Gquit, or "Somebody Always Gets Hurt"

My guild is . . . different. We're a functioning family raid guild with an abnormal way of looking at ourselves. We see ourselves as a family, a place you do not, cannot, quit. When someone leaves, it's like they break up with us. Emotions run high and it's painful all around, though most of the time we send them off with grace -- wishing them the best of luck in their new digs.

Considering the pain gquits cause us, we try to be very careful about who we let in. We believe that people who don't care about us, who don't invest in us, will leave. Our goal is to keep the guild together -- a solid, breathing entity. I sincerely believe that if we put the solidity of the guild first, if we all believe in the guild and refuse to give up during the hard times, then we can accomplish anything. The only thing that can break us is if people give up.

In the year and a half we've existed, we've had two "mass" exoduses. Exodus One was during the end-of-Burning-Crusade dry times, when 4 people cheated on us with the server ho -- a hardcore raiding guild popular for its Tier 6, vanity, and surliness. Three came crawling back after realizing that the server ho only wanted the warlock -- and therefore couldn't give them either the raid experience they'd left for or the companionship they'd left.* The warlock came back after he got his T6 set.

Exodus Two is both more painful and less.

There's a guy in our guild, we'll call him Chad after my husband's "favorite" commercial guy. He's not a core guild member -- he keeps to himself and doesn't talk much, he raids 10's with other people, 25's with us, and he brought in about eight other members. He's a phenomenal hunter, and got Hunter Lead for it. Yet all but one of the people he brought in have left us in the course of a month to go to a small raid guild (we'll call it The Other Woman) their friend was starting. Like with two times before when we were concerned, an officer talked to Chad to see if he was going to follow. Chad has told us each time, "No. I'm here until you don't want me anymore." He's started to get a little annoyed by it, actually. ^_^; Poor thing.

Every time I see The Other Woman, I feel like I'm seeing a guy I dated with his new girlfriend. But this time, it isn't a guy who left for the server ho. It's a guy who dated us because we were comfortable and convenient and then found the love of his life. This group . . . isn't coming back. And I have to see them together, making server firsts in 10's, wearing their special little titles, all happy and in love and willing to /wave at me, and the rejection is phenomenal. Every single time, I just wish they'd never been part of my guild in the first place, so that they couldn't stomp on my heart like this. It was never true love, of course. I knew that that group would be leaving from the very beginning, since they never did 10's with us and never talked much, but . . . we still went out, you know? We went on long jaunts through Serpentshrine Cavern and discussed raid strats and even if it wasn't true love, even if we were just going through the motions, we did have enough moments to make the rejection really hurt.

Well, the only girl who left and came back in Exodus One, we'll call her Elf, left again unexpectedly in Exodus Two and without even a goodbye note. She didn't join The Other Woman, because The Other Woman didn't like her that much, but she did leave for a raid guild. I found out afterward, though it wasn't why she left, that she'd taken affront to my calling "Girls Night" Girls Night. I promptly got infuriated (she might have mentioned it to me, for God's sake, if she counted me a friend at all) and decided I was glad she left. Elf had always been upset about something and never seemed happy, which, added to a passive aggressive nature (which means she never TELLS anyone she's unhappy)*, meant I chalked her up for a drama llama and felt glad we got free of her with no muss or fuss.

Recently Elf told our guild leader that Chad was going to leave. His friend in the guild told her that "they" were leaving when Chad hits 80. On inquiry, Chad refuted it* and is starting to get frustrated with the constant expectation that he's going to turn tail and run. I understand that frustration, though I also wonder what's keeping him here if all of his friends have joined The Other Woman. But I'm incredibly glad he's not leaving, at least until we annoy him so much doubting him that he gives up and does go. Because, really, a guy can only take so much of that crap.

So, in the end, the whole thing is painful and uncomfortable and I can't help hating The Other Woman a little bit every time I see her name, hating those stupid titles she got for her men, titles we might have been a part of if they had loved us enough to bring the people starting The Other Woman over to us instead of leaving us for them.

And the analogy fits. I feel like I got dumped and have the singular priviledge of watching my ex and his new girl be blissfully happy and successful together. And every time I see them, the knowledge burns into me that He Just Didn't Love Me. He didn't mean to use me -- he was a nice guy and we were comfortable, if not blissful, together -- but he ended up breaking my heart anyway.

And that's why, folks, if a guild says "We want people who are loyal and dedicated," they MEAN IT! We do not not not want just raiders, or social folks to wear the guild tag, we want friends. Because I never want to go through something like that again.



* In all fairness, one came back immediately, even though he'd joined us in the first place to play with the aforementioned T6 warlock. He chose to return instead of follow his friend, and that was just cool of him.

* I am passive aggressive and know all the tricks, so I have no patience for passive aggressiveness. You don't want to talk about what's wrong, then you have no right to expect anyone to care. Either talk to someone who can help or get over yourself.

* I don't think Elf was lying about the conversation, but I think Chad's friend spoke without checking with him first, or at the very least spoke about the scenario as a possibility and she misunderstood.

Compare Achievements, or "I Can Show Off How... Slow I Am"

Not only does Armory now have achievements in your character panel but you can choose to show characters side-by-side from any server. I'm thrilled, because now I can bookmark my three characters and see how fast (or slow, as the case may be) they're moving.

When I get everything I want off of them, they'll look like this:


I have friends who want to max absolutely everything, but I realize how unrealistic that would be -- particularly for someone with my personality. I know exactly what I want from my characters, and even though it will take a lot of time (ie, years), I'm a patient person and have always enjoyed having long-term goals.

After I achieve these goals, I can work on filling out the rest bit by bit. I'm in no hurry.

Though that does bring up an interesting topic -- I can never understand people who are in a hurry. People who care so much about getting things done and getting them done now that it's physical pain. It's not just in the game -- when I talk about how I'm going to get published, I always see people look at me askance like "She's setting herself up for a really nasty letdown when the rejections start rolling in." But getting published is like maxing those achievements on all three characters (one of which isn't even 50 yet): it's patience that I trust, even more than my own ability. I'm dedicated enough to both my writing and my characters to keep moving forward until I succeed. And as long as I keep my eye on the long-term goal, I will succeed. Perhaps not with the story or character I initially wanted to, but that I will succeed with something, I have no doubt.

Do you think people who try to do everything super-fast are also the most likely to give up if they don't succeed right away?

Polar Bear Cub, or "Log In and Win"

WarcraftPets isn't sure if you have to log in tomorrow (Sunday the 23rd) to get it or if it'll just be mailed to everyone tomorrow -- I believe you can only get the Achievement for logging in on the day itself, but the pet is a little more confusing.

The pet is Bind on Account, so if you don't feel like logging on to ALL of your characters, you can log on to one per server/faction and just mail the pet around to everyone. Also, it's a good idea to keep it on at least one of them (I tucked it away on my bank) so you can send it to all your NEW characters to train later on.

Just make sure to log in sometime on Sunday the 23rd to secure this snazzy achievement and pet. You get it just for existing, so. ^_^


[Edit]: It's Monday afternoon. I logged in on an alt and got both the Achievement and pet. :) So if you didn't log in yesterday, you can still get them.

Flight Points of Northrend, or "Just Mount Up and Take the Repair Bills"

One thing I've learned in this game -- if you're afraid to go somewhere new because you might die, you'll never get anywhere.

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Just follow the roads and road signs unless otherwise noted. Also note that these are not ALL the flight points in Northrend, just the ones that help you get from one starting area to the other (and to Dalaran). I used this map with Travel Paths and Names for Locations turned on. It's a good resource.

You might want to set your hearth to Shattrath or Dalaran, unless you're a mage, so you can head to the appropriate second starting area.

Horde:

• Orgrimmar
• Warsong Outpost
• North: Amber Ledge
• North: Bor'gorok Outpost
• North (optional): River's Heart
  

• Undercity
• Vengeance Landing
• Northwest: Camp Winterhoof
• Northwest: Conquest Hold
• West: Venomspite
• West: Wyrmrest Temple (between here and next fp is a gorge; you can run just south of it, there's a path)
• West: Agmar's Hammer
• North: Kor'kron Vanguard (Connects to Dalaran)

Alliance:

• Stormwind
• Valiance Keep
• North-northwest: Amber Ledge
• Northeast: Fizzcrank Airstrip

• Ironforge --> Menethil Harbor
• Valgarde
• Northwest: Westguard Keep
• North: Amberpine Lodge
• West: Wintergarde Keep
• West: Wyrmrest Temple (Connects to Dalaran)

These circuits were completed at level 70 on Dustfire (no deaths) and level 55 on Birdfall (5 deaths, no stealth).

Valith, or "Guildmate Makes Server First DK, Guild Bursts With Pride, Server Complains That We Got Guild Bits Everywhere"

The Server

Zuluhed is a backwater server. We've had high population servers thrown free transfers to us several times, and we're renowned for being small, inconvenient, talentless, and bad-tempered.

My husband heard that Zuluhed started with a bunch of crappy people, some of which had talent. Then the talent transferred away and left us with just the horrible attitudes. Since then, talent has come and gone but the temperament has remained.

The Guild

Our guild is made up of mostly real life friends and family and is what my husband likes to call "an oasis." We aren't perfect by any means, but we care like no other guild I've met. We might not be on the bleeding edge of ... well, anything ... but we work hard to make sure our members are satisfied and well-cared-for. We're a raid guild, and we're competent at it, but first we're a family. Because, really, what's the fun in seeing new content if you're doing it with people you can't stand?

So when one of us does something amazing, it's more than just "my guildmate did X" -- it's like someone in our family got this great award and we piled in minivans and went to the ceremony with dorky grins and an embarrassing amount of cameras. It's an Occasion.

The Guy

Valith is one of my guild's five founding members, formerly a mage named Mandreth. He's Canadian, soft-spoken, and good-humored. He's such a good player, and so enamored of the Death Knight class, that the officers made him Death Knight Class Lead well before the expansion launched.

He and his bubbly paladin girlfriend visited us last year (they drove in an actual car and all six of us in the area left our computers to see them). Valith is medium-height, dark-haired, pale-skinned, and slender. He wears black t-shirts and black Converse, and he carries himself with simplicity of intent -- gentle, thoughtful, wry. Alongside him, the bubbly paladin -- undoubtedly among the top five prettiest women on Zuluhed -- carries her dark beauty and ample curves with an air of pixieish mischievousness.

Valith is the first Death Knight to 80 on Zuluhed.

The Interview

So, 55-80 in six and a half days. Do you have any special secrets for leveling so quickly?
I put in a lot of time really. It helps to know the quests beforehand, or have someone with you who knows them. With the Outland quests I had done them all 5 times already on my other characters, so it was easy to just pick them all up, do them, and turn them in, without having to stop to read them. The DK newbie quests I had run through 4 times during beta also, so I knew where to go / what to do. Once I hit Northrend it was all new to me however. I had Fently with me through most of my leveling and he's really good at speed reading, so we'd pick up a bunch of quests, scan through for a direction to head, and read on the way. I guess one tip I could give would be to always be doing something. If you're waiting around for a group member or something...go grind local mobs. Keep that exp flow going.

What was the hardest part of the level grind?
The hardest part of the level grind was when I would run into some rare drop collection quests while in a group. The exp from grinding all the mobs is good, but it takes forever to finish the quest. I grouped with a prot warrior and a prot paladin though, so we did a lot of aoe. Grizzly Hills was probably my biggest stall-out. I just didn't like the layout of the zone for questing. It looks really nice though. =)

Did you set out to be first DK to 80 or was it a surprise?
I didn't set out for it at first, but after the first 2-3 days when I realized I was in the lead and holding...I just went for it. By level 78 I knew it was mine. I had lots of support from guildies keeping tabs on other DK's. I actually grouped up with my main horde competition a few times to get some group quests done when Fently and Velandrea weren't around, and he really was a nice guy. I think his goal was basically that the horde gets it instead of the alliance. =P

Why Death Knight?
I had decided months ago that I wanted to change my main to Death Knight. I prepared for everything I could think of...I had tradeable quest items banked, rare pets, rep turn ins, about 13k gold. The class just really appealed to me and I did all my research to be ready for release.

How do people react to your achievement?
During my leveling process I got a lot of tells from people. 75% or so I would say were positive and supportive. A lot of lower level DK's asking me questions about the class, or leveling etc. The negative tells were generally unintelligent and just plain rude. I ignored most of them (not /ignore!) and just kept going. When I got the achievement I was spammed with messages from the server! It was 5:30am or so, but even still there was a good 20-30 tells. Only one out of them all was negative I'm happy to say...and it was from a level 55 Death Knight lol.

What are you going to focus on now?
Sleep! Well, that and school work that I've put off. When I do play over the next few weeks, I'll be keeping an eye out for guildies who need help on group quests. I felt bad for having to say no a few times while leveling, even though I did help out a few times. I definitely could have done more, but I had the weight of the race on my shoulders. My competition was only half a level or so behind me for most of the time, and he even passed me at one point. Mainly I want to take it easy, enjoy this amazing expansion, and use my level to my guild's advantage.


Thank you Valith-snug!! ^_^ And a big thanks to everyone on Zuluhed who was supportive of him, both in and out of guild. It's nice to know that not everyone on the server is a monkey's behind. <3

Jubling, or "Alchoholic Frog Loves Beer"

I'm going to give you the fastest way to do this, thus no directions on how to get to the instance and wind your way through hostile mobs to the vendor you need.

-------------

ANY LEVEL

Find someone with a Direbrew's Remote -- they would have gotten it from the Brewfest boss. Either ask (if they're in your guild) or pay (just a tip, really) someone to use it for you.

Join a party with said person.

Click on the tunneler when it arrives.

You'll arrive in the Grim Guzzler. There's one doorway and no hostile mobs. (Well, not unless you attack them.)

Go out the door and straight until you see stairs to your left. Go up them and left again. At the end of the platform, on an L-shaped ledge (surprise surprise, it's on the left), should be Plugger Spazzring with 10 Dark Iron Ale for sale. You only need 2, but you might as well be generous to your alts and friends.

Hearth.

Wait for a Darkmoon Faire to arrive somewhere (available on your calendar if you select Darkmoon Faire in the filters at the top right of that panel) and find Morja. Throw a Dark Iron Ale at her feet, the jubling by her will hop up to drink it, and she'll have a quest open up for you. Grab it, then turn in your other Dark Iron Ale and get an Unhatched Jubling Egg. Wait 1 week (stash the egg wherever you want, it's fine) for hatching, and the pet is yours.

Find It Yourself, or "If You Don't Stop Asking Where ______ Is, I'm Going to KILL You"

Every good player in WoW has one thing in common: he or she knows how to find information.

Guildmate 1: I almost laughed at how many people bought the guide to go with the game. It will most likely be rendered 85% obsolete when the next big patch hits. Why spend $15 on a guide when all that information is FREE from at least 4 major WoW sites? And they all show it in a much better format than a book can.
Guildmate 2: Two kids by me did. They poured over it and were like "omg, I want that". Completely don't understand it either. Wowhead.com ftw.

Though my husband and his best friend tell me that people who don't know how to find information will never find this post, I'll keep my delusions.

Laziness

I laid the smackdown on a few of my guildmates about this today, when I was leveling my 64 druid alongside my husband's new death knight: "You are in Northrend, and I am not. I should not be the one giving YOU directions to things."

It wasn't that they asked -- I don't mind helping when I'm able -- it was the ridiculousness of someone in Zangarmarsh looking up the mining trainer in Warsong Outpost for people who could easily tab out for themselves. Inefficient and just a mite lazy.

Misinformation

This is one of the hardest things to manage. One of our raiders found a dps rotation that was outdated, and it was like pulling teeth to get her to change it. She consistently put out less dps than the tanks, in part because of this rotation. And her gear was just fine.

The only way to fight misinformation is the continual application of correct information. Even if they're mentally thick, just keep pounding the right info into their head and they ... might catch on. Eventually.

Ignorance

Not knowing anything and not knowing where to start is the easiest to fix. Any good guild will have someone to answer your questions, but in case you're in an inactive, selfish, or mostly-70 guild (what? I'm 70 and don't like repeating info over and over), here are a few starting places:

• Wowhead: My personal first stop for any quest, NPC, or drop-related question. People can post comments and images, the best are voted up, and the poor/redundant ones are removed. It's a database of information on the individual pieces of the game and their individual statistics. There's a similar site called Thottbot, but I find Wowhead a lot easier to navigate -- plus, Thottbot doesn't remove its redundant/unhelpful comments, or not often if it does, so the comments area (the most helpful area of Wowhead for me) tends to be a mess.
  
• WoWWiki: A different type of resource than Wowhead, but just as useful. This has a lot of information on Lore (the stories in and behind the game) and overviews of rep grinds, profession leveling, and holidays.
• WarcraftPets: Comprehensive vanity pet listing and one of my favorite sites. See my collection and make your own! (The owner of this site, Breanni, has been imortalized as the Dalaran small pet vendor for his work.)
  
• WarcraftMounts: Listing of all mounts in the game. I love the big, clear images offered, especially in the full "Gallery of Mounts," though I always continue my research on Wowhead after finding what I want.
• MMO-Champion: My husband and his best friend check this for updates daily. This site has all of the newest items, changes, and sparklies before anyone else. I don't read it personally, because most of the breaking news is about gear and spell changes, and I'm more interested in new mounts and pets. XD (Lame but true.)
  
• WoW Insider: I do read this, and they get a lot of their information from MMO-Champion, so if you want to stay informed but don't want the hassle of scanning pages of patch notes, this is the place to go.
  
• Hunters: Petopia: Your comprehensive guide to hunter pets.
• Raiders: Elitist Jerks: One of the best raid theory forums around. My husband reads these and then tells me what I need to know.

There are a lot more resources than just these, but these are the ones that even I've heard of.

I also want to note that sometimes "knowing where to look" means "knowing who to ask." Just because your source is a friend or even, say, your husband (^-^) doesn't mean that you don't know how to find information. Getting spec, gear, and rotation help from a knowledgeable guildmate or class lead is still a lot smarter than tossing your talent points around and hoping to hit a combination that works.

Just Plain Dumb

I heard recently about a guy who left an instance group because the warlock kept ninjaing all the soul shards.

Midnight Release, or "Why They Gotta Call It Lunar Fest If There Ain't No Dresses?"

Even though my copy of Wrath is "definitely" going to arrive in the mail tomorrow (I have the feeling the guard downstairs will get sick of seeing me dash down to check the packages list), I accompanied my husband and his best friend to pick up their copies.

I considered this not just a fun trip with the family but my duty as a female WoW player to be there and "represent."

Altogether, I counted 2 other women in a line of roughly 20 men. I talked the entire time to my husband, trying to set an example to the uneducated male peons around us that women play WoW and can be good at it. In the end, I babbled the following uninspiring things: "Is it girly to wish the Bath and Body Works was open?" (yes, but "it's okay because you are a girl"), "You know, if Frostmourne fit in my decorating scheme, I would have let you buy one" (the boys suggested that it would be good for a nursery), and "Yay, I can go home and install it and then... get ganked."

But it's all cool, since the only people who listened to me at all were the guys I came with plus one shivering and apathetic GameStop worker set to keep everyone from flooding the store. All twenty of us. He told us, quite simply, he'd rather be at home watching football.

So happy Wrath day everyone. Hope your leveling goes smoothly!

Wrath, or "Lag and Crashing Coming Soon"

Is it weird that I'm not particularly looking forward to the expansion? I mean, I'm ready for the dance studios and the new areas and a city that isn't perpetually overcast (/sigh Shattrath). But I could readily wait until the following Monday morning to start the level grind.

Because I dread the crowds. There's nothing that says "personal hell" quite like having an entire server stuffed into two small questing areas with the PVP turned on. Leveling to 70, I played during the tame hours, the hours when normal people are at work or school, and I didn't get ganked.

>_>

My guild is hoping to nullify a bit of that by questing in the same starting area, and my husband is taking two days off of work because he works from home and knows his own inclinations. I'm thinking if I can get my druid up high enough to start with the guild on Thursday, I'll be more or less protected.

Oh, wait, I'll be a poorly geared lower-level in the middle of a large crowd. It's a common practice to focus-fire the weakest in the crowd to get them down before the others retaliate.

Just cross your fingers for us poor PVP saps. At least I'll have stealth.

/comfort Paladins

Happy Birthday Me, or "Yes, Half My Friends Aren't Talking To Me Anymore"

But it's just because they're jealous.


The Hippogryph Hatchling is a rare pet you can only obtain from the Trading Card Game (so... eBay). This summer, I found one for roughly $40 +shipping and talked my husband into letting me buy it for my druid. I added a condition to it: I would wait to use it until she hit 70, thus guaranteeing that I would play her and not waste the pet.

Then I got impatient and asked if I could have it on my birthday if I hadn't hit 70.

Then my husband said I could have it before my birthday if I just hit 60.

Then I logged on for 5 minutes today (not wanting to play too much on my birthday) and hit 60. I logged off cheerfully without realizing that I had completed both requirements for the pet.

But my husband remembered and reminded me. XD

So, I introduce to you the druid that will be my PVP main at 80 and the keeper of my new hatchling: Plum.



You might also recognize her from this post. ^-^

Player Housing, or "The Possibilities of Owning Your Own Lil' Shack"

I decided to look into player housing and what it would mean. I haven't played any MMO other than Warcraft, but I have played the Sims -- extensively -- and I know something about building customizable homes.

For the record, Blizzard is interested in player housing, but they've never had the time to do it and don't expect to anytime soon. This has been their response since the beginning of the game, and I doubt they'll get around to it for several years more.

----------------------

Plots of Land

Apparently, some games have allowed players to plop houses in the game itself anywhere the land is flat, which would mean that all the charming quiet forests and grasslands would be overrun with obnoxious level 80's getting in the way of decent human beings leveling--and that those same high levels would have a whole slew of "will u help me with this quest? it's right outside ur front door" every time they log on (woe betide the one who would set up shop beside Hogger!). This sort of "open world housing" is mainly useful for world PVP and opening shops in which to sell wares.

Other games have residential towns available through instance portals (reached from major cities), which takes care of the space problem.

The solution I find most reasonable is something akin to Sims:

• Residential and community lots available for purchase. Residential would be tailored to fit guilds and individuals, and commercial lots would be tailored to fit people with goods to sell.
  
• Open to the public. All residential instances should be open to anyone who wants to visit, though the houses themselves shouldn't be "just come on through!" I would like to see only a few residential instances that people can build in, to keep people from losing the massively multiplayer feel of the game. (I really don't think guilds should be able to run into their own private instance and hide from the rest of the world.)
  
• Guilds can easily reserve large chunks of space for their members to set up houses without having to worry about strangers moving in while guild members try to grind the gold. Members could then "buy" their desired parcel of land from the guild. Perhaps this could be a "guild house deal," where the land to specifically build a Guild House can have a variable amount of surrounding land tacked on for an extra price, to make sure the guild town can spring up without strangers deciding to move in right beside the Guild House. I think the best way to describe it is an Area of Effect Spell. The guild house would be in the center and the land around it could flare out either a little or a lot, and that land would be where members could set up their houses.
  
• The ability to move one's house to a different location, or to sell one's house and land. (In case your neighbors become uncomfortable.) This would be especially pertinent to people who build next to their guild and then gquit and don't want to live uncomfortably close to people they don't get along with anymore.
  

Houses

I read that some games have "stages" of houses -- big and expensive or small and cozy -- and in some you must pay rent, which takes a lot of time and effort to keep up so that only the most successful guilds can afford a house by pooling their resources.

Obviously, this wouldn't do in Warcraft, since everyone would want a house of their own. Personal customization is one of the best parts of any game.

What I'd like to see:

• Architecture themes. Obviously, a Night Elf would want to live in a tree and a Blood Elf would want a charmingly elaborate town house, maybe with turrets and a moat and window boxes and a few enslaved indigenous peoples.
• Lockable doors, so people cannot just waltz into your home unless you give them permissions to enter the house (this could be done through "house keys"). You can also leave certain parts of the house accessible and lock other parts.
• Decoration available from various professions. Rugs and pillows and bedding from tailors, furniture from blacksmiths, garden plots from herbalists, delicate statuary from jewelcrafters, and drops drops drops!
• Ability to set hearthstone to house.
• Each house can set its own terrain, meaning a barren ogre mound can set up shop beside a lush treehouse, and the ogre mound could be on grass or dirt and the treehouse could be on grass or dirt.
  

Decoration Ideas

• A pet cage to hold your favorite non-combat pet. (Ranging from tall golden birdcage to squat iron prison.)
  
• A water trough to which you can tether your most treasured mount. (Maybe even three?)
  
• Bookshelves for the books you pick up around the world. (Dustfire would love to put her Steamy Romance Novel on a shelf.)
  
• Profession-related items like fireplaces by which you can level cooking or just enjoy a small spirit buff or your own personal (extremely expensive) mana loom.
• Locked chests for which only you have the key--each gives you a solid chunk of storage space.
• The less space a useful item takes up, the more expensive it is. Space inside the house would have to be pretty precious, I'd think.
• A treasure room (underground, maybe?). Like in the game Evil Genius, your pile of gold grows or diminishes depending on how much you have.
• Guilds can have the heads of slain beasts and a guild flag with the tabard design to hang out front. Guilds can award trophies to members to display in their homes for exemplary work (ie, "Winner of Guild's 2008 Hide-and-Seek").
• Your alts. When you're not playing them, it'd be nice to have the option to run into your alts (same server/faction only) hanging out in your house in a specific position. Talk to them and get the text message you told them to say (sleeping: "Zz...zzz...zzz..."). This would be activated by giving your alt(s) a key, taking them to the house, and choosing the position/activity and text you want. (Would be nice to make a level one, put them to a chore, and have their text say "Almost finished, master" when you talk to it.)
  

Payment Ideas

• Rent is out of the question. No no no no. No recurring fees. Once you buy it, it's yours.
  
• Price of lot depends on lot size.
• Pay for the size of house you can afford (of the style you like), with the option to add to it as your finances allow. Make it bigger, add a stables, rooms, turrets, catwalks, airy windows, etc.

I personally just want a little townhouse for Dustfire right next door to my brother and his wife, decorated in rich fabrics and pretty items that lend an air of snootiness. I want to be able to show her colors (red and gold) and theme (phoenixes) through decoration and the use of items already in her possession (such as small pets or the mount I'll get... someday).

You might ask why I didn't include my husband as a neighbor. The truth is that he'll be an undead and they're horrible decorators. I might allow him to live in my stable or guard my treasure room, if he promises to hide when Dusty has company.




Anyway, those were just my thoughts. I probably missed something, but please feel free to expand on or discuss anything here. I'd love to hear your ideas.


Resources: Tobold, MMO Hub, Wowwiki