Animal Crossing New Horizon Provides A Framework For World of Warcraft Midnight Housing

I can not believe I originally posted this article four years ago, and today player housing was announced for World of Warcraft Midnight. Finally! World of Warcraft is late to the MMO player housing party and while other MMOs offer tantalizing visions, I still believe Animal Crossing New Horizon provides the best path forward. Therefore, I decided to update this post instead of rewriting my original premise.

Animal Crossing New Horizons, the fifth title in Nintendo’s Animal Crossing series, was released in March 2020. The bright colored, cheerful game of island development, crafting, interior design, and tree shaking, provided needed escape from the pandemic. New Horizons received critical acclaim and it became the best-selling title in the series, selling over 26 million copies.

Reaching Your New Horizon

When you arrive on the Animal Crossing New Horizon island, you meet Tom Nook, the local real estate agent. Tom gives you a tent and objectives to complete, which earn you Bells and Nook Miles, the island currencies. Upon amassing 5,000 Nook Miles, or 50,000 Bells, you purchase your island plot, upgrading the tent to a single-room house. From here, you expand your house to four first floor rooms, a large basement, and a large single-room upstairs. There are exterior style options available for the roof, sliding, and mailbox. Getting your house to maximum size will run you over 5 million Bells. You will want the extra room to display the myriad of items you will accumulate.

World of Warcraft players have been asking for housing for years, especially after Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy XIV, and Star Wars: The Old Republic incorporated player housing. Blizzard has been slow to grant this wish, possibly because they saw no story logic to support it.

Blizzard always had a story related rationale for introducing a new race, class, or game feature; flying notwithstanding. Death Knights in Wrath of the Lich King wrestled free from Arthas’s control to end his reign of terror. Races were able to learn formerly unavailable classes in Cataclysm to stop Deathwing from destroying the world. Demon Hunters emerged from the shadows in Legion to defeat the Burning Legion. We embraced the ways of the monk in Mists of Pandaria, because, well, balance and harmony. We earned the trust of the Dracthyr after returning to the Dragon Isles in Dragonflight.

Player Housing Is A Massive Undertaking

Blizzard experimented with housing technology with garrisons in the 2014 Warlords of Draenor. Garrisons were the player’s base of operations on the alternate history world of Draenor. As a player approached their garrison gates in the open world, they entered an instanced stronghold. The garrison expanded in size and features as the player progressed through the campaign. They were able to build and arrange buildings to support their professions and interests.

I believe the problem with garrisons was the functionality to do too much. There was no need to go into the world when everything you wanted to gather existed within your walls.

Implementing player housing in World of Warcraft can follow any number of pathways. What should be taken from Animal Crossing is start with a small floor plan and expand in steps, and provide an overabundance of furniture, household items, flooring, wall coverings, etc. Indeed, providing household items may be the most challenging aspect of WoW player housing.

There are over 800 pieces of furniture in Animal Crossing New Horizons with many of them including color and/or design customization options. There are over twenty player races in World of Warcraft, representing distinctive cultural schemes. Designing a multitude of items based on just a few of these races represents a significant developmental task for Blizzard. Trying to match Animal Crossing’s level of diversity means creating tens of thousands of items. This is exactly what I hope they do.

How Do You Get There From Here?

The pathway I originally envisioned for player housing started with players summoned to the commander of their faction city guard. The commander heard impressive things and asks your help with problems plaguing a neighborhood; breaking up a crime ring, finding lost pets, battling stray monsters. You know the drill by now. Completing quests puts you in good favor with the commander and they mention a fixer upper dwelling available for purchase. Since you’ve proven your reliability, they offer you the key at a substantial discount.

You expand your house for gold and increasing your Community Standing; a potential new housing renown, improved through repeatable quests. Once you purchase the key, you receive a quest to visit the people you helped. They welcome you to the neighborhood with starter furniture, household goods, and recipes. How much time and effort you devote to your home is up to you.

Setting player housing within Stormwind and Orgrimmar makes it accessible and relevant regardless of the expansion story impacting the outside world. It also addresses one of criticisms of the garrisons providing little incentive to leave. Keeping the Auction House and bank nearby but outside keeps the focus on having fun with a new avenue of customization and expression.

An Opportunity for Professions

In Animal Crossing, you craft anything provided you have the recipe and materials. In World of Warcraft, you are limited to two primary professions consisting of either gathering (Skinning, Herbalism, Mining) or production (Leatherworking, Blacksmithing, Engineering, Alchemy…) skills. Incorporating housing recipes as learned and random discoveries in professions as well as loot drops provides a steady flow of items to decorate our home or sell on the auction house. Just like in Animal Crossing, you never know when you’ll find a cool item or recipe. Adding special Warband items fits neatly into this scheme. This is the same belief I have for expanding crafting options for transmogs.

Now We Wait

Now we know player housing is coming in Midnight, which will resolve the Light/Void conflict, I like the idea of being rewarded with player housing for completing the campaign. With the Void presumably defeated, we finally settle into a comfy homestead and put our feet up, just before the Titans return and it all hits the fan again. I suspect it will be something in the middle and will eagerly await every new detail.

Regardless how Blizzard implements housing, it should be something for which the player exerts near total control to create a small corner of the world all about them and their joy of the game.

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