The Housing problem and my proposed solution

[Nadirah]

All I see from the example people throwing off are, if I want better housing feature, the trade of is to having shite graphics. Which I don't want.
I don't have house now, even though I crave for one. Do I want to trade of Mist/Lavender/Goblet housing plot with barren housing from vanguard Just so I can get one ? Hell No.

Besides, MMORPG, 20 years ? lol

Yes, 20 years.

And you realize that a) Everyone's taste in graphics is different, b) there are people out there that think FFXIV looks like shit, and c) graphics don't matter to some people, right?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Online September 24, 1997 original release date

and the very first MMORPG: http://www.meridian59.com/

December 15, 1995

One of the biggest deterrents to housing is that there is no communal space to entice players to stay there instead of in a town.

Some neighborhoods are also healthier than others, although that has more to do with the player community wanting a place of their own and putting in the effort to build that socialization.
For example, my FC maintains a fairly friendly relationship with our neighboring FCs and our crafters were often chatting with each other next to the marketboard. That's changed a little thanks in part to the airship workshop and forcing everyone in to an instanced room now, but it is an argument against instancing.

Instead, I'd really like to see giving people with a house the chance to really enhance the public works in their neighborhoods. Let them invite NPCs from Rowena trading company to sell tomestone gear and crafting mats to the public. Maybe a customized park players can add. Of course, there's no profit from this, but it lets players turn the residential areas in to a customized community instead of a showcase.

One of the reasons that game communities do *not* want fully fleshed out guild housing, etc, is because the towns end up empty.

You *need* to have a reason for people to be in the cities rather than than inside houses. Typically guild oriented housing does this more so than private housing, but there are exceptions.

EQ2 wasn't so bad until they added guild halls. Now everyone just hangs out int he guild halls with all the vendors, the broker(market board), banker, teleporters, etc all there.

WoW doesn't have guild housing, but instead they added personal garrisons that act as your base of operations for this expansion. It's so tightly drilled into the quest experience you can't ignore it.... and it's turned the landscape into a dead zone.