Ah well, if you just dislike the system in principle then I guess you won’t be pleased.
My initial thought was that WoW’s housing would be entirely instanced (as garrisons were made) but they have instead gone to a neighbourhood in order to not have the issues that garrisons had. If it works well and as they are saying it will, I have no real objection.
Long as they don’t walk their dogs on my lawn. I’ll skitch the cats on them if they do… 
I mean the way i see it…
We could still have the garrison issue, that being locking the aesthetics to basic ally=humie and horde=orc, or the other issue of limited zones in which to place your housing.
HoA! HoA! HoA!
Don’t need no houses with 5 mounts parked in the front in my neighborhood!
What if those 5 mounts are glad mounts
Digusting. And I bet their grass is unkempt
Maybe last post on it a while cause its a little repetitive now, but as an FFXIV player of many years (am Legacy), I can tell you that neighborhoods, exclusively, are just a bane. Aside from the statement not to lose a house, and that you can always have one, this system appears to be very much like our own, and it’s not that great.
You lose so much creative opportunity just so a few wards can be really cool. Now those few wards (neighborhoods) are dope, people are doing awesome things with them. The vast majority of the wards will be dead, even on the most popular server with all the houses ‘taken’, most by entire freaking guilds (so not a single person home, which WoW is likely going to have an even larger problem with therefore). To that even, if people are being social in these pockets, it’ll probably take them from other areas of the game.
I personally think it would have been better just to allow people to smoothly enter and leave the home, so they are encouraged to be in the game world with the home being a respite. In terms of ‘ultimate social’ at least. Now they did say they’re going to add systems, so maybe those will help- but I don’t think they can unless they’re so important you really have to do them… so will people be upset that they’re chained on some occasion to their home?
But the thing is, for those people going all out on social, they are doing it for the purpose of social so they’re going to advertise their cool club anyways. You would have found it anyways, maybe a bit cooler because it’s a ward instead of just one space, but you’d still enjoy it with them.
If they were going this route they should have gone more Wildstar, where you can make those mega plots, and they also had some systems that encourage visiting others.
For a few, neighborhoods is going to be great, for most its a big whatever, and if this is the only way they’re going to express houses, it’s ultimately a lost opportunity. Like instead of being able to exit your Stormwind house onto the streets, check the public AH, go to the public inn, do things that would put you directly with others, a far more social experience than I have had in YEARS with FFXIV’s system, you’re going to be divided across many many wards. For the player who dreamed of having a house in the Grizzly Hills, a floating isle grazing the Nagrand, etc… well big sad feeling. Meanwhile you’ll almost never see your neighbors, but you will wish you had an HOA as they dress their house up as a murloc lol.
WoW is doing some new things so I can’t say it “cant” happen, but with confidence of FFXIV experience, this neighborhood system is not that great (I imagine it worked back in the day when you shouted for hours for a party, and you took hours to travel, but I don’t think it’ll do well, on average, anymore).
Let me add a few more horrors of this system:
If you have a guild in a private space, you have 50 lots. Do you have exactly 50 members? Well someone better be in the “in group” cause otherwise you’re on the out, if you wanted a house.
If they don’t use phasing you will have slots that are highly sought after. This WILL become a point of drama and RMT (does in FFXIV).
If you are not using phasing and you are not destroying people’s homes, you WILL further see dead wards.
As you add more wards, because they fill up, with players that are not playing, and as you add more locations, you will continue to see the wards die. These people are in the game, they’re just spread out more and more.
A lot of toxic behavior, some warranted, will be sourced from all of this. Like if you wont make a new ward because 1 garbage slot is open but I really want slot 35 (and so does everyone else)… you’re going to get bad behaviors all around.
This system shoots itself in the foot, when it is the only system. Imo. As in I’ve literally seen this in FFXIV over years of experience (all of the above).
If you combine (like ESO + FFXIV) it, so the people who want to run the tavern, and want to be next to others that are active (and perhaps have to be to keep that spot), with another equally interesting and powerful system (like an ESO or something), then maybe its a neat idea. But otherwise you’re going to lose a lot of opportunity for a lot of dreams that wont work for most people, for a lot of benefits that could have been achieved via other means with less opportunity cost.
Dear Blizz,
We want to see other people in the world, we just don’t want to interact with them.
At all.
Sincerely,
Pretty much everyone
You really put my thoughts into words in a very succint way.
Its fake. Its like how servers work in modern wow. You have these weird in groups that “run” everything. Most players just want to be solo ime. To have their little slice of life along with everyone else having theirs. Not to be apart of everyone else’s little wow life.
I agree 100%.
I was hoping to have just that.
Hopefully in the future, they’ll consider the option to have private property.
From what they said in the article, they have two concerns:
For the first concern, I don’t think it would be an issue. It will depend on how many houses we can have. If they let me have a house near Stormwind, and then let me have another house in Grizzly Hills, I would still be using both for convenience and for location. And if they put the hoods in popular zones, I can’t seem them not being used.
For the second, they are something that can be done over time, and each new neighbood release would generate people returning to go make a home there. Especially if they added special specific things available for those homes in those zones. So again, I reckon one thing would assist the other.
I appreciate that you would probably have preferred a closed instance but it isn’t going to happen. They do it in ESO and while it is very clever and very private, it is also one of the most isolating aspects of that game, which I think Blizzard is very aware of (given they are now owned by the same company that owns ESO).
I want to be that one neighbor. boomboxing it up with my subwoofers and huge speakers. the one all the hoa karens go wild over.
And why or how is that any of your concern?
If people want to play solo, that’s their perogative.
Simple, they were tied to player power and offered little to no personalization despite initially being advertised as “WoW’s version of housing”.
I think one shouldn’t assume WoW’s housing system will be as rigid and constrained as FFXIV’s.
Blizzard seems confident they can give everyone a house. So they probably have a way of managing resources for that.
Dead wards can be fixed by allowing easy moving. Stuck in a dead ward? Request a move to a “fresh” ward. If the population is way too low maybe forced relocation to newer neighborhoods.
Worst case, property tax per neighborhood and everyone in it share the tax. So if you are alone in a neighborhood, you pay it all.
Or maybe neighborhoods are actually “lightweight” in WoW’s system and Blizzard can easily spin up a nigh infinite number of them at a moment’s notice so if you want to be alone in a dead neighborhood that’s fine.
To me, your solution shows how bad it is. If you’re in a dead space leave some neighbors you like to hopefully get more that you do. Or constantly trying to hit refresh to get to the slot you want / people.
I’ve had years of experience with this system, we also have the ability to move around (and I have enough gil that moving is irrelevant). So I know what your solution looks like.
This system is only good for the exceptional few, for the rest it is extremely likely going to either chain you to it to force itself to be alive (events you have to do, because the rewards are too good) or it will not justify its own existence (“we stopped you from being in a bunch of cool places for the social element” the one you’ll almost never have).
If you’re having a hard time picturing I can provide real examples.
I was thinking moving will be free and expected. The housing is meant to be dynamic. It’s really the only way to keep neighborhoods filled with players subbing and unsubbing.
Since my house will be outside Stormwind in the new Alliance neighborhood, I will probably just have one of my alts stationed there for any possible activities. I don’t actually expect to spend a lot of time there. Especially since I don’t usually travel to the faction cities much anyway. Really only go to them as a stepping stone to other events.
Much like real life, I am not going to care about what my neighbors are doing that much.
You will most likely be able to access it via something like a hearthstone or portal, just like garrisons. I doubt they expect you to travel to elwynn forest to access your house.
Possibly… It might also just be easier to throw furniture in the warbank and relog to an alt instead of relying on transporter cooldowns.
Remember the golden rules to being a good neighbor.
Look out for each other. Call Crimestoppers if you see anything suspicious.
Be willing to loan your lawnmower to someone, and if you borrow one yourself, be sure to return it.
Pass on your neighbor’s mail if it ends up in your mailbox.
Be a good neighbor.
Only if we can perma-kill your character if you’re caught trespassing 