Welcome to the Wizard101 Message Boards


Player Guide
Fansites
News
Game Updates
Help

Follow important game updates on Twitter @Wizard101 and @KI_Alerts, and Facebook!

For all account questions and concerns, contact Customer Support.

By posting on the Wizard101 Message Boards you agree to the Code of Conduct.

The Flaw in the House Ranks.

AuthorMessage
Defender
May 09, 2010
180
So I noticed something. I am someone who really enjoys exploring houses and seeing people's creativity when it comes to designing and decorating their home in wizard101. But almost 80% of the houses in the top 100 have battle circles in them, yet are very poorly decorated and designed. It irritates me. I just had to address it. Someone like me who puts a lot of creative thought and gold into designing the perfect house is upstaged and cast into the dark, simply because some other house has a battle circle, which seems to instantly put them at the top. because once to people start fighting, every comes to see, which results in more views! I think this is unfair, and should be looked upon. Especially since one of the houses in the current top 5 I believe is very poorly designed, and just has a battle circle with dozens of people anxiously crowded around it. And the most insulting part is that that house is in the DECORATED category! Here's what I think the best solution is: Before A house can go into the top 100, have a kingsisle employee review it and if they deem it unsatisfactory to the certain category the house is in, DON'T PUT IT IN THE TOP 100!!! It would ensure more diversity, and bring more creative ideas to the table from people whose houses don't get picked, yet are still good, and make the house ranking system feel more balanced. So, has anyone else been working really hard on a house of theirs? do you guys think this problem should be dealt with? Lemme know what ya think in the comments below.

Blaze Stormmancer

Delver
Apr 16, 2014
268
I really agree there is a HUGE flaw in the ranking of houses system. At least 50 percent of the houses in the top 100 are really not very good. Only reason they are there is because they have Gauntlets available. I wish they could figure out a different ranking system as well, but not sure what that would be. Maybe a judging panel of some kind. I have had houses on the leaderboards but usually way down low. I put a lot of thought and care and gold into my houses. It's really disappointing when they hardly get seen or are not on the leaderboards at all. The only house I have that got near the top ten is my house with All the Gauntlets on the premises. Oh Well. I do enjoy visiting houses and looking at the thoughtful ones.

Scarlet ShadowStone Exalted
Scarlet SwiftRiver Level 30
Scarlet FireEyes Level 27

Historian
Jun 19, 2010
657
Like many folks who spend time decorating, you may all agree if a house is decorated poorly, sparse, or not in the correct category; it defeats the purpose of a ranking system.

Even with having my houses reach the top ten ranking multiple times; I still like to explore better ranked houses to appreciate the creativity and imagination of the decorators.

However, I've yet to be impressed with any poorly decorated house; no matter how high its rank or rating is.

Astrologist
Aug 20, 2011
1077
I ran a poll on Wiz101 Central where I asked how satisfied people were with the housing system as it is right now.

There are some who like Housing Tours, but even then very few people are enthusiastic about the feature. Most people were just "meh" about it, and it's not hard to see why. Just like posters in this thread are saying, Tours is basically where you go to do a gauntlet that you don't own, and nothing else. The ratings mean nothing, you get no reward. Not enough has been done to make it a good feature yet.

Defender
Aug 25, 2014
164
I wish they had another category for houses that just have those crown extras. I'm not sure if that would help the issue though.

Defender
Aug 03, 2011
103
How about when you submit a house, you can choose to disable gauntlets(If you want them as decoration), and dueling circles(If you design a house with those). There can then be a separate leaderboard with houses like these that aren't going to be biased. It'll be a good compromise between those who want to pvp, or dungeon, and house enthusiasts. What we need is a balanced compromise. Going one way or the other will only harm the people on either side.

Explorer
Apr 27, 2009
71
The only thing about this is that I have a house with a dueling circle but put a lot of time into decorating it. Also disabling dueling circles would make it so my dueling party would be forced to stop when someone from castle tours came in.

Defender
Aug 03, 2011
103
Wondoo on Dec 24, 2014 wrote:
The only thing about this is that I have a house with a dueling circle but put a lot of time into decorating it. Also disabling dueling circles would make it so my dueling party would be forced to stop when someone from castle tours came in.
I understand what you are talking about, but there's a few solutions to your problems.

1. You could not submit the house.
This may be obvious, but not submitting the house, and keeping a good looking dueling circle that you and your friends can pvp in is a good solution.

2. You can enable the pvp circle.
If you want people to be able to pvp in your house, then you don't have to disable it. Of course, you would still have to compete with other houses with activated dueling circles(because there still may be biases if you're one of the few people with activated circles), and that could me an issue. However, you can get the best of both worlds in which people who want to pvp there can rate it highly, and people who enjoy your house can also rate it highly.

3. You can host the dueling party in a different house.
This is probably one of the last things someone would do, but you could just have another house with a dueling circle that wasn't submitted. If you want to submit that house and disable pvp circles, you don't have to have the party there. You could have it in a different house that may be equally well decorated. You could even submit it as a a house with enabled dueling circles.

As you can see, there are already several solutions to your problem, but if you don't want to do any of them, you are only harming yourself, because people who just want to pvp can visit your house, and rank it in the top 10's, but when a KI employee tries to see whether or not this is fair, or biased, it could only make their jobs more difficult. If you want to make any changes/adjustments, let me know. I'm always open to criticism!

Adherent
Mar 18, 2009
2737
This isn't a flaw in the house system, it is a flaw in the players participating in the ranking. Trust me, even if KI "fixed" this, these same players will find something else to "defeat" the intended purpose. I understand your disappointment with the top houses, but isn't this a reflection of what the community "likes" in a house???

I do not agree with a KI employee "reviewing" the houses. To me, it no longer becomes a community ranking, but a KI ranking system. If a separate annotation was added to indicate a KI employee picked it, sure I would go with that, but I still wouldn't be happy that KI income would be used to pay an employee to still around an review potentially hundreds of houses instead of building more worlds, music, answering tickets, etc.

I would rather go for a entire separate category of "Top Gauntlet Houses" or "Top PvP Houses" or something like that to free up the actual houses of decorated creativity (and keeping a KI employee from doing it).

My immediate advice would be for players to "outrank" those who favor battle circles in favor of actual decorated houses (as the system is designed to do). If there is such an outrage of poorly designed houses at the top, well folks need to get to voting on the right houses and not leave it to the players just looking for a quick PvP match.

Defender
May 09, 2010
180
Oran of Urz on Dec 30, 2014 wrote:
This isn't a flaw in the house system, it is a flaw in the players participating in the ranking. Trust me, even if KI "fixed" this, these same players will find something else to "defeat" the intended purpose. I understand your disappointment with the top houses, but isn't this a reflection of what the community "likes" in a house???

I do not agree with a KI employee "reviewing" the houses. To me, it no longer becomes a community ranking, but a KI ranking system. If a separate annotation was added to indicate a KI employee picked it, sure I would go with that, but I still wouldn't be happy that KI income would be used to pay an employee to still around an review potentially hundreds of houses instead of building more worlds, music, answering tickets, etc.

I would rather go for a entire separate category of "Top Gauntlet Houses" or "Top PvP Houses" or something like that to free up the actual houses of decorated creativity (and keeping a KI employee from doing it).

My immediate advice would be for players to "outrank" those who favor battle circles in favor of actual decorated houses (as the system is designed to do). If there is such an outrage of poorly designed houses at the top, well folks need to get to voting on the right houses and not leave it to the players just looking for a quick PvP match.
Good thinking. I see your way of things and got met thinking. You're right, and i do think KI should keep their attention fixed most firmly on new world releases instead of time-wasting tidbits like this.

But I still can't help but feel "cheated", looking back at the house ranking system.

Blaze Stormmancer