WoW demon Cortyn from MeinMMO is looking forward to WoW: Dragonflight. But one of the most eagerly anticipated features is missing – again.
I really enjoyed the presentation of the next expansion of World of Warcraft, Dragonflight. The stream contained pretty much everything I wanted to see: A new continent, back on Azeroth. A new class. No Azerite Anima Artifact power grind. A vast world, a lot to discover. And of course, dragons. Dragons as main characters, dragons as a playable class, dragons as a feature. I’m excited. Really excited.
However, the announcement also had a serious dampener for me. All the – partly fabricated – leaks beforehand and some hints suggested that player housing would finally make its way into World of Warcraft. In my mind, I had already set up a tiny shard of the Exodar for my Draenei, crafted a Nethermancer witch cellar for my Blood Elf, and hung up a few Imp heads in my Demon Hunter’s bedroom.
When the topic didn’t even come up in the presentation for Dragonflight, I felt a bit heavy-hearted. That’s when I realized how much I had actually been looking forward to it. From a purely selfish player perspective, I find it absolutely unbelievable that World of Warcraft still doesn’t have housing, especially since it has become an absolute standard of the genre.
Housing would be a mega project – and would cost many features
On the other hand, with a more sober view, I believe Game Director Ion Hazzikostas when he says that the necessary resources for such a feature in World of Warcraft would be gigantic and would probably cost very, very many other features. He explained this in an interview with Hazel a few days ago. The decision to bring housing would be simultaneously the decision not to be able to create many other features.
Just what the art team would have to handle would be enormous. After all, World of Warcraft now has 24 different races (including allied races). If we were to assume the absolute “minimum” and say that each race would have 3 different house designs, that would already be 72 houses.
And that would only be the house itself. All the numerous collectible items, decorations, furniture that would have to fit all races, trophies, and so much more – all of that would consume a gigantic amount of work.
Of course, many of these assets already exist in the game, and one could presumably simply copy a lot of it – one would think. But it wouldn’t be that easy. Because some graphics come from Vanilla, others from Battle for Azeroth. The difference in quality alone would ensure that players would rise up.
Also, the argument that “other games manage that easily” simply falls apart when you look at it. Other games were often developed with housing in mind. If that’s planned from the beginning, implementation is much easier. If one knows from the start that each object later has to function as a “housing item” with 360° rotation, then one plans it in.
A gigantic number of objects in World of Warcraft have not been developed with that in mind. Anyone who plays a little with programs like the “Model Viewer” or simply rotates the camera in World of Warcraft will notice that. Many objects, such as pillars, crates, or entire buildings have, for example, no texture from below and from the inside. Simply because it was never intended that one would encounter the pillar at an angle other than exactly where it is in the game.
Additionally, all items would also need to be provided with their own hitboxes for collision – that is already not the case in the open world, where often the walls for the collision check are simply placed “over” the completed game world afterward.
Also, the various races, whose sizes vary drastically (compare gnomes with taurens) would all have to function equally in such a system, and collision adjustments would also need to be worked on so that taurens do not simply clip through gates that gnomes can jump through.
These are just a few points. The longer one engages with the workload of this topic, the easier it is to understand why WoW has not yet taken the step towards housing. The effort would be enormous. And probably even much greater in reality than we can currently imagine.
Better no housing than bad housing
Games like SWTOR, which added it later, also show in my opinion how bad housing can look. Even though I’m going to make a few enemies in the SWTOR community with this: Fixed sockets for objects, crazy limitations, and comparatively monotonous designs have rather put me off and caused SWTOR as a whole to drop in my esteem.
I would also be quite picky about housing in WoW. Anything that offers fewer customization options and stricter limitations than WildStar did back then, I would hardly accept. I don’t want half-baked housing. If it’s done, I want it right, with all the freedom that should come with such a feature.
So yes: The absence of housing in Dragonflight is a point of criticism that I’m sure I will have to chew on for a while. However, I’m a fundamentally positive person demon and believe that we can wait a few more years for housing.
However, I think it’s important to continue advocating for this feature. The survey from a few days ago showed that the desire for housing is not a niche topic, but something that an increasing part of the player base desires. So we should keep bringing the topic up and maintain the pressure in a friendly but firm manner.
The developers at Blizzard have emphasized in recent years that they are essentially just “stewards” for Azeroth and want to create the game that the community wants.
After all, a small victory: Just a few years ago, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas sounded far more opposed to housing and tied it to many questions that today apparently no longer matter. Things are moving, albeit slowly.
I am convinced that it is no longer a question of whether we WoW players will ever get housing – but only a question of “when”.
I would prefer it sooner rather than later, but if they want to get it “right” from the start, I can wait another one or two expansions. Let’s just make sure they don’t forget it.
