Got enough friends to help you move your virtual coach into that Garrison coming in the Warlords of Draenor expansion? Of course you don’t because ”this is Warcraft - you make a base, you don’t make a house.”
Lead encounter designer Ion Hazzikostas from Blizzard expresses the studio’s view on it being a bit silly to ‘just have a house’ in World of Warcraft. It’s also for solo ownership, not ‘fun hogging’ guilds.
There was a deep concern among the team that guild leaders and officers would take a lot of the fun out of Garrisons, as normal members would just get to stroll around.
Handing the deeds over to individuals though lets people get attached to their Garrison. It’s possible there maybe something in the future for a guild base of sorts, but Blizzard isn’t going there yet. ”That was one of our earliest discussions,” game director Tom Chilton told WoW Source.
“Is this an individual thing or is it a guild thing? And we really very deliberately drove it towards being mostly an individual thing - although we are being very conscious to integrate multiplayer components.” The fear was guild higher ups would ”pretty much hog all the fun” out of Garrisons for the majority of people.
”Eventually over time I can see it growing into a guild thing,” concluded Chilton. “But if that foundation is individual, then I feel like the gameplay will be there for everyone and it won’t just be the kind of thing that’s there for the guild master. As much as the guild master might want that.” Garrisons are accessible for everyone as Blizzard offers a free level 90 character as a standard feature of Warlords of Draenor.
Garrisons also support Followers who can undertake quests and comeback with new gear and other rewards. They are also able to level up similar to player characters and can even be ‘captured’ while on mission.