Guild Wars 2

I’ve taken the major step that most people do in their lives. I’ve gone and purchased my first home. Due to this, I will need to sacrifice Gem purchases in lieu of being able to feed my family. Canned tuna and discount loaves of bread will be my staple of choice for the next few years. Happy times, yet scary times at this juncture in my life.

So with my real life events unfolding, that lead me to the following thought: “If I can buy a home in real life, why can’t I do the same in Guild Wars 2?”

Segueing into the game, I implore Colin to allow us to invest in player housing. You have at hand the perfect opportunity to not only expand the dynamics of the game, but also allow NC Soft yet another form of Gem revenue.

Monetization of Player Housing

Unlike Guild Halls, player housing can be an instanced event that’s only attainable via Gem Store. Purchasing in game should be very cost heavy, as to emulate real life. Housing should be a luxury that is available to all players willing to pay. Think of it as another type of “Legendary journey”.

• Gems costs to buy the base home model
• Gem/Gold fees for expansion options like more rooms or additional floors
• Paint options (house skins)
• Option to turn Mini Pets into Home Pets
• Furniture (that can be used!)

Simply add a new tab to the Gem Store for housing options, and watch the money flow into your coffers like Niagara Falls.

Roleplayer heaven

Have you ever wanted to be the crazy cat lady down the street? Well now you can! Fill your home with Gem Store purchased ambient feline friends, and invite your guild-mates over for good times.

Getting married to the charr of your dreams? Take a stroll down the chapel in Lion’s Arch, and then head to your new home for a private honeymoon!

Tired of bookahs getting in the way of your experiments? Purchase your own private lab, and your krewe can explode samples without collateral damage!

Build your own private brewery, and throw the Moot of the year!

The RPing ideas are endless with Player Housing!

Conclusion

Anet is missing the opportunity. People will throw money at you for this type of cosmetic fluff. The Dev costs to program this would be paid in full within a month of the Gem Store explosion. I predict NC Soft share values skyrocketing due to the huge windfall of profits that would follow in the coming quarterly reports. It also wouldn’t interfere with any Living Story or other game mechanics, since it’s instanced outside of the live world.

And if Anet should not implement this, at least give us Cantha.

<3 Penguin

Sorry but,i really won’t.I dont see the point of hanging in an ingame house.Others might..sure..But when i login i wanna Play.

Anyway,Gratz with your own house,big step

They really should just convert player “home” instances into a actual housing system. The current one is meaningless outside of added nodes that could be ported over. Or just add in a purchasable, customizable, etc house/room into the current home instance.

Caedmon.6798:

Sorry but,i really won’t.I dont see the point of hanging in an ingame house.Others might..sure..But when i login i wanna Play.

You know, not all players all the same. Some like to play with themselves in their Home Instance. We already have upgrades like nodes, trees, and cloth lines. There’s also a Wintersday tree and Hidden Bandit Chest. Anet added these things so players can play.

I believe its because counter productive to have a chunk of your player base not out in the world actually playing the game, doing game play things. For a game that relies heavily on player density to make the world look active, the last thing they want to do is thin the population out, nor wall off player interaction.

That said… we already have Home instances that do everything you’ve mentioned. The problem has always been there being no practical benefit to having these in the game, other then home instance harvesting nodes.

The fact that you don’t even mention this in your post just goes to show how little people think about it.

Guild Halls. Bam.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Caedmon.6798:

Sorry but,i really won’t.I dont see the point of hanging in an ingame house.Others might..sure..But when i login i wanna Play.

You know, not all players all the same. Some like to play with themselves in their Home Instance. We already have upgrades like nodes, trees, and cloth lines. There’s also a Wintersday tree and Hidden Bandit Chest. Anet added these things so players can play.

While it’s true that many like to play with themselves in their home instance, many like to do that while in open PvE also…..

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Caedmon.6798:

Sorry but,i really won’t.I dont see the point of hanging in an ingame house.Others might..sure..But when i login i wanna Play.

You know, not all players all the same. Some like to play with themselves in their Home Instance. We already have upgrades like nodes, trees, and cloth lines. There’s also a Wintersday tree and Hidden Bandit Chest. Anet added these things so players can play.

While it’s true that many like to play with themselves in their home instance, many like to do that while in open PvE also,

lol.

starlinvf.1358:

I believe its because counter productive to have a chunk of your player base not out in the world actually playing the game, doing game play things. For a game that relies heavily on player density to make the world look active, the last thing they want to do is thin the population out, nor wall off player interaction.

That said… we already have Home instances that do everything you’ve mentioned. The problem has always been there being no practical benefit to having these in the game, other then home instance harvesting nodes.

The fact that you don’t even mention this in your post just goes to show how little people think about it.

Player housing would be in their Home Instance. There’s plenty of room to modify the instance to make room for housing. An idea could be to create a garden full of harvesting nodes in front of the player’s house. That would require the ability to move nodes as you see fit.

And just an FYI, people do use their Home Instance to RP or to hang out. Just because you don’t have guildies or friends who do that, doesn’t mean the community doesn’t exist. It’s no different from AFKing in LA or Southsun.

Basandra Skye.4031:

Guild Halls. Bam.

we all live together happily like a Mexican family

Smooth Penguin.5294:

starlinvf.1358:

I believe its because counter productive to have a chunk of your player base not out in the world actually playing the game, doing game play things. For a game that relies heavily on player density to make the world look active, the last thing they want to do is thin the population out, nor wall off player interaction.

That said… we already have Home instances that do everything you’ve mentioned. The problem has always been there being no practical benefit to having these in the game, other then home instance harvesting nodes.

The fact that you don’t even mention this in your post just goes to show how little people think about it.

Player housing would be in their Home Instance. There’s plenty of room to modify the instance to make room for housing. An idea could be to create a garden full of harvesting nodes in front of the player’s house. That would require the ability to move nodes as you see fit.

And just an FYI, people do use their Home Instance to RP or to hang out. Just because you don’t have guildies or friends who do that, doesn’t mean the community doesn’t exist. It’s no different from AFKing in LA or Southsun.

My home instance only represents my failures. On Humans, the Big nose Ted arc leds to the inevitable destruction of either a Hospital or an Orphanage.

I would love housing in gw2. Being able to decorate it and stuff! I mean they could add so many things in the gemstore for housing and it would be a profitable add-on. It’s a win-win. And if you’re a player who doesn’t enjoy housing then just don’t do it. XP

And congrats on such a big step in your life! \o/

starlinvf.1358:

I believe its because counter productive to have a chunk of your player base not out in the world actually playing the game, doing game play things. For a game that relies heavily on player density to make the world look active, the last thing they want to do is thin the population out, nor wall off player interaction.

That said… we already have Home instances that do everything you’ve mentioned. The problem has always been there being no practical benefit to having these in the game, other then home instance harvesting nodes.

The fact that you don’t even mention this in your post just goes to show how little people think about it.

Adding functionality to player instancing is just another way some is “playing” the game. It also adds in functions for RP groups as well as social interaction by bringing people into your “home”. As cheesy as this may seem to some, it does add more life into a game then people may realize.

In regards to player density, there really is little difference then just idling in LA around a NPC. After awhile it doesn’t really make the game appear more “populated” nor does it necessarily mean more social interaction. Not to mention the megaserver system already handles that issue, even if a majority of players in a major city are in player instances, the remaining will be consolidated and the population will still appear dense.

What the OP is suggesting is nothing like how the current home instances are, currently they are a kitten attempt at it which is why they aren’t used outside of node farming.

Congrats on the home purchase!
Take it from me, get those trees trimmed early. >_>

I would love to have a more active home space, sort of like the guild halls are panning out to be but more personal.

I personally have absolutely zero interest in player housing and think it is insane in any game where it doesn’t serve an actual purpose, and even in games where it serves a purpose I’d rather not. That said, if people are willing to make cash shop purchases of something so silly, I say Anet should jump at it and milk them for every cent they can, which they can then spend on say making season 1 living story replayable, or making WvW suck less.

Rauderi.8706:

Congrats on the home purchase!
Take it from me, get those trees trimmed early. >_>

I would love to have a more active home space, sort of like the guild halls are panning out to be but more personal.

Thanks, mate.

On Guild Halls, maybe… just maybe, Guild Halls are the precursor to Player Housing?

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Rauderi.8706:

Congrats on the home purchase!
Take it from me, get those trees trimmed early. >_>

I would love to have a more active home space, sort of like the guild halls are panning out to be but more personal.

Thanks, mate.

On Guild Halls, maybe… just maybe, Guild Halls are the precursor to Player Housing?

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

Or you could add gates or portals into guild halls that access the player’s personal home. This allows players to “show off” their homes easily to other guildies.

I’d keep them separate however, alienating a certain population from a system like personal housing in GW2 isn’t a good idea. The idea of a “guild city” and allow player housing based on guild affiliation, is something more fitting of a sandbox then GW2. Though I guess you could have both. Example: Your home being an apartment/townhouse/room while in the major city home instance, and having a actual house on a guild plot/city. However I still wouldn’t have being in a guild a requirement.

congrats on your home man

Congrats on your first home purchase. I’ve been in mine for just about 6 years now, and let me tell you, the maintenance can be a nightmare. I’m trying to replace carpeting, and siding, and doing a fresh layer of shingles on the roof (cause that’s due). Unfortunately, that all needs to go on hold, because my sweet girl (my dog) needs surgery. No good deed goes unpunished I guess.

On that note, given that I own a home in real life that I have to care for, I don’t particularly want one in game too. I wouldn’t mind additional functionality for our home instances which we could earn through assorted collections and quests, but I think an actual “house” might be a bit much. I have other things that I’d prefer to have them invest time into. Still, I’m not going to tell someone they shouldn’t want it, or shouldn’t like that type of play.

BrooksP.4318:

Adding functionality to player instancing is just another way some is “playing” the game. It also adds in functions for RP groups as well as social interaction by bringing people into your “home”. As cheesy as this may seem to some, it does add more life into a game then people may realize.

In regards to player density, there really is little difference then just idling in LA around a NPC. After awhile it doesn’t really make the game appear more “populated” nor does it necessarily mean more social interaction. Not to mention the megaserver system already handles that issue, even if a majority of players in a major city are in player instances, the remaining will be consolidated and the population will still appear dense.

What the OP is suggesting is nothing like how the current home instances are, currently they are a kitten attempt at it which is why they aren’t used outside of node farming.

Some or most? I’m in the camp that believes all content should support all sub-sets of players as best as possible. But a problem with RP’ers in an under-serviced subset is the belief that they need more RP exclusive content to make up the deficiency.

I don’t think the Home instance is sufficient for RPers, because the whole idea of completely privacy in an MMO seems counter intuitive. But because MMOs tend to be very mechanically driven at all levels, we focus too much on the mechanics itself rather then finding better approaches to the problem of Application in the game.

As for the whole idling in LA…. I don’t find it optimal, nor desirable. But because its a massive side effect of how Menus work, there are very, very few solutions that don’t require large amounts of real estate to establish a proper store front. But with the large amount of things we need to interact with, the simple fact of its streamlined nature make menus heavily outweigh the alternatives.

Since the game doesn’t mechanically require us to return home on a regular basis, there no reason to build out a home system that both Guildhalls and City Hubs could execute much better in practice.

One thing that is universally undervalued is the deceptively large amount of negative exploration space in this game. Its far less then what was in GW1, but there are many empty areas RPs can utilize…. especially in City hubs that focus most activity in 3-4 POIs.

I like the idea of a city hub where your home is a part of your Guild. That could make for interesting mechanics, where guildies can roam the city and visit each person’s home. I can’t help but think of Minecraft or Second Life, only on a graphically superior platform.

Heck, why not implement server leasing, where players can pay X Gems per month to have their own “city” to build Guild Halls or Player Housing as they see fit. Then you can allow anyone access, or limit access to guildies, friends in contact list, etc. Or even password protect entry. This would be similar to Custom Arenas in SPvP.

I would quite like a house in-game.

I would not be interested if it cost a lot.

At most, I think it should cost a few g for upgrades; like upgrading a guild, via letters, does.

I would be all for this; even if a house was a bit over-the-top, I think a personal room (living room, bedroom, whatever route they go) would be very doable and fit well in the game.

I can’t guarantee I’d buy it, depending on the price, but I’d strongly consider it.

this is nothing new, oh you seen what other games are planning and voice them here to seem ahead of the curve lmao. This game will never come close to camalot unchained. stop dreaming!

eureeka.5368:

this is nothing new, oh you seen what other games are planning and voice them here to seem ahead of the curve lmao. This game will never come close to camalot unchained. stop dreaming!

I have faith in Colin.

Colin Johanson

Nothing is off the table

they have gone total opposite of anything diverse, instead took all the fun out of the game to make it easier for devs. good luck changing their direction, would be easier to find a game that has more to offer than click and play builds. gg colin

Give it the Fairy tail touch and think your guild is your family in game and the guild hall is your home, that’s my plan XD

I’d love player housing. When I first was informed about the home district i was intrigued, but was incredibly underwhelmed with what it turned out to be. When I played Rift, one of the biggest focuses of my rift play time was customising my player “dimension”, and the same was the case with my Aion playtime when that was my main game of choice.

I also truly loved the lairs/hideouts/etc of City of Heroes, and could spend an age customising them.

If player housing were ever introduced, I’d most definitely spend a heck of a lot of gems on it, and quite willingly too, (assuming it’s done well)

From other posts, it seems GW2 is one of the few MMOs that don’t have some type of personal housing mechanic. Colin, that needs to change.

Home instances and soon guild halls so adding ANOTHER “home” option would seem redundant and just pointless. you don’t even know whats gonna be available with guild halls so not much point to it.

Chuck.8196:

Home instances and soon guild halls so adding ANOTHER “home” option would seem redundant and just pointless. you don’t even know whats gonna be available with guild halls so not much point to it.

Not sure you understood the idea. Player housing would be within the Home Instance. Perhaps I didn’t clarify that sooner? The idea is to take an area in your Home Instance, and allow options for customization. This could satisfy players who wish for such a mechanic, and it could help Anet by providing another source of revenue with Gem Store purchasable upgrades.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

On Guild Halls, maybe… just maybe, Guild Halls are the precursor to Player Housing?

Tcshshshshshhhh, you can’t use the P-word! (The idea of a guild hall being an uber-rare drop makes me lol though. :P)

While I can hope for player housing and guild halls as a test case, I think ANet’s general vision is still to have things bring players together, rather than letting them hide in little cubby holes.

Then again, we have “home” instances. All of which are very meh and in NPC-public spaces. I’d love to have an actual homestead. (But maybe not how FF14 does it. o_O)

Being an avid role player, my friends and I would have a lot of fun with this.

I also get a Sims vibe from this sorta thing, which works out just fine since I’m a big Sims fan as well. Pic totally related.