MeherMan, many companies will not provide any predictions of when new features will be available, or even if that particular feature is being developed. The reason was best put many years ago on a different forum:
We wouldn't be able to function if we communicated ahead of time what we plan to do. It's not that we're too busy, it's that projects are too fluid for us to be able to tell the public what we'll deliver and when.
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Communicating the result of those issues would be a nightmare. Launches would stop being "Yay! A new feature!" and would instead be "What?! Where is X that you promised us?!
A place where plans for the future are listed, without promises or time frames, would be nice and go along way to convincing me to subscribe. It might also potentially settle current debates among players, as some ideas might be rendered moot by changes.
I've always thought not discussing plans is just as detrimental as discussing then failing to deliver. Both issues are solved by clear communication. Look at League of Legends for example, one of the most successful online games on the market,. They kept promising, "a new map is coming! a new map is coming!" They even released some screenshots to preview it, then they decided to go a different direction, put that project on hold and those team members on the new project, and now they have a new map AND a new game mode. There were periods when they did not respond, but when they did, they communicated why they made the decision clearly, and there was little to no fallout. There are always disgruntled players, but clear communication limits the gruntling.
Fair question MeherMan,
The group halls were introduced to us, in the last few days of beta (not sure if that timeline is right, I just remember having given all my stuff away and then scrambling to try and build the Canadian Club - it's a great whiskey don't ya know), so there was no time to 'settle in' with this new concept.
With the new party places I was wondering if these had replaced the club idea. Glad you asked the question and glad there was an answer provided.
I'm really hoping you can build your group hall like a street project and control what features your group hall has. For example, if you contribute x amount of sparkly ore, you will get a sparkly rock that spawns in your hall. If you donate x amount of spices, you get a plot that allows a spice tree, and so on and so forth. Crossing my fingers!!!