Player housing has been a massive request for World of Warcraft players for years. In such a beautiful and enormous world, why wouldn’t the champions of Azeroth have a place to call their own in between adventuring? Garrisons, one of the tentpole features of Warlords of Draenor, almost was a deterrent for this in a bygone time because even though they were promoted as not-player-housing, they sure as heck felt like it and fell way short even for 2014’s standards with numerous promises not kept.
Beyond already being approached as not being Garrison 2.0, this time, it already feels different. We have a different Blizzard who knows they must do it right to implement this feature. And we’ll find out what precisely that means later this year. In the meantime, here are four ways Blizzard Entertainment can make the introduction of player housing a massive win beyond adding a new house.
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Expanded Professions
Other MMOs have involved professions with housing to allow more player-to-player interactions and to get those unique pieces of furniture. World of Warcraft and its numerous professions should do the same. But there shouldn’t just be recipes for furniture added. Change how professions work entirely, with a housing focus and a player focus with crafting. Let a Leatherworker be the go-to for creating leather furniture. Let an Inscriptionist create art. Have an Alchemist or an Engineer be able to specialize in fixtures and lighting for houses. But that’s not all. Have gathering professions also change.
Herbalism, mining, and skating should also evolve to focus on specialized picking of plants, ore nodes, and animals, as well as lumberjacking, quarry mining, and tanning for larger items. This would also mean that the way players learn professions should change from the two major professions to maybe three or four to allow for more variety of choice. This could have massive ramifications for player economy. How players spend time outside the expected content cycle to focus on housing, but for now, the other major features of character expression should also evolve to match this new evergreen feature to let players feel like a significant part of helping others make their dream houses.
Artistic Expression is KEY
In addition to letting players set up houses in any way they want, such as placing furniture and coloring, artistic expression will be key. There’s beautiful cosmetic art and artwork throughout Azeroth. The next level of this would be for players to color their items. Better yet, create unique artwork for inclusion. To ensure nothing hateful is added, maybe a review process to create “approved” artists would be helpful.
But imagine a world where you can go to an artist in-game and have them make commissioned artwork for your house. Or buy artwork from the auction house to display? Same for designing unique carpets, bedsheets, furniture, and more. Letting artistic portions of your player base thrive would also be the ultimate show of respect and care for the community.
Show off Rare Achievements
Going along the lines of artwork, allowing players to show off their proudest kill or rarest achievement would also be a fun way to add unique expression in public or guild neighborhoods. You go into your neighbor’s house and see a banner with “The Insane” achievement that would let players show off their accomplishments differently beyond a title, especially for those rare or unobtainable achievements that don’t typically offer a reward. Allowing players to display those accomplishments can add to the excitement of doing something few other players have done.
Another way to phrase this is to make each achievement a practical reward. Having achievements as the reward could lower the impact of back-adding rewards to previously completed raids/dungeons/challenges or achievements. Players expect tangible display pieces, as shown during the trailer with Onyxia’s head, which was previously used just to be displayed in the middle of Stormwind or Orgrimmar after a kill. These could be like those work awards or personal achievement awards people like to display on their shelves or video calls. Something fun to show off as, “yeah, I did that.”
Don’t be Afraid of Craftsmen in World of Warcraft
The isolationist nature of garrisons will always be a negative stain on WoW’s history. Many people didn’t feel the need to leave their garrisons in between adventures or doing dailies. It was the one-stop shop for just about everything a player needed at the time. I’m scared of player housing going too far away from the idea of craftsmen having a home that defines them and relying too much on the crafting areas in a city. What would make player housing truly special for World of Warcraft is letting craftsmen make a base for their work, almost like committing your house to be your workshop as a deterrent for everyone not adding every workbench they need to their houses.
So, a Leatherworker’s house could have all the racks to show off different stages of tanning, a Blacksmith’s house could be like a Smithy, forge and all. Alchemists could have houses full of different potions of various colors, sizes, and vats of potions to have sitting around. Not all houses have to be homes. They are meant as a new way of self-expression in a game where you can only show off your personality with your character names and transmog. Players who love to craft should be allowed to be those go-to crafters with homes that show off what they enjoy doing most.
Player housing is a massive announcement. It is one that Azeroth’s champions have been asking for for quite some time. Now that it’s coming, there is a lot of pressure for Blizzard Entertainment to meet expectations and evolve it to fit a 20+ year old game in 2025. Lessons need to be learned from their competitors while also making it fit in World of Warcraft‘s systems. That’s no small feat. But with the current success of The War Within and The Worldsoul Saga so far, Midnight is poised to raise that bar, and I’m cautiously optimistic player housing will be the new premier way for player expression as we fight the void.
World of Warcraft: The War Within is available now on PC.
