Why are there still so many empty houses in the top positions on the top rated lists??? Clearly they don't even belong there, taking up positions of those wizards that belong there and have worked hard to get on the list. Is there a filter coming to weed out the homes with low item counts from appearing on the lists?
Why are there still so many empty houses in the top positions on the top rated lists??? Clearly they don't even belong there, taking up positions of those wizards that belong there and have worked hard to get on the list. Is there a filter coming to weed out the homes with low item counts from appearing on the lists?
It was supposed to be taken care of. It obviously wasn't. honestly, I haven't done the house tours in over a month for just this reason. A complete waste of time, which is a shame because there are some amazing houses out there: they just aren't top rated anymore.
Why are there still so many empty houses in the top positions on the top rated lists??? Clearly they don't even belong there, taking up positions of those wizards that belong there and have worked hard to get on the list. Is there a filter coming to weed out the homes with low item counts from appearing on the lists?
I'm pretty sure there is a filter to kick any houses that are empty from the lists. Mostly the houses that are like that either have a PvP ring or a Winterbane or Pagoda dungeon in them.
I know what you mean. I have worked very hard on my houses (I am particularly proud of my life house and my red barn farm house and have all 5 of my houses on the tour), and I don't even think they have really been seen by anyone ,but there are empty or barely filled houses everywhere on the tour. I don't even go on the tours anymore. This issue was supposed to have been fixed an update or two ago, but I am still being constantly sent to empty houses or to houses with a couple plants and some pets. And some of the houses on the leaderboard aren't even really officially decorated. Some just have stuff jammed all over making no rhyme or reason, or else they are on the leaderboard because people have found out there are things like Winterbane and Pagoda there, so they were voted for because of that, not because of how the house was decorated. So, what chance do some of us that are not in the "popular" group have?
For this reason, at least in part, I would really like to see significant updates to house tours:
1) I would like to have each house have its own tally of who has visited and what the average rating is. We should not have to limit feedback on our houses to the very few spots on the leaderboards. Those of us who have spent a lot of time decorating, would like to know what others think of our decorating. Feedback could be given in a simple rating system for each house on its own merit, together with simple drop-down menu options that have basic feedback phrases associated with the ratings.
2) I actually think the "leaderboard" idea does not work for housing tours. There are too few spots for too many players. The spots that get filled seem to get filled due to pagoda or winterbane dungeons -- usually both-- more than due to the quality of decorating. So rather than make it a competition, it would be better to make it a non-competitive way for people to share their houses and to share feedback about the houses. Let housing be part of the social aspect of the game, rather than another competitive aspect.
3) If there are leaderboards at all, then they should be rotated on a short duration -- i.e., a week or two -- and then randomly have more high-rated houses pulled in. Then houses won't be clogged with dungeon crawlers. And more houses will get prominent exposure.
4) Houses should also be listed according to the type of house it is (life, balance, massive fantasy, etc.) not the few odd "themes" (decorated, magical, maze, etc.) that seem arbitrary and unrelated to our actual houses. Although the choice to view newly added houses, and all houses at random, can be left on.
5) Near-empty houses should be screened from the tours. The screening should not be based on low-ratings. The screening should be based on the houses being empty of content. Undecorated houses should be kept off tours. There is already an item-count feature; just use it to screen out the empty houses.
Honestly, I do place things everywhere with no rhyme or reason but that is why there is a category for it basically... It is hard for me to get anything to really match... I've placed my house on castle tours a couple times... I don't think anyone has even seen them! This just annoys me and has kept me away from Castle Tours... Plus those top ranked houses may have tons of stuff, but people just voted them up cause they had pagoda/bane or their friend told them to have their friends vote that house up too the top of the list...
Honestly, I do place things everywhere with no rhyme or reason but that is why there is a category for it basically... It is hard for me to get anything to really match... I've placed my house on castle tours a couple times... I don't think anyone has even seen them! This just annoys me and has kept me away from Castle Tours... Plus those top ranked houses may have tons of stuff, but people just voted them up cause they had pagoda/bane or their friend told them to have their friends vote that house up too the top of the list...
Exactly how I feel; I've spent a lot of time and money on my two houses and I don't think they hardly ever get viewed. I've seen so many top-rated houses that I think of, "My house is so much better; why is this high rated?" I also think there should be an option to see how many times your house has been viewed and the rating it's averaging. That would be really nice. Anyone who agrees please tell me; I'd like to get KI attention for this idea.
For this reason, at least in part, I would really like to see significant updates to house tours:
1) I would like to have each house have its own tally of who has visited and what the average rating is. We should not have to limit feedback on our houses to the very few spots on the leaderboards. Those of us who have spent a lot of time decorating, would like to know what others think of our decorating. Feedback could be given in a simple rating system for each house on its own merit, together with simple drop-down menu options that have basic feedback phrases associated with the ratings.
2) I actually think the "leaderboard" idea does not work for housing tours. There are too few spots for too many players. The spots that get filled seem to get filled due to pagoda or winterbane dungeons -- usually both-- more than due to the quality of decorating. So rather than make it a competition, it would be better to make it a non-competitive way for people to share their houses and to share feedback about the houses. Let housing be part of the social aspect of the game, rather than another competitive aspect.
3) If there are leaderboards at all, then they should be rotated on a short duration -- i.e., a week or two -- and then randomly have more high-rated houses pulled in. Then houses won't be clogged with dungeon crawlers. And more houses will get prominent exposure.
4) Houses should also be listed according to the type of house it is (life, balance, massive fantasy, etc.) not the few odd "themes" (decorated, magical, maze, etc.) that seem arbitrary and unrelated to our actual houses. Although the choice to view newly added houses, and all houses at random, can be left on.
5) Near-empty houses should be screened from the tours. The screening should not be based on low-ratings. The screening should be based on the houses being empty of content. Undecorated houses should be kept off tours. There is already an item-count feature; just use it to screen out the empty houses.
I like all of the above ideas, especially the ongoing tally. I'd like to suggest two things for KI to consider. One, each house could have a guestbook icon that visiting Wizards could click. The visiting Wizard's name would be added to the guestbook. The Owner could click the same icon and view a list of who had visited the castle. This could be incorporated into the ongoing tally. Secondly, maybe some sort of incentive to get people to visit the tour. Maybe a free pet snack for every 10 castles visited and rated.Or 20 castles. Whatever KI felt comfortable with. As the Tour stands now, I stopped visiting Castles months ago. Complete waste of time with all the empty castles. If KI tweaked it a little bit to make it both more interesting and more fair I'd get involved again.
With the next major update, KR part 2, we plan to require at least 50 items inside and 50 items outside before a house can be added to Castle Tours.
Arthur
The only problem there will be those that would just put enough junk there to meet the minimum. How about adding a feedback opinion poll in with the rating system. "Should this house remain on the house tours list? Click YES or No". If KI receives enough negative votes the house is reviewed by KI to assess its worthiness to even belong on the list or its removal. Once removed by popular vote, a house in question can't be re-added to any list for 30 days. This overall would give a lot more user input into the house tours system. Of course voting would be limited to one vote per ACCOUNT (not by wizard) per house to avoid stacking the votes. Too many accounts with multiple wizards!
Another positive aspect of the house tours, is getting ideas from others to incorporate into your own. I have invited many others to view my homes and have gotten a lot of great comments about them. A few times I have been asked by others if they may "borrow/steal" my ideas for use in their own homes.
My houses have made it on to top rated category list under magical and maze but, never to the over all top rated list. I have had house that were number one by category for days and never moved up to over all list. I do not understand why. Also, today I added my newest completed house to the castle tours and the four houses that made it to top rated category maze where not on tour any more. I put them back on tour but, I never removed them from the castle tours. Why were they removed? They were tope rated maze houses for days on end, they should have moved up to over all top rated but never do and somehow they were removed. Buying and decorating houses is my favorite thing to do on Wizard101. It is my all time favorite hobby. I have put in a lot of time, effort, gold and cash on all twenty-three of my awesomely decorated castles. I would love it if there was a guest book for people to sign and post a comment (good or bad) when they visit. It sure would be nice to get feed back from wizards that take the time to tour my houses.
and have all 5 of my houses on the tour), and I don't even think they have really been seen by anyone ,but there are empty or barely filled houses everywhere on the tour. I don't even go on the tours anymore. This issue was supposed to have been fixed an update or two ago, but I am still being constantly sent to empty houses or to houses with a couple plants and some pets. And some of the houses on the leaderboard aren't even really officially decorated. Some just have stuff jammed all over making no rhyme or reason, or else they are on the leaderboard because people have found out there are things like Winterbane and Pagoda there, so they were voted for because of that, not because of how the house was decorated. So, what chance do some of us that are not in the "popular" group have? 
