Out of everything being added in The War Within I’m most excited about warbands. Bands represent such an interesting reframing of the game into viewing progression as a wholistic journey of the player through multiple characters completing content. I wanted to take a moment share some thoughts about some of the ways that I hope blizzard builds on the groundwork they are establishing and maybe start discussion around it as… it just seems so damn cool and could really elevate the game.
First, I know a lot of people want housing but I think your warband could actually be the focal point of a personal hub somewhere in game (maybe an instanced room in each new city hub) where you could navigate between account based systems . Having this personal location, where you have a number of your characters represented/have a physical warband bank/could decorate with skins, trophies and funiture/ see shared rep and currency (possibly physically somehow) would be really really cool and an easy W for blizzard. Hell, maybe skins for this location/ furniture/ trophies drop as additional loot from bosses, content, etc… that EVERYONE rolls on so there is still a shared reward we’re competing for aside from mounts and recipes.
Second, I think it could be an opportunity to have a meta conversation lorewise about what we as the player represent/are doing and also for us to start establishing personal relationships with some of the main characters. Maybe Thrall or Anduin for example could stop by our bandhall for a small conversation one time or visit new players to give some exposition about who they are, etc… Small vignettes that just make everything seem more alive. It could also be an opportunity to kind of break the fourth wall of sorts, who are we? We are something that influences the actions of all of these characters we’ve created, what does that mean represent in the lore? Could open some really cool story beats.
Third, it could be a really really cool way to show tangible meta progression throughout the game that isn’t just an achievements page. Having physical representations of all the content you’ve mastered, the bosses you’ve felled, story beats and feats would really bring everything together. It also could represent a new form of content and give meta projects with which we work towards that could involve new content but also revisiting old content in a new novel way.
Warbands is such an opportunity to explore some really cool ideas and I’m really excited to see where it goes. Very much could be a system like the main camp in BG3 and a new framing of the game.