Last November, Blizzard Entertainment confirmed its MMORPG World of Warcraft was finally getting housing. Today, the team shared the first details on the feature and their thought process behind its design. There are three pillars to World of Warcraft’s housing: Boundless Self-Expression, Deeply Social, and Long-Lasting Journey.
The highest priority, based on Boundless Self-Expression, is to give players the ability to build a house that reflects their personality or that of their Warband while acting as a backdrop for roleplaying or simply allowing players to create something on a whim. The toolset is being created to be as user-friendly as possible, but powerful enough so players can surprise even the development team with their actions. Players can expect plenty of decor options inspired by the cultures of Azeroth and World of Warcraft’s expansions.
The Deeply Social pillar has always been a pillar for the highly successful MMORPG. With housing, players will naturally be able to enjoy it on their own, but the systems are designed to encourage interacting, playing, and progressing with friends, neighbors, guilds, and the community. The third pillar, Long-Last Journey, emphasizes that housing will be an evergreen feature in the game and will have its roadmap. That means Blizzard will continue building on it in future expansions and isn’t something players should aspire to “finish.”
As to where housing will live, there are going to be two Housing zones available at launch, one for Alliance and one for Horde. Of course, there’s a possibility that additional zones will be added in the future. The Alliance zone draws inspiration from Elwynn Forest with influences from Westfall and Duskwood, while on the Horde side, it’s mainly influenced by Durator, its coastline, and Azshara. The team clarified its decision, saying that having many zones conflicts with the Deeply Social pillar. By keeping it to just one zone per side, it’ll increase the chance of seeing other players and if there are multiple zones, it would spread out the playerbase, even with aggressive sharding. The second point, which is likely the more important one, is that creating zones requires a lot of work. With this as a starting point, Blizzard’s able to focus on creating a small number of zones than do a passable job on a large number.
To help ease potential concerns with the players, Blizzard stated that housing is being designed to be player-first instead of revenue-first. It’s unfortunate that this needs to be stated, but it’s also an indicator of the current state of gaming. There will be hundreds of housing customization options available as in-game rewards, but a small number of items will be available in the cash shop. It’ll be similar to transmogs and pets and likely a similar model as Final Fantasy XIV since it has had housing for years now.
Speaking of Final Fantasy XIV, the World of Warcraft team was quick to say they want to ensure that housing is available for everyone. As a result, anyone can have a house, if they want a house. In a statement that is a seemingly warranted jab at its main competitor, Blizzard confirmed there will be no exorbitant requirements for housing, which means no high purchase costs, no lotteries, and no upkeep—meaning if you unsubscribe, you won’t lose your house. A player’s house will also be shared among their Warband, allowing their Horde character to spend time in their Alliance house. Also, housing rewards will be shared across a player’s Warband. There will be minimal restrictions regarding faction, so players will be able to live or visit their friends’ or guildmates’ houses. The only real restriction is that an Alliance character won’t be able to purchase a house in the Horde zone, but a Horde character in the same Warband can. Afterwards, the Alliance character can use it as if it was their own house.
The lengthy blog post detailing the upcoming feature ended by teasing the concept of Neighborhoods. The houses will be organized into roughly 50 plot Neighborhoods, allowing players to live next to one another, work together, and share in rewards of being part of the Neighborhood. These Neighborhoods will be instanced but will remain persistent, so players are stuck with their neighbors for years unless they decide to move. There will be both public and private Neighborhoods. Public ones are created by the game servers and will be created and maintained as needed, while private Neighborhoods can be created by friends or guilds so they can customize them together.
Player housing will be introduced in World of Warcraft as part of its upcoming Midnight expansion, which is slated to release sometime in summer 2025.
