Just found this in my drafts. I forgot to finish it haha.

So player housing huh? Did anyone have that on their bingo card? Honestly no I wasn’t expecting it. I figured they’d have to have an announcement of something for the 20th anniversary but I pegged my expectations a lot lower, I was thinking a new allied race. I remember reading an interview with Ion I think and he said player housing would take so much dev time, that it would only be something they’d do if they were effectively ‘sunsetting’ the game. Like you can have player housing, or you can have new raids/dungeons. I mean that was the joke when garrisons happened. They actually put a gravestone in the garrison of ‘Ray D Tear’ or something like that.

Part of me is worried. I mean are subscription numbers dwindling so much they need to pull out the ‘big guns’ like this? On the other hand content pace seems to be increasingly massively (I can’t keep up!) so it’s not like they are slowing down on patches. I don’t get the vibe of a game sliding into retirement. Maybe it was simply that they wanted something super big to celebrate 20 years and it doesn’t get any bigger than player housing!

Locations/Tech
I do think they need definitely a lot of potential spots for player housing. All the main cities at least to begin with and then roll out other places over time. Want to have a place in Darkshore or Ratchet? That should eventually be possible. Not immediately but like they add new dungeons in patches, add a couple of new housing spots. The floorplan/style of the building should match where they are located. Everything inside and out should fit the area architecturally.

In terms of unlocking them I think the first should be free/basically free and if a player wants another one that’s when the gold sink kicks in. For some areas achievements would be good prerequisites. Like if you want an apartment in Suramar need to complete that zone for example. Then there can be a gold price on top.

I don’t know how they will make it work. I feel like it should be phased like the farm because Warcraft has so many players, it would never work otherwise. However, I definitely think it would be neat to have a way to visit friends houses, but in a less clunky way than garrisons. I’m pretty sure that Swtor has a way for this, as I’m sure the housing there is instanced too. I haven’t played around much with Swtor housing but I know it’s generally quite well-liked as systems go.

In terms of the tech of how to place items and the level of customisation I don’t know what’s possible with the games engine. I think Swtor uses a hook system? Definitely needs to be something akin to that rather than everything being pre-defined like garrisons.

Concerns/Fears
Let’s get the negative out of the way first.

I appreciate they wanted a big tease for the big anniversary – the headline announcement – but I am concerned that without details players are going to hope for stuff that we aren’t then getting, and will be disappointed.

It makes me think of transmog. I remember when it first came in and this was pre-wardrobe. Anything you wanted to mog you had to keep hold of (my bank and void storage were so full). It took time for that to develop to what we’ve got now and the same will likely be true for player housing, and I just hope the feature will be given that time, rather than dismissed if it isn’t immediately all things.

I saw Ion’s interview with Taleisin shortly after the announcement and Tali asked him a couple of questions about player housing (because of course it’s BIG NEWS) and Ion looked so irritated, Tali apologised, comment on there being a lot of interest and then moved on. Now I get there isn’t much they want to announce yet, but visible irritation when the playerbase is EXCITED is… odd? Like surely being thrilled with the enthusiasm would be a better response. Makes me feel like they’ve added the feature because they knew it would be popular, but they actually wish it wasn’t popular? I don’t really like Ion and I never have (I joke sometimes he has a very punchable face (please note: I have never punched anyone in my life)). Anyway, I feel like he lets his personal desires come first, when a dev should be more neutral, and I definitely feel like he doesn’t give a shit about player housing personally. I do find that a bit concerning as it’s definitely a feature that needs (and deserves!!) a lot of passion behind it to really make it amazing.

Hopes
In terms of new stuff for it what I want more than anything is for blizz to finally leverage old content. I don’t want a new profession, I want them to use existing professions – per expansion. So if you want a Northrend themed set of curtains, then you can get the recipe for Northrend tailoring and use Frostweave cloth etc. this will mean running content in Northrend for the recipe and for mats.

Of course professions should only be one of many sources of stuff. I think all dungeons and raids should drop things (like they do with transmog, mounts and pets). I think there should be some player housing stuff unlocked with achievements, again like we sometimes get mounts or titles etc. Some stuff should be purchasable with gold from a vendor. Maybe they should add stuff to old reputation vendors too. Make the game a scavenger hunt in a way and this is key – have some in game menu like the collections tab but more complete/better to see all the options for stuff, and to see where to get it. So want a bed, open a tab and see all the bed options, find the one you like and then go after it.

I filled out a survey recently. It did say I wasn’t supposed to talk about it but I don’t think it’ll hurt to say the type of comments I made at the end for ‘any other feedback’. I really, really wish they would overhaul the collections system. It’s difficult even with a bunch of addons to see what I am missing, and from where. I expressed a hope that with player housing the entire collections tab could be improved. There really needs to be filters in a variety of directions. 1) here’s what I am missing from X profession, or X dungeon. 2) list of every e.g. Shield I am missing, and then filtered by source so all missing shields from profession, or raid etc. Colour should be something that can be filtered. The transmog set window is incomplete and unwieldy to navigate etc. As player housing is brand new they have the opportunity to make the interface smooth and easy, and it would be ideal if they could apply that interface across all collections.

I love collecting stuff but it’s not as easy as it used to be, to target stuff to farm. Mostly I guess because there’s so much more stuff to go after but blizz should see that as a blessing that there is so much content for them to tap into.

Conclusion
What I absolutely do NOT want is for them to just add any profession stuff to the Midnight profession tree. If player housing is truly evergreen then it needs to be expansion agnostic.

I know I said that patience was necessary and that the feature wouldn’t be fully formed out of the gate, but bolting everything onto Midnight will just create the wrong first impression. Perhaps split the difference? Have half housing content Midnight, and half Classic-era on launch? Then over time roll out stuff for the intervening expansions, but make it clear from the start that it’s a whole game thing – not just a Midnight thing. Like they did with Pet Battles.

Above all this shouldn’t be connected to player power in the slightest. It should be a side thing. Something for collectors. Something to work on as time permits. Something with no stress. A scavenger hunt around the world sounds like an amazing new endgame to me.