The Anti Anti-Housing thread!

Community General Discussion
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It’s that time again to talk about Player/Guild housing. Many a naysayer will have the usual arguments and of course I am down for Housing in WoW, it finally needs to happen to give us something to do besides the usual daily.

Lemmie go down the basics before I tear apart the usual Anti-Housing arguments.
1.) 100% optional like Transmog, Pet Battles, and Mount Collecting.
2.) Professions won’t be joke
3.) Finally something to do between raiding and such!

Okay and GO!

-Argument #1-
"You already have housing, it's called Garrisons!"

While yes, the Garrison DOES exist, it isn’t what we would consider player housing. We can upgrade it and customize it, but it is such a miniscule thing that it barely is anything; we cannot have anything intrinsically different from someone else’s Garrison!

It’s like we’re asking for a handmade, lovingly cooked meal, not a frozen-in-the-middle greasy Hot Pocket where the only garnish is adding shredded cheese; yes the Hot Pocket with Cheese is considered ‘food’, it’s barely there.

The Garrison was too much utility and not enough creativity; think Transmog.

-Argument #2-
"It will make the cities completely empty as people sit in their houses!"

And your idea of a ‘lively’ world is people sitting around Oribos/Stormwind/Orgrimmar/Any Hub City shrieking political arguments, trolling, and being toxic?

Housing could be more than just sitting around; you wouldn’t earn more furniture or decorations merely sitting around the house, you have to go out into the world!

Think about it, much like transmog or battle pets, you can have furniture have a chance to drop at a low rate, AND with the idea of people having them BoA or BoE, you can make good money on the AH; roleplayers like myself would spend good gold on such things much like how we can find good stuff for Transmog.

The professions would be able to make things too, would make them actually money making throughout.

AND housing would be evergreen content, something OPTIONAL to do between content droughts.

-Argument #3-
"But it'll cost us a raid tier!"
We already have two raids in SL and in WoD; We can make it a .5 patch thing rather than a full on fledged thing, simple as that!

-Argument #4-
"Blizzard won't do it, only dying games will do it!"

But is FF14 dying? SWTOR? EQ 1 and EQ 2? ESO? Wildstar may have gone the ghost, there are multiple games that having housing and it is a LUCRATIVE business that isn’t auction housing; I’ve known people in some of these games who are interior decorators and make about as much in-game currency as someone who can flip the AH like someone who took business as a minor in college!

Housing is so much more than you realize guys, it is a gateway to making WoW be a lived-in world; Casuals make up a majority of the playerbase, while yes we roleplayers are a VERY miniscule number within that, we are still paying customers.

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How about this argument…

Blizzard would probably give us a sub-standard housing system (compared to other popular MMOs) and make players even more disappointed.

Based on the limited design options given to us in our garrisons, I would be amazed if the game engine could handle a housing system that would actually meet player demands

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As long as it comes with as many portals as I want.

Also fully customized location of buildings

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Complete waste of development time imo

Most people I know who got into it in FF14 regret their decision

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Would have to be instanced, putting a house into the world would cause problems especially if it is in the middle of a newbie zone.

Do you think Transmog and Pet Battles are a waste too?

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Virtually every player uses transmog and Pet battles did not take anywhere near the effort that player housing would

Horrible examples lol

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Just because they haven’t created upgrades that would convert garrisons into real player housing doesn’t mean they couldn’t.

The system exists and could easily be made into one that players could buy upgrades for to convert every feature into an option from a menu.

I think it’s the only economically feasable way players could get housing. Convert your barracks into a mansion or a cottage, your fishing pond into a swimming pool from a selection of swimming pools. Change the grounds from the horde garrison hole in the ground in a frozen wasteland to one with grass and landscaping. A portal to and from your capital city.

If you’re planning on making housing mandatory and you think this is a positive feature, think again. Forced upgrades from a menu that we like no options? Required grinding of currency to make required upgrading of features doesn’t sound bad to you? That’s what “optional is bad” sounds like to me.

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I’m not against housing this, housing should be 100% optional, I think you might’ve misunderstood me. I WANT it to be optional like transmog, pet battles and mount collecting.

And I’m saying that the Garrisons themselves are too similar to someone else’s Garrison. I’m making the argument FOR having housing be different.

You might’ve missed the context, I’m arguing AGAINST the usual arguments people say about no player housing.

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You listed player housing being optional in your list of “bad arguments against it”.

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The Grey Text I have is the argument I’m going against, my normal text is me arguing AGAINST that argument.

The one's that looks like this Are the arguments I’m going against.

And that first three list before the Arguments was me making a crash-course of what housing should be before I make the wall of text even more of a wall. Sorry about the misunderstanding.

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Can there be argument that after garrisons I have no faith in thier ability to do housing?

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We are getting new management in Blizzard, perhaps hopefully they see it through, but a guy can dream, can he?

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Absolutely. With the current development philosophy (which I think has gone downhill a lot since wod) they couldn’t do it. And I think the cost involved makes a new housing system something they will never consider.

That’s why I think converting garrisons into housing would be the best way to get it. Garrisons are easy to start, and they could make it even easier for a high level who has no need of draenor content to install one. Every feature in your garrison could have multiple options for replacement.

I think you’re putting way to much faith into trivial changes we have seen as yet. So far I have seen nothing besides “we’re going to listen this time, honest!” They’re doubling down on systems in 9.2. They’re making PvP arguably worse. Casual gearing worse. The “player council” will likely be packed with elites who will discuss what’s wrong with casuals and what should be done to them to make sure they don’t get anything they don’t deserve. And even if they were sincere about it (because they really don’t understand why such a perfectly designed expansion would be rejected by the playerbase…maybe it’s asmongold’s fault for mind controlling millions of players who never watched his streams! That must be it! Given the likely timeframe of the council, it wouldn’t have any influence until 11.0. Don’t hold your breath.

I’ll believe it when I see a change in development philosophy, but at this moment I see nothing that would even suggest they are planning on changing the course.

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Forget housing and since they are on Azeroth and not AU Draenor , maker CLass Halls relevant again . Let those be our bases of operation . AH ,banks and transmog can stay in SW and Org

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Did you make this comment before on another topic? Sounds familiar.

And its such a silly idea. Blizzard has to be very much aware of how many players feel about the garrison, the negative effect it has when its mentioned. Why would they waste perfectly good dev time in using something so unpopular for a new feature?

Could they do it? Of course they could. Would they do it? I doubt it, like 99% certain doubt it. The only comparison is that housing in WoW would be instanced as the garrison is. But you would start with walls, floor and ceiling and thats it. You would then get to decorate it as you wished to.

And of course it would be an option, just as mogging and pet battles and collecting cosmetic items ingame is optional. And the potential improvement to the professions that would be linked to it makes me salivate (philosophically speaking).

People need to get their heads out of their nether regions and consider the positive effects player housing would have on the game. Poor old sad Wildstar was close to death when they instituted one of the better player house systems, and that alone kept it going way past its use by date. And other games have created amazing housing. If Blizzard couldnt (a) learn from mistakes and (b) do it better, then they’d deserve to crash and burn.

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This is exactly what I’m saying here! :smiley:

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Because it’s a cost-effective solution. I understand it’s still considered edgy to hate garrisons on the principle of it, but this is doable, and a brand new system is not.

Many players do not hate garrisons. Many still go there (I pass through mine regularly) and wish there was a use for them.

You are beating a dead horse if you think that an enormously expensive gigantic system will be created new for you. All issues with garrisons are known and could be addressed. Issues with the new system you want - you really think there will be none and they’ll change them in mid-expansion?

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Player housing. Honestly, I don’t care if it has ANYTHING to do with gameplay. I just want to own a farm in Westfall that I get to decorate. Add woodworking as a skill and let me make some furniture for my place (or buy it off of the AH, or get pieces from quests). Oh, and they need to add the ability to sit on the porch in a rocking chair.

-EDarkness

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I used to be a housing naysayer until my husband tricked me into decorating his Stronghold in SWTOR. It’s so much freaking fun and I don’t even know if SW has the best housing out of all the MMOs with it.

Blizzard is shooting themselves in the foot by not doing it. Chasing decorations gives me motivation to do content I wouldn’t normally do.

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It may be, but the problem is in its limitations. You are suggesting that the only player housing in the game is the garrison. So you are saying one house stuck out in Draenor would be our housing system? Way to ensure it fails.

There has to be more than one house location and more than one design option. Not everyone wants to make a house that looks like a Stormwind minicastle or an tiny Orc outpost, not when there are so many other potential racial appearances, and locations. The ideal would be to do it like ESO does - racial design houses in various zones across the game. You pick which one (or more) you want to develop and go from there.

Well, its not just for me. Its for you and every other WoW player who wants to use it. I tell you this - if they introduced a new, high quality player housing system in WoW, their subs would increase dramatically. Many people love this form of creative content. If you dont think thats true, perhaps do a little research on how popular it is in other games.

As for changes - what in this game of ours never gets changed? Its like that old saying, Only three things in life are certain: death, taxes and nerfs/buffs.

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