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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBlizzard 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 2 of 5)
RogueJedi86 Feb 17th 2010 7:54PM
That's what I mean. People these days don't see the point of something if it doesn't increase their capability in combat. Like Vandersvelt said, some things are just for fun, like minipets and such. Having a nice little place to call your own is just nice. There's lots of fun to be had from things that are just for cosmetic value.
Though FFXI's housing allowed you to place furniture that had actual effects on your characters. I don't know which effects though, so some FFXI player could fill in the blanks there. I know you could also grow a garden in your house, with the crops being used for cooking and alchemy and such.
Hollow Leviathan Feb 17th 2010 8:00PM
Dude! If they made Guild Halls, I should finally be able to take my Corehound Pup off the leash. And hang my tabards up in the closet, instead of in my bag taking up stupid space unlike my 30 dragons (!?).
Raze Feb 17th 2010 8:26PM
Backing up Roguejedi with the FFXI housing bit: some of the items you put in your house were crafting related, (plants in particular, which can be harvested for several different items) others offered regeneration bonuses (something that is -incredibly- valuable in XI), but none are really huge, game changing buffs . The game uses an interesting elemental system to balance just what you could or couldn't benefit from at one time, but, again, there's nothing that's so overblown that you absolutely had to have it. If you want your holy elemental desk and your fire elemental plants, it's not going to ruin your raid (something that also works -very- differently in XI from WoW, so I'm speaking hypothetically here) by gimping your DPS or something.
Most of all, though, and here's the very, very important part: it's fun. The items are well designed and look great and there's something satisfying about filling your house up: it's a whole other game that you can play. Your home is also where you store items and change classes, so even if you're one of these hardcore "I only care about raiding and min/maxing" tools, you have a reason to pop in every so often. People keep going on about how it wouldn't serve any purpose, but neither do achievements (when they're not shoving a billion and one drakes down your throat) or small pets, in the grand scheme of phat lootz acquisition.
And come to think of it, why would people no longer suffocating the cities with sheer numbers be a bad thing? I don't give a shit about Blood Elf number 44124 dancing on a mailbox in Dalaran. There're plenty of global channels (let's assume housing will be centralized in cities, where Trade, LFG, and other city-linked chat channels are enabled) where people can advertise trading, raids, roleplaying... whatever. I don't remember the last time I walked up to someone and said with /say "can you do Berserking?"
Not to mention fewer people taking up space means fewer mammoths blocking the view and less lag. All good things in my book.
Avan Feb 17th 2010 11:50PM
Having your own personal plot of herbs to gather sounds like something Blizzard wouldn't go for. Why go out into the world, perhaps risking life and limb, to get frost lotus, when you can just pull it out of your cave of vanity? What's next, letting fountains spew abyss crystals?
For the record, a tangible benefit does not have to mean an increase in stats or combat ability. More storage space could be a tangible benefit, for example; You don't go swinging your bags around in combat! But wait, that's what the bank is for. I mentioned this in another comment, how it would be cheaper to just increase the number of bank slots we have than provide housing that does the same thing.
So you want to decorate an interior space for no reason? Go play The Sims, then. If you're not going to be able to show your space off to anyone else, then the effect is the same. Even if you could show it off, who is actually going to care enough to say something like, "I love how you put Nefarion's head over the mantle, very chic!"
Ultimately, what these fantasies of housing do is introduce something to Warcraft that (I think, anyways) it just doesn't need. And anything that it can provide on a personal, character (or account) level will be either very lackluster or detrimental to the game. If you don't think so, then try and spin a version of housing that: does not confer an advantage over other players (either economically or otherwise), provides a needed service that is not provided by other systems (such as the bank), and would not be detrimental to any player's experience (framerate/lag issues).
Arktic Feb 17th 2010 7:20PM
Try to follow my idea, as I'll try my best to describe it as I see it in my head.
Phasing.
A guild hall, much like one of the Dalaran enclaves, but the decorations and mementos are phased out. If you kill boss "X", you have access to their trophy, and you can now see it in your guild hall, with the plaque with your guilds first kill listed. It however has always been there, you just couldn't see it before.
Have enough guild emblems? Spend them on a vendor and she now appears in the guild hall for you. She's been there all along for the top guild, as they unlocked her a week after launch, but you are now just seeing her.
Want the carpet to be blue? The blue is now unphased for you, while the Red carped has been phased so you can no longer see it.
Buy portals to other cities, mailboxes, vendors. There are many things you can buy, that just get phased in when you do.
The thing about doing it this way is that the people around you see it however their guild has it phased. The Player Characters don't get phased out, so the area isn't any less empty, but it puts that personal feel into it and allows for a bit of the customization that some are looking for.
Maybe I'm missing the whole point of a guild hall, but for me it would be to display trophies for guild kills, like achievements, but in a visible way.
Faulken S Wulf Feb 17th 2010 7:27PM
@Arktic:
Would having all that stuff phased still cause lag though?
Other than that I like the idea.
Arktic Feb 17th 2010 7:31PM
I'm not sure, as I don't fully understand the full scope of the phasing concept, but I'd imagine that if your video card isn't needing to render the items, it would reduce the load a bit. I'd imagine it somewhat like lowering your view distance... the whole world is still out there, but your machine isn't having to draw it for you.
Avan Feb 17th 2010 7:49PM
The way I understand it is that you're still recieving data about what is phased out. Your video card doesn't render it, as you said, but your processor is still doing work on those objects/players.
Chilblain Feb 17th 2010 8:23PM
One of the reasons housing worked in SWG was that you could be driving across Tattoine and you'd run into a guild's town, or city. And if you had a friend that lived there you could find his house and he'd let you in and you could see his stuff.
If it's phased, or instanced, you wouldn't be able to do that. If a level 4 player could see my house in Elwynn Forrest, that would be one thing. If it's anything short of that, it would be a slapped-together afterthought.
splodesondeath Feb 17th 2010 7:30PM
I say we tone it down even more from what people are suggesting.
What we can do is have a building, perhaps an extension to the Hall of Legends/Champion's Hall where there is a large trophy cabinet or something of the sort that goes along the wall, a big circle. This room will be decorated with small statues of bosses and such, with inscriptions marking the guild with a World First on this boss in that realm, and the players to complete this achievement. Then, you add a little curator NPC who makes funny lines and can reference some obscure pop-culture character.
If it so pleases you, it can get more PvP by adding quests to kill the curator of the opposite faction's trophy hall, or one might be able to add a vendor for statuettes and such that you can summon like banners if you have the World First.
More recognition for those who got world firsts, and less guild.
Another option is to phase it per guild too, though then I would remove the vendor idea. Whatever floats your boat.
Lanuria Feb 17th 2010 7:33PM
They must not go to Silvermoon on RP Servers!
Ringo Flinthammer Feb 17th 2010 8:36PM
I'm on an RP server. Silvermoon is plenty quiet on Silver Hand.
Trinea Feb 18th 2010 11:59AM
Most servers aren't like ours, Lan, even the RP ones. XD
Athinah Feb 17th 2010 7:33PM
Thtas blizzard term for "Sounds fun, but not going to happen."
CBGStylee Feb 17th 2010 7:38PM
While it may be a fun idea, Id much rather them spend time fixing class mechanics and raid encounters. You know, stuff that actually affects the game-play itself. As interesting and creative ideas like guild housing and dance studios and non-combat pets and things like that are, there simply isnt the development time to waste on those things when broken class mechanics exist and raid encounters are buggy or not tested fully (see ensidia ban).
If you would something aesthetic changed how about something you have to look at more, like new and interesting item models and updated character models, spell graphics things that you actually have to look at for long periods of time
Lucidien Feb 17th 2010 9:25PM
"You know, stuff that actually affects the game-play itself."
^ Because end-game raiding/arena is the only component to game-play? You know, we who do this are only a slim minority of all WoW players. Most WoW players are leveling, random-5-man-PuGing, Battlegrounding, collecting stones, collecting mounts, faction-repgrinding, achievement hunting or /dance-ing in Goldshire.
We. Are. The. Minority. We're like 5-10% of the player-base. Hence why the focus is being taken off end-game in the development of the next expansion. The 'Game-Play' experience may; to you, be simply raiding. But you aren't Blizzard's only customer. We're not even like-minded to most of their customers. What happens when the majority of their customers start asking "so what have you done for me lately Blizz? Hmm, where's my pony?" And those people are asking this question, and Blizzard's new-subscriptions are crashing through the floor.
"As interesting and creative ideas like guild housing and dance studios and non-combat pets and things like that are, there simply isnt the development time to waste on those things"
^ Because they should be instead focusing on appeasing the loud, obnoxiously vocal minority? I like my achievements, my 50+ mounts (going for that 100!) and my casual end-game raiding. I like to spread myself accross everything that this beautiful and fantastic game has to offer. And that's the way uh huh uh huh I like it.
/endfanboyrant
Avan Feb 18th 2010 12:13AM
@Lucidien
Fixing broken class mechanics is not going to affect the minority. It's going to affect EVERYBODY. Would you rather have Blizz waste their time on some feature (hi, barbershop!) that will be popular for the first month before it's forgotten? Personally, I'd rather their time be spend improving the actual gameplay instead of adding some trinket of a timesink.
EteNew Feb 17th 2010 7:40PM
Less so than player housing, I think players just want a place they can affect and at times call their own, whether that be a house or what have you. To that extent, instead of player housing; I personally would like to see the ability to place certain items (with a limited number to how many you can place) in the world around at your own wherever you would like and through phasing, they only appear to you. To further enhance the social aspect of it, you also see the phased items of anyone on your friend list, but no one else.
That way, as the player, your home is wherever you want it to be and you can still come across friends retreats. Whether you want to set up base in one of Stormwind's empty houses, setup camp atop in the middle of the Barrens, or ruins of Scholomance. Or perhaps you just want to use your items and place them randomly around the world as little easter eggs to your friends, like the old "Kilroy was here" markings or as RP things like placing something at a grave you can say belonged to someone you knew.
Quidamtyra Feb 17th 2010 7:43PM
I think if they just made traveling between cities faster, there would be more people in places like Silvermoon and Darnassus. I'd love to be able to go to my character's faction capital, but Darnassus is just out there...
If they added a guild hall, and put city portals to and from capitals, I think that would be great =]
MisterMoose Feb 17th 2010 7:45PM
I've always gotten the feeling the WoW Devs have trouble seeing the point of anything without hard stats. Well, they do have prestige mounts, but beyond that and pets they are very reluctant to implement things solely for aesthetic reasons.
More character customization options? It took FOREVER for them to do the Barbershop, and WoW is still a joke compared to most other MMOs as far as customizing characters goes. People talk about customizing appearance with gear, some sort of costume shop or something LOTRO like (Where you adjust how you appear separately from your gear, though getting better gear might unlock more looks). Blizzard doesn't seem to have any interest in this either.
Of course, it is well-known that they aren't interested in guild house or player housing. They claim they are worried towns would become empty....really? Look at any game WITH housing, like FFXI. When I played that a few years ago the towns were NOT empty and housing let you grow herbs and do other things (some purely aesthetic). I just feel that they really don't grok why anyone would want these things, because honestly their excuses are pretty weak.