How to assign player housing plots in a Guild Neighborhood: an Alignment Chart

We recently had the opportunity for a large influx of people to test the coming World of Warcraft Player Housing implementation on the PTR. We were told we would get a look at private and guild neighborhoods, but unfortunately, even with the delayed start to the test, private neighborhoods didn’t seem to be available.

Player housing is listed as a feature for the Midnight expansion, but players who have already pre-ordered the expansion will have access to housing as of December 2. This is going to create some particular challenges for guilds where not all members will have pre-ordered Midnight yet.

What are Neighborhoods and how do they work?

Housing plots for Public Neighborhoods will be on a first come, first serve basis, and as the neighborhoods start to fill up — there is a limit of 55 plots per Neighborhood — new Neighborhoods with their own addresses will be spawned. Your address will be linked to a single instance, but you will have the option to move it — either to a different open plot in the same neighborhood or a different Neighborhood — using a House Finder similar to the Guild Finder interface.

Private Neighborhoods have the same 55 plot limit, but you need to be a member of a Neighborhood community to claim a plot. Private Neighborhoods need a minimum of 10 unique Warband accounts to be maintained. If your membership drops below 10 the instance will disband and the houses will be merged into a Public Neighborhood.

Guild Neighborhoods are a special type of Private Neighborhood. If you leave the guild you will be removed from the Neighborhood, and like normal Private Neighborhoods, the guild needs a minimum of 10 unique warband accounts to claim a Neighborhood. The biggest difference however is if the number of members exceeds 55 (or perhaps approaches 55, as Public Neighborhoods seem to work) it will create a new instance similar to Public Neighborhoods, but you will be able to move between them freely and it acts like a single Neighborhood for the purposes of earning Neighborhood Experience.

Because we didn’t get to see Guild or Private Neighborhoods on the PTR or in alpha yet, we haven’t see the member management controls yet. We have been told that it will be possible to have a role equivalent to guild officers to help manage them, but we don’t know how granular that will be. I assume there will be some controls over whether certain ranks can claim a plot or not, for managing social members or trial members — but it may be that once it’s enabled everyone can just jump in.

A housing plot has an ‘owner’ assigned to it once claimed, which is linked to a specific character. As you can only have a maximum of two houses currently — one on the Alliance side and one of the Horde — you will need a character from each faction to claim a house in each zone. We couldn’t test it but I assume if the house ‘owner’ leaves the guild, by choice or removal, that is when you will be removed from the Guild Neighborhood.

So that brings us to the management issue of how you work out who in your guild gets to claim which plot. As a Guild Leader who has been the Loot Master in a progression raiding guild in the past, I already am steeling myself for the likely arguments. Fortunately I have a pretty neat guild of largely cooperative people who make a point of being kind to each other, but I can foresee some of the drama this could create. 

Some ways to determine who gets which plot: the alignment chart

I am not in any way recommending all these solutions — unless you really want to blow up your guild — but here are a number of ways to approach it, in a mix of okay to truly terrible ideas.

Lawful Good Allocation

Similar to a DKP type system, guild members earn points based their contributions to the guild that result in them being ranked, and they get to choose plots based on their rankings. The ways to earn points are clearly defined and made available to everyone, and the current rankings are also visible to all guild members just like DKP. 

Neutral Good Allocation

Everyone in the guild can nominate their ranked top 5 locations. The results are tallied. For conflicts, guild members are asked to resolve between themselves who will get that plot, then the ‘losers’ get their second choice. Ties are resolved the same way with preference given to people who have previously missed out of their higher preference. Work down the lists until all lots resolved.

Chaotic Good Allocation

Everyone in the guild can nominate their ranked top 5 locations, the results are tallied. For conflicts, the Guild Master does an open /roll in guild to determine the winner. Players can choose to defer and let the another player who nominated to get the slot, but the dice roll is final and binding.

Lawful Neutral Allocation

Plots allocated based on seniority. All players submit a screenshot showing when (according to the armory) their character joined the guild. Plots are allocated from longest standing to newest.

True Neutral Allocation

All members names go into a random draw. Names are drawn one at a time, and when drawn a member selects the plot of their choosing. It’s on the players to negotiate with someone who went before them if they really want a plot more.

Chaotic Neutral Allocation

Players are notified ahead of time when the guild master will be creating the neighborhood. Once created plot selection is a first-come-first-served free-for-all. May the server stability be ever in your favor.

Lawful Evil Allocation

The Guild Master is a dictator and assigns plots at their discretion. Players should feel free to try and sway that Guild Master in any way they see fit (bribery?), but the Guild Master’s decision is final. 

Neutral Evil Allocation

All players names go into a draw. As they are drawn they are allocated a plot starting from the lowest number plot (0) and increasing, until all plots are filled.

Chaotic Evil Allocation

Guild master gets a list of everyone who wants a housing plot. They roll a d10 to choose which character on a player’s roster will be the owner, and a d4 to determine which spec they are using. They then roll a d6 for a DPS class character, a d8 for a healer class character, and a d10 for a tank class character to determine who gets each plot.

Have you decided which plot you really, really want yet? Do you not really care? Do you know how evil or chaotic — or dictatorial — your Guild Master really is?