In the housing of World of Warcraft, many items have no function at all. But that is about to change – your house will become more useful.
With the introduction of housing in World of Warcraft, some concerns arose. Some feared that players would never have to leave their digital house again if they could do too much in the houses. Therefore, the house has so far been mostly purely cosmetic – but that will change in Midnight. Because a category of decorations will actually become functional with Patch 12.0.
Which items will be functional? With the release of the pre-patch, various mailbox items will receive their function. Until now, they were exclusively decorative items, but with the release of Patch 12.0, they can actually be used to send and receive letters.
The different mailbox decorations are currently available mainly through the crafting system, such as enchanting or inscription. Therefore, you can also buy them through the auction house. Examples are “Stampwede’s Postal Portal” and “Gilnean Mailbox”.
Why is Blizzard being cautious? In the Warlords of Draenor expansion, the social features of World of Warcraft had fallen a bit by the wayside. The garrison allowed so many functions at that time that players basically never had to leave it. There were vendors for all needs, you could earn a lot of gold through table missions, and even access to the auction house was possible. It was simply hardly necessary to ever go to a capital city.
As a result, the current capital felt accordingly empty and lifeless – something Blizzard has avoided in the following expansions.
Are there any other “useful” items? Until now, apart from mailboxes, there are only cooking stations like stoves or fires that can actually be used to prepare food. Other items with actual game-relevant functions – such as crafting stations – are not available yet.
Blizzard had also announced in advance that they wanted to be very careful in introducing objects that actually have a function. This is to prevent a player house from becoming the “ultimate hub” where a player can basically accomplish all important tasks, as that would make housing feel more and more like a requirement.
Why are mailboxes allowed then? Both mailboxes and cooking stations can already be used by players more or less “everywhere”:
- Cooking is possible almost everywhere, as you can manually set up a fire, and there are even some pets (like Little Ragnaros) that serve as fire.
- Mailboxes can also be set up anywhere. This is possible not only through the expensive mount with the auction house but also through various toys that allow temporary access to mailboxes.
This gives the house just a new function, which was previously already possible through toys or mounts. Furthermore, it felt a bit strange not being able to write letters in your own house – since where else would you do that?
Even though the housing feature is received very well by many, there is also a whole group of fans who cannot make anything of it. If you belong to this group and don’t know how to fully express your creativity with housing, take a look at this fascinating house that was discovered in a neighborhood.
