Wondering about the email I got to answer a survey about LOTRO...

[Glenwin]

They have been thinking about it loooong time then because I got asked about housing in the survey I did & that was last year! I wont believe anything about housing changes until I actually see them in game. For the time being what they say about housing I take with a huge grain of salt.

Sounds as if there were two surveys then?

Well, Turbine just can't talk about their plans out in the open. They need to protect their ideas of course from other companies who might send their people out into these forums to find out what the competition does.

So... for as long it takes to see some facts we all just can't do anything much but keep making them aware of good ideas and hope for the best.

[Edrogar]

We send out surveys from time to time. Each is different, and they usually go to different groups depending on what we want to know. The most recent survey went to a fairly large group of players. Despite the comment that "very few" seem to have received it. In truth, that's more of a reflection of those users who received it and also use the forums. Usually a far smaller number than the actual number of players.

If this is an official survey then can you PLEASE host it on a Turbine server and not outsource it. The URL it directs you to is http://turbine.43c0e842ae87.sgizmo.co m/s3/?id=######### and to me and many people who are security conscious that looks VERY suspicious. If you actually want a majority of the people you send these out to to actually take part then DON'T use a 3rd party to host, especially one with a dodgy looking domain name like sgizmo.

[Joene]

As long as you have proper anti-virus software and you do not fill in your account details, everything should be fine?

[Edrogar]

As long as you have proper anti-virus software and you do not fill in your account details, everything should be fine?

It would be great if it was, but the reality of the matter is just as clever as the AV programmer are there's hundreds of hackers out there who are even more clever, it's always good to be paranoid on the internet.

[Hassan_the_Assassin]

Somewhat off-topic, but housing was mentioned in today's devchat. It's 'on the docket' for this year. Question 7, I think.

[guguzza71]

Oh man... Do you know that the housing question was commented on by a dev in the first Twitter dev chat?

When will we see some work done for housing?

Matt “HorseDev” Zimmitti-Hoo-ee…need to set the stage by getting neighborhoods consolidated with less vacant housing first. Working out the details of that stuff now.All I can say is that we have a lot of devs interested in doing some serious home improvement.

(taken from the write-up done by Goldenstar of Casual Stroll to Mordor)

So, yes this was not a definitive yes nor a definitive no. But if there has been a survey -which now was confirmed by Sapience- that can only mean one thing: They are thinking about it quite seriously.

Yes, of course they are thinking about it because other games have that feature, perhaps much better implemented even, and they feel the pressure rising on this topic. As they say "competition is good for business" and in this case good for us players who would love to see housing improved.

If they want to consolidate the old neighbourhoods it might help if at the same time or just before they add in a new Edoras housing instance. This would draw a lot of the housing crowd to the new estate, especially if it has received the housing update and the old areas havent.
This would make it easier hopefully to sort out the vacant housing. They could then put the remaining active people in less older instances and shove all the MIA people into a popup menu that will reactivate their house in a new older instance if they click it. All remaining MIA would not have a presence in the housing instance if they didnt come back but they also wouldnt be deleted either and hopefully it would use less memory/server stress/technical whizzbangery storing them this way.
The MIAs also wouldnt have to face the finality of deletion so would still have a welcome mat open to their return to the game.

[Ceremony]

How come I never receive any emails >_<

[maxjenius]

How come I never receive any emails >_<

Double-secret probation.

[Joene]

In one of the surveys, they ask you to rank the most appealing features that might be added in future updates. (Title is: expansion pack priorities.

Housing Improvements
Such as landscape/rare housing, a hookless furniture system or crafting services in your house

Kin Improvements
Such as more recruitments features, kin leaderboards/competitions or kin rewards

Mounted Combat improvements
more steed looks, more steed rewards or more mounted player/steed skills and abilities

Store Offer Improvements
fewer store-based items with better ingame impact, or more lore-focused options

Cosmetic pets
Class-agnostic companions with limited customization options

Class imprvements
Such as fewer, more powerfull skills, or deeper class specializations

Additional Hobbies
Such as Golf, Grave Rubbings or gardening

More live events
Server-wide, level agnostic special events with small, level appropriate rewards

[Ceremony]

Double-secret probation.

but it's been 5 yrs