wow Ion Hazzikostas on Player Housing and Archaeology

[Staff 1,488]

Game Director Ion Hazzikostas talked to Hazel about player housing and Archaeology.

Player housing is an immense undertaking because the feature would take hours to implement.  There will be no player housing in Dragonflight. Here's what Ion had to say about player housing in WoW.

Player housing is something many of us would want ourselves. Putting together any package for an expansion is a mix of what thematically suits the expansion, what's going to appeal to different types of players, but also what would be required to deliver that feature at that level players expect and deserve and what would we have to give up to make that happen. Player housing is a big one. It's one of those things to do right. It's a big undertaking. If we were to do it, it'd probably have to span multiple expansions. It's a large enough feature in terms of just the art. Back in WoD, there were just two types of Garrisons -- one for the Alliance and one for the Horde. A Blood Elf player who expected one with a Silvermoon architecture wouldn't get one due to resource constraints. It's very time-consuming and would cost us for example a raid tier. The dream of player housing is still alive and it's something we want to do, but it isn't a thing we will be able to do in Dragonflight. Ion Hazzikostas

Ion also touched upon the subject of Archaeology.

Archaeology is something that needs some work. We're not super happy with how that played out. It's not something that's going to be part of our initial efforts in Dragonflight. Thematically, the idea of learning about the relics, that's going to happen across the Dragon Isles, but we're not returning to the excavation mini-game form of it. We want to figure out something better to do with that in the future. Ion Hazzikostas

You can check out Hazel's interview below.

[Dejo93 1,023]

Glad that he's at least admitting the possibilty

[elrenno 1]

While we're talking about housing, let's take it one step further and go with guild housing.  Guilds could work as a collective to build their little town with all the services they need to get by, all in one place.

[Znifler 58]

"would take hours to implement(...)", sounds like they would have to waste a full workday on it 😂

I understand that it would take a lot of work, it's just the way it was said, which was funny.

[Q 200]

I don't understand the fixation on player housing, it'd end up just being the garrison with some knick knacks to decorate with and while that's a fun idea, what would it realistically do to enhance the game? Give people a place to sit when not doing content to just be logged into? That's what cities are for. I'm probably overlooking something since I care more about doing content than logging on just to log on though.

Edited April 22, 2022 by Q

[Migol 433]

I've always thought, rather than player housing what about guilds making a guild hall together?    Much less resources, you could earn decorations with your guild achievements and such.     

[Arcling 898]

2 hours ago, elrenno said:

While we're talking about housing, let's take it one step further and go with guild housing.  Guilds could work as a collective to build their little town with all the services they need to get by, all in one place.

At one point they said they considered it, but they felt mostly guild masters and raiding guilds would have fun. I agree, because it's going to end up as a feature unused by many, if you are a casual player in casual (or dead) guild. I know for certain, my guild house would be a very depressing sight of abandonment. 😆

As for individual player housing, my issue is that world wasn't made with building in mind. There is no place to build player houses anywhere, unless they would work as instances. So everyone would live in the same place, basically a repeat of Garrisons. Just doesn't sound exciting to me.

Edited April 22, 2022 by Arcling

[Grumar 188]

what a shitty excuse to exclude arch in an expansion they explained as the explorers and scientists going to the dragon islands, with the Reliquary and explorers league being in charge, imagine being that stupid.

[toxicreaction1 0]

I would be excited if they just to the artifacts we dug up, like the sword that was farmed for weeks, and added them to our heirloom tab in game. To me that would make farming old artifacts worth it for people and relevant outside of mount quest. At least all of us who still have them taking bag space will be able to use them legit.

Edited April 22, 2022 by toxicreaction1

[Starseed 113]

2 hours ago, Arcling said:

At one point they said they considered it, but they felt mostly guild masters and raiding guilds would have fun. I agree, because it's going to end up as a feature unused by many, if you are a casual player in casual (or dead) guild. I know for certain, my guild house would be a very depressing sight of abandonment. 😆

As for individual player housing, my issue is that world wasn't made with building in mind. There is no place to build player houses anywhere, unless they would work as instances. So everyone would live in the same place, basically a repeat of Garrisons. Just doesn't sound exciting to me.

i think new world has a good take on it. the houses are displayed live in the city there are multiple difrennt hause throu out the city and if you dont own that particular hous on x corner some house of another player gets displayed. and oure citys would have plenty space for good 10 or even 20 houses i think. then you put some inside some outside hell maybe even some bigger famrs outside the citys. that would be a nice thing and guild housing could work good to just make a vote system so every one gets involvet i mainly want a freaking big paladin hammer so we can mourn our fallen guild master that sadly didnt make it throu the plague that the real life has to endour right now

[Trest 61]

Archaeology is an area that could potentially be very interesting in the game, but the current “just dig in random spots for random pieces” being the sum total of what’s involved has always been a major snooze-fest—at best.

A more engaging activity, that might actually count as a mini game, could be one where digs give “puzzle pieces” that the player has to solve a puzzle of some sort (some actual thinking/figuring involved), and where the completed puzzles would themselves present clues that would have to be figured out to find further archaeological things to do (i.e., point to more dig sites).

[Helvorn 57]

5 hours ago, Q said:

I don't understand the fixation on player housing, it'd end up just being the garrison with some knick knacks to decorate with and while that's a fun idea, what would it realistically do to enhance the game? Give people a place to sit when not doing content to just be logged into? That's what cities are for. I'm probably overlooking something since I care more about doing content than logging on just to log on though.

You have a point here. Player housing never did anything to enhance the content of any game. But I have seen how devoted many, MANY players are, when it comes to build and decorate "their" house or the guild halls. I´ve experienced it back in DAoC, Lotro, FF14  and other games with housing. To show it to others, to compete with others, to meet with friends, or "just to have something to do".

Of course this takes some effort to develop and to create options for players to make unique homes. The worst you could do, is to provide no creative options at all, when everything looks the same in the end, aka the garrisons.

Again, yes this is no substantial content, but a long term investment that many people really love, as I have seen in many other games. I was surprised how many love to farm for hours, just to build that "nice table" for the guild hall and have a good feeling with it.

[sat 0]

Employ an NPC in the player's house
help your little pet level up
1 step =  1 exp（Steps are only counted outdoors）

1 level up 100 golds

idea from pokemon😄

[Calysia 229]

Best response ever on player housing by a dev but I read it as "nice idea but it'll never happen".

[Borgoff33 101]

"housing is still alive and it's something we want to do, but it isn't a thing we will be able to do in Dragonflight." Bullshit

[SpilledStars 71]

"The world just wasn't built with that in mind" - lame excuse.

We have every single major city populated with some "shops" that really just have front doors and decorative bookshelves or whatnot.   NPCs with lives and some have open rather than closed front doors.

ONE DOOR in any given city - or every given city for that matter - could be unlockable by... you, by guilds with more than 50% of their members logging in every week for three months, by... eh, I dunno, I probably ought to be hired by blizz as a creativity source.  

"Oh, cuz we aren't sure where we'd put it" when every single xpac has them inventing entire continents that are supposed to have been present since kalimdor(Pangaea) became kalimdor-and-eastern-and-others.   We'd "put it" on a virtual machine just like other sorts of instanced content OR we'd "put it" on a pre designed grid like a WoD garrison.

Would it be hard to pick one of those?  I have dice if they think it'd help.