MeinMMO editor Jasmin Beverungen has insights into the new housing map for Guild Wars 2 at gamescom 2025. Players will head to the beach where an active magic volcano is located.
For some players, housing in MMORPGs is particularly important. After all, you create your own home where you can invite friends and show off your furniture. I am also part of the faction that particularly enjoys decorating and designing their own home.
Guild Wars 2 has introduced a new housing feature with the expansion Janthir Wilds. Here, homesteads were added where players can customize their homes with great freedom. For instance, items can be resized or positioned in the air.
Despite the many possibilities, it still does not count for MeinMMO among the top 5 housing options in MMORPGs. With Visions of Eternity, that could change, as housing is set to be further improved.
I was able to convince myself of the new housing features during a half-hour session and will share my impressions with you.
Cozy Home in Paradise
In Visions of Eternity, you can now build your homestead on an island that is the perfect vacation spot. This is a location on the coast of Castora. There is a sandy beach, caves for diving and exploring, as well as a volcano, from which, fortunately, no hot lava flows, but magical energy.
On the sandy beach, there is enough building area to build several buildings or even fauna and flora. The developers showed me a wooded area as an example, where even small pineapple plants grow. I immediately felt like I was on vacation in the Mediterranean.
Inside the mountain, there are some caves where brightly glowing mushrooms grow. In between, there are even connected underwater areas, where you cannot build directly, but you can dive and swim. It felt like a real-life grotto where you can admire the stalactite caves in the Mediterranean – only more colorful.
At night, the whole thing looks even more impressive: Everywhere, there are atmospheric lights that remind you of an evening program at a 5-star all-inclusive hotel. Every corner of this island immediately put me in a vacation mood, so I am sure that many players will build their vacation residence here.
The building that was already ready for me on the beach was a gigantic tower with several rooms. There was a bar, a living area, and a sleeping area. Outside, I was also greeted by a smaller building, which was built with great attention to detail.
All in all, the new area provides the perfect setting to build your dream house here. Players who already had fun with housing from Janthir Wilds will certainly continue to enjoy this. Accordingly, there are 2 new features that make building even easier.
Housing will be Expanded with 2 Useful Features
As the developers showed me, there will be two useful functions that will make building even easier:
- the duplicate function
- the saving of layouts as a PC file
Instead of painstakingly searching for items from the inventory, an already built item can simply be duplicated. This allows the matching counterpart to be easily retrieved from the inventory, if available, and placed in the desired location. This saves a lot of time when building.
The much crazier innovation is the saving of constructions as a file. The developers explained that players can save their buildings like a computer file with the expansion and can load them at any time within the same map.
This allows players to save their constructions and temporarily store them as a file when they want to build new constructions and run out of space. For instance, different buildings can be created that correspond to festivals or seasons. You can then readily switch them as needed. Moreover, players have the opportunity to share their layouts with others.
Players do not have to painstakingly tear everything down and rebuild. This allows housing enthusiasts to become even more creative, as they do not have to fear losing their previous beloved idea forever. However, one thing has become clear to me, which worries me a bit.
Concerns Arise from Comparison
For players who are already excited about building, the expansion is an absolute must. However, for all building naysayers, the DLC does not create a new incentive to engage with the feature. Many players may only build their house and never return to the island. There are threads on Reddit, for example, where creators admit that they cannot do anything with housing.
Other MMORPGs create better incentives to build your own house:
- In New World, housing gives gameplay bonuses when you place trophies. This includes increased damage or luck when gathering resources.
- In Final Fantasy XIV, you can build a stable for your Chocobo to train and dye.
- In Albion Online, workers can be hired in your house (or guild hall) to take on certain tasks, such as gathering resources.
However, the homesteads are more focused on comfort. The only advantage here is that you have crafting stations and gathering nodes all in one place.
To create more incentives, one could borrow ideas from other MMORPGs. In the garrisons from WoW, for example, players could complete quests, NPC missions, and events, leading to more motivation over a long period.
Wildstar had housing expeditions that could be completed alone or with other companions. Players could earn exclusive decorations to show off to others.
Such incentives are still missing in Guild Wars 2 housing. Therefore, I hope that the feature will be improved in other directions with the coming expansions to regularly attract even the building naysayers to their homes.
Visions of Eternity brings new possibilities for designing your own house. But there will also be new furniture pieces available for everyone, as the developers revealed. However, there are several other incentives to get the new expansion: Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity – All info on release, content & beta
