Did Island Sanctuary satisfy any reasons you want a house?

[TheMightyMollusk]

Dear god no, Garrisons were an overpromised mistake.

Instead of getting capital cities in Warlrods of Draenor, like ya know what we have in Endwalker as the equvialent in FFXIV with Old Sharalyan or Radz-at-han, everyone just sat in their Garrisons. As those capital city features had to be scrapped in Warlords of Draenor for the sake of the Garrisons being a thing at launch. Imagine scrapping Radz-at-han or Old Sharalyan to make Island Sanctuaries be a thing at launch. Imagine.

Oh, and since everything was just inside your garrison like the mailbox or the auction house or whatever else, everyone felt trapped in their garrisons for the longest time.

One of the main features of garrisons that were promised was "You could set it in any of the leveling zones". Instead of, you know, the 1 spot for horde faction in Frostfire Ridge or the 1 spot for the alliance faction in Shadowmoon Valley.

Or hey remember the fact that they weren't joking when Garrisons, which were meant to be their equivalent of personal housing, was going to cost everyone a raid tier? They weren't joking. Imagine losing the first alliance raid tier because of Island Sanctuaries.

I was there on launch night for WoD. Nobody could progress through the starting zone, because it had layers and layers of phasing and a buttload of cinematics all in one fairly small area and the servers choked. And awaiting anyone who got past that, the Garrisons were the exact same problem. A 20-minute quest line took four hours.

Even without the server problems, though, Warlords in general was a shell of broken promises and wasted potential. It's a big part of what drove me off WoW in the first place.

[Fhaerron]

I haven't even unlocked IS yet.


I do have a medium house though so maybe this wasn't aimed at me.

[Warpstone]

This island has so much potential, I really hope they take advantage of it. A small garden and a house with the ability to grow what we want and use all the furniture in the house and on the island would be a huge first step. At least for me. Please don't waste all the potential this island has. Reminds me of the garrison in WoW, and boy did Blizzard screw that up big time.

[Vahlnir]

I was there on launch night for WoD. Nobody could progress through the starting zone, because it had layers and layers of phasing and a buttload of cinematics all in one fairly small area and the servers choked. And awaiting anyone who got past that, the Garrisons were the exact same problem. A 20-minute quest line took four hours.

Even without the server problems, though, Warlords in general was a shell of broken promises and wasted potential. It's a big part of what drove me off WoW in the first place.

Yeah, WoD was awful, especially at launch. I was playing when the servers first went live. Not even 10 minutes later they crashed. lol My personal favorite was getting stuck on a flight path to my garrison (floating in the air just outside of it) and being unable to use my character, forcing me to either log off entirely or switch to an alt. It was all a bad omen, and I apparently hadn't realized it yet. If only I had known then what I know now.

[Deveryn]

I haven't even unlocked IS yet.


I do have a medium house though so maybe this wasn't aimed at me.

Check it out anyway

[underl0gic]

I was there on launch night for WoD. Nobody could progress through the starting zone, because it had layers and layers of phasing and a buttload of cinematics all in one fairly small area and the servers choked. And awaiting anyone who got past that, the Garrisons were the exact same problem. A 20-minute quest line took four hours.

Even without the server problems, though, Warlords in general was a shell of broken promises and wasted potential. It's a big part of what drove me off WoW in the first place.

Ah man the six plus hours everyone horde side was trainwrecked at the start trying to click on a spyglass that was inoperable. Those were the days..

[Amenara]

I finally unlocked and tried the island sanctuary and it was about what I expected out of it. It just isn't something that I will enjoy long term. It doesn't look like there will be much of any customization or anything so that itch will not get scratched in islands. It has no impact on my want for a house nor does it really do anything for me. I unlocked it, played it for an hour, and unfortunately will probably rarely if ever think about going back.

[Illmaeran]

First, I'll repeat what has been said over and over: Island Sanctuary is not a replacement/substitute for housing.

If so, where did it "hit the spot"?

What does it still lack that you expect to get from a house?

It's a great place to hang out with my friends. Since it's more than 100% Public Access / 100% Closed I don't have to worry about people using it for things I'd prefer it not be (someone literally used my current venue as a studio to take pictures advertising ERP services on Twitter.). I don't really want to deal with gardening at my house, but enjoy island style gardening. I also like gathering to relax so it's a side benefit even if it's not something directly comparable with housing.

The limited number of people who can visit. It's a good place for more intimate gatherings to chat and/or wait for duty queues with friends, whereas my house is better for larger groups. Houses, and even apartments/FC rooms are better RP venues than the large island. The lack of customization and decoration; even if it's only landscaping the area in front of the cabin, is a major drawback.

If I didn't have a house and couldn't get one, I'd probably be satisfied with an island and apartment as the combo hits all the high points for me except for landscaping a yard.

[Ronduwil]

First, I'll repeat what has been said over and over: Island Sanctuary is not a replacement/substitute for housing.

I don't understand how anyone ever thought otherwise. I saw Xeno arguing that it is housing because you can erect buildings where you want and customize their appearances. This is like saying that Diablo II is an MMO because you can gain experience and fight monsters in a multi-player setting. If you oversimplify game mechanics enough, you can describe two completely different games in the same way.

To put this into more detail, housing allows for a vast array of furnishings than can be placed at any available space on your property. You can also customize its appearance with a vast array of wallpapers. The Sanctuary, on the other hand, provides a very limited number of lots, all of which can be populated with a single building from a choice ranging from 0-5 options. Furthermore, these lots are in fixed locations. There are two sets of buildings whose appearance can be customized (the cozy cabin, and the hideaway buildings). Each has three options with an array of three appearances that you can pick from.

The Island Sanctuary has nothing to do with FFXIV housing. If anything, it's more closely related to the WoW Garrisons that they provided in WoD. The difference is that gathering resources to expand your Sanctuary is done within the Sanctuary itself rather than in the open world. I don't see how the Island Sanctuary would have an impact on my opinion with regard to FFXIV housing because it has nothing to do with it.

[Deveryn]

I don't understand how anyone ever thought otherwise. I saw Xeno arguing that it is housing because you can erect buildings where you want and customize their appearances. This is like saying that Diablo II is an MMO because you can gain experience and fight monsters in a multi-player setting. If you oversimplify game mechanics enough, you can describe two completely different games in the same way.

To put this into more detail, housing allows for a vast array of furnishings than can be placed at any available space on your property. You can also customize its appearance with a vast array of wallpapers. The Sanctuary, on the other hand, provides a very limited number of lots, all of which can be populated with a single building from a choice ranging from 0-5 options. Furthermore, these lots are in fixed locations. There are two sets of buildings whose appearance can be customized (the cozy cabin, and the hideaway buildings). Each has three options with an array of three appearances that you can pick from.

The Island Sanctuary has nothing to do with FFXIV housing. If anything, it's more closely related to the WoW Garrisons that they provided in WoD. The difference is that gathering resources to expand your Sanctuary is done within the Sanctuary itself rather than in the open world. I don't see how the Island Sanctuary would have an impact on my opinion with regard to FFXIV housing because it has nothing to do with it.

People love to craft theories and people love a theory, no matter how bad it is. Anyone that gave any amount of thought to this being Housing or a copy of a standalone game bamboozled themselves. I said it was going to be a browser game port at best and guess what people are calling it when they're mad about it. Add to that the rabid desire to consume everything immediately on release.