The fans of World of Warcraft long for housing. But it is missing in the new expansion Dragonflight. However, there is hope, as the WoW lead explains.
The announcement of World of Warcraft Dragonflight was received quite well by many players. A somewhat calmer setting, dragons as the focus, and a lot of minor improvements as well as a completely new class. But during the announcement, it quickly became clear that one feature would likely remain just a wish: player housing.
The longing for a home in Azeroth is no longer just a small wish from a splinter group. In a survey a few days ago, “player housing” even landed in 2nd place of the most desired features.
In an interview with Game Director Ion Hazzikostas, the YouTuber and streamer Hazel (“Hazelnuttygames”) asked a question about exactly this topic. The desire for player housing is great. How is it decided whether such a feature will be included in an expansion or not?
Hazzikostas took the time to respond in detail and also provide some insights:
Player housing is a topic that comes up very often in the team. There is a lot of support for it in the community and also in our team. It is something that many of us would love.
When we compile the features for an expansion, it is a mix of “What fits thematically with the expansion”, “What will appeal to different types of players”, but also: “What would be necessary to create this feature at the level that players expect and deserve?” And: “What would we have to give up to make that possible?“
This “giving up” seems to be the big factor here, as a housing feature would likely consume thousands of hours of work that could not be spent on other features. Housing would require a lot of resources – not only pure developer work but also many employees from the art team, who would need to create textures and models for countless objects.
Hazzikostas further comments:
Player housing is a big thing. It is one of those things, if we want to get it right … it is a big project, a huge undertaking. I would say, if we do it, it would span multiple expansions. It is such a large feature …
Hazzikostas then interrupts himself and refers to an earlier feature – the garrisons. Some players viewed them as a kind of “housing light”, but not everyone was happy.
During the garrisons, back in Warlords of Draenor. Honestly, due to resource constraints, we were limited and constrained to say: “This is the Alliance Garrison” and “This is the Horde Garrison”.
And people back then said: “Well, but I am a blood elf. I want cool Silvermoon architecture in my garrison. Why can’t I have that?”
And the answer to that was, I mean, that was the original “That costs you a raid tier” joke – but honestly, that was true. It would simply take so many thousands of hours to do that.
That is what player housing must be, if and when we do it. The dream is still alive. It is something we want to do. But it is nothing we will do with Dragonflight.
Even though it is naturally disappointing that no housing is coming to World of Warcraft with Dragonflight – the developers regularly discuss this topic and the desire in the community is growing. Maybe one of the upcoming expansions will finally bring a place where our heroes can return after their work.
The hope dies last, as they say.
