Player housing is coming to World of Warcraft, and Blizzard has unveiled its first look at how the MMO will handle it. In a new preview, the WoW team walked through early details, and even threw a quick jab at Final Fantasy XIV’s housing in the process.
World of Warcraft is adding a sought-after housing feature in its upcoming expansion, World of Warcraft: Midnight. Amid its pillars and goals for housing in the recent dev blog, Blizzard listed “A Home for Everyone” as one of its targets.
“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,” Blizzard said. “No exorbitant requirements or high purchase costs, no lotteries, and no onerous upkeep (and if your subscription lapses, don’t worry, your house doesn’t get repossessed!).”
Player housing is, in essence, what it sounds like: physical homes players can buy in these MMO worlds, with plenty of room for personalization and decoration, that other players can visit. It’s a very popular facet of Final Fantasy XIV where housing feeds player ingenuity, resulting in theater productions, nightclubs, cafes, and museums.
Of course, Final Fantasy XIV also has some rather infamous housing woes. There are a limited number of plots per server, you have to pay high amounts of Gil and enter a lottery, and then risk your house being demolished if left alone too long.
World of Warcraft’s aim seems to be countering some concerns players might have about housing, based on Final Fantasy XIV’s situation. Housing is even shared among the Warband, so characters can come and go, and rewards are also shared across characters and factional lines. While a Human character can’t buy a house in the Horde zone, a Troll character in your Warband can, and then the Human character can use it.
Additionally, while World of Warcraft’s housing will be split into just two housing zones and “Neighborhoods” of roughly 50 plots apiece, they are instanced and have both Public and Private options. The former is maintained by game servers and created “as needed,” so there’s no clear limit yet on Neighborhoods.
Blizzard seems to be in it for the long haul with World of Warcraft housing. In its stated pillars, alongside “boundless self-expression” and “deeply social,” the team said it wants housing to be a “long lasting journey” with its own roadmap, and updates stretching out into future patches and expansions. It certainly feels like a commitment, and though it took a jab at XIV’s systems, it also shows Blizzard is aware of the pitfalls.
There are still more details to iron out between now and the expected summer unveiling of World of Warcraft: Midnight.
Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.
