Guild Wars 2

In Game Housing…. sigh I miss SWG and the sandbox goodness it used to be.

We already have a home instance. You can add mining nodes to it, etc. They may make it so you can modify/change that but a regular house, probably not.

There is your housing people. All your toons share all the Home Instances in each Race City. They are linked, like you are to your server.

1.) Because the great heroes of Tyria shouldn’t be homeless
2.) Make stuff in the personal story actually matter.
3.) Polish

I’d rather they focus on guild halls.

Algreg.3629:

. This ISN´T a Barbie dress-up game.

Seems to me this is eactly what it has become.

Lishtenbird.2814:

Draknar.5748:

Yes some like to decorate. Developing player housing so that some people can fiddle around with it while most players ignore it/stop using it is a big waste of time and money. That’s the point people are trying to make.

Yes some like to duel. Developing dueling so that some people can fiddle around with it while most players ignore it/stop using it is a big waste of time and money. That’s the point people are trying to make.

Yes some like to use mounts. Developing mounts so that some people can fiddle around with it while most players ignore it/stop using it is a big waste of time and money. That’s the point people are trying to make.

Yes some like to wear capes. Developing capes so that some people can fiddle around with it while most players ignore it/stop using it is a big waste of time and money. That’s the point people are trying to make.

See what I did there?

I do, and although you were trying to be snarky, I actually agree with those statements. I don’t think they should develop capes, mounts, or dueling. Actually dueling is the only one that I could support because I feel the development time for that would be very light. Compared to player housing, mounts, and capes (mostly because of horrendous clipping issues and having to build capes around a multitude of armor skins). Dueling seems like something that could be more easily accomplished (make a button that prompted selected player to agree or not agree, if agree, make X player hostile, upon death, make X player no longer hostile) but if it wasn’t that simple then I would suggest they don’t even bother.

Most players are wanting content in the form of new maps, dungeons, skills, races, classes, weapons, etc.

This IS a barbie dress-up game, who dahell doesn’t know that?

Mitch.4781:

Ok first up..in GW2 it ain’t gonna happen..secondly..why should it???? Why should Devs spend their time creating stuff that hardly anyone will use or port too except a few Rp’ers. I just don’t understand..This ISN’’T the Sims…

Need more zones/classes/weapons/races before trivial fluff like housing.

I agree the game needs a lot more content.

The possibility for gem store sales for “unique and scarce” house items has a lot of potential revenue however. That would have to be a trade-off against investment in terms of development however. So in a game where “nothing is off the table”, who knows.

PS: and who knows, maybe a Scarlet-esque villain will come through destroying whole villages requiring more time, special-gem-store-only construction equipment…and er… bloodstone dust bricks…. to rebuild.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

KarateKid.5648:

Mitch.4781:

Ok first up..in GW2 it ain’t gonna happen..secondly..why should it???? Why should Devs spend their time creating stuff that hardly anyone will use or port too except a few Rp’ers. I just don’t understand..This ISN’’T the Sims…

Need more zones/classes/weapons/races before trivial fluff like housing.

I think the thing that makes me scratch my head is the same thing surrounding all the calls for an “Expansion”. I think either is an intriguing idea, but the vast majority of people calling for these never really define what they want FROM them.

More zones, continuation of personal story (preferably about the elder dragons), more permanent dungeons (with their own gear sets), more professions, more playable races. Basically the usual stuff expansions in MMO’s have.

Over here you see a perfect example of what most of those people want, and what the game needs: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/User:Lon-ami/First_expansion_theorycrafting:_Jormag,_Tengu_and_Far_Shiverpeaks

That was a good thread.

Lishtenbird.2814:

Mitch.4781:

Need more zones/classes/weapons/races before trivial fluff like housing.

I don’t need no new classes, weapons and races.

I like stability in playing my main. I prefer mastering a single thing to being a noob in every thing. And as such, I would prefer trivial housing fluff to more new balancing issues and skill bugs even if I do not need housing per se.

That’s why I have 4 characters, of which two I play. Now, if multiclassing comes into play, I’m liable to need more character slots – THAT’s when build diversity comes into its element!

Feirlista Xv.1425:

Housing and guildhalls are just what this game needs, yes I agree the game need new content and areas, but at some point in time this feature will bring new life to this game. For housing to be done right they need to make it a sandbox type housing area. These could be areas linked to the major race cities where the architectural style will match the race. Plots of land could be sold in the gem store in these areas. Since there is a crafting system in place already new crafting disciplines could be started for building components furniture and decorations with existing crafting mats. For those that don’t want to do this then it would not be a linked to any event system in the game so making it totally optional. If you get to the point where you no longer interested in your house you would be able to sale you plot of land back to the game or to another player for in game gold. Guild hall could be done in a similar manner with players donating mats for construction.

Other than real estate flipping potential, I don’t see what one’s supposed to DO with housing here.

Why does some of this community continue to think of Anet as some mom & pops business bringing in a couple hundred thousand w/a handful of employees working out of some bodega size shop?

Google is your friend and I suggest you use it, they can and do have the resources for all of it. You may and probably will be completely baffled once you see the money they have made over the last 19months w/the content & features we have seen.

Some people like simulationism. Personally, I think it’s kind of important in an mmo so that you can get full immersion and feel long term investment.

Wetpaw.3487:

Why does some of this community continue to think of Anet as some mom & pops business bringing in a couple hundred thousand w/a handful of employees working out of some bodega size shop?

Google is your friend and I suggest you use it, they can and do have the resources for all of it. You may and probably will be completely baffled once you see the money they have made over the last 19months w/the content & features we have seen.

Most people just check these forums or GW2 homepage.

Indeed, housing is stupid. Give the players the options to build towns and allow the towns to wage war with each others. =)

Player Housing is alot of fun in MMO’s. It provides an added layer of realism to the game, gives actual meaning to accomplishments through trophies and other collectibles (other than a generic achievement point tally), and as others have said, gives you something to do other than killing things. It also provides another layer of immersion onto the experience of the game. Those reasons, among others, are probably why almost every MMO to come out in the past decade have had some level of player housing. Even many console rpg games have player housing now.

What’s not to like? If it’s not your thing, there’s no crime in that. But for those of us who really enjoy it, the fact that it’s missing from GW2 is a glaring problem that never really seems to disappear as we’re playing the game.

Wetpaw.3487:

Blockhead Magee.3092:

Much better to get housing than to waste developer time on useless PVE dueling or other such stupidity.

Your name followed by that comment is very fitting.

As for housing goes the only way we will see this added is in the form of instances, unfortunately it could never be added the way Archeage has done out in the open world.

I have lil to no interest in instanced housing as it defeats the purpose of this sandbox esque feature in the way I enjoy playing.

But considering we have seen development time focused on over 250 items in the gem store, Anet having around 300* employees, and their last quarterly earnings, it’s fair to say even if I wouldn’t care other players would love it.

Like many other permanent features and content needed in this game to retain players, I’m all for it.

It was a response to

Slowburn.5319:

Housing…. an absolute waste of time that could be spent implimenting open world dueling and mounts.

You’re short term memory is going.

I do have a few ideas about the personal instance and spending karma to upgrade it. Because, ya know, karma is utterly useless and all that.

But we all know ANet are anti-fun. Ain’t gonna happen.

Amalia.2879:

In Game Housing…. sigh I miss SWG and the sandbox goodness it used to be.

I agree!!! Also, I would like the ability to build my house out of mithril ingots, bloodstone dust, blade shards and mystery tonics. Can I just throw all of those into the MF and get back a house blueprint that allows me to choose the style of house when I double click it? I’ll take a log cabin in Timberline Falls please.

I played Star Wars Galaxies.
Ever since then, I’ve wanted a game with player housing on par with it.
I doubt I will ever see that.

psyckos.6893:

Amalia.2879:

In Game Housing…. sigh I miss SWG and the sandbox goodness it used to be.

I agree!!! Also, I would like the ability to build my house out of mithril ingots, bloodstone dust, blade shards and mystery tonics. Can I just throw all of those into the MF and get back a house blueprint that allows me to choose the style of house when I double click it? I’ll take a log cabin in Timberline Falls please.

In-zone housing could be dangerous… take putting a cabin in Queensdale: You wake up, grab coffee, step out onto the front porch to stretch and enjoy the fresh morning air… BLAM!!! stampeded by a massive zerg!

SkyShroud.2865:

Indeed, housing is stupid. Give the players the options to build towns and allow the towns to wage war with each others. =)

You can’t in a THEMEPARK game – Sandbox yes. ArcheAge is what you want.

Mitch.4781:

Ok first up..in GW2 it ain’t gonna happen..secondly..why should it???? Why should Devs spend their time creating stuff that hardly anyone will use or port too except a few Rp’ers. I just don’t understand..This ISN’’T the Sims…

Need more zones/classes/weapons/races before trivial fluff like housing.

Simple. You can customize it, creating your own little property. If you look at the current example, Wildstar, you can even customize the sky or the lighning. You can also show off your farmed titles or special items. You have furthermore something else to do than just get a new armor or a new weapon. On top of that, you could also put all your characters you have in your house, so you can interact with your own characters (If ANet could make this possible).

KarateKid.5648:

psyckos.6893:

Amalia.2879:

In Game Housing…. sigh I miss SWG and the sandbox goodness it used to be.

I agree!!! Also, I would like the ability to build my house out of mithril ingots, bloodstone dust, blade shards and mystery tonics. Can I just throw all of those into the MF and get back a house blueprint that allows me to choose the style of house when I double click it? I’ll take a log cabin in Timberline Falls please.

In-zone housing could be dangerous… take putting a cabin in Queensdale: You wake up, grab coffee, step out onto the front porch to stretch and enjoy the fresh morning air… BLAM!!! stampeded by a massive zerg!

Lol! With the megaserver, open world housing wouldn’t work very well. Buildable land would be in short supply. They would more than likely have to create either instanced zones or new open world zones strictly for housing….which kind of feel like concentration camps now that I think about it.

Mitch.4781:

Ok first up..in GW2 it ain’t gonna happen..secondly..why should it???? Why should Devs spend their time creating stuff that hardly anyone will use or port too except a few Rp’ers. I just don’t understand..This ISN’’T the Sims…

Need more zones/classes/weapons/races before trivial fluff like housing.

It’s a goal to work towards that many people like. Not only RP players. You can also make it open world so then it adds something to the world or build a castle with guilds in a open pvp / WvW map.

It adds a lot of game-play. That is why people like it.

I don’t know what a type of player you are if you think that only RP players will be interested in it but it’s just something as dyes, mounts, skins and so on. Customization / building / working towards something.

In a way an MMO RPG is a huge adventure building game. You are always building something.. being it your character and being it looks or stats or whatever you are interested in. So homes make perfect sense there.

viralthefrog.6130:

I played Star Wars Galaxies.
Ever since then, I’ve wanted a game with player housing on par with it.
I doubt I will ever see that.

I played it as well and the housing system for that is one of the few things in my life I’ve actually hated. The open world aspect at least, anyway. Player cities splashed everywhere was awful.

psyckos.6893:

KarateKid.5648:

psyckos.6893:

Amalia.2879:

In Game Housing…. sigh I miss SWG and the sandbox goodness it used to be.

I agree!!! Also, I would like the ability to build my house out of mithril ingots, bloodstone dust, blade shards and mystery tonics. Can I just throw all of those into the MF and get back a house blueprint that allows me to choose the style of house when I double click it? I’ll take a log cabin in Timberline Falls please.

In-zone housing could be dangerous… take putting a cabin in Queensdale: You wake up, grab coffee, step out onto the front porch to stretch and enjoy the fresh morning air… BLAM!!! stampeded by a massive zerg!

Lol! With the megaserver, open world housing wouldn’t work very well. Buildable land would be in short supply. They would more than likely have to create either instanced zones or new open world zones strictly for housing….which kind of feel like concentration camps now that I think about it.

It happens in more games what I apparently am not allowed to mention because then I an derailing the threat lol. Anyway, there you indeed will see open world housing in specific area’s, not all over the place.

Basically playing a game is wasting time. We just all like to waste our time in different ways. I can’t say my way of wasting time is the best way, or the only way, or the right way. Its just the way I like to waste time.

Outside of a new map zone, housing is the #1 new thing I want right now. I would love to be able to customize my own little niche in this world, particularly given as much time as I’ve spent in it. To show off my trophies and get sociable with guildies. To do something that doesn’t involve killing whatever crosses my path.

Some people want mounts, I don’t care either way. Some people want dueling, I want no part of it, but if someone else does that’s fine. New races would be nice, especially with a new map, and new classes could be fun, although what they’ve got still needs work, and more on the story would be great, but at the moment what I really want is a house.

I don’t get it either. Rift has housing, and I never touched it.

I guess people are tired of seeing armor, weapon, and quaggan back pack skins in the trading post and want to see stuff quaggan statues instead.

zenleto.6179:

viralthefrog.6130:

I played Star Wars Galaxies.
Ever since then, I’ve wanted a game with player housing on par with it.
I doubt I will ever see that.

I played it as well and the housing system for that is one of the few things in my life I’ve actually hated. The open world aspect at least, anyway. Player cities splashed everywhere was awful.

That was my favorite aspect of it. :O
My city had an Imperial base that was constantly popping with Rebel scum thinking they could destroy it.
The lulz that ensued…

Housing—yes—on the condition that there is meaningful utility in it for the owner, and for other players. Because there little point/value otherwise—you need multiple reasons to go there.

“Utility” examples could be unique, interesting npc merchants with unique and/or random gear for sale, and events in/near said housing.

I like housing in games as like many said, gives me a place to call my own. I would love it to death if they had a system like Wizard 101 or wildstar, where you find items from bosses you can use to customize the inside or outside of your house, or like Runescape where you got to add rooms to your house with different purposes, but make them fit GW2 somehow. Finding stuff to put in my house for customization, and inviting people over or making it public was one of the things I spent the most of my time.

Housing kind of already exists in the form of the Home Instances. Being able to pad it out with the various LS nodes and NPCs from the Personal Story are nice touches, although there needs to be more impact for the Personal Story NPCs. For example, I’d make it so that every week (or maybe every month), you can visit the NPCs and chat to them to receive a small gift of free mats or coin, similar to the keyless chests back in Nightfall.

Guild halls would also be a nice way to build guild solidarity. They could serve as crafting/banking hubs for guild members, financed by donations from guild members. (Good sink for excess stuff like Thick Leather or Mithril, for example. Or Bloodstone Dust.) They could also provide a sink for Influence/Guild Merits; some of the largest, most populated guilds, have basically unlocked everything and we gain Influence/Merits faster than we can spend them!

Housing was one of the best thing in SWG but I don’t think it would fit this game very well. Many MMO tried housing since SWG and for me they all failed. They would need to implement a physic model for every object in the game and make all of them droppable and movable in any direction and angle in the house and I don’t think the devs are good enough to do that.

Hmm, I think for me, atleast, is that player housing would really fit in to GW2’s vision of horizontal progression. It may be a bit lame but in my mind player housing for GW2 would look like a graphically much nicer version of Runescape housing (I had so much fun with that feature back in the day).

Additionally, we already have a home instance with things we can add to it through LS meta’s (ore nodes), having a dedicated house in that instance, as well as a new crafting profession associated with it (construction? carpentry?) would add a lot of depth to the home instance, give people a reason to revisit it and bring people in to it, have a new craft to work on, as well as a whole new world of horizontal progression available for people to experiment with.

IMO this form of “player housing” would work with GW2 so, so, so perfectly, and I realize it would take a lot to get it into the game, and probably most likely, but in my mind it would work.

I’m not a role player but having a house was a fun in other games. It’s like wearing outfits (wanting the personal touch). It was fun to decorate with collectibles (gives you something to do other then quest/pvp), sort of set yourself apart from the clones. Show off to friends.

Serophous.9085:

I don’t get it either. Rift has housing, and I never touched it.

I guess people are tired of seeing armor, weapon, and quaggan back pack skins in the trading post and want to see stuff quaggan statues instead.

Who said anybody wanted it in the cash-shop. We want it to be part of the game. That takes the cash-shop out of the equation. Once again an expansion that adds this to the world is the solution.

Anet will likely do what benefits Anet and also what Anet feels would interest the players the most overall. The common thing would be new content, new maps but my guess is Anet is going to resume more LS. I would be more accepting of LS if Anet left most of it in game as permanent additions. Far as player housing goes, I just don’t think Anet will add that because it might be popular at first but I just can’t see something like that keeping people interested in the game very long especially compared to new content.

This isn’t the sims nor is it real life so perhaps people should remember that it’s only a game. We buy it, we buy gems, we enjoy it, we mingle with other people and most of us have fun in the game. As to how you have your fun is up to you but my bet is on Anet doing what will profit them the most overall rather than what people on the forums would like to see in the game.

^ and yet several new upcoming MMO’s are launching with pretty comprehensive housing^
if it is not something they perceive players to want why do you think they are doing it? Maybe because it actually ads to the game?
Profit for the company? Player trade?
mmmm

I also dont see any point in housing.Total waste of time.Im up for having guild halls or something like that but player housing is just a waste.

saalle.4623:

I also dont see any point in housing.Total waste of time.Im up for having guild halls or something like that but player housing is just a waste.

It does not need to have a point. It’s customization and so it’s there just for fun. There is no point in skins or dyes but it’s there for fun. It’s a game it’s only point is ’ fun’. Or it should be.

I would also like to see guild-halls but that preferably in a similar way as player housing can be done. Really being busy with your guild to build the guild-hall or castle. Not just one instance where people can meet. It should add more to the game.

Mitch.4781:

Ok first up..in GW2 it ain’t gonna happen..secondly..why should it???? Why should Devs spend their time creating stuff that hardly anyone will use or port too except a few Rp’ers. I just don’t understand..This ISN’’T the Sims…

Need more zones/classes/weapons/races before trivial fluff like housing.

Agreed, but, guild halls could and should be incorporated.

Mitch.4781:

Ok first up..in GW2 it ain’t gonna happen..secondly..why should it???? Why should Devs spend their time creating stuff that hardly anyone will use or port too except a few Rp’ers. I just don’t understand..This ISN’’T the Sims…

Need more zones/classes/weapons/races before trivial fluff like housing.

Because it’s FUN. GEEZ.

No this isn’t Sims, you’re right, however housing offers a nice long term goal for players. I loved housing in LOTRO, I could display my trophies, decorate it, there were so many cool things I could get there and getting each one felt like an accomplishment. It offered an interesting progression system for a player. So this is the reason, why.

I’m all for housing, or customizable home instances which is probably what we’ll get if anet introduces it. I had a blast with housing in Everquest 2, customizing several homes for different characters.

Anet could add a housing item wardrobe (a shed) that we could fill in much the same way as we do with armor and weapon skins now. The skins could be rewards from heart merchants (costing carma), dungeons (costing dungeon tokens), WvW (costing badges), random drops from monsters, random drops from world boss chests… the possibilities are manifold. This could be further expanded with cash shop upgrades for both furniture or building materials (do you want your Asura lab to be made of sandstone instead of whatever that dark stone it’s made of now? Buy it from the cash shop).

Just thinking about this makes me giddy.

Lots of new titles are coming with player housing and the largest older ones are adding it if they don’t already have it, so I don’t think housing is just “stuff that hardly anyone will use”.

Housing serves the same purpose as armor and weapon skins. It gives your character the illusion of identity and people enjoy that. You ask for things that could be explained away by reducing them to their bare bones just the same: Why do you need new zones, it is just a digital map to move around, what do you care about the environment that much. Why do we need different monster types, we can just have one and give it good ol´ Rogue “@”. And while we are at it, we don´t need those fancy character designs, just change it to “#”. Why do you need different weapons, clearly, it is enough to have one means of attacking…

Zaxares.5419:

Housing kind of already exists in the form of the Home Instances.

Home instances are not really compareable to real housing. And for me housing meant something like in EQ2. I have no problem with instanced housing, so you don’t have the problems with space for them somewhere in the world.

As an example, just take a look at a video like that, and what masses of trophys and stuff you can see in that house :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlKl172ZQxY

There were also so many other things people did in EQ2 with their houses .. that is really something i miss here.

Draknar.5748:

I do, and although you were trying to be snarky, I actually agree with those statements. I don’t think they should develop capes, mounts, or dueling. Actually dueling is the only one that I could support because I feel the development time for that would be very light. Compared to player housing, mounts, and capes (mostly because of horrendous clipping issues and having to build capes around a multitude of armor skins). Dueling seems like something that could be more easily accomplished (make a button that prompted selected player to agree or not agree, if agree, make X player hostile, upon death, make X player no longer hostile) but if it wasn’t that simple then I would suggest they don’t even bother.

Most players are wanting content in the form of new maps, dungeons, skills, races, classes, weapons, etc.

The problem lies in the fact that I can replace capes, mounts and duels with cat ears, fox tails and new races, and statements like

Yes some like to play new races. Developing new races so that some people can fiddle around with it while most players ignore it/stop using it is a big waste of time and money. That’s the point people are trying to make.

make

• exactly the same amount of effect (a lot) and
• exactly the same amount of sense (zero)

because you have no real data to back it up with, unlike developers. All you can do is make assumptions, based on what you hear from the vocal forum majority. Which can tell you that they want new races, classes, weapons and skills, while the majority of people who’re actually in the game are perfectly happy with human warriors, would hate to be forced to rethink their playing habits and regrind for a better weapon, and will not pay more to get a playable kodan, skritt or tengu, but may instead pay to get their busty babe a swimsuit and a gothic house.

TL:DR

Some people think housing is a bad idea.
Some people think housing is a good idea.

There, the whole thread in 2 lines. Can we go now?