WoW Factor: How World of Warcraft’s housing system can bypass its pitfalls

December 2nd is coming awfully fast — just two weeks now! — and the excitement for World of Warcraft player housing is hitting a fever pitch, especially with many testers exploring the system in beta. It’s great to see the creativity of this community spring up around the system, and I look forward to even more of this in the coming months.

That said, housing hasn’t been without its controversies even prior to launch. The new monetization currency, the decor limits, and many elements that won’t be in at release generated some grousing with the threat of more to come. So how can Blizzard position WoW’s housing to bypass potential pitfalls?

Blizzard needs to nix Hearthsteel currency

It takes something significant to unify the varying pockets of the World of Warcraft community, but the sheer dislike for the announced Hearthsteel tokens and how it ties into the cash shop did the trick. Blizzard came out and made a case for including this — no doubt anticipating some pushback on this — and the players and content creators roundly rejected it.

You know that Fallout 4 meme “everybody disliked that?” Apply that to this situation. I doubt that even the devs like this move, because it sullies the work they’re doing on this system. Now the goblins in finance might be thrilled at a way to apply underhanded mobile monetization to this MMO, but I’m not worried about hurting their feelings by adding my voice to the pile of rejection.

I don’t really care if WoW puts housing decor in the store. Blizz already told us it was going to do this, fine, that’s pretty typical for most MMOs these days. But there’s absolutely no need for a special secondary currency for housing items in the shop unless you want to obfuscate how much stuff is worth and tempt players to buy more than they were planning. If Blizzard is listening to the playerbase during this beta period, it’ll be smart to cancel this currency before the system goes live next month — and properly chastise those goblins.

Safeguards need to be set against expected abuse

Another thing that Blizzard is learning during this testing period is just how much housing can be abused and violate the player code of conduct. Most players are being good, it should be noted, but there are always some bad eggs who look at this and go, “How can I grief other players with it? How can I construct something obscene or offensive?”

In a way, I hope this happens as much as possible during the beta so that the studio can identify the vulnerable points and have time to shore up those weaknesses. Just last week I saw someone post a picture from a player’s yard where they had constructed some 40-foot monstrosity that, yes, was anatomically correct in a creative fashion.

I don’t harbor any belief that the studio can fully wall off this system from potential abuse without completely crippling it, but it can take reasonable measures and provide a reporting system for things such as plus-sized yard nudists.

A housing development roadmap needs to happen

No matter how much content Blizzard puts into housing when it arrives — and by all accounts, it’s a whole heck of a lot — it still won’t be enough. There are going to be plenty of calls for more features, more decor, more exterior options, and more quality-of-life improvements. In past interviews about housing, the devs acknowledged that they’ve already created a lengthy list of most wanted features that won’t be there on Day One. And trust me, whatever they have will be eclipsed by player demand, which could turn sour if it’s never acknowledged.

MMO housing is something that’s never fully complete; it’s merely something studios keep refining and growing. Most reasonable players will understand that not everything can be there at the start, but they’re also going to want to know the plan for the future.

I think it would be extremely wise once the new house smell wears off in January for Blizzard to lay out a rough roadmap of housing improvements over 2026 and perhaps beyond. We know that endeavors, for example, won’t come until Midnight’s launch, but it’s pretty logical to assume that future patches will contain more housing content that couldn’t be there for launch.

There are plenty of other moves that Blizzard could and should make to boost housing’s chances of success, including promoting player creativity, giving housing more practical functionality, and providing ways for players to tour and promote spectacular homes. But clearing up confusion, guarding against toxicity, and rethinking its monetization should be a priority here.

War never changes, but World of Warcraft does, with almost two decades of history and a huge footprint in the MMORPG industry. Join Eliot Lefebvre and Justin Olivetti for new installments of WoW Factor as they examine the enormous MMO, how it interacts with the larger world of online gaming, and what’s new in the worlds of Azeroth and Draenor.