This will not be one of those pro-housing posts that claims, “because everyone wants it, ‘blizz’ should do it.” Ion Hazzikostas once lamented in an interview that players who use general terms to describe their personal wants like, “we all want” and “everybody wants,” were not helpful forms of feedback, so this is my personal experiential take on how I think player housing can begin to save World of Warcraft(WoW). This post will be organized into several lengthy sections outlined below.
- The Philosophy
- Alternative Content
- Professions and Economy
- Summary
First, what do I mean by “save,” here? I mean that player housing could remedy bad design philosophy and revitalize core features of the game to the benefit of all.
(Edit) Perhaps it needs to be said, this post is not a wish list for how to do player housing- it is an argument for why to do player housing.
1. The Philosophy (Edit: Originally section #4 but moved to #1 so as not to be missed)
1.a. This is where player-housing helps course-correct bad design philosophy. The detached and elitist bad design philosophy of WoW that says “Player housing? Garrisons. Open world content? World Quests. High-seas exploration? Instanced Island Expeditions. Interctive armor? Azerite. Rogue-like experience? Torghast.” Enough is enough, is enough, is enough. I say no to all of these, and everything in between.
1.b. The implementation of player housing could transform design philosophy in WoW because it would be a major self-correction after years of neglect and elitist developing. It would say, “We want to offer something more, something meaningful. We want to modernize our game and bring the RPG back into MMORPG. We want to see what our players are capable of, see our assets used in endlessly creative ways, and maybe learn something along the way. We want to not only be a better game, but the best game.”
Imagine seeing that letter on a blue post.
2. Alternative Content
2.a. What is there to do in WoW? The chief modes of engagement are (for PVE) dungeons and raiding and (for PVP) arenas and battlegrounds. You do mythic pluses, raid, or you queue for PVP. This is where bad design philosophy affects the longevity of WoW. There is a profound lack of meaningful and even meaningless alternative content. There are too few options, and transmog and battle pets simply aren’t enough. By not enough, they aren’t expressive or fulfilling enough. You can only wear and see one transmog set at a time. You can only ride one mount at a time while staring at your collection alone. You can only collect so many battlepets to then realize there is no function or feature beyond. But imagine if there was a way you could express the totality of yourself and your WoW experience how you see fit, your own changeable, sharable pocket of WoW that holistically embodies all of these features and more.
2.b. If you don’t want to raid for an entire patch, or do dungeons every week, and if collecting a transmog sets doesn’t fill that gameplay void, then what is there? WoW is missing many features of modern MMO’s from puzzles(Gw2), treasure hunting(Rift), interactive open-world content(ESO, FF), and, most strikingly, player housing(all of the above + SWTOR & Runescape). You might say, why cite “less popular” games’ features as the missing link for WoW’s success? Simply, I say, the extent to which these games do thrive is directly related to some or all of these modes. Gw2 is known colloquially as “fashion wars.” Rift has an incredibly comprehensive grassroots player housing community. ESO and FF have noteworthy open world content. SWTOR and the rest all have player housing while Runescape additionally has a thriving community-based giveaways experience. Some of these games might be missing the consistent and impactful dungeon and raid content that WoW produces, hindering their longevity, while WoW misses every mode of alternative content that other MMO’s offer, hindering its longevity. Imagine a coupling of the two. Imagine a WoW that maintains quality PVE content, and offers alternative modern modes of engagement in between and in addition.
2.c. So how does player housing fill the void of alternative content in WoW? Similarly to transmog, but perhaps more effectively, it restores meaning and purpose to every piece and place of WoW. Housing items obtainable behind old raids, dungeons, new and old quests, PVP, professions (it’s own category later), exploration, pet battles, achievements, open-world interactions, and anything else you can think of- the endless hunt for items for one’s next great build is, quite literally, endless. Therefore, it gives content in WoW additional permanence. Old (and current) raids will always have something to offer, besides that one set or mount you really wanted and then never see that raid again. Dungeons will always have something to offer. There will always be productive engagement with open-world content that involves one’s housing enterprise. Furthermore, it allows players and developers alike to revisit and reuse all of the beautiful assets of the game’s past that are just sitting in empty zones or instances. Recollect the majesty of Suramar City, and now think of how it is empty, useless, and offers us nothing but a way to get into Nighthold for transmog or mounts. Now, imagine a player-house in Suramar City, or a player-house elsewhere that uses assets from Suramar City to create something entirely new. I once read a poem that suggested the best way to honor something isn’t to let it collect dust on a shelf to periodically oogle or disregard, but to use it, and I agree. One of the best ways to honor the hard work of developers past and the beautiful architecture of WoW is to use it. Maintain it, allow players the creative freedom to show what they and this game are capable of expressing, and honor all the hard work that went into building this world.
2.d. When one thinks player housing, I encourage you to think and examine Rift’s dimension system, which in my view is the single most comprehensive and endless housing system in any MMO. And that is the key here, the endless nature of this type of content- that it keeps going, that it self-produces, that it provides purpose, meaning, satisfies creative impulses, and allows you to both play and revitalize the game you love and honor your own sense of self that hitherto can only be expressed through transmog or mounts. Player housing is alternative content that never ends, inspires communities and competitions, and offers a modern engagement experience. It is the beginning of the alternative content solution.
3. Professions and Economy
3.a. Player housing will solve the age-old conundrum of “how do we make professions relevant?” One of the key problems with any adjustment to professions in WoW to make them relevant in a given patch or expansion is that the use of these adjustments are always temporary. A profession and its expansion-specific features are always limited-time-use, and even then their value is not guaranteed to last the expansion (see shadowlands Relics) or to even exist. So every single patch and expansion we revisit the same self-made problem over and over: “what do we do with professions this time.” And every patch and expansion, it’s a self-defeating let down. In every game with player-housing I have experienced, player housing has single-handedly revitalized entire professions and stimulated the base economy.
3.b. Player-housing items have the opportunity to offer every single profession something to farm materials for, to craft, and to use or sell. This conversely offers interested buyers something to always buy from professions. Player housing makes professions permanent. We would no longer have to sit around twiddling our thumbs trying to conjure up ruinous ways to manipulate professions every expansion, because player-housing would always be there. These items would always be in demand, and always be expanding as the game’s assets and architecture expands. Every profession can finally have a home- your home- your guild’s home- your friend’s home.
3.c. The advent of player-housing would then pump gold directly into the WoW economy and siphon much of the excess and inflated gold floating around inventories all around. And, when I said player-housing would benefit all, I meant all, including ActiBlizzard. Players spend real money on housing in every MMO. In WoW, they would buy wow-tokens for gold for desirable items that would go straight to crafters, to professionss, and potential desirable housing items from the in-game shop for would-be builders to salivate over. ActiBlizzard wins. You make the company money, you provide endless alternative content for players- real endless content, not Torghast endless content. Everybody wins. In the current state of affairs you expect people to pay large sums without offering them much in return. I say, player-housing is the first step to reconciling the economically abusive, content-lacking, relationship between ActiBlizzard and its players.
4. Summary
Player-housing has the potential to revitalize and course-correct World of Warcraft, its player experience, and its player-developer relationship in ways perhaps never achieved before. We sit before an opportunity to rejuvenate entire economies, professions, and social engagement, and truly bring WoW to the roster of modern MMOs. The alternative- leaving WoW in the dustbin of self-assured hasbeens sitting on laurels from ages past. We have a chance to repair relationships, produce something meaningful, and make the overlords money while doing it. There is a World of Warcraft where everybody wins, where everybody can find some meaning, and where everybody can find their home.
-Texasdktoast
