I’m going to start this post out by saying that I love GW2, and I enjoy pretty much every minute I spend in the game. There are parts that don’t appeal to me personally as a player, but that friends of mine really enjoy (like Keg Brawl, for example) and so I’m happy they’re in the game, for their sake if not mine. But I do feel that there is something lacking for me, and quite simply, that’s a home. As it stands now, I’m just a homeless vagabond…
In GW1, I viewed the Guild Hall as my home, pretty much. I could go there from anywhere in the game, and hang out. It was more like a dorm than my personal home, of course, because my guildies could also hang out there, but it was my ‘refuge’ if you will. I could access all the same vendors that I could in a city, but without the distraction of local chat. Having access to the Guild Hall didn’t mean I never went into the cities, because I did. It was just another choice for me in the game, one I used as the circumstances fit.
When I heard that there would be ‘home instances’ in GW2, I got super excited, envisioning a real ‘home’ for my character within the game. When information came out about personal story and how the choices I as a player made affected the game, I expected that these choices would be reflected in my home. I expected that, as in that boring ‘Real Life’ thing, there would be costs associated with ‘personalizing’ my home, but that those options would exist. Sadly, it’s not the case, and I wish so much it was different. I can honestly say that except for when required by my personal story, I never visit my home instance, because there’s nothing there for me that I can’t get elsewhere, and there’s no benefit to it over any other place that’s a lot easier to get to, like LA.
So here’s my plea – please consider implementing a personal ‘home’ within our ‘home instances’. Have them reflect our choices in character creation and personal story. Let them come with the ‘basic’ items that fit my toon, and let me pay to upgrade as I can afford, with whatever currency (gold, gems, karma, laurels, etc) that you see fit.
Take my main, a human Ranger. She was raised among the nobility, so her starter home could have been a fairly stately manor. (Had she been from the common folk, perhaps it would have been a more normal house, and from the streets, a flat.) The other choices I made in character creation (my stalker, not searching for my true parents, dignity, and Melandru) could all be reflected in my ‘home’ from the start. Perhaps a small shrine to Melandru on a table? A picture of me and my stalker on the wall? A pile of documents on a desk that talk about my efforts so far to find my parents? Things like that.
Then, as I progress through the story, these items could change. When I find out the truth about my parents, instead of the documents, I have a memorial for them in my home. Once I choose an order, a wall hanging with the appropriate symbol would appear. Maybe a picture of my Order rep would appear on the desk after Claw Island? There are so many ways to make it “my” home, based on the choices of my personal story, right up until the end of my story and the fight with Zhaitan in the Arah story dungeon.
Aside from décor related to personal story, you could have furnishings, wall colors, textiles, all sorts of options for people to choose from. Let them choose colors based upon the dyes that a toon has unlocked, and they have even more reasons to get more dyes on more characters.
Right now, toons can get from anywhere in the world to Lion’s Arch for free, either by going through Heart of the Mists and then into the LA portal, or to WvW and again, into the LA portal. I would love to see an option to go to my ‘home’ for free (one way) as well. From my home I can then leave the instance and be in my home ‘city’, which isn’t that much different from what we have right now.
The end result of all of this would be a home for my characters, a reason for them to go to the home instance, and tangible evidence of my status as a hero in the world of Tyria.
I know that others may feel that the time that would be necessary to develop this could be better spent in other areas, but I really would love to see my personal story have meaning even after I’ve completed it, and I think a ‘home’ could bridge that gap.