Well if this is going to be the new mega thread, I’ll post some more arguments in favor from the other thread. And feel free to peruse the housing forum for the multiple ideas of how an instanced system could be added alongside the wards!

The statement was made that if we managed to get instanced housing, it would be a cash shop thing. It doesn’t have to be that way though. First instanced house? Free. The ward owners aren’t paying extra for their one personal house per account after all. Want more? Charge a retainer-like fee of $1-2 a month for extra houses. These would be basic instanced plots that operate the same as ward houses. Choose your size and city-state and get that area’s housing district environment as a generic background scenery, minus all the other houses cluttering up your view.

But it also opens up the possibility of eventually getting other areas to use as background scenery in the future, as well as creating new housing skins and themed furnishings to match. And maybe some of them would be “premium” cash shop things, but there’s no reason for that to be the only option. If part of the planned “housing mirage” is like suspected, and they are planning to create interior layouts that “remove the pillars,” then houses wouldn’t have to be tied to a particular neighborhood anymore. All those places you love that don’t have a housing district, and probably never will because they’re not main cities? Instanced makes it possible to have a plot there. And as we’ve seen with IS, instanced areas also allow things like furnishing “glamour” so you only need one physical item to use as many times as wanted, open air houses (they just need to let you place furnishings!), ability to change the ground and walkways independently of the buildings, etc.

I have a ward plot, but if I had the opportunity to have an instanced plot with the same (or more!) functionality, and the ability to change my background scenery? I’d definitely make the trade. And it could be done… other MMOs that don’t even require subscriptions have many instanced housing options, both free and cash shop.