Blizzard comments on the status of guild housing
by Matt Low 
Feb 17th 2010 at 7:00PM
The topic of player housing continues to crop up as a question on the official forums. Blizzard has stated that guild halls or guild housing will not to be included in the game (at least, not any time soon).
The last game I participated in which had guild housing was Guild Wars. Inside, it stored various mementos and trinkets from different epic quests or sigils that my guild had won in the Hall of Heroes (and this was a long time ago, mind you). But that was it! There wasn't much to do from a PvE standpoint. I think we had our own vendor and a "Guild Lord" (someone like Drek or Vanndar Stormpike in Alterac Valley). Later versions of the game had guilds attacking other guilds on their turf. The guild hall in this respect played a huge PvP component the game because the hall you selected would also be your home base complete with various terrain advantages and defenses if you were "attacked" by other guilds.According to Bornakk:
While this originally came up before I was around, I think this has been answered at some BlizzCons since then. While we think this could be a fun idea, we also like the idea of seeing a lot of people in cities and don't want to make main cities feel like ghost towns - if you need an example of this head to Silvermoon (yeah, that's a cheap shot, I know). So for now this idea remains an interesting idea but we'd have to make sure it fits into the game well and meets our expectations which are pretty high for something like this.
Now that would be cool.
Unfortunately, there just doesn't seem to be a purpose to having a guild hall in the game. However, I'm not going to completely discount the idea. Just because the developers have said they're ruling it out now doesn't mean it won't be included later in the future. Players continued to ask about flying around in the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, right? All it takes is a new expansion, but at least we're getting it.
I'm shotgunning the Beer Garden.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Ringo Flinthammer Feb 17th 2010 7:04PM
Speaking of empty areas, it makes no sense that the beer garden wasn't turned into a Brewfest hub.
mtsadowski Feb 17th 2010 7:47PM
this!
sprout_daddy Feb 17th 2010 7:48PM
Two words:
Dalaran
Lag
Ringo Flinthammer Feb 17th 2010 8:32PM
A Beer of the Month vendor there year-round would contribute little lag, and since you can't do ram racing in Dalaran for obvious reasons, there's no reason to believe a Brewfest item vendor and maybe representatives from the different breweries would contribute much lag.
TR Feb 18th 2010 2:51PM
@sprout_daddy
Definitely Dalaran lag. Especially with the addition of people in Runeweaver Square setting off their Lunar Festival fireworks and standing around new fountain/cinematic once Arthas has been downed on your server. It's right where everyone zones into at the Violet Gate when they're porting to Dalaran. Lag and load times are now PHENOMENAL as your connection and your machine tries to process all of that. All. In. One. Small. Spot.
Guild housing could do a lot to offload this. Perhaps as a location for guildies to zone-in? It'd be more efficient than spending a couple of minutes trying in the Violet Gate stairway because the lag spikes keep sending you into the walls.
Avan Feb 17th 2010 7:09PM
I don't see what everyone's fascination with guild housing is. Showing off your spoils of war sounds good on paper, but that would be a nightmare to implement on Blizzard's end, I think. Not only that, but what if you have a LOT of spoils? Hello framerate and loading issues.
Then there is the issue with how it fits in the game. Even if it were to provide extra rested XP if you logged out there, you would see a rise in leveling guilds that would exist specifically to exploit that.
Here's what a guild hall should have:
Access to guild bank.
Access to tabard vendor.
Place(s) to set hearthstone.
Water/food vendor.
Basically, combine Dalaran's Horde inn (the Alliance looks more bar than hall) with the place you make a guild and add a guild bank. And it's all a public space that isn't actually guild specific. It just puts all the guild-related amenities in one spot and adds the convenience of an inn.
Banzai Feb 17th 2010 7:13PM
"Basically, combine Dalaran's Horde inn (the Alliance looks more bar than hall) with the place you make a guild and add a guild bank. And it's all a public space that isn't actually guild specific. It just puts all the guild-related amenities in one spot and adds the convenience of an inn."
Very good idea actually. They could have some NPCs there to work at the bar to function as GBs (kinda like giving stuff from under the counter), and the Guild Creation things could be in a room connected to the main hall. Or maybe there could be some paintings, which hid the GB behind them, kinda like a hidden safe or something...
Dozer Feb 17th 2010 11:48PM
something else a guild hall should have; what about being able to purchase summoning stones for various instances.
Avan Feb 18th 2010 12:27AM
"what about being able to purchase summoning stones for various instances. "
They have that. It's called a summoning stone, and you find it at the instance. Summoning works in a very peculiar way: It brings something to you. In the case of these stones, it brings other people in the party/raid to you. You can't stick a summoning stone to an instance away from the instance, because then you're still summoning people to where you are.
No, what you're looking for is some sort of teleportation stone. But are those needed? Travelling has been one of WoW's most effective time sinks. If you wanted to go kill Onyxia, you take a portal to Thunder Bluff or Theramore and fly the rest of the way there. What would probably fit more in line with Blizzard's way of doing things is to have portals or something that take you to a general area, like teleporting you to Everlook if you wanted to get to Hyjal.
But how much of that would conflict with the "mass summon" guild talent perk?
Dozer Feb 18th 2010 12:49AM
Yeah, that is what I was referring to, being able to port to an instance from a guild hall
Angrycelt Feb 18th 2010 3:09AM
City of Heroes had a great Supergroup base setup. You got a small plot for free, (upgradeable by spending your money and paying "rent") you could decorate it with either buying trophies, or by unlocking trophies from their Accolade (achievement) system. You could build transporters to major zones once you unlocked their coordinates. There was SG-wide storage (guild bank). And you could set your transporter (hearthstone) to go to your base.
So you get your little guild hall, all those feats of strength become trophies that can adorn your walls, you can get out of trade chat, access the guild bank, heck, maybe even get your own mana loom, alchemy lab, or anvil/forge setup. Perhaps crafting items is faster in the guild hall. We can already teleport to instances with no trouble with the new LFG tool, and between Dalaran rings, Tournament tabards, and the reduced-to-30-min hearthstones, we've already got options. Come on, wouldn't you like to have a shattered Frostmourne hanging behind a podium next to Onyxia's head, or for the real old-school guilds, a Corrupted Ashbringer?
Yes it'd reduce presence in the cities, but keep Auctioneers, crafting mats vendors, personal banks, and all those interactive requirements locked out of a guild hall, and you'd reduce server lag as well as have a good representation of where as a guild you've been and what's to come.
Wulfkin Feb 18th 2010 11:47AM
I'm with Avan on this one. Guild housing is one of those things that would be a nice touch, but it would also be a massive undertaking on Blizzard's part to implement and the effort involved would be huge for what isn't really much of a gain. Put it this way: As much as you want guild housing, would you rather have it over a raid instance with as much effort put into it as ICC? Guild housing over a new battleground or new instances? Because thats what the cost will be.
thebarrenschat.wordpress.com
Kesh Feb 17th 2010 7:13PM
Tbh all I want from a guild hall would be a place to chill with friends without that annoying gnome in IF begging me for gold. Sure a couple NPCs would be cool, but a private place to just chill and chat would be awesome in between instances and raids.
Dibs on the sofa, no not just half of it, all of it!
Avan Feb 17th 2010 7:44PM
I've got a private place to chill and chat. It's called a LEGO table, and it's right next to my desk. When my guildies and I are just chatting about stuff, I'll be alt-tabbed out of the game and just be playing with LEGOs.
I can build a house! I can build a coliseum! I can build any number of things and decorate it with any number of other things. Best of all, I still can't show it off to anyone.
If you're looking for a private place in-game, then go to the Goldshire or Brill inns. Nice cozy tavern setting there. Or the Ratchet inn, nobody visits there. If you're looking for a secluded place while having trade chat, then there are very many buildings in Org/SW that are visited very rarely.
Joey Feb 18th 2010 1:42PM
Perhaps Blizzard could implement a "Minor Hearthstone" which lives on a separate cooldown and only allows you to port to an inn not located in a major city. This would allow you to set one hearth someplace convenient such as Dalaran, and another in a small town in your favorite zone (in my case Darkshire) or some other out of the way place.
This would keep traffic in the traditionally high population capitals and would potentially bring some life to often ignored areas. I know I've always found it odd that inns are among the least populated places in WoW so I'd rather see something done to address that, and in the process promote social interaction, than to further section off the already fragmented world.
deviationer Feb 17th 2010 7:13PM
"we also like the idea of seeing a lot of people in cities and don't want to make main cities feel like ghost towns"
No blizzard you'd rather just have lag fest cities. Ironforge (preBC), shattrath, dalaran, and now back to Ironforge for catt. At least give us a graphical option to limit the number of people I see in a 10-20 yard radius or something.
Jari Feb 17th 2010 7:33PM
Go to the Exodar.
RogueJedi86 Feb 17th 2010 7:17PM
The lack of housing frustrates me. The problem is so many people start MMOs with WoW, and they get used to what WoW has and decide they don't want anything WoW doesn't. WoW doesn't have player/guild housing, so people get used to the idea of not having them, to the point where they don't see a use for them in other games. With 11 million WoW players not seeing the point of housing, makers of future MMOs don't see a point in adding housing that the WoW crowd won't care for, which ruins the variety in future MMOs too. I don't want all MMOs to be homogenized just because people are comfortable with WoW's stagnant situation on some features from other MMOs.
I'm convinced that if these players actually played a game with Housing, they'd learn to love it. FFXI and SWG and LotRO all have some form of housing, and the populations embrace them. In fact I think player housing is one of the things that's kept SWG from completely dying and closing down. It's oddly soothing to sit in your house and place objects you looted in the world, either as trophies of conquest or just some pretty objects you found. You'd be amazed at the impressive decorations people make in SWG just from random inane loot. Stuff like AT-ATs and X-Wings and Christmas trees and anything else you can think of, just from the SWG equivalent of vendor trash.
So yeah, I quite enjoy player/guild housing, thank you very much.
And to be a bit on-topic and constructive, you could easily add Guild Housing to WoW and keep players in cities. It's easy, just make Auction Houses and Banks only accessible from the cities themselves. Maybe put a guild bank in a Guild House, but everything else in the cities proper. It's the method Blizz has used to keep people using the Old Cities after Shatt and Dalaran, and I think it'd work here too.
Avan Feb 17th 2010 7:47PM
Do those forms of housing add anything to the game that WoW needs? Is there a tangible benefit to adding those to WoW? How would they work in WoW? What kind of resources are needed to make it happen?
Vandersveldt Feb 17th 2010 7:51PM
They'd add the same thing tabards, vanity pets, titles, and achievements added.