Blizzard has done well to let information get out under their control. For Wrath of the Lich King, they’ve announced Death Knights, Northrend, all raids will have 10 and 25 man versions, and recently there have been the first leaks of some talent trees from the expansion’s friends and family alpha phase. But Blizzard isn’t foolish. They’re holding something back. Something big. Siege weapons are announced, a full zone for pvp is announced. We know about Malygos, Icecrown Citadel, the Culling of Stratholme, and other instances. So what could they be holding back for Blizzcon or for pre-release excitement? It seems there isn’t too much left they could announce considering what we should expect size-wise from an MMO expansion. We even know the new profession.
And that’s why I look to the WoW forums for random buzz that might give a suggestion of what’s to come and personally, I think there are two things that should and could be announced for us to enjoy while facing the Lich King’s wrath.
Player Housing
Mention player housing on the forums and get the popcorn out because it unquestionably will cause a maelstrom of debate and shocking levels of sheer hatred. There is a guarantee someone will throw out “retarded,” “Barbie,” “cyber,” or “doll house” before posts get to the second page. The loudest complaint I see is that “hardly anyone will use it” and therefore the developers’ should be spending their time on more important things. I’m not exactly sure what they particularly are referring to since the general consensus on those forums state that nobody gets to see raid content and nobody is going to see the new PvP gear because of the rating requirements.
I think housing is not only a benefit, but desperately needed right now. Age of Conan just came out and Warhammer Online will be out this fall, both of which are boasting PvP as their main draw. World of Warcraft has the advantage of already holding their players and having been successfully built on the back of casuals looking to play 30 minutes to an hour in a night and accomplish something. Player housing gives players something tangible that they can work with or work on, letting them own a piece of the world, so to speak.
Granted, there are hurdles to get past with implementing something like this, but that should be expected. Lord of the Rings Online has done a fantastic job with housing being in an instanced neighborhood that hasn’t detracted from the heavy use of the cities as centers of commerce. The auction house will forever remain a key source for people to gather to and banks can still be the primary and easiest accessible place of storage for items. But there have also been reports of communities and parties in neighborhoods of housing on that game. Blizzard could use this model and I know they could make housing successful in WoW.
It’s also been a popular, extremely popular, feature in EverQuest 2, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and will be included as guild housing or neighborhoods of sorts on Warhammer Online and Age of Conan, and of course Star Wars: Galaxies was the daddy of customizable player housing the others have carried on from.
Along with player housing we could get another yet-to-be-announced profession in woodworking that could give us arrows, bows, and staves along with a slew of furniture for the houses. The question would be how Blizzard could implement furniture being able to be placed where players want it, but putting up armor displays would certainly be nice. Perhaps a title for those with a full set of Tier 1 through 6 in their home?
Allowing the packrats of WoW to display their armor sets and weapons, have a back yard with a stable that displays their stored mounts and letting the vanity pets run around could certainly be fun.
Appearance Tab
Rumor has it that a CM on the European forums has confirmed that Blizzard will be implementing tabs to gives players a way to save bag space on multiple sets and swap faster similar to Item Rack. Along with this would be the perfect time to include an appearance tab similar to the one in EverQuest2 or the outfitting system in Lord of the Rings Online. Basically, this would give you your standard armor tab for gear that you are using, getting the full benefit of armor and stats from them. But another tab would overwrite your armor for appearance sake. This would let a T8 hunter still appear like they are wearing T4 if they prefer the look.
Or players could mix and match gear. I’ve noticed that a combination of hunter D3 and Tier 1 was used for the Sunfury Marksmen on the Isle of Quel’danas and they look pretty darn cool. So why not give players a similar option? Yes, Blizzard artists are proud of their word and want some control over how players look, and it’s likely the ones they really work on, Tier sets, are going to be displayed as a mark of honor for having cleared that content. And even the players mixing armor appearances for their own style are still displaying the armor design the artists have made, just their preference of which ones they like.
As for the PvP woes of attacking a Season 4 geared player that looks like they’re wearing Tier 4, the appearance tab could be disabled when flagged for PvP, solving the problem easily enough.
Both of these features should come to the World of Warcraft soon and hopefully are among the surprise announcements Blizzard is holding close to their chest until closer to launch. As to those who say these are cosmetic and pointless except to roleplayers, I can only respond that roleplayers have sat back and played with Arenas, battlegrounds, and new instances and raids. It’s been a while since the Dressing Room was implemented. If these are only for RPers and nobody else can find use in them, then so be it.
I’ll expand on the player housing next time, as I’ve actually thought out a questline for guild housing and for PvP being included as a part of guild housing.
