anywhere near as bad as the bandwagoneers would have you believe, they still ruined the game for many due to their multiple layers of borrowed power systems. The shorthand for SL was “Systemlands” after all. To this day I still couldn’t explain to you soulbinds despite playing the entirety of SL.
Sure there were some that came back for DF and the reception for DF was much more positive, but there have been some major failure points in DF of its own. ZC for example was an abject disaster. Many of the open world forced group activities have also failed to impress. And unfortunately this is only going to get worse in 10.2 with the new bloom events in the ED. The lack of easily accessible drake crests for open world players and the existence of flightstones have over complicated matters. So it’s no wonder flightstones are getting deleted in 10.2. A lot of casuals just straight up hated DR. M+ runners probably didn’t like that fact that an m+15 today is equivalent to a m+10 last expac. Putting blocks on converting into S1 LFR tier gear also didn’t help matters, which they had to backtrack on for S2 gear etc. So there’s been numerous failure points this expac.
Oh. And Dracthyr look stupid. There. I said it. A major selling point of a new race and they look like derpy lizards I find in my backyard.
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I wouldn’t sacrifice a single thing in game in the namesake of player housing.
I am not interested in player housing at all. Other games have it, and have repeatedly shown why it is unwelcome in most top-end MMORPGs. Even the developer of FFXIV says player housing was a mistake.
No thank you, ever.
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You’re counting patch numbers, OP?
Not a good idea. Check out these stellar patches from Mists of Pandaria.
I think the comment on the raid tier was just smoke in our faces. Meant to stop people from asking them to do it because, lord helps us, we would never admit to being happy to lose that just for player housing.
Imo, if they can create dragonriding without losing anything, they can spend the same time and money on player housing. And now that the Microsoft deal has been finalised (or will be in a few hours) there will money available to do lots of things they might not otherwise have considered.
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I’d gladly give up a raid tier for player housing, player housing is a new evergreen system, meaning that it’ll be supported from one expansion to the next and tied in with other aspects of wow (achievements, professions etc). Raid tiers are fun, but lets face it, once you get your AOTC it’s pretty much tossed onto the garbage heap, used for mog and mount farming.
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Heres a real shocking suggestion.
How about they manage their development pipeline better so they can make content without cannibalizing content.
If they need raid content designer’s to figure out how to place a chair that speaks more at a failure on the dev side than anything.
Like imagine instead of making the mess like ZC, they instead used those resources into making a new dungeon for example.
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What if we could upgrade our garrisons into a palace with housing and such, but players who don’t have the time to go through all that can stay at someone else’s palace and pay rent by doing weekly quests to earn their keep. Guildleaders could convert it into a Guild Palace if they desired with members doing quests there. Might as well just turn all of Draenor into a 70 zone in that case.
Get enough people staying at your palace and perhaps you could upgrade it to a Kingdom.
Ughh… I’ll pass, I don’t understand the want for housing, I’m not playing the sims… I’ll 100% of the time take the raid tier over it.
i’ll take two !
/chilibean builds house in the middle of AV
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Neat in theory, but in reality almost every game that adds player housing, the housing is a ghost town a couple months later. Because players honestly and truly don’t care.
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Here’s the thing, if they do bring player housing, it shouldn’t “cost” us anything. They should just do their jobs and get it done, even if it means hiring more people.
That “cost us a raid tier” was just a lawyer using words. The guy never wanted housing so that was his passive aggressive answer towards the idea.
Then he later found out about the repercussions of trying to remove flight ironically in the same expansion.
I can’t imagine working for or dealing with this guy is fun. I also believe he was steering the ship when WoW turned the wrong way, and is still at the wheel. “My way, players can’t possibly know what makes a game good”.
Just an observation…
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People need to stop believing this damn lie, if Blizz had started working on player housing in the background after the failure of garrisons, it would probably be ready by now. The problem is that Ion and Co don’t want to develop anything outside their precious Raid and Dungeon content. Anything else is seen as a waste for them.
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Ff14 is cool because you can actually see and visit neighbors.
The sad reality of wow housing is that it will be a solo phase with everyone’s house in the same exact place like garrisons.
If that’s the case, count me out.
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How much more are you willing to pay for these extra resources?
I like having player housing in LoTRO. I have a mead hall in Rohan, a hobbit house in the Vales of Anduin, and a mansion inside the Lonely Mountain. Of course, housing fits better in LoTRO because it’s not WoW.
LoTRO is designed for people who like to savor the journey and really live in the world. People pay a subscription to that game just to park four toons in Bree and use the in-game music system to cover Rush songs and music from the LoTR films. Literally, that’s all those toons do. In a game like that, housing is a very popular thing to have around. Yeah there’s raids and dungeons and end-game stuff, but it is very much not the emphasis.
WoW…is not that. The end game is all that matters. Player housing in WoW would have to have some kind of function, something you get out of it so it isn’t a waste of time. People in this game have to be hyper efficient with everything they do. They’d buy their house and after a few weeks be like “Well…what does this do? Why doesn’t this give me gear upgrades?”
Wait for it, Player housing gonna eat our wallet
Ion? Is that you? Are you implying Blizzard can’t afford, well anything, as it stands?
How about this one…
Can Blizzard afford to keep going in the wrong direction with what use to be their flagship?
Nah, just that they apparently don’t see housing as a worthwhile expense to eat the cost of.
It’s not anymore, don’t expect it to get preferential allocations of resources.
Oh trust me It cost us Raid tier, patch and may the whole expansions case Blizzard will be:
