World of Warcraft players will soon be able to build their own houses

21 years after its initial release, World of Warcraft (WoW) is about to get a new feature: player housing.

Originally announced two months ago through a teaser trailer, Blizzard has put out a blog post detailing how the housing system will work, as well as the team's general philosophy towards the feature's development.

This is what we've learned: Two Housing zones will be set up, one for the Alliance (with its design inspired by Elwynn Forest) and another for the Horde (inspired by Durotar and its coastline). Although this seems like a small number of zones, the team does have their reasons (as explained below). The team is promising decorations with designs inspired by many of WoW's expansions.

The Housing zones are further divided into fifty plot Neighbourhoods, where player-to-player interaction takes place. Public Neighbourhoods are meant for the wider player base and are created and maintained by their respective servers, while Private Neighbourhoods are meant for guilds or groups of friends.

Specific details such as item placement mechanics and how exterior decoration will work have yet to be explained. However, the rest of the post leaned towards the development's team principles in making the Housing system, mainly their focus on:

• Self-expression, which includes building a toolset easily accessible by any player but also powerful enough for those who want to tinker more, as well as a wide range of decor designs,
• Being deeply social, hence the inclusion of only two Housing zones (for now), in order to encourage players to interact with one another by increasing player density in a zone,
• Being long-lasting, with the development team committing to refining and expanding the Housing system across future expansions.

The development team wants Housing to see wide adoption, with the guiding principle being that all players should want a house, and should be able to build one easily. This includes Housing decorations being made available primarily through in-game rewards, with a smaller number of items purchasable using real-world money.

Additionally, faction alignment won't impede the ability to visit friends' houses. The houses are also shared across your Warband (this includes Housing decorations earned by characters of different factions), so all-in-all, you can expect to see Horde-aligned characters in an Alliance zone. The team also stated that players won't be evicted from their houses if their subscription lapses.

It's important to note, however, that much of this remains theoretical. Much of what we know of the Housing system exists in its teaser trailer, concept art, and the mechanics mentioned in the blog post, and it'll also be a while before Midnight gets launched. The War Within, WoW's latest expansion pack, was only released last year and a new content update, titled Undermine(d), is set to be released soon.

What's clear, however, is that the team has spent a long time mulling over player housing, and how it fits into a game that has historically had a strong sense of community. Whatever the case, it seems that Blizzard intends for the Housing system to be a more permanent part of WoW in the years to come.

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