The developers of World of Warcraft have taken a look at other MMOs when it comes to housing. They openly admit: WildStar was an inspiration.
When World of Warcraft announced some time ago that after decades of hesitation it would finally introduce player housing, there was great anticipation. However, there were also many concerns – as many feared it would just be “Garrison 2.0”.
As more and more information became available, we at MeinMMO said: This looks exactly like WildStar’s housing. Now the developers admit: Yes, we know that one.
What happened? In recent days, several content creators from various countries had the chance to take a closer look at World of Warcraft’s housing and grill the responsible developers with questions. Many details came to light, including the sources of inspiration that were used.
Where was this said? The two YouTubers Dratnos and Preach had the opportunity to speak with Toby Ragain, the Lead Designer for neighborhoods, and Jay Hwang, the Design Lead for decorations.
During the conversation, it was about all the possibilities and systems that had to be created for housing. The multitude of decorations was particularly mentioned – as during development it became apparent that they needed this or that object. To this, Jay Hwang said:
That’s how we ended up with the feature list. Again and again [during development], we said: Oh, that would be so useful. Add it to the list. Or we need this too. Add it to the list.
This is also based on the fact that we played all these other games, like WildStar or Final Fantasy. All these housing games, where we said to ourselves: “I love that they have this here. But can we make it even better?” And that’s how it developed.
The parallels to WildStar will likely be immediately noticeable to most when they first experience housing. The freedom to adjust the size of all objects and to move them with precision in the space strongly resembles the former MMORPG by Carbine, which unfortunately has sadly met an inglorious end.
If in a few months you get to work on the housing feature and find that it somehow feels a lot like WildStar – there’s a clear reason for that. The developers of WoW know this game and found the housing so good that it will also be present in WoW. However, fans already see a problem with housing…
