Guild Wars 2

So from what i’ve seen so far there has been no mention of any personal housing in The new xpac.

Of course we are talking of Guild Halls which is cool and all but unless i get my own room in it I don’t see it as filling what i would like

(And as a note there is already ‘personal’ housing in the game but the system is very small, fairly out of the way, and the only options for customization or improvement are cash shop options)

Anyone who has made it to end game content knows that the heart of GW2 is looks. In everything from Armor Skins, Collecting minis, Weapon Skins, even the crowning achievement of the Legendary is at its core about looks. And where is there more opportunity than in having your own Home.

One issue I have personally with GW2 is the lack of meaningful rewards for me to obtain. As i slowly work towards my legendary and Raising my fractal level there really isn’t anything for me to get inbetween, Which brings up this topic, Housing!.

Housing adds a lot to any game that it is in. First and formore it is something that any player can call their own. Housing is a well of customization, from how the house looks, the environment, what you place in it, ect ect.

This feature can also alleviate quite a few problems by itself.
First rewards: There are literally countless rewards that could be added into this feature. Guild Banners for your walls, ESL Mailbox, Doylak Herd for the outside, Class symbol overhead, Dragon wings for your house, the list is literally endless, and not only does these rewards add a lot of meat to the game but also add fun to obtain rewards for players

Second meaningful additions: Who wouldn’t love their own personal place to have all of their crafting professions, Who wouldn’t love a training dummy to beat on while waiting for pvp matches, Who wouldn’t love a personal portal to WvW right in their home to spam into on reset night. Things like that on top of resource nodes, Places of power, Jumping puzzles, and more can fix alot of small problems people might have with the game as well as strengthening you own cash shop items and adding so much more for players.

As a note i think it is best to look at other games who have done this and especially did it well. WoW currently has garrisons, SWTOR is getting Strongholds, and the crowning achievement of MMO housing wildstar.

And if there is a question of Where and Why i don’t see why it would be so hard to think of us as Defenders of the Mist and having a strategic location Within it would open up an easy location for us to place housing. Or even using the magic like the Zephyr Sanctum and taking it to the skies.

But having the option of a housing PvP reward track, Or somewhere to spend all these dungeon tokens or even where to use my WvW badges on some reward I actually want would be awesome

PS: I know something like this (done well) takes a lot of resources and time but just hearing that it is in development or even on the table would be amazing and inspiring.

TL,DR: There are amazing Housing in a lot of MMOs (wildstar) and Gw2 is the perfect platform for it and is something we should see (or hear about) sometime soon

So what do you guys think??? Where are you on player housing? How would you like it implemented? Are you happy with the housing we have currently? And do you think there is a chance it could be in the works?

I’d really rather ArenaNet developed more meaningful content than just The Sims 5.

But I suppose it takes all sorts.

TL,DR: Don’t like it, don’t want it.

Don’t need it, don’t like it.

Housing in general is a nail into the coffin, like it was with Wildstar. After all, the whole point of MMORPG is player interaction, not sitting in your instanced “home”. Plus we already have home areas in main cities, which could be visited for certain things you get for getting achievements/buying with laurels/gems/name it, that are not required in any way, which is okay by me.

Sarie.1630:

I’d really rather ArenaNet developed more meaningful content than just The Sims 5.

But I suppose it takes all sorts.

TL,DR: Don’t like it, don’t want it.

Like what? What kind of meaningful content would you like to see that they aren’t already working on.

Aethelbert.1497:

Don’t need it, don’t like it.

Housing in general is a nail into the coffin, like it was with Wildstar. After all, the whole point of MMORPG is player interaction, not sitting in your instanced “home”. Plus we already have home areas in main cities, which could be visited for certain things you get for getting achievements/buying with laurels/gems/name it, that are not required in any way, which is okay by me.

Wildstar’s only real issue is their pricing model. Their housing system isn’t only the reason that many people sub that game but amazing and indepth in general.
And that is such an antiquated look at MMOs. I personally don’t play MMOs for the social aspect. I enjoy the growing solo experience. I like to join random PvP matches, Random join dungeons, Collecting things alone. And not catering to the entire audience who plays is what kills an MMOs.

And just like mesmers with greatswords things change and a lot of thing get better for the change

Kentrey.3251:

Sarie.1630:

I’d really rather ArenaNet developed more meaningful content than just The Sims 5.

But I suppose it takes all sorts.

TL,DR: Don’t like it, don’t want it.

Like what? What kind of meaningful content would you like to see that they aren’t already working on.

i think that’s his point. “i’d rather them keep working on what they announced than see any of those features dropped in favor of playing house”.

This is something that has been asked for since the beginning alongside Guild Halls. It is one of the things ‘not off the table’.

I am the ‘sort’ that would like it. Guild Halls are likely not for those in 3 member guilds, after all. I never played Wildstar, the theme does not interest me at all, but all I ever heard of their housing was that it is excellent.

I agree that if there is housing customization added, it should be to the home instance. That is basically housing, but aside from a few cash shop or LS rewards, there’s not much to show off. Even the NPCs added from the PS just stand there, saying nothing new – or at all. Even if every character just said a line or two to the effect of “thank you for helping me with…” or “remember that time we…” as a reminder of what we did with them would be great.

Garambola.2461:

This is something that has been asked for since the beginning alongside Guild Halls. It is one of the things ‘not off the table’.

I am the ‘sort’ that would like it. Guild Halls are likely not for those in 3 member guilds, after all. I never played Wildstar, the theme does not interest me at all, but all I ever heard of their housing was that it is excellent.

While I’m super excited about guild halls (as i’m sure the entirety of the GW1 fanbase is) It just seems like such an easy step to implement it . And while they didn’t say they hadn’t confirmed it I just don’t know if we’ve seen the tip of the HoT hype train. They announced all of their big hitters and i don’t personally think we’ll see any huge features outside of what they have announced.

And you’re right the Theme of wildstar just really doesn’t appeal to high fantasy players. And while the combat was some of the best i’ve ever seen as well as the dungeon and raid design that games housing shines brighter than most video games entirely. Just it was seamless, deep, and fun. Everything from events, to JPs, to farming, to battle practice, to Raid Gates, to everything happened in your home. You could invite others over build everything the way you wanted it from racial houses, to burning grass, to having asteroids crashing in your background while it rained on your land. It added such a huge tail to any from of reward in the game and it is something that would be invaluable to Gw2

Rognik.2579:

I agree that if there is housing customization added, it should be to the home instance. That is basically housing, but aside from a few cash shop or LS rewards, there’s not much to show off. Even the NPCs added from the PS just stand there, saying nothing new – or at all. Even if every character just said a line or two to the effect of “thank you for helping me with…” or “remember that time we…” as a reminder of what we did with them would be great.

Don’t get me wrong I would love to see the home instances overhauled. Because as it is right now there really isn’t a reason to go out of the way to get there. Aside from extras like quartz crystals and lower nodes nothing pulls me back. And nothing makes my home instance really mine. As well as my home instance is just the same as everyone elses. And personally as a heavy pvp player if for any reason i wanted to go to my home instance i would have to leave heart of the mist, fast travel to hoelbrak, then enter the instance, which is much more work than going anywhere else. I would personally love it if it was the place i waited and played around in inbetween my match queues.

Lunarhound I don’t think i could’ve put it so beautifully myself.

I agree with literally everything you said. And anyone willing to actually read what you’ve written and be open to understand it, i don’t think they could disagree.

In b4 for the “don’t like it, therefore, we shouldn’t have it” rush.

I love housing in, well, all my games. While I understand the potential drawbacks, I feel like Anet could really make an interesting more socially viable version given the chance.

That and, frankly, all the other completing games are doing it. FFXIV, Old republic, wildstar, even WoW’s Garrisons. Clearly there’s interest, and a space to compete with that Anet could really innovate on.

That and, gw2 is a pretty cosmetic game. Having a place to decorate seems a logical progression IMO.

And yeah, lunar hound more or less nailed,p it. Seriously, someone mail that to Anet.

+1 to Lunarhound! I’ve never seen such a well written post in favour of personal housing, and I’m all for it.

I do like that "stupid little gif " though.

it’d be nice, but not worth losing out on what anet’s already working on. other game aspects need more work before housing.

like many, i don’t have time to read lunar’s long post, and i don’t have time for housing

yanipheonu.5798:

In b4 for the “don’t like it, therefore, we shouldn’t have it” rush.

when there are only so many resources a company can spend in features, it’s entirely logical to say you don’t want them to work on a feature you don’t like, because that’s taking time, devs and money away from another feature.

game development is a zero-sum game. you can’t just have it all, you need to pick what you want to work on.

Aethelbert.1497:

Don’t need it, don’t like it.

Housing in general is a nail into the coffin, like it was with Wildstar. After all, the whole point of MMORPG is player interaction, not sitting in your instanced “home”. Plus we already have home areas in main cities, which could be visited for certain things you get for getting achievements/buying with laurels/gems/name it, that are not required in any way, which is okay by me.

I cannot believe that you’re implying that Housing is what killed wildstar.

On topic though, just look at the housing system in Everquest 2, it’s fantastic.

The problem with player housing in games is that I never have a reason to go my house and do anything there. All the action is out in the world. If it wasn’t for gathering nodes, I would never go to my home instance.

I don’t understand what you mean when you say you want player housing…. Player housing is impossible for GW2 if you want it the Archeage way. The Megaserver puts a huge brick wall in front of that idea.

I want housing too within my home instance, just for aesthetic value. If there is already a house there for me I have no idea where it is lol.

Why do people keep asking for this? It’s not coming, just like mounts.

“Home Instance”

That’s where your house is. You already have one.

Sylvari is a shared dorm, because they don’t have “Personal” belongings.

Norn is, well, a big house. On a hill.

Human is a district, exactly where you live depends on the backround you chose at the start. (I’m assuming most of the confused people about “player housing” are playing human characters.)

Asuran is a big open lab with one of the best views in the game. There’s a sleeping nook in the back, because Asurans don’t waste time on luxury when they can have a big old laboratory instead.

Charr have the Barracks, because you are supposed to be the leader of your own war pack, and live in a barracks with them.

It’s been there, since the beginning of the game. Pretty much the very first instance of the personal story. It’s grown, as you played the game and the story new characters appear inside. As you played the living story you unlocked new stuff you can do in there. The store front offers instant access from anywhere, and more crafting nodes you can add to it.

If all you want is non instanced, in game houses cluttering up the landscape, NO. The game is too pretty for that kind of f2p garbage.

BrunoBRS.5178:

yanipheonu.5798:

In b4 for the “don’t like it, therefore, we shouldn’t have it” rush.

when there are only so many resources a company can spend in features, it’s entirely logical to say you don’t want them to work on a feature you don’t like, because that’s taking time, devs and money away from another feature.

game development is a zero-sum game. you can’t just have it all, you need to pick what you want to work on.

You’re right it is very logical to say that. But most players don’t say that its: “I don’t like it so i don’t want anyone to have it” , or “its dumb and we don’t need it” And just like its understandable for people to say they would like another feature worked on its totally understandable for us to say we would like this one worked on. Maybe we’d like a few less black lion skins and a few more features in the game and thats totally understandable. I don’t believe anyone here is mad that it isn’t there just that it should be and we’d like to see it.

Jaxom.7310:

it’d be nice, but not worth losing out on what anet’s already working on. other game aspects need more work before housing.

like many, i don’t have time to read lunar’s long post, and i don’t have time for housing

What exactly will we be losing out on that is the main point of so many peoples argument against it? And the game is going to always have more work needing done. More Personal Story bugs that need fixing, more traits that need tweaking, more balancing that needs to be done waiting for everything else to be “done” in a mmo isn’t a good reason not to work on new features.
(And i don’t really understand how you could be in the forums and not have time to read a post lol, being lazy is one thing, but not having time? -its a pretty good post btw)

Gulesave.5073:

The problem with player housing in games is that I never have a reason to go my house and do anything there. All the action is out in the world. If it wasn’t for gathering nodes, I would never go to my home instance.

How many different housings have you tried. I’ll agree that many games don’t do it very well. But like WoW there are aspects from every other part of the game brought back to their ‘housing’. From Gathering, to crafting, to fighting, to rare item collection and its all done in a neat and clean way. Even more so in Wildstar that it has all of that but also has a lot of vanity as well as housing only collectibles that makes rewards all the better when you get this awesome new banner for your house, or a housing plot that contrains a jumping puzzle of you collecting orbs in a whirlwind

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

I don’t understand what you mean when you say you want player housing…. Player housing is impossible for GW2 if you want it the Archeage way. The Megaserver puts a huge brick wall in front of that idea.

I want housing too within my home instance, just for aesthetic value. If there is already a house there for me I have no idea where it is lol.

Player Housing, in essence is an instance for you to call your own. For you to store, decorate, and do with as you please, and every player would have its own. Its already in the game (if you go to your racial city and go to the green star it will lead you to your home instance) its just not done very well.

Morsus.5106:

Why do people keep asking for this? It’s not coming, just like mounts.

That isn’t how companies work. You get features you want by continuing letting them know that this is what you would pay for (let yo dollars do the talkin) Mounts make sense, with waypoint there really isn’t a reason to include mounts (as a person who collected mount in wow it hurts i know). But housing is something that makes perfect sense with the style of Guildwars 2 gameplay which is why its so important for them to know how interested we are as a community about it.

Monkey Fritz.9052:

“Home Instance”
It’s been there, since the beginning of the game. Pretty much the very first instance of the personal story. It’s grown, as you played the game and the story new characters appear inside. As you played the living story you unlocked new stuff you can do in there. The store front offers instant access from anywhere, and more crafting nodes you can add to it.

If all you want is non instanced, in game houses cluttering up the landscape, NO. The game is too pretty for that kind of f2p garbage.

The problem is that noone knows what it is because it has such little impact or effect. Correct me if i’m wrong but the only things that are added is a Quartz or candy corn node, 4-6 story npcs (that don’t actually do anything), and whatever you buy from the gem store. That really isn’t much in the way of content and honestly the game would be the same if it was just a quick instance that was there and then gone.

Well first we should be moving away from that toxic idea that F2P=bad. Because its just wrong.There are bad P2P and B2P just like there are countless great F2Ps. F2P encourages some bad qualities and that should be what we focus on not the payment system it has.
and No one said it should be none instanced. Just well done. Its not like they need to pioneer new ground there are inspirations in almost every other game of how to do it. And that is evidence that it is fairly meaningful. Just requires some initiative.

Kentrey.3251 I have no idea who are you trying to convince. You have make all the fanciful arguments you want but ultimately arenanet will have to decide if it is worth the resources to make it. So don’t argue with people or trying to convince them, Arenanet will simply do what is beneficial to them, which may or may not include bringing housing. (I doubt they will do it, since housing is simply a short term excitement machine and doesn’t add anything meaningful. Then again they might, if only to be able to charge a lot of for difference housing skins).

yanipheonu.5798:

yanipheonu.5798:

In b4 for the “don’t like it, therefore, we shouldn’t have it” rush.

when there are only so many resources a company can spend in features, it’s entirely logical to say you don’t want them to work on a feature you don’t like, because that’s taking time, devs and money away from another feature.

game development is a zero-sum game. you can’t just have it all, you need to pick what you want to work on.

Very few people know that are might simply be willfully ignorant about it.

Kentrey.3251:

So from what i’ve seen so far there has been no mention of any personal housing in The new xpac.

Quit reading after this very reasonable statement of the current status of personal housing….

Seriously, why do they need to mention something they have no plans of putting in place in GW2? If you love those other games for their personal housing, nobody is stopping you from playing them.

silvermember.8941:

Kentrey.3251 I have no idea who are you trying to convince. You have make all the fanciful arguments you want but ultimately arenanet will have to decide if it is worth the resources to make it. So don’t argue with people or trying to convince them, Arenanet will simply do what is beneficial to them, which may or may not include bringing housing. (I doubt they will do it, since housing is simply a short term excitement machine and doesn’t add anything meaningful. Then again they might, if only to be able to charge a lot of for difference housing skins).

You know why these forums are here. For us as a community to not only communicate with Anet, but to also communicate with each other. I had an idea, about player housing so i shared it to get a gauge of what everyone else thinks and more importantly why. Those who agree i’d love to touch points on the pros and cons of their views, Those who don’t agree i’d like to know why so we can come to middle ground on if its a good point or not. I’m not trying to make fanciful argument. I have a point and if someone disagrees they can give me their point and we can talk about it like adults.

And noone is saying that i’m trying to force anyones hands if anyone want to come to this thread and state that they don’t agree They very much have that right but it also mean i’m allow to try to reason with them. So we as a community can agree on one thing. Or at least come close to it. Now if there was a point in what i said that you don’t agree feel free to call me out on it.

silvermember.8941:

Very few people know that are might simply be willfully ignorant about it.

And at least for me (i program games as a hobby) so i can understand the amount of resources that goes into something like this. But that doesn’t mean we should abandon it because it won’t be easy. Its a give or take thing. We as a community, give them what we would like, and that will be everything from, housing, more living story, mounts, raids, GvG content, Canta, ect ect ect. They take what they believe we will enjoy as well as their ideas place it next to what they have the resources for, plan out and adjust as necessary. Housing , as lunarhound put, is perfect for the game style that Gw2 has. It matches along with vanity, rewards, content. And when don’t right (like so many have before) it adds so much to the game without taking anything away. And if the rewards are done right it has so much long lasting meaningful content.

I personally see no reason they can’t do guild and player housing together.

If you’re not in a guild, you get a room at the Inn in your personal instance to call your own. Decorate it, friends are allowed to visit etc.

If you’re in a guild, this room is simply mirrored in your guild’s keep as I imagine a guild structure having an instanced area where their members can use as a private room. Again, only friends allowed in.

If you leave a guild, it reverts back to the Inn. If you join another, it’s simply mirrored in that guild’s structure.

Should be fun.

No thank you. Housing tends to turn cities, and their communities, into ghost towns. The hometown instant is enough. But I would like to see some trophy room in the future.

Kentrey.3251:

silvermember.8941:

Kentrey.3251 I have no idea who are you trying to convince. You have make all the fanciful arguments you want but ultimately arenanet will have to decide if it is worth the resources to make it. So don’t argue with people or trying to convince them, Arenanet will simply do what is beneficial to them, which may or may not include bringing housing. (I doubt they will do it, since housing is simply a short term excitement machine and doesn’t add anything meaningful. Then again they might, if only to be able to charge a lot of for difference housing skins).

You know why these forums are here. For us as a community to not only communicate with Anet, but to also communicate with each other. I had an idea, about player housing so i shared it to get a gauge of what everyone else thinks and more importantly why. Those who agree i’d love to touch points on the pros and cons of their views, Those who don’t agree i’d like to know why so we can come to middle ground on if its a good point or not. I’m not trying to make fanciful argument. I have a point and if someone disagrees they can give me their point and we can talk about it like adults.

And noone is saying that i’m trying to force anyones hands if anyone want to come to this thread and state that they don’t agree They very much have that right but it also mean i’m allow to try to reason with them. So we as a community can agree on one thing. Or at least come close to it. Now if there was a point in what i said that you don’t agree feel free to call me out on it.

silvermember.8941:

Very few people know that are might simply be willfully ignorant about it.

And at least for me (i program games as a hobby) so i can understand the amount of resources that goes into something like this. But that doesn’t mean we should abandon it because it won’t be easy. Its a give or take thing. We as a community, give them what we would like, and that will be everything from, housing, more living story, mounts, raids, GvG content, Canta, ect ect ect. They take what they believe we will enjoy as well as their ideas place it next to what they have the resources for, plan out and adjust as necessary. Housing , as lunarhound put, is perfect for the game style that Gw2 has. It matches along with vanity, rewards, content. And when don’t right (like so many have before) it adds so much to the game without taking anything away. And if the rewards are done right it has so much long lasting meaningful content.

You care free to communicate with each other all you want, your argument doesn’t invalid my points though. You are try to convince people all you want just like the we want a new race people but ultimately if it doesn’t suit the interest of Arenanet they wont do it.

Anyways, all I can do is wish you luck but from your post if personal housing is that important to you, I find it weird that you are not already playing a game that features it. But it is your life.

I don’t really understand why people who are in support of guild halls are not in support of player housing… maybe i’m missing something about it but they just seem like player housing for multiple people?

I’m extremely in support of player housing. As cosmetic as guild wars 2 endgame is, it also makes a lot of sense to add it to the game, in my opinion (a cosmetic addition to your character that has little to no effect, mechanically). I was excited at pax south when they announced guild halls, because i was hoping for player housing as well. I suppose i’m a minority, but I don’t enjoy guilds in MMO’s, so aside from wasting hundreds of gold on my personal guild to make a guild hall and call it my house, I’m completely missing out and it saddens me.

BrunoBRS.5178:

yanipheonu.5798:

In b4 for the “don’t like it, therefore, we shouldn’t have it” rush.

when there are only so many resources a company can spend in features, it’s entirely logical to say you don’t want them to work on a feature you don’t like, because that’s taking time, devs and money away from another feature.

game development is a zero-sum game. you can’t just have it all, you need to pick what you want to work on.

Kind of a confusing response.

I’d like housing to be in the game, as a personal opinion.
Recognizes some do not want this feature, and would argue it should not be added due to this.

Response: Anet has obvious budget and limitations that may not fit what Anet is currently doing.

I dunno, seems a bad response.

Like, I could say I don’t like PVP, and then argue that PVp shouldn’t exist because it takes money away from other game modes. Which you could mistake as true.

Simply adding x to a game doesn’t mean y suffers.

And seriously, Anet, all developers, or the good ones at least, can budget this stuff out.

Again ,lots of other MMOs have housing, some very robust. This doesn’t directly hurt the other content in that game in terms of resources. I don’t hear of WOW losing a dungeon because they added barracks.

Hell, with sales of Gem Store items for housing, it could very well enhance other content.

Let’s be honest, if we’re saying housing should or should not be added, it’s opinion plain and simple. If anet bungles their budget that’s their issue. If they can comfortable add housing without affecting their other parts of the game, why not?

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

I don’t really understand why people who are in support of guild halls are not in support of player housing… maybe i’m missing something about it but they just seem like player housing for multiple people?

I’m extremely in support of player housing. As cosmetic as guild wars 2 endgame is, it also makes a lot of sense to add it to the game, in my opinion (a cosmetic addition to your character that has little to no effect, mechanically). I was excited at pax south when they announced guild halls, because i was hoping for player housing as well. I suppose i’m a minority, but I don’t enjoy guilds in MMO’s, so aside from wasting hundreds of gold on my personal guild to make a guild hall and call it my house, I’m completely missing out and it saddens me.

They should have both.

Guilds should buy a structure and be able to buy upgrades for the inside and outside with guild merits and influence.

Each guild structure should have a public face and a private face.

The private face is an instanced ‘hall’ where the guild can gather privately and a an instanced ‘barracks’ where guild members have individual housing that acts like I mentioned in my post above.

The public face is what others see. In a perfect world all guild structures would share a common base archetecture for the public side that way if ANet ever improves on the system, 2 guilds could go to war with one another, each guild’s structure would spawn on opposite sides of a map, and since they share a common design, they’ll be balanced. We could get some 2forts action in GW2!

just to show how housing can be done right:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39_Pu1U7tIM

Lunarhound.7324:

[Snip for space. Sorry!]

Very well done, Lunar. However, if I may present a counter-argument?

Player housing represents a disproportionately heavy usage of developer resources, often equivalent to if not greater than development of an entire new playable zone, for what is essentially a single-player experience. Whether publicly visitable or not, a player’s personal housing is by definition unique to that player alone and represents content the rest of the player base has no agency or interaction with, beyond LATP (“Look at the pretty!”) While LATP is indeed an integral part of GW2 endgame content and design ideals, I would argue that there comes a point where social pretty must outweigh antisocial pretty, especially when the existence of the home instance, and its barren nature, can be construed as a point of evidence in favor of the notion that unless there’s something in it for them, players won’t really have any reason to make use of this very heavy dev resource sink.

I myself, as an example, have only in the last couple of weeks started making use of the home instance, after buying a Pact Fleet kit. I got a portal stone and decided to give it to my lead character, who now makes it a point every day to use the stone, hit her gathering nodes, fuse some Quartz, and dig up the bandit chest. Without those nodes, and without the portal stone, I used the home instance pretty much never. There was just no reason to – simply getting to it was a giant hassle, and there was no real reason for me to go out of my way to head back home when I could have more fun wandering around in the explorable maps finding junk to do.

This is, of course, also something that could very easily be said to point at the proper way to start making a real player housing system – i.e. make it easy to get to without spending twelve bucks per character and make it a worthwhile place to be, something like the Captain’s Airship pass except that you can decorate and show off. This would be helpful, yes, but first of all it would undercut the Captain’s Airship and Royal Terrace already in place, and frankly the technology required for a player to fiddle with a zone to the nearly Minecraftian levels required of most player housing systems people consider successful strikes me as being something GW2 just isn’t meant to do.

(Cont….)

(Stupid character limit…)

Furthermore, we’re receiving guild halls in the Heart of Thorns expansion. Guild halls are both an integral part of the Guild Wars franchise and also a very GW-sy take on the same sort of concept. This entire game is built on cooperation and community bonding; a guild hall, where your friends can all easily gather and can all contribute to building up, becomes a badge of your guild’s accomplishments and the focal point of its community, whereas a player house is only ever for that one, specific player. It can’t add to a sense of community within the game itself; while I will not argue that being able to show off your dressed-up home instance would be fun and that it could potentially engender a lively community outside the game, via various “My house!” threads, it’s a divisive mechanic inside the game itself as opposed to a unifying one. My best buddy can’t help me build my character’s personal home instance (beyond things like offering fashion advice or what-have-you, and if you knew my friends…), but my best buddy can help me build an amazing guild hall. So can my guild leader, and the rest of the guild’s officers, and the guild’s local Wipemancer, and Potato the Protector of Chickenkind, and everyone else I spend my time playing with.

A guild hall well supplied with services, a’la the original game, becomes an accomplishment the entire guild can be proud of, as well as a lucrative recruiting point for people who care about that. It’s a community effort, and it provides community benefits. Nobody hosts an event in their bedroom, but hosting an event at your guild’s personal castle is not only possible, but awesome. It slips far more smoothly into GW2’s current monetization scheme, as well – solo players who don’t want to spend the time and effort solo-building a guild hall can work with their home instance or buy an Airship/Terrace pass, while the services available in a guild hall wouldn’t (entirely) step on the toes of those items.

Furthermore, we’re already getting guild halls. While much of the technology developed for guild halls may well be able to cross back over into a player housing system, it may well not be able to as well, and even then we’re stuck with the fact that player housing would cost us pretty heavily in terms of other things ArenaNet doesn’t get to build because they’re sinking so much into a robust housing system. I for one feel that guild halls are an acceptable, even preferable, substitute for player housing in Guild Wars 2, given the overall direction and design ethos of the game, and while I can respect and understand the desire to build your own trophy room in the game, a’la the original Hall of Monuments…well, I have a Minecraft account for a reason, I suppose. A personal trophy room that shows off your accomplishments in a meaningful and awesome way (i.e. not the current home instance -_-) would be an excellent addition to GW2, but a full-up house building system would basically just make me wonder why I’m not in Minecraft instead.

I wonder that often enough as it is. Don’t give me more reasons to do so :P

Atherakhia.4086:

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

I don’t really understand why people who are in support of guild halls are not in support of player housing… maybe i’m missing something about it but they just seem like player housing for multiple people?

I’m extremely in support of player housing. As cosmetic as guild wars 2 endgame is, it also makes a lot of sense to add it to the game, in my opinion (a cosmetic addition to your character that has little to no effect, mechanically). I was excited at pax south when they announced guild halls, because i was hoping for player housing as well. I suppose i’m a minority, but I don’t enjoy guilds in MMO’s, so aside from wasting hundreds of gold on my personal guild to make a guild hall and call it my house, I’m completely missing out and it saddens me.

They should have both.

Guilds should buy a structure and be able to buy upgrades for the inside and outside with guild merits and influence.

Each guild structure should have a public face and a private face.

The private face is an instanced ‘hall’ where the guild can gather privately and a an instanced ‘barracks’ where guild members have individual housing that acts like I mentioned in my post above.

The public face is what others see. In a perfect world all guild structures would share a common base archetecture for the public side that way if ANet ever improves on the system, 2 guilds could go to war with one another, each guild’s structure would spawn on opposite sides of a map, and since they share a common design, they’ll be balanced. We could get some 2forts action in GW2!

of course, i didn’t mean to say i don’t want guild halls. i’m completely in support of them, i just lack the interest in them that i have towards player housing

So when Guild Halls come, they’re going to be, what, a big boring room with some merchants? Those dissing the personal housing / Guild Hall combination, do you think we’ve been waiting as long as we have for a mediocre feature? Let alone, do you think something that is to be released with the first expansion, to lack any aesthetic?

I’ll bet my annual income that there will be options for every player – customizing the hall to look any way the Guild desires. It doesn’t have to have rooms, or be an intriguing bunk, it can be open and direct for those blase players who don’t care much for glitz. It should be able to suit everyone’s needs, whatever they may be.

As mentioned before, we have no way of knowing until ANet reveals information to us on Guild Halls; but if they didn’t add the option for making a hall visually resemble “personal housing”, then they’d technically be shooting themselves in the foot.

DevilLordLaser.8619:

(Also snipped for space haha)

Now that is a count-point i can get behind.

Let me start off saying that those are all very good points.

Now it has been stated a few times that there is a lot of work that goes into it. But this kind of work isn’t something that is new to Anet. Looking at their living story updates, All of the SaBs (which were quite a few new zones), The into the mist, Fractured, 4 winds, pretty much every Living world update was the redoing or adding entirety of a new zone. Think of it more as a “To the skies” patch. And i don’t get why everyone is so against the single player experience. I know that traditionally MMOs are suppose to just be RPGs with friends. But breaking the mold requires them to be so much more than that. While i love constantly being connected to the world i also Like having time to myself, even more so a space to myself. That is why I have my own personal story, Or why i can go farm alone, Why games have solo adventures, or Solo Shiphand missions, ect ect because an MMO should pander to the entire audience because of its size. And you’re right home instances are a great example of why it should be redone. A lot of the player community doesn’t even know about it and even less use it. Its a resource already in the game just badly implemented. And I know personally while i love showing off my gear. I join a lot of random groups. So a lot of my gearing and transmutation are mostly just for me to see. To work on get just right and bask in my own accomplishment. I know the idea of Xbox gamerscore comparison is popular, but to me my achievement score, my looks, my collections are something fun for me to work towards and enjoy the completion of. And what better place to bask in it than my own home devoted to showing off my accomplishments.

Which i can understand about the nodes and the stone. Which is a great idea, but being barred behind a cash purchase is bad design and pushes a large player base away from the idea. And the rewards as it is now Lower lever nodes, Quartz, bandit chest, and story Npcs only panders to certain players, I personally am not interested in any of that so home instances are nothing but a hassle which as a feature in their game shouldn’t be the case

I’m not against the idea of redoing our home instances. But there is a certain amount of freedom taken from locking someone to a home instance based on their race. The core of any RPG should be the customization. Growing a character and its rewards into your own. What if my nord prefers the geeky style of the asura am i always locked to the hunting lounge because of some lore that i might not even be interested in, instead of just having the chance to express my character as i see it.

(Cont.)
And i would never say it should be the only place you need to be. No that just makes you have a lions arch to yourself. That is not the point at all. Your home shouldn’t be your end all be all in your Gw2 gameplay. No it should have the few things you want most as well as being drowned in your own personal style. Take both WoW and Wildstar. They both can have things like Crafting Stations, Gathering Nodes, Portals, Repair shops, and a bunch of other things like it. But you only get 2 Major Plots and some minor plots. Meaning that what you need most will be there but everything else you’ll have to be in the world for. So you still need to be in lions arch to craft, or to use the mystic forge, or what ever else it is you do there, but you are offered the choice of convenience as a rewards for working hard. The definition of meaningful gameplay and rewards. And the idea that it isn’t for Gw2 only means they havent made a way to fit the style of the game. Having skritt and asura contracts come in or mist benders working on building your plot of land and structures for you easily would start to make it very Gw2-y

While i think guild housing will be very cool. I personally don’t see it as a major selling point. In Gw2 I’m currently in 5 Guilds. 1 – Friends. 2 – PvP. 3 – WvW. 4 – Fractals. 5 – Farming. And honestly 1, 2, and 3 are all main guilds to me. And i personally think Gw2 takes charge of giving me the freedom to choose where i want to be. So putting all my effort into a place that i wouldn’t honestly call my own (because lets face it things happen) doesn’t appeal to me. As much as i love to work as a team Things like legionaries, armor skins, achievements really pander towards personal accomplishment . Which is content i would love to see more of. I’m not saying they should be mutually exclusive i would love to see my own room in the Guild hall connecting to my own personal home. And my personal friend come and go from Gw2 (another freedom allowed by the game) What happens to my team work then? Does our home just fall to shambles in their absence. do i now just find a new stronger group and leave them behind. Personally i like the idea of both of us working together to get mats to build our home stuff. Or farming boss trophies for our rooms and then if they do leave i continue to improve and when they come back they can see it all and we can work together to improve it again.

I would never want to undermined what a guild hall could accomplish. I’m just saying i believe you cater to a much larger audience with personal housing. and having the option of both would be the best of both worlds. And even on the roleplaying server TC i don’t see many events being hosted and i don’t think that would chance much with Guild halls. Maybe GvG fights and WvW officer meetings but i was never downplaying that. Just when it comes to rewards (and more importantly their monetization) you just can’t beat personal housing. While there is no way you could start buying meaningful things from the gem store for a guild hall. (How much do you think a permanent buff would cost one person to buy, or how hard it would be to pool everyones gems together) But buying a new color scheme, or Human style Furniture pack would be perfect for the way the gem store works now. You could easily add blueprints as a PvP reward track or even as dungeon chest drops, or add different wvw mailbox banner for badges the possibilities (meaningful ones) are literally endless.

And I don’t know how many housing systems you’ve played with but i’ve never once thought minecraft. I mean you aren’t building houses and statues brick by brick. You get a plot of land and 5 spaces to start with. You kill a boss and BAM! he drops a rare gathering node blueprint. You go back to your home instance and start your workers on building it. Next thing you know you have this awesome 3-5 mithril node in your home that sometimes spawn orichalcum. And when it comes to your house you open a menu and decide you know what i want, a nord style ice home, with charr inspired furniture as well as a monument to my saving of lions arch and my dominance in the dragons ball arena. Boom you have your own personal house meaningful rewards that are helpful but keep you going back to the world to work on it more. It benefits are endless and the long lasting life it could breath into the game is huge while its only downside is the amount of work it would take which is the case with anything worth having.

BTW thank you for your time and coming up with really good points

And you can have your personal house, step 1 do a 1 person guild step 2 make your house for that guild. Bam personal house

yanipheonu.5798:

BrunoBRS.5178:

yanipheonu.5798:

In b4 for the “don’t like it, therefore, we shouldn’t have it” rush.

when there are only so many resources a company can spend in features, it’s entirely logical to say you don’t want them to work on a feature you don’t like, because that’s taking time, devs and money away from another feature.

game development is a zero-sum game. you can’t just have it all, you need to pick what you want to work on.

Kind of a confusing response.

I’d like housing to be in the game, as a personal opinion.
Recognizes some do not want this feature, and would argue it should not be added due to this.

Response: Anet has obvious budget and limitations that may not fit what Anet is currently doing.

I dunno, seems a bad response.

Like, I could say I don’t like PVP, and then argue that PVp shouldn’t exist because it takes money away from other game modes. Which you could mistake as true.

Simply adding x to a game doesn’t mean y suffers.

And seriously, Anet, all developers, or the good ones at least, can budget this stuff out.

Again ,lots of other MMOs have housing, some very robust. This doesn’t directly hurt the other content in that game in terms of resources. I don’t hear of WOW losing a dungeon because they added barracks.

Hell, with sales of Gem Store items for housing, it could very well enhance other content.

Let’s be honest, if we’re saying housing should or should not be added, it’s opinion plain and simple. If anet bungles their budget that’s their issue. If they can comfortable add housing without affecting their other parts of the game, why not?

the problem is your tone, that dismisses people that would rather have, say, masteries, than personal housing.

“look at those goofs, asking for a feature to not be added just because they don’t like it”.

I actually i always wondered why we dont have our own houses in our private instance. I mean wouldnt that be the ideal place?

BrunoBRS.5178:

the problem is your tone, that dismisses people that would rather have, say, masteries, than personal housing.

“look at those goofs, asking for a feature to not be added just because they don’t like it”.

Just from what i see. I think he’s not trying to dismiss people who want more masteries. But he’s saying everyone has a right to want what they want and ask for it. So while one side might ask for more pure PvE content the other side can ask for housing. And if Anet as a good company can handle it well both sides can get what they want without anyone suffering. And that saying by getting housing you’re losing out on more important stuff is just as kittenaying by them working on masteries we’re not getting housing.

Make sense?

Kentrey.3251:

BrunoBRS.5178:

the problem is your tone, that dismisses people that would rather have, say, masteries, than personal housing.

“look at those goofs, asking for a feature to not be added just because they don’t like it”.

Just from what i see. I think he’s not trying to dismiss people who want more masteries. But he’s saying everyone has a right to want what they want and ask for it. So while one side might ask for more pure PvE content the other side can ask for housing. And if Anet as a good company can handle it well both sides can get what they want without anyone suffering. And that saying by getting housing you’re losing out on more important stuff is just as kittenaying by them working on masteries we’re not getting housing.

Make sense?

This.

And honestly yeah, I totally dismissing people asking for stuff not to be added. Seems a bit mean spirited to not want others have something just because I may not like it.

Sounds like a gem shop golden fat cow scheme

yanipheonu.5798:

And honestly yeah, I totally dismissing people asking for stuff not to be added. Seems a bit mean spirited to not want others have something just because I may not like it.

then you completely missed the point of my post, where i said that… you know what, here’s an example:

ANet designer Bob has 3 features he really wants to work on with his team: masteries, profession specializations, and personal housing. however, each of them will take a year of development time, and they only have the money for two of them. ANet designer Bob must pick two, and put the third one on the backburner.

ANet designer Bob chose to push personal housing away in favor of masteries and specializations. now he can either work on personal housing, or in other new features that came up within those two years of developing.

when a player says “i don’t like this, so i don’t want it”, they’re saying “i don’t like it, so i don’t want it to be taking development time from other things that i might like more”.

what you’re doing is being arrogant and assuming your option is superior, because why can’t i have personal housing? those people that don’t want it can just not use it.

sorudo.9054:

just to show how housing can be done right:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39_Pu1U7tIM

So . . . you want a ugly version of the Sims? Um . . . no thank you again.

I very much doubt there will be private rooms on guild halls.

The whole housing concept while interesting just boils down to the time you spend making your place.
How much time will you spend looking at it and enjoying? Very little. Hanging out with friends? Not much. QQ about adding more stuff and how everything is on the gem store and ANet “only cares about the monies”? A lot.

In short I think that’s a can of worms ANet just doesn’t wanna open so they don’t have to deal with the most ludicrous complains.

You’ll get guild halls with pre set upgrades that you unlock and the banners flying around, but I’m betting that’s it.

BrunoBRS.5178:

yanipheonu.5798:

And honestly yeah, I totally dismissing people asking for stuff not to be added. Seems a bit mean spirited to not want others have something just because I may not like it.

then you completely missed the point of my post, where i said that… you know what, here’s an example:

ANet designer Bob has 3 features he really wants to work on with his team: masteries, profession specializations, and personal housing. however, each of them will take a year of development time, and they only have the money for two of them. ANet designer Bob must pick two, and put the third one on the backburner.

ANet designer Bob chose to push personal housing away in favor of masteries and specializations. now he can either work on personal housing, or in other new features that came up within those two years of developing.

when a player says “i don’t like this, so i don’t want it”, they’re saying “i don’t like it, so i don’t want it to be taking development time from other things that i might like more”.

what you’re doing is being arrogant and assuming your option is superior, because why can’t i have personal housing? those people that don’t want it can just not use it.

So what, I should say they should remove PVP if I didn’t like it, so those resources could have gone to content I actually play? Seems mean spirited to me.

Not saying Anet doesn’t have limited resources. But I am saying the fact that a feature make take resources from another is a poor argument.

This game will always have content that people don’t want, or actively dislike. They’re allowed. The poor thing to do is to say “no one else shoudl have it”

If Anet truly cannot muster the resources for Housing alongside it’s existing gameplay that is an entirely different story. But one entirely seperate from our own opinions.

Put straight: me not liking apples doesn’t mean id like them to tear the trees down and grow grapes instead.

yanipheonu.5798:

BrunoBRS.5178:

yanipheonu.5798:

And honestly yeah, I totally dismissing people asking for stuff not to be added. Seems a bit mean spirited to not want others have something just because I may not like it.

then you completely missed the point of my post, where i said that… you know what, here’s an example:

ANet designer Bob has 3 features he really wants to work on with his team: masteries, profession specializations, and personal housing. however, each of them will take a year of development time, and they only have the money for two of them. ANet designer Bob must pick two, and put the third one on the backburner.

ANet designer Bob chose to push personal housing away in favor of masteries and specializations. now he can either work on personal housing, or in other new features that came up within those two years of developing.

when a player says “i don’t like this, so i don’t want it”, they’re saying “i don’t like it, so i don’t want it to be taking development time from other things that i might like more”.

what you’re doing is being arrogant and assuming your option is superior, because why can’t i have personal housing? those people that don’t want it can just not use it.

So what, I should say they should remove PVP if I didn’t like it, so those resources could have gone to content I actually play? Seems mean spirited to me.

Not saying Anet doesn’t have limited resources. But I am saying the fact that a feature make take resources from another is a poor argument.

This game will always have content that people don’t want, or actively dislike. They’re allowed. The poor thing to do is to say “no one else shoudl have it”

If Anet truly cannot muster the resources for Housing alongside it’s existing gameplay that is an entirely different story. But one entirely seperate from our own opinions.

Put straight: me not liking apples doesn’t mean id like them to tear the trees down and grow grapes instead.

the difference is PvP is already there. housing isn’t.

you can argue in favor of housing, but you’re being petty if you won’t let someone argue against it because they want something else.

BrunoBRS.5178:

yanipheonu.5798:

BrunoBRS.5178:

yanipheonu.5798:

And honestly yeah, I totally dismissing people asking for stuff not to be added. Seems a bit mean spirited to not want others have something just because I may not like it.

then you completely missed the point of my post, where i said that… you know what, here’s an example:

ANet designer Bob has 3 features he really wants to work on with his team: masteries, profession specializations, and personal housing. however, each of them will take a year of development time, and they only have the money for two of them. ANet designer Bob must pick two, and put the third one on the backburner.

ANet designer Bob chose to push personal housing away in favor of masteries and specializations. now he can either work on personal housing, or in other new features that came up within those two years of developing.

when a player says “i don’t like this, so i don’t want it”, they’re saying “i don’t like it, so i don’t want it to be taking development time from other things that i might like more”.

what you’re doing is being arrogant and assuming your option is superior, because why can’t i have personal housing? those people that don’t want it can just not use it.

So what, I should say they should remove PVP if I didn’t like it, so those resources could have gone to content I actually play? Seems mean spirited to me.

Not saying Anet doesn’t have limited resources. But I am saying the fact that a feature make take resources from another is a poor argument.

This game will always have content that people don’t want, or actively dislike. They’re allowed. The poor thing to do is to say “no one else shoudl have it”

If Anet truly cannot muster the resources for Housing alongside it’s existing gameplay that is an entirely different story. But one entirely seperate from our own opinions.

Put straight: me not liking apples doesn’t mean id like them to tear the trees down and grow grapes instead.

the difference is PvP is already there. housing isn’t.

you can argue in favor of housing, but you’re being petty if you won’t let someone argue against it because they want something else.

=_= not even my point. Whatever man.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

sorudo.9054:

just to show how housing can be done right:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39_Pu1U7tIM

So . . . you want a ugly version of the Sims? Um . . . no thank you again.

Whoa whoa now. That is not my view on it. You want to see it done right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qyzcwRHcRQ

Now that is the video. And trust me its even better when you play it.