Tigole doesn't deny the idea of player housing
by Mike Schramm 
Jan 23rd 2007 at 12:22PM
The good guys over at Curse Gaming have pointed to a Jeff Kaplan interview at MTV.com, in which he talks about comparisons to Second Life, how the Sword of 1,000 Truths didn't make it to the expansion, and the idea of player housing!They caught him on the phone at the BC Launch at Universal CityWalk in LA (where, strangely enough, he's being asked to sign things as "Tigole"), and it seems as though the interviewer doesn't quite have a grasp on online gaming-- Kaplan is asked how Second Life compares to WoW, and as he says, while Second Life is great, it's not really a competitor to what Blizzard has built. There's a huge difference between Blizzard-created content, and the user-created stuff. He also namechecks the Starcraft and Diablo universes (not the first time we've heard those hinted at).
But the most interesting part of the article is what Kaplan says about player housing: "I think housing can take 'World of Warcraft' to the next level." That's definitely not a "no" to the idea, and frankly it's much more credit than I ever thought Blizzard would give to creating an in-game customizable area for players. While he does say it's an idea they had in the beginning (the huge inaccessible instance in Stormwind was rumored to be a player housing area at one time), Kaplan also confirms that if they're going ahead with it at all, they won't release anything until they have a "Blizzard-quality feature." So while there's no way we can expect it in the next patch (or even the next expansion), it's very interesting news that the gears appear to be turning over at Blue HQ about player housing.
Filed under: Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Blizzard, News items, Expansions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Trasketor Jan 23rd 2007 12:52PM
Haha, I was actually thinking about this the other day. My idea was, if blizzard would add player housing, it would be a lil like this. They can make a new secondary profession along side the first aid, and cooking stuff, but call it camping (and not the kind of camping we all know and HATE!). I would be a simple profession that would require you to collect cloth and wood to build a tent anywhere in the game, allowing you to get rested xp after logging with out having to go to an inn. The higher your skill the bigger and cooler your tent becomes. However if this were added into the game ppl would probably use their hearth stone more often. Well, i dont have it all figured out ill leave all the technical stuff to the masterminds at blizz, but an interesting idea nonetheless.
Sinkiller Jan 23rd 2007 12:58PM
This would be the best thing they could do, imo. The only positive thing I took away from my experience with Star Wars Galaxies was the awesome player housing. The paintings, furniture, and old weapons being useable as decoration made every house different, and you could stop in and look at another players accomplishments. ( you could look, but not touchie ) That was very cool... really the only thing they got right.
come on blizz.. this would be awesome.
RogueJedi86 Jan 23rd 2007 1:00PM
I played Star Wars Galaxies for 2 years, and they had Player Housing. And I think putting it in WoW is a bad idea. With SWG, they were very limited in where they could put non-expansion content. With player housing literally EVERYWHERE, they risked putting a new dungeon down on top of the house of some random player on one of its 20 or so servers. It leaves the developers with very little in terms of areas to place new content for the base game. Especially with WoW and its nearly 200 servers.
The only way it could seemingly work(and has been asked by the SWG players for years), would be to create instanced housing within the main hub cities. Be it the entire inside is instanced, with each player "apartment" accessible from there, or just your own instanced apartment within the structure(a la Final Fantasy XI).
Maybe I misinterpret the idea of Player Housing from SWG. But I'll say it would only work within the context of the towns. And in instanced areas to make room for houses for the thousands of players per server. I just hope WoW doesn't make any of the mistakes SWG made.
yuyevon Jan 23rd 2007 1:23PM
i dont normally post here, but before WoW went live, they had tinkered with the idea, as all the housing models EXIST in game...
if you looka t noggenfoggers exploring wow, he will show you all the player houses, the zones for it, etc.
if blizzard wants, they can implement this in a 4megabyte patch probably.
elrohim Jan 23rd 2007 1:31PM
housing sounds about as much fun as a box of rocks. I'll
take it but pls address issues like guild banks first.
I someone wants a house the can play the Sims.
mick Jan 23rd 2007 1:57PM
What is player housing?
n00bian Jan 23rd 2007 1:58PM
There was housing in UO, and I can honestly say that it while it can add a feeling of "rootedness", it eventually just becomes a closet of sorts, putting in junk that no one uses but adds to server load. I think WoW has it right now, with all the empty units around that one can pretend are theirs by just plopping down to log out. Yeah, it is a bit disconcerting to login with someone standing in your "house", but ... it's communal living :)
I have to agree though, housing really adds little and the server starts to resemble a subdivision; put in more content for real play.
Seper Jan 23rd 2007 2:09PM
Before i played SWG I thought player housing was super lame. I hated it with a passion. Then I played SWG and found out that I spent all my time making my house look good.. that no one will ever see!
I don't think WoW should go the way of SWG. But I believe they should do a guild warsesque guild area. Allow guilds to buy castles or land or camps etc etc. Then allow them to buy generic vendors, art, etc.
One thing that would be awesome to see done is special tokens for completing certain things. EG: guild kills Onaxyia so he gets his head to mount in the building, or a special sword. If you have 10 members in your guild that are exalted with SW then you get 2 SW guards that get posted outside of your guild house. etc etc.
The ideas for this game are endless. Having guild housing would be great for the community and would allow guilds to spend their time doing somethign else then grinding and in some ways force players to do content that most pass by for wateva reason.
If they made the housing on a special world that was contested and you could raid against eachother it allows new possibilties for PVP.
Single player housing does not work. Guilds should be the only ones to buy the housing but it should cost alot of time and money to make it worth it and a rare thing that only established guilds can reach. Not for the general guild that will disband 2 wks after being made.
Endante Jan 23rd 2007 9:40PM
I played EQ2 for a little over a year and they had player housing. It was very usable and nice to have a place to custamize and show off. You could give a list of people extra privledges in your room/rooms (higher "rent" ment more rooms) and the guild I belonged to had a room with all the different gear needed for all the crafting skills so we could have a guild crafting event -or drinking party- and socialize in our own space.
The issue with worrying about dropping new content on a place that was being used for player housing was not an issue, it was delt with in two ways:
1) housing was only available in the main towns, there were Inns and appartments/condos with housing that was available.
2) each "unit" was treated like a seperate instance. (It took up no physical space in the game world)
This combination allowed for a relatively small number of buildings to offer housing to every single player. You would go to one of these inns/appartments/condos which had an address and select to rent a unit.
If you could afford it you were granted a room. (as owner of the room you could set visitation privledges from ultra-secure (no one but you could enter) to Moderate (guests could enter and view but not touch) you could even select by character name specific individuals that could have full access (add/remove/ alter etc) to the contents of the room.
If you gave someone your address , they could find the correct building and when they interacted with the building they would be given a choicce of renting a room, or visiting one of the "tennants" rooms from a list of the "tennants" in that building that had granted visiting access.
Items were available throught the game that could be put into the room, from room only pets, to furnature, crafting stations, weapon racks, books, trophies from specific quests even chests to store items in (additional bank slots).
I liked it a great deal and would love to see Blizz add such a feature!
RogueJedi86 Jan 23rd 2007 2:15PM
@6
Player Housing is like a house in the game for you. To put stuff, to decorate, stuff like that. Your own little place. The bank does part of that, except without a physical place you go into, a place for your own.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Player_housing
SymetriX Jan 23rd 2007 2:53PM
I still think they should enable it for guilds only, and have this be the focal point of a new guild bank feature.
I also think it should be instanced and not just random houses placed throughout the land. In iron forge you could take an elevator or tram to a underground-themed house, and for Stormwind maybe you would live in the Keep somewhere.
Sinkiller Jan 23rd 2007 3:03PM
Hmm. I don't know. all your points make sense, but I sure liked riding through the jungle on my speederbike only to pop up on some player's house that I could go in and see all their crafted items, pictures, trophies, etc. There were towns, sure, but the individuals who were out in the wild alone were sort of like a pleasant surprise when you'd find them. Like an easter egg. Anyway... it was fun, and I'd like to think WoW could do it without killing itself... I do think that the guild houses suggested earlier have a lot of merit. That would be very cool.
Luxicon Jan 23rd 2007 3:40PM
I think player housing doesn't sound like such a great idea for this game, however I am in favor of an instanced house/hall for guildmembers. Like how when you reached a certain honor, you could go into the honor hold areas. Same idea, but for guilds.
It would cost money to set it up, so first guilds work together to set up the cash. More money spent on it, could equal bigger sizes. As someone said, if your guild completed Ony for example (a guildmember handed in the head) than Onyxia's head can be mounted on the wall. Other such conquests can go here, plus npcs for bank, reagents, etc.
However not only that, but in another MMO I played, you had the capability to tax guildmembers, and anywhere from 1-50% of your exp would go to the guild. When a certain amount of exp is reached (it was 500k, than 1mil, 2mil, 10mil..etc) than you are awarded one guild talent point which you use to get a guild skill. For example it can be "All members receive an extra 1% defense rating while in an instance". Even things like "All guild members will receive an extra 1% spell crit rating". There can be skills for melee/tanks/healers/Paying less for repair/+bank slots/+gathering skills, etc. It is then up to the guild to decide what talents they will get, and what will benefit the guild most. It doesn't even have to be by way of exp. It can be quests given out in the guild hall, money, items, etc.
I think this would be the next level in WoW. MMO the way it should be. People interacting together to enhance your experience and play to your best ability.
White Rabbit Jan 23rd 2007 4:04PM
#1 and #8 have great ideas
I love the idea of guild halls. Maybe open a place in Azeroth devoted to guild halls, maybe someplace up north of Org (for horde) or maybe just some island out in the ocean
and the idea of being able to build tents and camp is awesome! Out in Silithis and don't feel like running back to Cenarion... just find a safe place and set up camp :)
White Rabbit Jan 23rd 2007 4:04PM
This would all only really work for WoW2 (if they ever did that) cause having a huge new thing to the playing system would screw out the old guilds
like the Ony head... they're running Naxx and the new Outland instances, they don't wanna run back to do an old instance that they've cleared plenty of times before
I dunno... Doesn't sound fun for guilds that are already big and have been around a long time, but only for new guilds
Jenet Jan 23rd 2007 4:05PM
Regarding Luxicon's(#12) idea:
I've always though guild wide buffs would be interesting, and should be implimented on your guild tabard. so wearing your guild's tabard gives you X% more xp per kill or whatever the guild buff is. More people would tabard up, and it wouldn't require a new buff spot or anything. I've always thought you should be able to invest in the guild to buff it somehow.
Granted, you get into the problem of tax based on number of members, or whatnot...
Jenet Jan 23rd 2007 4:07PM
If you really wanted Ony's ead for decoration, I'm pretty sure a guild could take the 30 minutes it takes to down her.
Seper Jan 23rd 2007 4:28PM
Yah but running ony just because is not worth it now. But everyone likes accomplishments. Most people will want to run ony to have that reward that says yah weve done it and heres the item to prove it. Its just peoples nature to want to have stuff like that. If you took part in a world event you should have a flag you can hang or something related to that event that can be put in their.
It wouldn't be new content.. it would just help revisit old forgotten or passed by content. Alot of guilds have run naxx so much they are sooo bored. But i'm sure if they knew they could have a trophey showing their guild took him down they would go back.
Im a collector of things personally. I luv collecting rare items, hard to get items or cool things you dont see too often.
Also having something that says youve accomplished something boosts moral and allows the memory of that time to stay with you. Everytime you enter the guild hall and see that head or item youll be reminded of your feat.
Whoever suggested the guild related quests. I really like that idea. Blizzard could make guild quests that a group of 10-20 must perform. EG: raid an opposing factions area.. or take down a raid boss... or a world boss... the options would be limitless.
Also having a guild hall could open it up to a guild bank, so people could store mats and other items.
Making a guild hall can only make the game better and the community and guild closer. Right now my guild is all over the place. Although its casual they dont work together unless in a raid group. I dont know why..
WoW should definitely think about this, because they could change the way this game is played.
kuri Jan 24th 2007 3:36AM
The sooner the better. The only thing missing from this game is a sense of "belonging", and player-created (and sustained) homes do just that.
Just imagine real life with no house. You're perpetually a vagabond. While we may not think about the attachment we have to our places of residence, they form important parts of our lives.
Inns are great, but housing adds the next level.
But then again, does Blizzard need to get us more addicted? :P
Invalid Jan 31st 2007 1:46AM
I like 18's idea, Its an instance in a major city, so it takes up no space, unless its a new building, which wouldn't be hard to add. Or, if housing (Alliance) is based in SW. They can have thier 'gated/blocked' instance lead to a Lobby-like room, where you choose to go to your apartment, or visit a friend's. Although I dont play on RP servers, I know it would add a great deal to thier's too.
Also. From the lobby there could be an entrance/npc for a guild area such as the one 8 suggested.