An alternative end game that can take place in WoW.
Player housing where have lots of customisation options and quests and activities to do.
Marriage in which we can either marry another player or a select group of NPCs created purely for that purpose.
The ability to adopt children like in skyrim. There are many orphans in the game and we can do quests to take them around and entertain hem but not permanently adopt them.
No one is obligated into taking part in any of these. You may take part in player housing and marriage seperately from each other. You may take part in adopting without marriage. But player housing is required for adopting. (they need a place to live).
A lot of the core mechanics are already in the game for this. While robust and limited much of the technology and mechanics needed for player housing is found in garrisons.
The adoption system would be just an extension of children’s week.
Marriage is similiar to soul bonds and personal npc quests and reputations for the npc variant.
The building blocks and there. That’s follow them through to their inevitable conclusion.
The only thing I’d go for is marriage. And you each get a special heirloom style ring, where the effects only work if you’re in a party and within a certain distance of each other.
WoW copies Pokemon with pet battles: Sleep
WoW copies dress-up games with TMOG: Coma
Wanting WoW to copy player housing: “OMG WORST IDEA EVER YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF HURR DURR!”
The very obvious strawman is that we also said WoW becoming Pokemon was the worst idea ever. There is a reason Blizzard recently acknowledged the almost complete lack of interaction with the pet system.
Player housing is the antithesis of an MMO. “I want to sit alone in a basement playing a game where my character sits alone in a basement.” Maybe just log off and decorate your actual basement and leave the rest of us alone.
WoW doesn’t need a new core gameplay loop. It’s a game about having super powers and fighting monsters, not feng shui-ing couches.