Guild Wars 2

Well, housing seems to be an issue of great emotions.
But I think you don’t have to fear a million houses on each server. Even if there are many players that like housing, a lot of players won’t care. And not every player needs one house for each of his characters.
And couldn’t be different likes and dislikes be also a chance? I could imagine that the game offer
- instanced housing regions around guild halls,
- other instanced housing regions (or maybe even single house instances somewhere scattered througout the map),
- and a limited number of appartments or small houses in the towns.
And then it’s up to the player to choose: in the town, he can’t influence the size and floorplan of his house, but he has a house fitting perfectly into the fictive world. In the area next to his guild hall, he can decide much more about his house (and garden, something not offered in the towns), maybe even enlarge it lateron. And those who could only imagine a character living somewhere alone… well, they migth even choose only a hollow in a hedge or a liar as their home. (They probably won’t buy lots of furniture for that, I guess…) And it will perfectly fit their need if noone else ever will see that, except a dedicated group member, so everyone else doesn’t need to bother about “inappropriate” – it will be an instance hidden for everyone except the owner and his group.

In the German forum there was the proposal of an island as guild instance. I think that wasn’t discussed here until now? It could start with an half-ruined fort, a scruffy village and a lot of feral space. Then the guild can start to upgrade the island bit by bit: strengthen the walls and doors (like in WvW), build and decorate a festival hall, “buy” vendors and crafting workshops, start a tavern as place for banquets and character-weddings, install an armory, define pieces of the island as building places for character houses, buy an asura waypoint, … You could even think about a derelicted mine as a small dungeon.

I for myself would really like the possibility to have an area for all miniature pets you own (much more lovable then only to store them in the bank), and the possibility to set up a familiy (spouse and children) or, if the house is big enough, even a household with domestics. And, if allowed, a garden to plant cooking ingredients…