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Is Player Housing Engagement Waning?
It's hard to deny that the excitement and energy around Player Housing at Early Access was electric. Players had been waiting for a full-scale Housing feature for over 20 years, so to see it finally available and fully realized was a landmark for WoW. Blizzard managed to provide a world of customization and design tools yet unseen outside of the development team that players could utilize to carve out their very own slice of Azeroth.
In the downtime before Midnight's launch, the community seemed to rally behind this new feature with videos, pictures, and build guides displaying their latest creation. Savvy creators offered the latest tips on how to hack together new decor, create optical illusions, or create magical mood lighting. Several community and Blizzard sponsored events popped up to showcase the creativity and capability of players. We highlighted several of the builds from Azshara's Scrying Chamber to pop culture references like the South Park Inspired build. But is interest in Player Housing slowing down?
Azsharan Scrying Chamber (Left) & South Park Build (Right)
Blizzard continues to add new features and decor with each content update including Elven Houses in Pre-Patch and New Decor in Patch 12.0.5. Despite the continued support, the community engagement seems to be cooling with fewer posts and designs being posted to social media. A popular thread on the official forums asks players if others are also losing steam on housing. If others are also feeling the burnout on housing, then the question is why?
The Flow of Content & Time-Intensive Grinding
I think the most obvious answer for less engagement in Housing is simply players are invested in other aspects of the game currently, namely Midnight's Season 1 content. Player Housing launched in a bit of a downtime for players late into the War Within's Season 3. Players had mostly hit their progression goals and could focus on the optional evergreen feature. Even with Midnight's launch, the pre-season period allowed players to explore the depths of Midnight's Housing changes and decor collecting without being a detriment to progression. Now with Season 1 in full swing, players prioritize new content, gear upgrades, and progression goals over Housing.
Alfaalfalfa's Spaceship Player House
While the natural ebb and flow of WoW's content cycle can explain a downturn in Player Housing, I think it's important to address one of the major complaints of Housing: it's incredibly time-intensive. It's a heavy time investment to acquire the perfect set of decorations whether that's farming lumber, completing a difficult achievement, or grinding out currency for multiples of the same decor. But beyond the grind, the design time can be equally taxing. There's very little in the way of presets currently that help circumvent the fact that when you're creating your first house, you're starting from square one, an overwhelming prospect for some. Builds don't just popup overnight, they require an investment that some players just can't afford right now.
Premium Content Pricing
One avenue that could help shortcut Housing builds and give players a blueprint to work off with could be the premium housing content from the Battle.net shop. However, the shop bundles are simply collections of individual pieces and exterior facades instead of starting setups. There's nothing pre-built about them, and not everyone wants to start a construction job. Some of us just want something with good bones and a fresh coat of paint.
New Cozy Treehouse Retreat Bundle for $75
And let's talk about the price of the premium housing content. With this week's shop update, the latest Cozy Treehouse Retreat arrived costing $75 worth of Hearthsteel for the total package. While that does come with unique exteriors and a ton of decor, that price tag is more than the cost of all but the most expensive version of the entire Midnight expansion. And if you're looking to buy multiples of a piece of decor, you'll need to pay for each duplicate à la carte.
People already feel priced out of the the real-life housing market. Why is it starting to feel the same in Azeroth in terms of time and money?
Complexity & the Improvement Waiting Room
The sheer breadth of complexity and options available with Player Housing is extraordinary. Oftentimes, it's really up to the limits of the player's imagination as to how far they can go with Housing. You'll often see players hack together multiple pieces of decor to create custom pieces perfect for their space such as a custom grand piano. While the possibilities are endless and should be celebrated, it's important to reflect that the robustness of the system can be incredibly daunting for many players.
Blizzard's Custom Grand Piano Example
Blizzard has addressed this as a major concern for them in their State of Player Housing & Upcoming Features post. Over the course of Midnight they're looking to add Copy & Paste Decor, Import & Export Layouts, and increased decor budgets alongside integrating Pets. All these features should help many players get invested into player housing without starting from square one.
Of note in particular is the Layouts feature. It addresses one of the other major concerns with Housing is the sheer lack of house canvases to use. What I mean by this is players are limited to one Alliance and one Horde house. If they want to experiment with a new design, they'll likely have to overhaul their existing house losing it forever. With Imports, players will hopefully be able to store a large number of layouts, allowing players to preserve completed builds while still being able to work on new designs.
The downside with the impending updates to Player Housing is we still don't have an exact timeline of when we could expect those and how robust the features will be. So while many would like to continue to explore more with Player Housing, it's likely turned into a bit of a waiting room for many to fully realize their real estate dreams.
Does Player Housing Need a Player Power Tie-In?
I know this last point is controversial, but hear me out. Player Housing shouldn't feel like an obligatory activity for every player in WoW. However, by having a completely separate reward structure from the main combat-oriented rewards, it's hard to invest time in one activity without it feeling detrimental to the other. In other words, there's limited ways to make progress on both housing progression as well as PvE/PvP progression at the same time. While there is some overlap like farming Voidlight Marl in current PvE activities, completing Endeavor Tasks, or the weekly housing quest , you'll more likely have to choose which activity you'd like to focus on.
Vaeli Offering the Weekly Player Housing Quest
Now if there was a way to provide more benefit to PvE/PvP via Housing and vice-versa, it wouldn't feel like such a trade-off. Seasonal content could still take priority, but could be supplemented with Housing for a fun relaxing experience that doesn't feel entirely detrimental. It'd definitely be a tight rope to walk in terms of not feeling obligatory yet still rewarding, but not impossible to achieve.
Some of the plots in Housing are starting to feel abandoned and forgotten. I'm personally looking for a reason to visit my House and Guild's Neighborhood routinely. Give me a reason to engage with the system that feels rewarding not a lesson in time management. Consider letting me build not only for aesthetic but also efficiency, a core aspect of architecture. I'm not sure if player power is the answer to continued Housing engagement, but like many I'm losing steam on the feature. I want Housing to be an everlasting part of WoW, but I'm not sure how sustainable it is in its current form.
