Housing Tours to Kill Gauntlet Bundle Sales?

With the release of Khrysalis, a great new feature made its way into the Spiral. Housing Tours! This awesome new shop allows you to visit houses from those who have chosen to put them on display for others to see under four categories. You can rate each house based on how much you enjoy it, and even interact with items within it. However, could these new tours have an unseen side effect?

Housing Tours?

Now you can visit Ms. Paige Moonshade each and every day in person, and she'll give you tours of houses from those who have chosen to add them or allow you add your own house for free... I think.

This is a great new feature that allows users the option to put their homes on display to others... of course, if you're Paige Moonshade, that could mean decorating around spinning wizards... or running into people you've met when you return home. However, the real problem is in what the houses allow...

Free-For-All!

The ability to visit all of these houses means that you don't have to own any bundle to get the daily rewards from it - just look for one in the preview. That being said, you might not find all of them considering the fact that a few are retired and empty houses have the possibility of being removed. Yes, KingsIsle actually has house moderators... and probably rightfully so with the ability to spell words with candles and such.

A lot of people enjoy owning those houses because of the decorating ability, though. There's a bigger problem with gauntlets. Previously, anyone can enter any gauntlet. If you have someone you know with a gauntlet and don't specifically need the mount or like the look of the gear, then there's almost no reason to spend $39 on a new bundle.

Of course, no one has a friend only all the time. You may want to do the Winterbane Gauntlet when they're not around, and you can't leave marks in homes. Even those who did frequently have someone available might want to purchase the bundle for the sake of having the gauntlet always available. Now, things have changed. A gauntlet IS always available... both the Pagoda Gauntlet and Winterbane Gauntlet. Now that I think about it, I think I have a house there with both gauntlets in it.

My concern now is that people will stop, or at least slow down on, buying these bundles. The gear is never a huge selling point as the stats are never comparable to in-game gear. The pet is something you can hatch for. The mount looks good, but there are a lot of mounts that look nice. Perhaps it's different for you, but the major selling point for me on a bundle is the house - or the gauntlet, whatever the case may be. 

If KingsIsle notices this, will gauntlets no longer be allowed in homes marked available for touring? The question remains... Will having the gauntlets available in house previews mean the end or slowing of the sale of gauntlet bundles? You tell me.

Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral.