Homeless in an MMO (Part 4)

Taking a look at Blizzard's small effort towards Housing in WoD Garrisons, Legion Class Halls, and Shadowlands Covenants (and BFA).

This is a continuation of a series, and you can find the previous part here:

Well, there we are. A foundation and background in Part 1, and then looking at some of the best examples in all of MMO history in Part 2 and Part 3. As the primary purpose of this series was to address Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, with a secondary case to be made to all developers, I want to look at what WoW *has* done in this area… even if it barely counts for the old college try.

For that, we’ll look at three expansions:

• Warlords of Draenor (2014): Garrisons
• Legion (2016): Class Halls
• Shadowlands (2020): Covenants

World of Warcraft — Garrisons

No, these were not player housing nor were they guild halls, but they were, for all intents and purposes, Blizzard’s first real attempt at such things.

Overview: Advancing through the Warlords of Draenor beginning story, they have you establish a Garrison (different area based on your faction). You can choose which buildings to construct, and most of them have several upgrade levels. The building options included a bank, crafting, arena, market, etc. My preferences included the barracks for a bodyguard and my profession-specific buildings. I prefer the bodyguard because of the sense of companionship and ties to my Garrison, even though I don’t necessarily need their help: it's fun to have a sense of others with you, sharing that journey. With that mission table, and the Followers you find or unlock, you can send em on missions for expansion-relevant rewards. Behind the garrison is a shipyard that has similar functions. There were other outposts in the surrounding regions, but this was the hub.

This was a fair start of an idea towards what I’m talking about. I personally really enjoyed it, especially since it was more integrated into the expansion. But this is exactly what *NOT* to do with Player Housing or Guild Halls: forcing expansion progression should be unrelated to such systems. They’re good for what they are (I say “are” because I still go to them on my characters, newer and older: it's still fun).

One of the better elements of the Garrison implementations had become one of its greatest criticisms: things to do. In the Blizzard WoW forums, I noticed a lot of nay-sayers complained that the main cities were quite a bit less active during the expansion. I don’t really remember that myself, but I do remember there was a great deal of things to do that did not require going to the main cities, especially with the expansion’s secondary hub: Ashran (Warspear for Horde, Stormshield for Alliance, separated by a PvP region).

And… let’s be honest, given the expansion’s story, going back to the main capitals is not exactly something that works well with the story of the expansion, so I find this complaint to be rather laughable. It’s just an aspect of games where a linear progression of an expansion’s story is baked into a non-linear game that breaks the specific expansion's suspension of disbelief for the purposes of player convenience. Heck, I could use my current expansion Drakthyr to go create a Garrison with her, and the game wouldn’t care at all. But whatever, right? heh.

This really was the first time Blizzard gave the players a sense of self-driven purpose and design within the game’s environment. This is what it should feel like: your home. They did add a number of features that had no utility in the game but really did help customize the place. For one, your assorted pets could be seen running around the place. Very cute. As you advanced in the story of the expansion, more and more NPCs started roaming the Garrison. This helps build the sense of a community, maybe even ‘making a difference’ as others become unified. These are very good ideas to keep in mind for Player Housing or Guild Halls.

World of Warcraft — Legion Class Halls

Again, not player housing or guild halls, but this was another good attempt (I guess) at making some kind of specific hub for the players.

Overview: Along with Wrath of the Lich King, the Legion expansion is arguably one of the best expansions Blizzard has ever done. Some weren’t happy with the artifact system and what that did for the crafts/loot, but I loved it. Most all of us had and continue to have deep affections for the Class Halls. These had no customization of the Garrisons, but there was a different sense of community with these things: when you stepped inside these halls, you were among other players who all were whatever class you were. You could compare gear with your fellows and maybe even find someone to talk to for advice or a duel.

Like the Garrisons, the Class Hall also had collectible/unlockable minions that could be geared and sent on missions for expansion-related rewards. And like it was before, you could choose to take one of them as a bodyguard.

Unfortunately for the ‘home’ aspect of the Class Halls, having other players in the hall is completely unnecessary to the progression of the game or the plot of the story. And as with the NPCs, there was little more than the same two or three lines of dialogue outside quests, so there wasn’t a real connection there either. The hall itself didn’t really change too much through progression, either.

Still, it was the second incarnation of such a thing and can be respected for what it was.

World of Warcraft — Shadowlands Covenants

Yup, still not player housing or guild halls, but the third iteration of this line of thought for a hub of some kind to interest players in one of four different elements of the expansion.

Overview: This expansion took those same old elements of a ‘home’ from the Garrison and Class Hall into slightly new territory: regional hubs. Every player can go to all the regions of this expansion, but they get to choose one of the four factions to join, represent, and assist throughout the story (or the non-story version once you were on an alt of an account that already completed it all). Each of them has a very unique feel to every aspect of their regions, though the functionality is about the same.

In this incarnation, you still have a bodyguard. The new stuff includes choosing one of several different individuals, as well as customization of the bodyguard’s skills. This is a good adaptation for a player base that has quite a diverse bunch of classes and class types. And for most, I would bet, there is a ‘favorite’ one that you can invest in, completely forsaking the others, lol.

And once again, we also had the minion mission aspect. The complexity was increased to allow for further customization of the minion teams: class roles were created for each minion, such as melee, tank, healer, ranged, etc. Each one had special skills and their own level that increased with experience gained. They changed the display and visual dynamics of the battles between your minions and their missions, as well. Instead of the Garrison’s outright success or failure visuals, you can watch each round of combat. This creates another layer of user interaction/observation of the ‘home’ aspect that deepens investment for some players.

As with the Garrisons, these Covenants (well at least the Night Fae does since I chose that one, I can’t vouch for the others exactly-but I would bet it is similar) will grow in splendor and usefulness as you progress through their quest chain, offering a sense of a home that grows with you to the player. For the Night Fae Covenant, you are able to not only transform into a spirit form, but you can unlock additional cosmetic customizations for that form and use something that appeals to you. This is another good connection between the player and ‘home’.

I thought this was a great evolution of Blizzard’s attempt to make connections between players and the expansion’s elements, but once again it is far from the mark of Player Housing or a Guild Hall. Several of these elements should be kept in mind, and I look forward to what the developers are going to do on this front in the next three expansions after Dragonflight.

Battle for Azeroth — Honorable Mention

Just a quick note since it relates to the connection to the player and customization, the BfA expansion introduced the Heart of Azeroth as well as primary gear that had selectable traits once unlocked. This was an interesting development that further incentivized players to keep working on their gear to grow and optimize them, as well as keeping cherished pieces around for a bit longer rather than discarding them so quickly. While it wasn’t nearly as expansive for the helm, shoulder, and chest gear as it was for the Heart of Azeroth necklace, this adaptation was born out of the Legion Artifact system and done rather well, I thought. Because of the story and what the Heart represents, it will forever have a place in my inventory.

This element of gear trait choice resurfaced again in Shadowlands I believe, but did not make any further appearance in Dragonflight.

There might be something to consider about more permanent gear, but that has a lot of complications, especially when most of the end-game push is all about getting new and better gear. Maybe something like powering up legendaries with the essence of old/other gear as a few other games have done?

Part 4 Conclusion

Blizzard has explored and developed many compelling aspects of their game that are worth carrying forward to development discussions across all games. Unique facilities to deal with specific aspects of an expansion is a common theme in many games, and of course, done in many different ways throughout the World of Warcraft franchise. There are lessons to be learned from Garrisons, Class Halls, and Covenants that can be refined together into an effective part of the game. Developing a more standard approach to such a system would also present aspects of that system which can be represented through Player Housing and Guild Halls.

This discussion comes to a close in the final part:

And now, I’ll take a moment to sit in my chair to judge those who do not implement player housing or guild halls in MMOs. There is no excuse these days, and you are only missing out on development funding opportunities.

If you enjoyed this, I have a few more game-related articles! (I’ll be writing more as time permits):