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[Column] World of Warcraft: Delving More Into Garrisons
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
One of the features that many World of Warcraft players are looking forward to is the newly announced garrisons feature. In this week's WoW Factor, we take a look at garrisons and what they mean to players and to the game. Read on!
One of the most asked for features from WoW players was the addition of player housing. Blizzard acknowledged this desire for gamers to have a part of the game to call their own, but the developers didn't want to add this feature unless they could make it feel like it belonged in the world. They also said on many occasions that their take on player housing would need to also offer some sort of complimentary gameplay mechanics beyond simply choosing where to put a chair or what color to make a wall - there would need to be a compelling reason from a gameplay standpoint to introduce such a feature.
Read more of Reza Lackey's The WoW Factor: Delving More Into Garrisons.
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Comments
Oh youv'e gone and done it now. Wait for all the hate to arrive your way sir.
My view is that this does look preety awesome and hope it turns out to be something that players like once its implemented.
Joined - July 2004
You stay sassy!
There are no real world plots,
rather than instancing, the plots will be phased just like your tiller farm. . .
Ah yes good old phasing. Keep forgetting Wow is a single player game now.
You stay sassy!
yea wow is the shiznit...wait does ppl say that anymore?
anyways, need more and new models very soon.cant wait.
Looks cool, I kind of hope characters of the same faction on the same server can share a garrison instead of each toon having to keep one up.
Might make alt'ing too much hassle and I'll really have to pick (and stick with) a main for WoD.
Wow bought time Blizzard. This look pretty awesome, non-instanced and all.
Is there pvp involved? I don't think I read anything about it.
Since phasing in involved I can't see how. Perhaps they are subject to pvp on pvp servers but I cannot see Wow actually doing something to boost open world pvp. I see it as a distraction but if not a part of the gear progression everyone only cares about then it will likely end up like most housing in mmos and visited less and less as time goes on.
I am not seeing what is meaningful about it other than making the game more a single player experience. Need something from a craft professional? You don't have to go to other players anymore! Is this a mini-game separate from every other system and end game experience in Wow? Yup!
Being meaningful means it affects something. It is connected to something. This is a mini-game. A side distraction just like space combat is in Swtor. It adds something to the game while adding nothing at the same time.
Blizzard can be proud of it because it is "safe".
You stay sassy!
I wasn't a big fan of SWTOR crafting away from spaceship and I'm not really sure how this will work out. Because wow isn't really a crafters game (in my opinion) - I think a better idea would have just been instanced housing with trophy cases and walls.
No bitchers.
Nice Catch-22 of WoW hate.
Thanks, I was just about to point that out.
Yet another case of 'Blizzard can't win' ridiculousness. No matter what they do, people whine & complain.
AN' DERE AIN'T NO SUCH FING AS ENUFF DAKKA, YA GROT! Enuff'z more than ya got an' less than too much an' there ain't no such fing as too much dakka. Say dere is, and me Squiggoff'z eatin' tonight!
We are born of the blood. Made men by the blood. Undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open. FEAR THE OLD BLOOD.
#IStandWithVic
There is just no pleasing you lol.
I like the way they are doing this. I recall back in the SWG days where payer housing was anywhere you can drop a house. That got to be crazy when you would go through and hit a huge patch of buildings that were dropped right there in the middle of no where.
I think it good that Blizard is using the Phase system for that like they did with the farm at Halfhill. I think it would have been nice to have a "Guild Hall" or somethign where more than one person can be at .. but hey, we can make due with what we have.
Yes, open world housing like SWG is terrible - creates so much of that Ghost Town feel and pulls people away from the major NPC cities. Was true in SWG more so than in UO, but was def a negative in UO too (even though I loved my guild's tower.)
I imagine if Garrison works out they'll add to and expand on it, feature guild halls eventually.
Trophies, all that kind of stuff.
I do like and agree with Blizz's point too - "typical" MMO housing isn't very Warcraft. But building a base and sending out your troops etc. is very Warcraft, and should hopefully fit into the game nicely.
Phasing is the only way to do something like this and be able to realistically include every single person who could want this type of feature. In games with finite space for building, at the height of their popularity, it became a difficult, near impossible chore to find a place to build your home.
With the amount of people that still play this game, the size of the property they're giving, and the whole Cross-Realm thing on the servers, it isn't realistic to have an open, physical location for each player. Phasing is only a bad design tool in certain contexts, such as quest phasing and how it greatly limits group play. In the context of this, and the Pandaria farm, I think it's being used perfectly.
This is exactly why Blizzard uses phasing, and how its different than instancing. because you DO make your own stamp in the world. Yes, only you can see it and you can say its an evolution of instancing, but there is a rather big difference between the two techs. WoW uses phasing because its been a part of their game for years now. They arent hiding anything, WoW players already know how it works because they have the Sunsong Ranch already in game with the same concept. A far cry from Trion's purposeful deceptive manipulation.
Yeah because it only makes sense to have everyone in the game have to go to the one or two hub cities. /sarcasm
^problem with mmorpgs nowadays
I Lold here. Wow.
First of all I do not complain. I reveal observations. You have to have a measure of commitment in order to complain. I do not care if space monkeys swoop down and steal Wow from our planet forever.
I also I never said there was a difference at all between open world and phasing. In Wow they are both the same. A phase is still considered open world and if other players share it then all open world vulnerabilities are present for those involved thus if pvp flagged it is considered open world. This is how Bliz gets around saying a phase isn't instanced ... it both is and isn't. I have zero clue how garrisons affect open world pvp or if they are even subject to attack by players.
[mod edit]You stay sassy!
This is the first ive heard of Phasing so I had to look this up, forgive me, but it just seems to be more relabeling spin by MMORPG developers,
WoWiki Says its this:
"Phasing is a technique commonly used in MMORPGs. This refers to the technique of having a certain area look different to different characters. When something is "phased" it means it exists in the same virtual geography as other creatures or objects, but is not visible and can not be fully interacted with."
Now im not slating this new content, building homes is great but, but I really dont see the point if no one can see it?
What I mean is, you work your bollocks off to be the envy of your neighbours, with towering walls and fierce guards. Then every tom dick or harry who happens to run past it whilst exploring stands and thinks to themselves "s**t I wish I had a place like that, one day". But they wont, becuase they cant see it. No one will see your handy work.
Sure, I imagine Blizzard will add some sort of feature to allow your friends to visit, but again whats the point? If you all have the same carbon copied towns (yes thats what it is). Theres nothing new to show off, which in turn gives a sense of achievement.
Most Town building games instil this achievement by adding difficulty. Placing towns in PVP zones. Making them contestable. But I really dont see how after my hours of work populating and gathering gold/resources to build my town is going to make me feel "shit Ive got a kickass town here im gonna work hard to defend it", instead ill feel "oh wait, its the same as every other f**ker on the server".
That said, Blizzard are really missing the point. WoW has become to much of a single player game. This could be the opportunity they've been looking for to really encourage guilds to work together.
I dont know, this is still early stages and I imagine theres yet more in the works. But I really think Blizzard missed the mark and have gone too far into the realms of carebear culture.
Why isnt it? DAoC achieved it. Guilds owned Fortresses for their realm. Granted they werent homes, but its possible. Darkfall achieved it. granted AV are s**t and they are too PVP hardcore for most players. But im sure Blizzard could come up with solutions to make it safe.
Create a giant contested zone. Place spots for towns. Let guilds conquer them, then build them up with resources. This would involve everyone in the guild as resources would need to be gathered. Add player housing into the Towns, so players can get something back. Add rents and taxes. Give every player a guild town hearthstone so they can get there to defend safely. Job done.
You've got guilds working together, bye bye pure single player game, meaningful PVP, individual and group achievement, potentiallity of alliances between different towns. etc. Instead of this boring rinse repeat instanced PVP all to get a special piece of armor or mount.
It would be possible and I was saying it since before the Warsong bullshit. But Blizzard dont like to take risks. They dont want to alienate people who dont want to be forced into gameplay stereotypes. But in doing so they coincidentally alienate other player types.
The problem with instancing: You dont make any form of stamp on the world. Its just a carbon copy.
Phasing doesnt address this problem.
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With instancing its just a whole different zone
With phasing its in the same zone as the game world. That same area that was just rocks is now a garrison. however its still part of the zone that has hundreds of people in it. You definitely make a difference in the game world as you personally view it. And that's more than most games have.
If they can tweak it so members of a group phase into the group leaders garrison (which I believe they are working on) it would be a step further. SWG style doesnt make sense for a game like WoW. And instead of copying someone else's system (*cough*Rift*cough*) they are going with something unique, and something consistent with WoW.
Im far from blown away by it and think this would have worked better on a guild level, but it also looks interesting.