Why can't this game have housing?

[Wyrmrest-thrall]

What would you consider actual content? Aside from the bread and butter of every patch : storyline quest, raid, dungeon and PvP?

For me, a house I can customize and advance in collection is content.

[Dapler-hyjal]

It’s a fun time waster for a while, but it’s anything like FF14’s housing system, the thrill will fade. Maybe if they put mission tables in it or something.

[Vhx-black-dragonflight]

Their stories and writing are definintely not as good as the past, but yes that actually is content. It’s the content this game has always had. Could it be done better, more interactive or innovative? Definitely. But at the end of the day, story, raid, pvp, dungeons is the content of this game.

[Persephatta-wyrmrest-accord]

It’s forced engagement from manufactured scarcity. No instanced housing means a limited amount of plots. Each house plot is = guaranteed monthly sub.

[Kaurmine-area-52]

It depends on how you’re defining content, as a collector anything uncollected or not completed in the case of quests is content to me. So collecting whatever to make a mannequin and then collecting whatever else to put armor on it is content to some people.

@Cicera-zuljin

but inside of actual major city hubs, it would have more more permanence.

and the chance of meeting other players is higher, it probably wasn’t often someone just ran out of their garrison into the world since you could take a flight path from inside

[Vhx-black-dragonflight]

@Kaurmine-area-52

It depends on how you’re defining content, as a collector anything uncollected or not completed in the case of quests is content to me.

And where do collectors find their things? Inside dungeons, in raids, on quests.

[Briselody-lightnings-blade (Briselody)]

@Vhx-black-dragonflight

And where do collectors find their things? Inside dungeons, in raids, on quests

So have housing features be rewards for dungeons, raids, and quests.

Easy.

[Goobdaysir-proudmoore (Goobdaysir)]

I’m hoping that the cartel introduced in Shadowlands will have a tie-in to a housing feature. They’re collectors and they travel through time and realms. Fairly easy to hodge a housing plot into the nether

[Fumu-malganis]

What’s crazy is the /played AND the irl cash flow would go through the roof with proper housing. ESO sells houses that go for over $100 USD in its store and people buy it like hot cakes!

I think the current crop of devs are either not talented enough or cba. If it’s not esports, it’s not worth their dev time.

[Juliviice-moon-guard]

I’d gladly trade whatever barely functional expansion-specific power progression system Blizzard thinks up for a housing system instead. Always found it odd how Blizz seems always super keen on investing in things that at best will vanish with the expansion it was made in. Housing would be a nice long term thing.

[Dapler-hyjal]

@Vhx-black-dragonflight

And where do collectors find their things?

If it’s anything like FF14 housing, professions would be tied to it. Tailors can made rugs…things like that.

[Astrien-emerald-dream]

it would, i’m sure i’ll understand women sooner than blizzard

[Fumu-malganis]

Well I’m a woman and we’re in agreement so you’re already there.

I’ll understand martians before I understand Team Ion’s dev process…

[Kaurmine-area-52]

Yeah but for housing there’s the opportunity for expansion of what can be collected, maybe I want some curtains, where can I get curtains? Tailors. Maybe I want a big throne to sit on who can make that? Engineers and what about some material to cover it, tailors again? Possibly, leatherworkers exist too. The limits of creativity rest on the shoulders of the developers, there’s no reason all housing items have to be found in an instance.

[Astrien-emerald-dream]

that was quick

your move blizzard

[Wyrmrest-thrall]

I agree with you. That is the core content of this game. However, over the years we have added things like transmog, timewalking, and mythic+ which have stayed with the game ever since it was created. These also provide content for people, not as much as the core content but they still do count.

It is a form of innovation, I rather they spend innovating on core features that could stay with the game after an expansion is over rather than creating one and then discarding after 2 years (Islands Expedition, Warfronts, Torghast, Convenants, ETC)

[Keen-eldrethalas]

WoW won’t have proper housing until it has WildStar level housing, and I just don’t see Blizz putting in that kind of effort.

Which is shortsighted of them, honestly. A truly good housing system can really keep players around and engaged. WS housing almost singlehandedly kept that game afloat for half its life. A good housing system makes professions interesting and relevant making furnishings and building items. A good housing system lets players spend hours being creative, and that’s hours more time played than they might have otherwise. A good housing system gives players something to do during content droughts.

This game already has other games like Pokemon folded in. Imagine if it basically had Minecraft too. You can’t tell me that wouldn’t be a draw or that it wouldn’t keep some players occupied when they might just wander off.

Seriously though, WildStar isn’t using their housing anymore. Just about straight up lift that biz. Y’all have fifteen years worth of game assets we could play around with on our land. Imagine what players could do with that.

[Piddy-uther (Piddy)]

@Wyrmrest-thrall

Developers need to quit the idea that Garrisons were anything like housing. Garrison was a WOD feature, proper housing is a CORE game feature. It is not something you just do one expansion and abandon it, it is something that has to be integrated into the core of the game like Mythic+ was back in Legion.

Housing is not in the game because housing does not fit the vision that the developers want for the game.

Simply put, the developers don’t want to do it. That’s not the game they want to create, this is not where they want to put resources.

The Garrisons gave them keen insight in to how some players might view housing, how it would impact the game, what was necessary to maintain and keep it up, and, obviously, they don’t like how it turned out.

However, the developers do like raids, they liked Challenge mode dungeons morphing in to mythics, they liked the mission table, they liked how legendaries worked in MoP and WoD so much they went all in on Legendaries.

What they did like about Garrisons got revamped as Class Halls, the Faction War in BfA, and now Covenants. Don’t think for a minute that they have not take lessons learned (good and bad) from Garrisons forward. Class Halls, the Faction War, and Covenants are all related and can track their lineage and development from Garrisons.

The Garrisons “Proof of concept” was the Farm in MoP, to proof how well having individual, instanced areas of the world, even out in the “wild” (vs behind something like an instance portal) would work. Garrisons writ very small, but the underlying tech is the same.

So.

Why don’t we have housing? Because they don’t want housing. Folks can come up with all sorts of smoke filled room mustache twisting theories as to WHY they don’t want housing, but since housing has been called for since day 1, and we still do not have it, it’s clear they don’t want to do it.

So they don’t.

[Holylysol-thrall]

@Astrien-emerald-dream

because it’s not something that increases your time played to fulfill a subscription,

Tell that to my friends that play Star Wars and Rift just for the housing

[Hãnse-mugthol]

Um yeah. More to rely on when it comes to grinding out more content, relying on RNG and then to limit your choices once you’d like to try something different.
Careful what you wish for. Lol.

-H