Blizzard has announced an exciting new feature coming to World of Warcraft with its upcoming expansion, World of Warcraft: Midnight: player housing. In a recent developer blog, the WoW team shared initial insights into how this much-anticipated feature will be implemented, while playfully taking a swipe at Final Fantasy XIV's housing system.
Central to Blizzard's vision for housing is the principle of "A Home for Everyone." The team emphasized their commitment to broad accessibility, stating, "As a part of our focus on wide adoption, we wanted to ensure that Housing is available to everyone. If you want a house, you can have a house." This approach eliminates the barriers seen in other MMOs, such as high costs, lotteries, and the risk of losing your home due to inactivity or lapsed subscriptions.
Player housing in MMOs allows players to purchase and personalize their own spaces within the game world, which can be visited by others. This feature has been a hit in Final Fantasy XIV, where players have used their homes for creative ventures like theater productions, nightclubs, cafes, and museums. However, Final Fantasy XIV's system has faced criticism for its limited plots, high costs, lottery-based acquisition, and the risk of demolition for unattended homes.
World of Warcraft aims to address these issues by ensuring housing is more inclusive and user-friendly. Housing will be shared among the Warband, allowing characters to access and benefit from homes regardless of factional lines. For example, while a Human character cannot purchase a house in a Horde zone, a Troll character in the same Warband can, and the Human can then use it.
The housing system will be divided into two zones, with "Neighborhoods" consisting of approximately 50 plots each. These neighborhoods will be instanced, offering both Public and Private options. Public neighborhoods are managed by the game servers and can be created "as needed," suggesting no hard cap on the number of neighborhoods.
Blizzard is dedicated to making housing a "long lasting journey" with ongoing updates and expansions. Alongside "boundless self-expression" and "deeply social" experiences, the team aims to keep housing evolving through future patches and expansions. This commitment reflects Blizzard's awareness of the challenges faced by other MMOs and their determination to create a more sustainable and engaging housing system.
More details about World of Warcraft: Midnight and its housing feature are expected to be unveiled this summer, promising an exciting new chapter for WoW players.
